UNAM scientist Valeria Souza named to prestigious US academy

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October 14, 2019

Valeria Souza at Cuatro Ciénegas in Coahuila.

A scientist at the National Autonomous University (UNAM) has become the fourth Mexican citizen to be inducted into the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS).

Valeria Souza Saldívar, a researcher at the university’s Institute of Ecology, signed her name into the organization’s register on Saturday to become an honorary international member. She joined the ranks of legendary scientists such as Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein and Barbara McClintock.

The AAAS was established by George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and other U.S. founding fathers in 1780 “to cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honor, dignity and happiness of a free, independent and virtuous people,” according to its charter.

Souza called her induction a great honor but she also said she hopes it will draw public attention to Cuatro Ciénegas, an oasis and biosphere reserve in Coahuila.

Chosen by the academy for her work in biological sciences, Souza has been dedicated to saving a “lost world” that holds some of the oldest evolutionary material on the planet, researching molecular evolution in the azure springs of Cuatro Ciénegas.

The springs are home to direct descendants of the organisms that transformed the earth from a place with orange seas and no oxygen to the planet of today.

The springs have the world’s highest levels of diversity of cyanobacteria, creating stomatolites, fossilized mounds that serve as records of ancient life on Earth. They are also home to over 80 endemic fish, reptile and amphibian species.

Souza’s work over the last 20 years has shown the gradual drying of the springs due to irrigation for alfalfa cultivation, for which she petitioned the National Water Commission (Conagua) to close an irrigation canal.

In operation since 1900, it is the principal extractor of water from the springs. However, due to evaporation and inefficiency of the infrastructure, only 10% of the water extracted by the canal is ultimately used.

Source: Milenio (sp)

9 businesses file charges against students for stealing from hijacked trucks

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Simon Schatzberg

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October 14, 2019

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Nine companies have filed criminal charges against students from a teacher training college in Tiripetío, Michoacán, for the theft of merchandise from trucks during roadblocks last week.

The state Attorney General’s office (FGE) said it has opened investigations into the incidents of theft by students of the Vasco de Quiroga college when they hijacked 28 vehicles on the Morelia-Pátzcuaro highway on Thursday and Friday. Among the companies that made the complaints were PepsiCo, Bimbo and 90.com.

According to the newspaper El Financiero, the total merchandise stolen totaled at least half a million pesos (US $26,000).

About 200 students blocked the highway and hijacked trucks and buses belonging to various companies and took them to the Tiripetío school. Later on Friday, the students released nine trucks.

But a Bimbo truck driver said the students stole all the merchandise inside the truck, as well as the spare tires.

The hijackings were part of a protest campaign by students demanding better scholarships and automatic job placement after graduation. Students from the Tiripetío school, as well as another teacher training college in Cherán, are still holding at least 17 buses and 20 trucks.

Source: El Financiero (sp), La Jornada (sp)

Employment numbers show some improvement

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Cody Copeland

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October 14, 2019

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Monthly employment numbers showed gains in September for the first time in President López Obrador’s administration, although the increase was in temporary jobs.

The number of jobs registered by IMSS grew by 145,416, 12.3% more than the 129,527 jobs added in September 2018. It was the first annual employment increase since July 2018.

Most of the jobs created were permanent, although the number of permanent jobs added in September — 90,509 — was 8.6% lower than last year. The remaining 54,907 jobs were temporary, an annual increase of 79.8% that bumped the positive growth numbers.

As of September 30, IMSS had 20.567 million formal jobs registered, of which 85.8% were permanent and 14.2% temporary.

So far this year, 488,061 jobs have been created, 3.7% fewer than in the first nine months of 2018. Job creation over the last 12 months has grown 1.9%, with 374,466 jobs created.

The growth was driven primarily by the communications and transportation sectors with 5.6%, agriculture with 4.4% and trade with 2.7%. The states with the highest job growth rates were Campeche, Nayarit, Aguascalientes and Querétaro, all with over 6% growth.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Migrants didn’t get far: Chiapas caravan halted after 14 hours

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Simon Schatzberg

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October 14, 2019

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End of the road: migrants are stopped and turned back in Chiapas.

The Mexico City-bound caravan of migrants that left the southern border city of Tapachula, Chiapas, on Saturday wasn’t on the road long: it was intercepted 14 hours later by the National Guard and immigration authorities, who returned the migrants to Tapachula.

The 3,000 migrants, mostly Haitians and Cubans, had been waiting in Tapachula for as long as six months for their immigration status to be regularized, allowing them to travel to the United States.

But under the Mexican government’s current policy, a permit for free passage through the country is no longer available.

After leaving Tapachula early Saturday morning, the migrants arrived in the municipality of Huehuetán around noon, escorted by an ambulance, police, representatives from the National Human Rights Commission and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Some of those who fell behind turned themselves in or were arrested by immigration authorities.

When the caravan arrived in Tuzantán, they were blocked by 300 National Guardsmen. The migrants asked the troops to let them pass, but allowed themselves to be arrested when police stood their ground.

The caravan was dissolved without a confrontation, and the migrants were returned to the Siglo XXI migrants’ center in Tapachula.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Cartel ambush kills 14 state police officers in Aguililla, Michoacán

By

Tony Richards

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October 14, 2019

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Police vehicles burn Monday morning in Aguililla, Michoacán.

Cartel gangsters ambushed and killed 14 state police Monday morning in the Tierra Caliente region of Michoacán.

Narco-banners left at the scene in the community of El Aguaje in Aguililla and signed by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) indicated that the attack was directed at supporters of rival gangs.

Armed civilians traveling in several trucks opened fire on the police at about 8:00am. Recordings that have circulated on social media show desperation on the part of police as they called for backup.

“We’re under attack, we’re under attack! There are wounded, there are wounded!” calls one officer amid cries of pain by another who had been hit and the sound of gunfire in the background.

Preliminary reports say three police officers were wounded in the ambush. There were no reports of either casualties or arrests among the attackers.

Michoacán Governor Silvano Aureoles called an emergency meeting of his government this morning.

Unconfirmed reports have claimed that Aguililla was the birthplace of CJNG leader Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes.

Source: Infobae (sp), El Debate (sp)

Narcos’ irrigation needs behind Oaxaca territorial dispute?

By

Cody Copeland

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October 14, 2019

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The Mixe region of Oaxaca, where a water source is disputed.

A community in Oaxaca has accused a neighboring town of ceding control of the only spring in the area to a drug trafficking organization.

The municipalities of San Pablo Ayutla and Tamazulapam del Espíritu Santo in the Mixe region of the state have disputed the boundaries of their communities for 50 years, fighting over 3,600 hectares of land between them, on which there is only one spring.

Authorities from Tamazulapam say that according to their documentation the spring belongs to them, but residents of the neighboring town beg to differ.

However, a representative of the communal landowners of San Pablo Ayutla, Joaquín Galván, rejects the idea that the dispute is territorial, claiming that the problem now is that Tamazulapam has given narco-traffickers exclusive access to the spring in order to irrigate their opium poppies.

Galván asserts that the criminal organization has made a base in Tamazulapam and has infiltrated the municipal council and the communal lands office.

He added that he has proof of the cultivation and production of poppies in the region, and has brought the matter before the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena).

Oaxaca Governor Alejandro Murat reiterated his promise to resolve the problem with dialogue. He said that discussion tables remain open despite the instability caused by the positions the towns have taken.

He added that Tamazulapam has reneged on three of the 62 accords it has signed with San Pablo Ayutla.

The government’s intention is to install 600 kilometers of water line to reconnect the water via a gravity-fed system from the spring to Ayutla, but Tamazulapam is demanding the return of 25 plots of land and that the reconnection of water be done with a pumping system.

A district judge recently granted a permanent suspension of the reconnection on the grounds that it would put Ayutla at risk of further dispossession of its land. Tamazulapam now wants 200 more hectares of land from its neighbor.

The stage appears set for the dispute to continue for another 50 years.

Source: Milenio (sp)

3,000 community police set to take on Guerrero cartel

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Simon Schatzberg

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October 14, 2019

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Police prepare for an assault on cartel in Guerrero.

Guerrero community police are preparing an operation against the Cartel del Sur, a criminal organization believed responsible for an attack on the army on September 26 that left three soldiers dead in the town of Balzamar in the municipality of Felipe Bravo.

Two houses owned by gang leader Isaac Navarrete, also known as “El Señor de la I,” are located 200 meters away from where the attack took place.

According to Salvador Alanís, a spokesman for community police in Filo de Caballos, the attack occurred while soldiers were destroying poppy fields in Balzamar.

“According to the information we have, it happened in the town of Balzamar, just behind where the leader has his safe houses,” Alanís told the newspaper Milenio. “It seems like he was in the house with his security team when the soldiers started coming to destroy the poppies, and that’s when the shooting started.”

With a shotgun in his hand, Alanís said that community police have been preparing an advance into territory held by the cartel but their plans were delayed by the September 26 incident.

“We have everything prepared for an incursion into their territory, into the 24 communities that they control, but after what happened with the soldiers, there’s a lot of presence of the army, navy and state police,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense to make an advance now, but it’s something we’re planning. We need to get rid of this criminal group to pacify the Sierra.”

The community police have set up at least five roadblocks guarded by gunmen near Chilpancingo, and others in other communities such as Tlacotepec.

“We haven’t caused any problems for the army,” said Alanís. “A battalion came to Tlacotepec and then the spread out in all the communities, we’re not opposed to that . . . we’re going to continue advancing; we consider ourselves allies of the government, and we hope we can recover trust [in the government] to be able to put down our arms.”

Source: Milenio (sp)

Some state control over sales, distribution expected in marijuana law

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MND Staff

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October 14, 2019

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A marijuana legalization bill to be presented in the Senate on Thursday will stipulate some – but not total – government control over sales and distribution, according to a senator with the ruling Morena party.

In an interview with the newspaper Milenio, Julio Menchaca said the U.S. state of Colorado, where recreational marijuana was legalized in 2014, will serve as the “best example” about how to regulate the drug in Mexico.

“The state will not be a promoter of recreational use,” the senator said in response to a question about whether the streets will be flooded with pot smokers.

“[The state] must guarantee respect for people’s right to consume it, the right to free development of personality as the Supreme Court ruled, with specific restrictions for minors,” Menchaca said.

Probed on the possibility of the government creating a state-owned company to control the sale and distribution of marijuana – as Morena’s leader in the lower house of Congress, Mario Delgado, proposed earlier this month – the senator responded:

“There are 11 [legalization] proposals, and there are those who are asking for it to be totally deregulated, for there to be no control. Others are asking for strict and rigid state control. We’ll try to reach middle ground but . . . there will always be participation of the state with a control [over sales and distribution].”

Menchaca, president of the Senate’s justice commission, said the aim of government participation in a legal marijuana market is to put an end to the narco-controlled black market for the drug.

As part of the process to prepare a draft marijuana law, lawmakers looked at the way in which the plant was legalized and regulated in two U.S. states, he explained.

In one there was very strict control and illegal sales soared, Menchaca said, without revealing the state to which he was referring.

“In the other [state], it was made accessible, taxes are paid [on legal marijuana purchases] . . . and [illegal sales] decreased. Colorado is the best example, [the legislative process] is about learning from successful experiences in other places,” he added.

The lawmaker also said that a legalization proposal presented by Interior Secretary Olga Sánchez is “very articulate” and could provide a base not only the regulation of recreational and medicinal marijuana but also the use of hemp in the textile industry.

However, he added that all the proposals presented have good points that “we could be translating into law.”

After warning that that the excessive use of marijuana “will cause harm like any irregular substance,” Menchaca said that legalization is necessary because its illegality has “generated mafias, violence, death . . . [and] a whole range of weaknesses of the Mexican state.”

Lawmakers will work on Monday to “polish” the text of the bill to be presented on Thursday, the senator said, explaining that the cultivation of marijuana for personal use, the number of grams a person will be able to possess and the sale of seeds are among the issues still under consideration.

Menchaca acknowledged that lawmakers in both houses of Congress still have a lot to discuss but echoed the prediction of Morena Senate leader Ricardo Monreal that marijuana will be legalized before the end of the month.

“. . . [The law] will come out this month, the conditions are right for that to occur.”

Source: Milenio (sp)

2 parades will celebrate Day of the Dead in Mexico City

By

Cody Copeland

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October 12, 2019

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Preparations are under way for Mexico City's Day of the Dead parades.

The colorful floats, costumed dancers and music of two parades will celebrate the Day of the Dead in Mexico City this year.

Now in its fourth year, the 2019 International Day of the Dead Parade will begin at 2:00pm on October 27 and feature 10 giant puppets, three allegorical floats and 24 hand-pushed floats.

This one, however, is not to be confused with the 2019 Grand Day of the Dead Parade, which will take place in the streets of the capital on November 2.

The first of the two parades will leave from the zócalo in Mexico City’s historic center, making its way west down 5 de Mayo and Benito Juárez as far as Paseo de la Reforma avenue, which it will follow to Chapultepec park. From there, it will turn north into Polanco, where it will end.

The parade will be divided into four thematic segments: Mictlán and Syncretism, Skeleton Carnival, Arts and Culture and The Party. All four segments link together in a narrative called “A gift of songs and flowers from Mexico to the world.”

The giant puppets were created by members of the arts collective Última Hora (Final Hour), which also made the ghoulish props used in the James Bond movie Spectre.

The parade will also feature a mobile altar created by the design group Neografika, which has worked with companies like Grupo Xcaret in the Mayan Riviera.

Last year’s parade brought two million people into the streets of Mexico City to celebrate, and an estimated 10 million watched it on television. This year’s procession will measure one kilometer from beginning to end and will cover about six kilometers on its route.

The Grand Day of the Dead Parade will begin at Paseo de la Reforma avenue and end at the zócalo. This year’s event will host a special delegation from China, which will present a ritual that is similar to Day of the Dead, as well as a traditional dragon dance.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Girl, 4, electrocuted after touching tracks at Hidalgo fair ride

By

Cody Copeland

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October 12, 2019

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The Hidalgo fair ride where a girl was electrocuted. — The ride where a girl was electrocuted.

Just a couple of weeks after two people died on a roller coaster at Mexico City’s Feria de Chapultepec amusement park, a four-year-old girl was the victim of an accident Thursday at a fair in Pachuca, Hidalgo.

The four-year-old, identified as the daughter of employees of a ride operator at the fair, was electrocuted when she touched the tracks of a ride called Safari. She received first aid and treatment in an intensive care unit, but doctors were unable to save her.

The operator said the accident was a result of inattention on the part of the parents, who have worked for the company for 30 years, and not due to a mechanical failure or a fall.

This is the second year in a row that the Pachuca fair has seen a life-threatening accident, after the fair’s flying chairs ride collapsed last year. There were no deaths but many of the riders were injured.

Sources: El Universal (sp)