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

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October 12, 2019

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)

Mexico City to invest 4 billion pesos in elevated trolleybus

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Simon Schatzberg

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October 12, 2019

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The new trolleybus line is intended to improve transportation in Iztapalapa.

Mexico City will invest almost 4 billion pesos (US $207 million) in an elevated trolleybus that will connect the Metro stops of Constitución de 1917 on Line 8 and Santa Marta on Line A.

City officials hope that the new bus line will improve mobility in the borough of Iztapalapa and relieve congestion on Line A.

According to Mobility Secretary Andrés Lajous Loaeza, an analysis of transportation in Iztapalapa, the capital’s most populous borough, determined that an elevated rapid transit system would be an ideal solution, because of its simple operation and shorter construction time.

He added that the new bus line will benefit between 130,000 and 160,000 people in Iztapalapa and nearby México state municipalities who work in central Mexico City.

Projects and Services Secretary Jesús Esteva Medina said the eight-kilometer route will run along the Ermita Iztapalapa boulevard, but will be elevated to avoid interfering with traffic. There will be 35 electric-powered, articulated buses, which will travel at a maximum 35 kilometers per hour. Esteva estimated that each bus will cost around 16 million pesos.

He added that geotechnical studies are being carried out to determine the exact location of the project, and he estimates that bidding will open near the end of the year.

In addition to the two terminal stations, there will be eight other stations between 500 and 800 meters apart at UACM, Penitenciaría, Avenida de las Torres, Plaza Ermita, Avenida Jalisco, Santa Cruz Meyehualco, Calle 39 and Genaro Estrada.

Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said the elevated trolleybus, along with Line 2 of the Cablebus, which runs the same route, will improve transportation in eastern Mexico City. She added that she hopes to make agreements with bus drivers in the area so that the drivers can receive concessions, as was done when the Metrobus was first built.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Sharp decline in growth is putting pressure on finances, IMF warns

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MND Staff

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October 12, 2019

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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that fiscal pressures are mounting in Mexico while economic growth “has declined sharply.”

It said in a statement Friday that the government’s “commitment to fiscal prudence is strong, monetary policy has succeeded in bringing inflation to target, and financial sector supervision and regulation remain robust.”

But it warned that the government’s new policy priorities and commitment not to raise taxes during the first three years of its six-year term have contributed to the emergence of “fiscal pressures.”

The statement described the preliminary findings of IMF staff who took part in an official visit to Mexico City in September, meeting with central bank Governor Alejandro Díaz de León, senior government officials, members of the business community and academics.

The IMF also said that President López Obrador’s austerity measures could be problematic.

“Drastic budget cuts raise concerns about their sustainability and their potential impact on human capital, while productivity-enhancing reforms have largely stalled,” the statement said.

With regard to fiscal policy, the IMF said the government’s top priority should be to raise non-oil tax revenue while making the tax system more progressive.

It noted that tax collection in Mexico “significantly lags that of regional and international peers” and that value-added tax revenue is “strikingly weak.”

The IMF urged the government to carry out a comprehensive review of the tax system with a view to rationalizing tax expenditures and broadening the tax base.

Secretary Herrera said on Monday that a debate about possible changes to Mexico’s tax system will come after the finance department has improved its revenue collection practices to minimize tax evasion and avoidance.

The IMF also cut its growth forecast, saying it anticipates that the economy will “pick up only slowly” in the near term.

Growth of just 0.4% is predicted for 2019 – a 0.5% cut compared to the previous IMF forecast – but economic expansion of 1.3% is anticipated in 2020 “on the back of a modest recovery in domestic demand.”

The IMF noted that the balance of risks for Mexico “is tilted to the downside.”

Weak global growth, volatility in global financial markets and continued uncertainty in the trade relationship with the United States are the main external risks.

United States President Donald Trump threatened to impose blanket tariffs on Mexican imports earlier this year if the government didn’t do more to stem illegal immigration to the northern border. Some analysts believe that Trump could renew his threat to slap new tariffs on Mexican goods in the lead-up to the United States presidential election in November 2020.

The IMF warned that domestic risks for the economy include the possibility that the government could weaken its commitment to fiscal prudence, strong institutions and a favorable business environment.

“Reinvigorating productivity-enhancing reforms” is central to boosting growth as well as reducing poverty and regional income disparities, the IMF said.

Another risk to the economy is “a downgrade of Pemex to non-investment status by a second major rating agency,” the monetary fund said, explaining that such a move could lead to higher financing costs and spillovers to other corporations.

Fitch downgraded the state oil company to junk status in June.

The IMF recommended a reconsideration of Pemex’s business plan in order to improve the company’s profitability and provide relief for the federal budget.

It noted that the current plan limits cooperation with private firms in Pemex’s upstream business to service contracts, envisages investing heavily in its loss-making downstream business, and lacks concrete ways to reduce operating costs.

The IMF recommended reconsidering those decisions “as they place the onus of stabilizing Pemex squarely on the government.”

It said joint ventures with the private sector remain the most promising way to replace reserves and increase production given fiscal pressures.

A media report in August said that President López Obrador was poised to reverse his position and allow Pemex to resume joint ventures with the private sector in 2020. However, the government has not confirmed that will happen.

Mexico News Daily

Almost 2,000 migrants give up waiting in Chiapas, head for Mexico City

By

Simon Schatzberg

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October 12, 2019

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Migrants' caravan heads for Mexico City Saturday morning.

Almost 2,000 undocumented migrants from Central America, Cuba and Haiti left the city of Tapachula, Chiapas, Saturday morning to begin a journey north to Mexico City to seek support from President López Obrador.

The migrants had been stranded in Tapachula, located 45 kilometers from the Guatemala border, for as long as six months, waiting for the National Immigration Institute (INM) to regularize their immigration status to allow them to travel freely to the United States border.

But migrants have not been granted free passage north since Mexico agreed in June to clamp down on undocumented migrants under pressure from the U.S.

“We’re going to Mexico City to speak with President López Obrador,” said human rights activist Luis García Villagrán.

They intend to ask the president to resolve the situation in which thousands of migrants have spent months at the southern border.

The caravan left around 4:30am on Saturday from Miguel Hidalgo park, a departure point for many previous caravans of Central American migrants.

They were being monitored by Federal Police and accompanied by an ambulance.

In a separate incident, two migrants died and two others are missing after a fish boat flipped over in waters off Tonalá, Chiapas, on Friday morning. One of the dead was from Cameroon.

Seven men and one woman were rescued, and were taken to a hospital in Tonalá.

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

Chapo University? Narco’s family plans school for indigenous in Sinaloa

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MND Staff

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October 12, 2019

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Lawyer González announces plans for new university.

The family of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán will build a university for indigenous students in Badiraguato, Sinaloa, according to a Mexican lawyer who represented the convicted drug trafficker.

José Luis González Meza, who revealed in September that “El Chapo” wants his money to go Mexico’s indigenous communities, said that Guzmán’s family will receive financial support from a range of foundations in order to open the university in the ex-narco’s birthplace.

It will be designed by Guerrero painter Hugo Zúñiga and have several different faculties, he said. The total cost of the project is unclear.

González said that he was hopeful that President López Obrador would make the time to travel to Badiraguato and preside over a groundbreaking ceremony during his tour of Sinaloa this weekend.

“What we’re hoping for is that . . . he’ll go to Badiraguato and along with Chapo’s mom, María Consuelo, he’ll lay the first stone and the work to build the university will finally start,” he said.

The president said in February that his government was committed to the establishment of a new public university in the town that will specialize in forestry, while this week he pledged to extend the agroforestry employment program Sembrando Vida (Sowing Life) to parts of the country where illicit crops are grown, including Badiraguato.

González said that two other projects backed by Guzmán’s family are also planned, provided that assets seized from the former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel are returned to Mexico.

One is the establishment of a cooperative-run chain of stores and the other is the creation of a pharmaceutical company, the lawyer said.

The aim of the former project, González said, is to replicate the cooperative stores that existed when Joaquín Hernández Galicia was the leader of the Pemex workers’ union, an era that spanned almost three decades from the early 1960s to the late ‘80s.

He said that the new stores would sell a range of products, including “food, coffee, tequila, beer [and] mezcal” for up to 50% less than their usual retail price.

If the pharmaceutical company idea gets off the ground, it would start off selling cheap medicine in Mexico but could expand into Central America once production ramps up, González said.

Both the cooperative store chain and the drug firm will be led by management teams made up of campesinos and indigenous people, he added.

“They’re going to be the future industrialists of this country,” González said.

The lawyer reiterated that the billions of dollars that United States authorities are seeking in forfeiture from Guzmán rightfully belong to Mexico.

López Obrador said in July that González had convinced him that Mexico has a claim to Guzmán’s assets and pledged that his government would seek to seize them.

“I believe that everything confiscated that has to do with Mexico should be returned to Mexico, to the Mexican people, and I believe that the United States government is going to agree to turn [it] over,” he said.

Guzmán was found guilty of drug trafficking by a United States federal court in February after a three-month trial during which jurors heard tales of grisly killings, political payoffs, high living and a massive drug-smuggling operation that moved at least 180 tonnes of cocaine into the United States, along with heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana.

He was sentenced to life in prison on July 17 and transferred soon after to the “Supermax” prison in Florence, Colorado, the United States’ most secure penitentiary.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Female lawmaker complains like ‘a squealing pig, belongs in the kitchen’

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MND Staff

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October 11, 2019

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An attempt to oust a female lawmaker from the presidency of the Morelos Congress descended on Friday into a misogynistic attack.

Speaking in the Congress, independent Deputy José Casas said the complaints by lawmaker Tanya Valentina Rodríguez against her removal were like the “squeals of a pig.”

He also charged that women should stay in the kitchen rather than enter politics.

Casas is part of a 13-member block of deputies that is trying to replace Rodríguez as leader of the Congress.

A deputy with the Labor Party, Rodríguez accused the 13 deputies of holding a “clandestine” session of Congress on Thursday at which they intended to vote in favor of relieving her of her duties.

However, the deputies decided not to bring on the vote because they weren’t guaranteed of getting majority support to oust the Congress president.

Rodríguez told the newspaper Reforma that she will file complaints against Casas with both the Human Rights Commission of Morelos and the Institute of the Woman.

Female lawmakers protested against the lawmaker’s misogynistic remarks by holding up placards in Congress that denounced the “political violence” to which they are subjected.

Democratic Revolution Party deputy Estephany Santiago rejected Casas’ claim that Congress is not a place for women.

“The spaces that women occupy to represent other women are the result of a tireless struggle,” she said.

“The state Congress must take action and . . . impose a sanction on José Casas; that’s not the way to speak about women.”

Amid the furor, Casas attempted to make amends for his sexist remarks.

“My respect to all women in the kitchen, I come from a proud cooking family in Tres Marías . . . This isn’t an issue of misogyny,” he said.

Source: Reforma (sp), Excélsior (sp)

Schools closed in 6 Chihuahua communities after gunfight

By

Cody Copeland

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October 11, 2019

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Schools in six Chihuahua communities were closed after a gunfight between rival criminal organizations left two men dead earlier this week.

It was the second time in a month that schools in Las Pomas, El Largo Maderal, Chuhuichupa, El Oso, Santa Rita and Mesa del Huracán were forced to close due to violence related to organized crime.

The clash occurred in the community of Las Pomas, where 60 armed members of the criminal group known as La Línea arrived to attack a rival gang, according to the Chihuahua State Security Commission.

The attack was widely announced by the cartel and its presence in the area was evident before the attack, prompting citizens in Las Pomas and other communities in the municipality of Madera to post on social media and implore the government to intervene.

Many said they feared for their lives after they were ordered by armed civilians to remain in their homes.

Despite State Security Commissioner Óscar Alberto Aparicio’s declaration that officers were dispatched to the area as soon as they received reports, citizens claim that federal and state authorities ignored their pleas until nightfall.

The security commission released a statement saying it had initiated an operation in coordination with the army, Federal Police and National Guard in search of those involved.

Local media reported that one of the two victims of the shootout was Francisco “El Jaguar” Arvizu, plaza chief of the Sinaloa cartel in the region. However, Aparicio said the identities of the two men have yet to be confirmed.

Authorities also found seven vehicles at the site of the clash, three of which were completely burned.

Police forces will maintain their presence in the area to protect citizens and search for those involved in the shootout, Aparicio said.

Sources: El Universal (sp), Proceso (sp)

Double-digit tourism growth predicted at Jalisco’s haciendas and manors

By

MND Staff

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October 11, 2019

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Enjoy your own private pool at Hacienda el Carmen.

Double-digit growth is predicted in visitor numbers this year to rural Jalisco, where an overnight stay at a historical hacienda or manor is one of the unique experiences on offer.

Both Mexican and foreign tourists are increasingly willing to pay rates of between 2,500 and 10,000 pesos (US $130 to $520) a night to stay at properties that provide a rich experience full of culture, history and art, according to a report in the newspaper El Economista.

Antonio Gutiérrez Martín, president of the Association of Haciendas and Manors of Jalisco (AHCJ), said that visitors who opt to stay at such properties can expect much more than just a place to lay their heads.

“For example, in the city of Sayula, you could have a rate of 2,500 pesos [per night] but that doesn’t mean that they’re only going to give you a bed and a bathroom. It implies a complete experience, your senses – sight, smell and touch – will be awakened . . .” he said.

Gutiérrez added that visitors to Sayula, a municipality about 120 kilometers south of Guadalajara, can visit the house where acclaimed writer Juan Rulfo was born.

Sampling regional specialties such as cajeta (caramelized goat’s milk) and ponche de granada (pomegranate punch) and visiting workshops where knives are handmade by skilled artisans are also popular attractions in Sayula, he said.

Returning to the subject of unique, traditional accommodation, Gutiérrez said that the target market for historical haciendas and manors is people aged 40 years and older.

“Due to the rates we charge, it’s not easy tourism, it’s tourism in which the standards are quite high,” he said.

“We have rates of up to 10,000 pesos. For example, there are rooms at Hacienda El Carmen in Ahualulco de Mercado [a municipality 75 kilometers west of Guadalajara] where it’s quite an experience . . . [having] a private space with a private pool and spa,” Gutiérrez said.

He said that AHCJ data shows that 80% of people who stay at the organization’s 40 properties are Mexicans and the other 20% are foreign tourists.

The latter mostly stay at properties in or around the better-known tourist destinations of Tequila and Puerto Vallarta, Gutiérrez explained.

People who choose to stay at the haciendas and manors in Jalisco can expect a high-quality and memorable experience, the AHCJ chief added.

“. . . We have committees that review quality standards of each of our associates and that means there is a guarantee that the experience will be positive.”

Source: El Economista (sp)

Judges sweep away five suspensions holding back Santa Lucía airport

By

MND Staff

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October 11, 2019

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The military's heavy machinery may soon be put to work.

Federal judges have now annulled five of seven suspension orders that have delayed the start of construction at the Santa Lucía airport.

A judge of the Fifth Collegiate Tribunal in Mexico City overturned one suspension order on Tuesday and judges of the 10th Collegiate Tribunal rescinded four more on Thursday.

All of the repealed court orders were obtained by the #NoMásDerroches (No More Waste) collective, which has filed close to 150 injunction requests against the US $4.8-billion project at the Santa Lucía Air Force Base in México state.

The collective said in a statement that two judges of the 10th Collegiate Tribunal voted in favor of annulling the suspension orders that were reviewed yesterday, while one opposed their revocation.

The judge who voted against the repeal of the injunctions, #NoMásDerroches said, was Jorge Arturo Camero Ocampo.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Arturo Zaldívar announced on Thursday that the Federal Judiciary Council had suspended Camero over questionable financial dealings, which President López Obrador said included receiving an 80-million-peso bank deposit.

The #NoMásDerroches collective, a group made up of civil society organizations, law firms and individual citizens, said the “removal” of the judge “precisely hours after he decided to vote against” the annulment of the suspension orders was proof of pressure being exercised by the federal government for the airport issue to be “resolved according to its interests.”

The collective called on the Supreme Court to hear the remainder of the government’s applications to revoke the suspension orders it has obtained to ensure that the rulings are impartial and in “strict accordance with the law.”

“Today more than ever the independence of the federal judicial power and the principle of the separation of powers are essential for the preservation of the rule of law,” the group said.

“. . . We appeal to the Supreme Court to promptly resolve . . . this case of national importance.”

President López Obrador claims that the legal opposition to the Santa Lucía airport is politically motivated and amounts to “legal sabotage.”

He said this week that the government is ready to begin construction of the airport as soon as all the injunctions against it have been lifted.

Source: El Financiero (sp)

Bus races train to crossing in Querétaro: 9 dead, 13 injured

By

Tony Richards

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October 11, 2019

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The accident scene Friday morning in San Juan del Río.

Nine people are dead after a transit bus driver in Querétaro attempted to race a train to a level crossing and lost.

Another 13 people were injured in the accident that occurred Friday morning in La Valla, a community in San Juan del Río.

A state police official said the 21-year-old driver of the bus made a “reckless” attempt to reach the crossing before the train. “He will have to answer for this terrible incident,” he said of the driver, who was injured but in stable condition.

The bus was left lying on its roof after the train swept it off the tracks.

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