Release of Ayotzinapa suspect triggers probe into prosecutors, judiciary

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September 4, 2019

Encinas: suspect's release 'a grave precedent.'

The release by a judge of a key suspect in the disappearance of 43 students in Guerrero in 2014 will be subject to a federal investigation.

The federal government will ask the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) and the Federal Judiciary Council (CJF) to investigate officials and judges responsible for the release of the suspect and many others in the case, human rights undersecretary Alejandro Encinas said on Wednesday.

Encinas’ announcement comes a day after news broke that a federal judge acquitted and ordered the release of Gildardo López Astudillo, who was allegedly the plaza chief in Iguala of the Guerreros Unidos gang at the time of the students’ disappearance.

Prosecutors who served during the previous government alleged that López Astudillo ordered the abduction of the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College students after mistaking them for members of a rival gang.

He was arrested in Taxco in September 2015.

Encinas told reporters at the presidential press conference that on instructions of President López Obrador, the government will request that the FGR and CJF investigate officials and judges who may have acted illegally in relation to the release of Ayotzinapa suspects.

Ayotzinapa suspect 'El Gil.' — Ayotzinapa suspect ‘El Gil.’

More than 140 people were arrested, many of whom were suspected members of the Guerreros Unidos gang, but more than 50 have been released.

Santiago Aguirre, director of the Prodh human rights center and a lawyer for families of the victims, said on Tuesday that among the suspects who have been released are six people accused of ordering the disappearances.

Encinas charged that “instead of guaranteeing the right to truth and justice for the victims,” judges and officials have favored “silence and impunity.”

The undersecretary said that the release of López Astudillo, who faces no other charges, set “a very grave precedent.”

“It’s an acquittal of one of the main perpetrators of the crime of forced disappearance,” Encinas said, adding that the ruling could be used to release more than 50 other people who are in custody as a result of their alleged involvement in the students’ disappearance.

They include the former mayor of Iguala, José Luis Abarca Velázquez, and his wife, María de los Angeles Pineda, who have spent almost five years in jail awaiting trial on charges related to the case.

The 43 students who disappeared September 14, 2014 in Guerrero.

According to the judge who released López Astudillo, much of the evidence presented against him by prosecutors of the former government was obtained illegally.

The United Nations said in a 2018 report that 34 people were tortured in connection with the investigation into the disappearance of the 43 students, while a video showing the torture of a suspect was published on YouTube in June.

In November 2018, a federal judge ruled that 83 statements made by the majority of people accused of involvement in the crime must be omitted from the Ayotzinapa investigation due to evidence that their human rights were violated.

According to the former government’s “historical truth,” the 43 students were intercepted by corrupt municipal police in Iguala on September 26, 2014 while traveling on buses they had commandeered to attend a protest march in Mexico City.

The police then handed them over to members of the Guerrero Unidos gang who killed the students, burned their bodies in a municipal dump and scattered their ashes in a nearby river, according to the investigation.

However, the former government’s conclusion was widely questioned both within Mexico and internationally and authorities were heavily criticized for their handling of the case.

Many people suspect that the army played a role in the students’ disappearance and presumed deaths.

Encinas said today that the “poorly-named ‘historical truth’ was built based on simulation, fabrication of evidence [and] torture.”

Two days after he was sworn in as president, López Obrador signed a decree to create a super commission to conduct a new investigation into the Ayotzinapa case but to date no new findings have been publicly disclosed.

Source: El Financiero (sp), Associated Press (en)

2 injured in tractor-trailer and train collision in Veracruz

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Cody Copeland

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September 4, 2019

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The wreckage in Veracruz after semi failed to cross the tracks in time.

Two people were injured when a train crashed into a tractor-trailer in Amatlán de los Reyes, Veracruz, Tuesday morning.

The driver of the semi attempted to cross the track after the stop signal had sounded at the level crossing and also ignored the train’s whistle as he tried to cross before the train arrived.

The truck was dragged dozens of meters by the train, and its cargo of cardboard and plastic was scattered along the highway and train tracks.

Paramedics extricated the driver and a 20-year-old passenger from the damaged cab of the truck.

The two suffered injuries for which they were taken to a local hospital.

The area was cordoned off by local and state police working with officers of the auxiliary police force of Veracruz (IPAX), and clean-up of the wreckage and cardboard began once the injured parties were taken from the scene.

The crossing was closed to traffic for two hours following the crash.

Source: e-consulta (sp)

Rain warning in 3 states for Tropical Storm Fernand

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Simon Schatzberg

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September 4, 2019

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Fernand's position at 10:00am Wednesday CDT.

The National Water Commission (Conagua) has issued a warning that Tropical Storm Fernand will cause torrential rains in the states of Tamaulipas, San Luis Potosí and Nuevo León on Wednesday.

Fernand, which formed out of Tropical Depression No. 7 on Tuesday in the Gulf of Mexico, is expected to make landfall on the Tamaulipas coast on Wednesday. But the effects of the storm could be felt all across the country, especially in the states of Veracruz, Nuevo León and San Luis Potosí.

Conagua also warned that Fernand could cause waves as high as three or four meters on the coasts of Tamaulipas and northern Veracruz, and wind gusts of as high as 60 kilometers per hour in nine states. Rain with differing levels of intensity is forecast for all 32 states.

Veracruz Civil Protection chief Guadalupe Osorno forecast intense rain and wind gusts as high as 65 kilometers per hour in the northern area of the state.

“We’ll be monitoring Fernand’s development, and if necessary, we’ll activate evacuation plans for vulnerable communities,” he said.

Nuevo León Governor Jaime Rodríguez Calderón announced on Tuesday that the state’s schools will be closed on Wednesday because of the storm. Tamaulipas will also close schools in 21 municipalities on Wednesday and Thursday.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Historical objects looted from Mexican sites finish up in US, Europe

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MND Staff

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September 3, 2019

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A historical object recovered after it was stolen.

Historical objects looted from Mexican archaeological sites are often shipped overseas to countries such as the United States, Spain, Germany and Italy, according to the federal government.

Investigations conducted by the Federal Police have found that criminal organizations dedicated to the theft of pre-Hispanic objects use international parcel companies to send their loot to purchasers abroad.

Among the artifacts that are commonly stolen are ceramic figures, arrowheads, stone objects and wooden sculptures made by the Maya, Olmec, Toltec, Mixtec, Teotihuacán and Mexica peoples, among others.

There are no precise figures about how many artifacts have been stolen in Mexico and sold abroad but considering the high incidence of the crime, the number is likely to be significant.

The federal Attorney General’s Office has, however, managed to recover some relics that ended up in the United States and Europe.

Im April, the FBI returned two archaeological pieces that had been stolen from a central Mexican site of the Teotihuacán culture, while last year two wooden Olmec busts were sent back to Mexico from Germany after an almost 10-year-long legal battle.

The latter relics, which date back more than 3,000 years, were stolen from the El Manatí site in Veracruz.

The Attorney General’s Office has also had domestic success in seizing stolen historical objects, recovering at least 634 pieces in Mexico between 2008 and 2018. The highest number of objects were located in the states of Jalisco, Tlaxcala, Mexico City, Nuevo León, Guanajuato and Zacatecas.

More than 40% of Mexico’s archaeological sites and historic monuments have been looted, according to the Institute of Anthropology and History.

Stealing and selling historical objects is a federal crime punishable by a prison term of five to 12 years in addition to a fine.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Impunity still rules: study finds little improvement in prosecution rates

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MND Staff

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September 3, 2019

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The Guerrero Attorney General's Office has Mexico's lowest prosecution rate.

Rampant impunity continues to plague Mexico according to a study that shows there has been negligible improvement in prosecution rates over the past year.

Entitled State Index of the Performance of Attorney Generals’ Office 2019, the study completed by the non-governmental organization Impunidad Cero (Zero Impunity) shows that the probability of a crime being reported, investigated and solved is just 1.3%.

The figure is 0.16% higher than the 1.14% rate reported in 2018.

Impunidad Cero president Federico Reyes Heroles described this year’s result as “maddening,” while executive director Irene Tello said there exists an impunity “crisis.”

Guillermo Zepeda, one of two Impunidad Cero researchers who worked on this year’s study, explained that the prosecution rate is derived from two figures: the percentage of crimes that are reported, which was 6.8%, and the percentage that are solved, 19.4%.

The state with the highest impunity level is Guerrero, where only one in 500 crimes is solved, according to the study.

The 0.2% prosecution rate in the southern state is the result of having both the highest percentage of unreported crimes in the country – 96.8% of offenses go unreported – and the lowest percentage of solved cases, the study says.

Tamaulipas is the next worst state with a prosecution rate of just 0.4% followed by Jalisco, Chiapas and Quintana Roo, where only 0.6% of crimes are reported, investigated and solved.

San Luis Potosí, Tabasco, Puebla and Aguascalientes also have prosecution rates below 1%.

At the other end of the scale, Baja California has the best prosecution rate in Mexico but at just 3.4% it is hardly flattering.

Querétaro recorded the second highest prosecution rate at 3.2% followed by Guanajuato with 2.8%; Hidalgo, 2.7%; Nayarit, 2.2%; and Chihuahua, 2.1%.

Reyes said more money needs to be invested in state-based justice systems; Tello said greater political will is required.

Zepeda said there has been resistance to change at state attorney general’s offices for decades, charging that networks of “vested interests” within them need to be dismantled in order to transform the offices and reduce impunity.

To put Mexico’s crime reporting and prosecution rates in some context, the researcher explained that 43% of crimes are reported in the United States and approximately 60% of cases are solved. Those figures equate to a prosecution rate of 25.9%,

In Chile, 35% of crimes are reported and about two-thirds of that number are solved, giving the South American nation a prosecution rate of 23.8%.

Source: Reforma (sp)

Mayor claims they were left to fend for themselves against Jalisco cartel

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MND Staff

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September 3, 2019

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Frame from a video taken during the CJNG's attack on Friday.

The mayor of Tepalcatepec, Michoacán, where nine presumed hitmen of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) were killed in clashes on Friday, has accused state and federal authorities of leaving the municipality to fend for itself.

In an interview with the newspaper El Universal, Felipe Martínez Pérez called on the Michoacán and federal governments to send police and the armed forces to Tepalcatepec to reinforce security and prevent another incursion by the cartel.

He said that both residents and local authorities have already asked for assistance but the municipality has received no support. Asked about current security conditions, the mayor responded that the community is on high alert.

“Yesterday [Sunday], at about 10 at night, the red alert was activated again because armed groups were sighted in [the Tepalcatepec community of] Tepalcuatita. That put all of us on alert and fireworks were set off to warn residents . . . to go home . . .” Martínez said.

The mayor said the reaction of residents was one of fear, adding that although armed groups say they don’t target the general public “the first thing they do is attack the people.”

Two jornaleros, or day laborers, were also killed in the confrontations on Friday that reportedly occurred between CJNG operatives and municipal police.

“We’re asking for the presence of the army, for them to support us with a military operations base in [the neighboring municipality of] Jilotlán, [Jalisco] . . . in Cholula and another in La Estanzuela, which are the weak points we have, where armed groups can enter,” Martínez said.

“They’ve left us on our own,” the mayor responded when asked whether state and federal authorities have provided any support.

“It’s concerning for all of society because seeing the events [of Friday] and things as they are, as well as not having a response from authorities, is highly alarming . . .” Martínez added.

“. . . No authority has come and we’re worried. What’s going on with the state and federal governments for them to not turn their eyes to Tepalcatepec and see what’s happening?” he asked.

“. . . We have a situation of latent risk and at any moment [violence] could break out again. Don’t abandon us, be aware of the situation . . . The armed forces need to come and stay for a period of time, the time that’s necessary to protect the citizens . . .”

Mayor Martínez calls for support from state, federal authorities.

In a separate interview with Grupo Fórmula, Martínez denied that there is a criminal group based in Tepalcatepec that is engaged in a turf war with the CJNG.

On August 13, a video circulated on social media showing 18 masked men who identified themselves as CJNG hitmen and threatened to attack territory held by former ally Juan José “El Abuelo” Farías Álvarez in Tepalcatepec.

Farías, a former self-defense force leader who is now alleged to be a leader of bitter CJNG rival Los Viagras, is a businessman engaged in the buying and selling of cattle, Martínez said.

“. . . Farías doesn’t lead any criminal cell, it’s false what they [state authorities] are saying,” he said.

The mayor claimed that the ignorance of the Michoacán government with regard to the security situation had led to an assertion by Governor Silvano Aureoles that Friday’s clashes were between two cartels rather than the CJNG and local police who were previously self-defense force members.

Aureoles told a press conference on Monday that it is organized crime that operates and governs in the municipality by deciding who will be mayor.

But the latter denied the charge.

“Here there are no cartels but the state government is stubborn [in saying] that there is a cartel here. We’re under attack, we’re not criminals, we’re defending ourselves from the aggression of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel – the state government and the federal government don’t understand that,” he said.

However, it is questionable that a municipal police force would have the firepower to defeat the CJNG in an armed confrontation.

The cartel is considered the most powerful and dangerous in the country, and has published scores of videos in which its members appear wielding high-caliber weapons.

A more plausible explanation would be that Friday’s clashes were between the CJNG and Los Viagras, described by Governor Aureoles in 2017 as “the most bloodthirsty and dangerous” criminal group operating in Michoacán.

The newspaper Infobae reported that state police from Jalisco and Michoacán and municipal police from Tepacaltepec were patrolling the border between the two states. The CJNG hitmen who allegedly launched Friday’s attack were reported to have crossed into Michoacán from Jalisco.

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

Grapes have replaced poblano peppers at what was once a farm

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Cody Copeland

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September 3, 2019

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Where peppers once grew are now grapes at Cuna de Tierra.

A former poblano pepper producer who replaced the crop with grapes now produces award-winning wines that have proven to be much more profitable.

Ricardo Vega made the decision a decade ago to turn his Guanajuato farm into a vineyard. Now Cuna de Tierra is one of the state’s most productive.

“The ranch was practically all poblano peppers, but the vegetable is really complicated to market if you don’t have control of the whole distribution channel. And the price of the chile hasn’t changed in the last 30 years,” said Vega.

“So we looked for a product that we could store, and wine has the advantage of increasing in quality over time; it’s also something we always liked.”

After celebrating the vineyard’s ninth grape harvest last weekend, Vega said they have been increasing production in recent years “but now we want to limit ourselves, because if we increase the volume too much, we could lose quality.”

Ricardo Vega of Cuna de Tierra winery in Guanajuato.

Cuna de Tierra, located in Dolores Hidalgo, has 30 hectares of vines in production, which this year will yield 120 tonnes of grapes from which 120,000 bottles of wine will be produced.

Vega remembers that in the beginning they barely produced two barrels, and now that number has risen to over 100. In the early harvests, they invited 300 guests to celebrate. This year they sold 1,400 tickets two months before the celebration.

He also points out they have won around 50 international prizes with a number of labels.

“This year we won seven awards at the Decanter World Wine Awards, including one gold. We’re really happy with the winery,” he said.

Cuna de Tierra’s sales, which in 2018 totaled around 20 million pesos (US $100,000), have grown at an annual rate of 20%, and Vega expects this year to be no different.

He plans to increase the production of white wine, which is currently in fashion.

The winery has 30 hectares of grapes in production.

“It’s the variety that is now seeing greater demand. There’s a trend toward whites and rosés,” he said.

The winery has made international inroads not only in competitions, but also in commerce. It currently produces 5,000 bottles for the United States market, but Vega is waiting for more demand for his wines to attempt to enter other international markets.

According to Vega, who is also president of Guanajuato’s Viniculturists Association, 30 wineries have dedicated over 300 hectares to growing grapes in the state, a dozen of which are open to the public. Together they produce around 350,000 liters of wine per year.

Cuna de Tierra is currently getting ready for its Live Vineyard Music Experience, a music and wine festival that will host disco singer Gloria Gaynor and other musicians on October 12.

Source: El Financiero (sp)

British ambassador announces new mining museum in Hidalgo

By

Cody Copeland

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September 3, 2019

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Ambassador Robertson and Tourism Secretary Torruco make pasties in Real de Monte.

A new museum in Hidalgo will pay tribute to the influence of the United Kingdom on mining in the state.

British Ambassador Corin Jean Stella Robertson announced the creation of the Museum of British Miners in Real de Monte during a trip to the state with federal Tourism Secretary Miguel Torruco Marqués.

“It is very important to the British Embassy that here live the relatives, the descendants of the English miners who arrived in 1824,” said Robertson.

“Museums are very important for protecting the history of a town like Real del Monte and the links between countries,” she added.

The museum is part of a plan to boost British tourism to Hidalgo.

“With the ambassador’s visit we are strengthening ties with the United Kingdom, for which we will also create the mining museum, which will pay homage to the pioneers of mining here in Real de Monte,” said Torruco.

Nearly 600,000 British tourists visited Mexico in 2018, more than any other European nationality. The UK is the fourth largest source of tourists to Mexico worldwide, after the United States, Canada and Colombia.

It was also announced that the United Kingdom will be the special guest country at the Tianguis de Pueblos Mágicos, an annual tourism event that celebrates Mexico’s Magical Towns, to be held this year in Pachuca in October.

After the conference, the ambassador was invited to visit Real de Monte’s Cornish Pasty Museum, which tells the story of the snack’s growth in popularity in Mexico after it was imported by Cornish miners.

Robertson joined the tourism secretary and others in making some pasties to mark the event.

Sources: Milenio (sp), La Silla Rota (sp)

US ambassador creates a stir with criticism of Frida Kahlo for her politics

By

MND Staff

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September 3, 2019

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Ambassador Landau questioned Kahlo's political leanings.

The new United States ambassador to Mexico has triggered a heated debate on Twitter after criticizing painter and cultural icon Frida Kahlo for her support of communism.

In a post featuring a photo of himself at the Frida Kahlo Museum in the Mexico City borough of Coyoacán, Christopher Landau wrote on Twitter on Sunday that he admired the “free and bohemian spirit” of the artist, adding that “she rightly became an icon of Mexico around the whole world.”

However, the ambassador stirred controversy with the second half of his tweet.

“What I do not understand is her obvious passion for Marxism / Leninism / Stalinism. Didn’t she know about the horrors committed in the name of that ideology?” Landau wrote in Spanish.

Kahlo, a 20th-century artist best known for her vibrant self-portraits, and her husband, acclaimed muralist Diego Rivera, were strong supporters of Marxism and supported Soviet leader Joseph Stalin after initially backing his rival, the revolutionary Leon Trotsky.

Stalin is held responsible for deaths of millions of people in the Soviet Union, many of whom perished in the Gulag network of labor camps.

During his exile in Mexico, Trotsky initially lived with Kahlo and Rivera at their Coyoacán home, which is now a museum commonly known as La Casa Azul (The Blue House). Kahlo, who attained international fame after her death in 1954, had an affair with the revolutionary, who was assassinated in Mexico City in August 1940.

Landau’s tweet, which now has some 1,900 comments, attracted a mixed response.

Some Twitter users pointed out that the United States has a long history of intervention in the affairs of Latin American nations and other countries around the world, often to counter the rise of socialist governments.

“In the name of fighting that ideology, the U.S. killed children in Vietnam by bombing entire villages and supported dictatorships throughout Latin America,” wrote user @Quetzalcoatl1.

The Mexican Communist Party (PCM) responded to the ambassador by saying that “Comrade Frida was consistent with humanism, the search for democracy and freedom of Mexico’s workers and people, and therefore she was a Marxist-Leninist, and of course Stalin’s admirer.

“Don’t show your ignorance anymore, imitating [U.S. President Donald] Trump,” the PCM advised Landau.

Other Twitter users expressed support for the ambassador’s comments, and some even accused the Mexican government itself of being an adherent of Marxist ideology.

Landau, who arrived in Mexico in the middle of August to take up the ambassadorial role, has posted several photos of himself visiting Mexico City attractions such as the Basilica of Guadalupe, the Museum of Popular Art and the neighborhood of Roma.

But the ambassador was unhappy with the size of the audience he was reaching and consequently – just hours before he fulminated against Frida – appealed to the Mexican Twitter community to follow his account.

“Dear Mexican Twitter friends: This is an outrage! Greece has a population of 10 million, while Mexico has 130 million. But the United States ambassador in Greece . . . has almost 150,000 followers but I [have] barely 40,000. How are we going to change it? Mexico has to be #1! #challenge,” he wrote.

The tweet seemingly worked – as of 12:00pm on Tuesday, the ambassador had almost doubled his follower numbers to 78,600.

However, like his jab at Frida Kahlo, the post triggered a mixed response.

Well-known photographer Santiago Arau retorted that “the only outrage here is that your president wants to build a wall on our border,” while Twitter user @_VicenteSerrano told Landau that if he asked President Donald Trump to “offer papers to our undocumented brothers” in the United States, he would have a guaranteed one million followers in 24 hours.

Source: Reuters (en), Expansión Política (sp)

Holbox hotels, restaurants see big savings through conservation program

By

Simon Schatzberg

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September 3, 2019

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A Holbox conservation program has produced savings on water, gas and plastic consumption. — A Holbox conservation program has produced savings on water, energy and plastic consumption.

Hotels and restaurants on a popular holiday island destination in Quintana Roo achieved big savings for the environment in the first year of a conservation program.

The 12 hotels and two restaurants that are members of a hotels association on Isla Holbox decided to take action in March 2018 in response to sanitation problems on the island that were threatening to interfere with tourism.

With planning help from the environmental nonprofit Casa Wayuu and funding from the Mesoamerican Reef Fund, the businesses made a plan to reduce energy consumption and move away from single-use plastics.

In the program’s first year, the businesses cut liquid petroleum consumption by 65,187 liters, equivalent to the annual consumption of 220 households. They also cut electricity consumption by 830,130 kilowatt-hours, enough energy to supply 79 houses for a year, and water consumption by 41,939 cubic meters, equivalent to the water used by 114 people in a year.

The businesses also eliminated the use of PET plastic, and achieved a reduction in the consumption of other plastics by working with providers to find reusable food containers that can be returned after use. These actions prevented the generation of 8,973 kilograms of PET, equivalent to almost 300,000 half-liter bottles.

Bárbara Hernández, the head of the hotel association, said the program has also been a success in making a cultural change among hotels on the island.

She noted that staff at the Las Nubes de Holbox Hotel have started voluntarily cleaning up trash at the Yum Balam nature reserve near Holbox once a month.

Source: El Financiero (sp)