Mexico City accepts photos as evidence of drinking, peeing in public

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June 24, 2019

A photo can bring a fine for illegal use of public spaces.

The chances of being punished for drinking or urinating in public in Mexico City are higher than ever before.

Under the new Civic Culture Law, photographs and videos taken by citizens on mobile phones can be considered sufficient evidence to sanction people for committing a range of administrative offenses on the capital’s streets.

Until two weeks ago, unless a person was caught red-handed by police, there was no possibility of a fine or other punishment being imposed.

Now, 24 civic judges have the authority to impose fines, order arrests and hand down community service sentences to people who have been caught on camera in the act of committing a range of offenses.

They include drinking alcoholic beverages on the street, urinating or defecating in public, not picking up a pet’s feces, verbally or physically attacking a person and using offensive language.

Héctor Villegas, a Mexico City legal official, explained that the new law was introduced to increase the probability of people facing legal consequences for their wrongdoings.

In recent years, there have been numerous cases in which social media users have uploaded footage filmed on mobile phones in order to publicly shame people who have acted in illegal, questionable or controversial ways.

Now, Mexico City residents can refer such footage to police with the knowledge that the evidence they supply could lead to a conviction.

Since the new Mexico City government took office in December, police have detected 94,463 administrative offenses, of which 90% were committed by men.

Using public spaces or streets for private events without obtaining consent, drinking in public, causing damage to public or private property and peeing in the street were among the most commonly committed infractions.

Almost 40% of the offenses were committed in the central borough of Cuauhtémoc, while people in Miguel Hidalgo and Coyoacán were responsible for 13% and 7.5% of the infringements respectively.

Source: El Universal (sp)

In the streets of Monterrey, an estimated two million abandoned pets

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Simon Schatzberg

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June 24, 2019

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Monterrey has a large population of street dogs, according to estimates.

Although Mexico is one of the most pet-loving countries in the world, millions of homeless dogs and cats abandoned by their owners roam the streets in cities and towns across the country.

In Monterrey, Nuevo León, for example, for every pet that lives in a house two more live in the street.

According to Daniel Carrillo, human development secretary of the Monterrey municipality of San Nicolás de la Garza, the population of stray animals in the metropolitan area includes 1.5 million cats and 500,000 dogs.

In an interview with Milenio, Carrillo said that San Nicolás fields 70 reports every week about violence against animals. He thinks better education is needed to address the problem, as well as new legislation that distinguishes between different species.

“We are in diapers when it comes to education about how to take care of animals,” he said. “According to the most recent data, which isn’t official but comes from civil society organizations, there are half a million dogs and a million and a half cats on the streets. The uncontrolled population is bigger than the controlled population.”

Carrillo said that policy towards stray animals can be improved by cooperation between municipal and state governments, and with better resources to diagnose the problem.

An NGO says the banks of the Santa Catarina river, which flows through metropolitan Monterrey, have become infested with stray dogs, as people who no longer want their animals abandon them near the river.

Member Cristina Marmolejo told Milenio that around 500 dogs are living along a 30-kilometer stretch.

“It’s a dump for dogs, people come here and drop them off,” she said. “. . . We need sterilization to bring the numbers down. Now, people just sterilize their dogs if they want to, because it’s not in the law.”

Source: Milenio (sp)

Train robberies up 33% in first quarter after a decline in late 2018

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Simon Schatzberg

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June 24, 2019

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Police watch a train robbery in process on Sunday. — Police watch a train robbery in progress on Sunday.

Train robberies were up almost 33% in the first three months of 2019 compared to the same period of 2018, according to the most recent report by the Rail Transport Regulatory Agency.

There were 1,057 incidents of theft and 2,637 incidents of vandalism, an increase of about 21% compared to the previous year.

There were 613 incidents in which cargo was stolen from trains, and 72 where rolling stock itself was stolen. Grains, seeds, automotive parts and construction materials are among the most popular goods stolen.

There were also 371 thefts of sections of rail or signage.

The highest numbers of thefts occurred in the states of Sonora, Tlaxcala and Puebla.

Growth in railway theft began in the first quarter of 2018 but saw a significant decline in the last quarter of the year.

In 2018, the Federal Police launched an operation against a rail theft gang led by Roberto de los Santos de Jesús, also known as “El Bukanans.” Santos allegedly leads Sangre Nueva Zeta, a group that broke off from the Zetas cartel, and is believed responsible for much of the rail theft and fuel theft around the Puebla-Veracruz border.

The most recent train robbery took place on Sunday morning when a train was robbed in the Puebla municipality of Cañada Morelos, near the Veracruz border. The thieves put up barriers to force the train to stop, and then caused mechanical damage to the train to prevent it from moving.

The private security and police officers who were escorting the train were outnumbered by thieves and could only stand by and watch as the thieves loaded the cargo off the train and on to pickup trucks.

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

Auction sells just 9 of 27 narco-properties, raises 57 million pesos

By

Madison Koen

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June 24, 2019

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Prospective buyers at Sunday's narco-auction.

The federal government sold nine of 27 properties confiscated from narcotics traffickers and raised 57 million pesos (US $3 million), well short of the anticipated 167 million pesos (US $8.7 million) that was projected.

But head of the agency responsible insisted that the auction was in fact a success.

“In a property auction it would have been unprecedented to have sold everything,” Ricardo Rodríguez Vargas said. “We are in the normal range, or actually a little bit above normal for a property auction. What was not sold will be sold in future auctions.”

Among the narco-properties not sold were some of the most expensive and luxurious properties listed, which seemed directly proportional to the infamy of their previous owners.

These included:

• The luxury apartment in Cuernavaca, Morelos, where Arturo Beltrán Leyva, one of the founders of the Beltrán Leyva Cartel, was killed by marines in 2009, which was valued at 3.6 million pesos (US $188,000).

• The Naucalpan, México state, ranch of Carlos Montemayor González, also a Beltrán Leyva operator and father-in-law of infamous drug lord Édgar “La Barbie” Valdés Villarreal, valued at 32 million pesos.

• The 15.3-million-peso, Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, beach property of former Gulf Cartel leader Mario Armando Ramírez Treviño.

On the other hand, the government was able to sell the luxury Mexico City residence of Francisco Javier Arellano Félix, former leader of the Tijuana Cartel, for 14.3 million pesos, as well as the former home of Raydel López Uriarte, another Tijuana Cartel operator, in Rosarito, Baja California, for 1.1 million pesos.

Asked if he believed that the failure to more than three-quarters of the properties might be due to the nature of their former owners, Rodríguez Vargas replied, “No, no, that has nothing to do with it. Actually, the auction was a success.”

He added that nearly all proceeds will go towards some of the country’s poorest communities, located in the Guerrero mountains.

Next up is an auction of narco-jewelry confiscated from traffickers, with all proceeds benefiting the National Addictions Commission.

Source: Milenio (sp), Proceso (sp)

AMLO announces 500mn pesos for urban improvements in Playa del Carmen

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MND Staff

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June 24, 2019

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López Obrador in Playa del Carmen on Sunday.

President López Obrador has announced that the government will spend 500 million pesos (US $26 million) on urban improvement projects in Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo.

López Obrador and Urban Development Secretary Román Meyer Falcón said the objective of the investment – part of the Mi México Late (My Mexico Beats) program – is to improve infrastructure in disadvantaged areas of the resort city.

Among the neighborhoods set to benefit are Ejidal, 28 de Julio and Bellavista.

At an event in the Caribbean coast city, the president said the government decided to allocate the funding because the contrast between luxury hotels and underprivileged neighborhoods, “where people don’t even have the most essential services,” is unacceptable.

Meyer explained that 30 million pesos will go to the Ciudad Juventud youth center project in Ejidal and that an additional 90 million pesos will be allocated to build a children’s development center and a cultural center in the same neighborhood, as well as to rehabilitate a community center and the Playa del Carmen Polyforum center.

More than 80 million pesos has been earmarked for the Bellavista neighborhood, where a medical rehabilitation center and a new park and market will be built, while 11 million pesos will go to improvement projects at sporting facilities and a community center in the 28 de Julio district.

Money has also been set aside for water projects, the paving of roads, sidewalks, street lights and the construction of 500 new homes.

“With a strict sense of justice and social conscience, these resources are returning to the families and neighborhoods of Playa del Carmen that have been left in oblivion. We have the goal of turning Playa del Carmen into a fairer, safer and much more prosperous city,” Meyer said.

“. . . Playa del Carmen isn’t just [the upmarket hotel and residential areas of] Playacar and Mayakoba, neighborhoods such as Ejidal, Bellavista, 28 de Julio and Forjadores are also Playa del Carmen, they’re also the heart of the Riviera Maya.”

The central objective of the 8-billion-peso (US $416.9-million) Mi México Late program is to build much-needed infrastructure in the working-class neighborhoods of Mexico’s leading tourism destinations.

Among the other cities that will benefit are Los Cabos, Cancún, Acapulco and Puerto Vallarta.

Source: Notimex (sp)

Troops on both borders: 15,000 seek migrants trying to cross US border

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MND Staff

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June 24, 2019

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Soldiers nab migrants attempting to cross the northern border into the US.

Mexico is arresting undocumented migrants at both ends of the country.

The government said today that almost 15,000 federal security force members have been deployed to the northern border to stop migrants crossing illegally into the United States.

As part of an agreement with the U.S. that ended a threat from President Donald Trump to impose tariffs on all Mexican goods, the government last week completed a deployment of 6,000 National Guard troops to the southern border, which tens of thousands of migrants have crossed to enter Mexico since late last year.

Speaking at the president’s press conference in Cancún, Quintana Roo, this morning, National Defense Secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval said that members of both the National Guard and the armed forces are carrying out operations to stop undocumented migrants crossing into the United States.

Asked whether the strategy involved arresting migrants, he said it did.

However, Cresencio added: “migration isn’t a crime, it’s an administrative offense, so we only arrest them [and] turn them over to authorities so that they do the normal paperwork that must be done.”

He explained that the same strategy is being implemented both at the northern border and the southern border with Guatemala and Belize, adding that a military deployment to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec region is also assisting the efforts.

Over the weekend, members of the National Guard carrying assault rifles were seen turning back migrants in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua.

A photograph taken in the northern border city and published by the news agency AFP showed one guardsman pulling back a woman who was holding the hand of a young girl while another agent was poised to intercept the path of a third female migrant.

The image triggered criticism of Mexico’s enforcement of stricter immigration policies.

“This is how Mexico is becoming Trump’s immigration police and the United States’ waiting room,” wrote journalist Jorge Ramos on Twitter.

A soldier holds on to a woman while a girl appears to make a run for it.

“The National Guard, in theory, shouldn’t be repressing those who want to cross to the United States,” said Isabel Sánchez, coordinator for a Ciudad Juárez civic group with a focus on security and justice.

However, a poll published by the newspaper El Financiero last week showed that there is strong support in Mexico for strong immigration enforcement.

Almost two-thirds of respondents said that the government should close the southern border to migrants, and an even higher percentage supported the deployment of the National Guard to enforce stricter immigration policies.

The Associated Press reported that about 100 migrants were transported yesterday to a detention center in Arriaga, Chiapas, while Milenio TV said that 146 people were detained in a private home in Querétaro and more than 100 migrants were taken away from a hotel in Veracruz.

More than 74,000 migrants have been arrested since the new government took office in December, and over 53,000 were deported.

However, the number of undocumented migrants arrested in the United States after crossing the border between ports of entry has risen sharply this year and last month exceeded 144,000.

However, President Trump said on Thursday that Mexico’s stricter immigration enforcement was already yielding results.

“The flow [of migrants] has very substantially slowed down,” he said. “It’s already had a big impact.”

Source: Reforma (sp), Associated Press (en)

Six attempts to steal ATMs since January in Oaxaca’s Isthmus

By

César Hernández

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June 24, 2019

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This was all that remained after thieves stole two ATMs in Ciudad Asunción.

It’s been open season on automated teller machines since January in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec region of Oaxaca.

Two ATMS were stolen January 3 from a Banamex branch in Asunción Ixtaltepec. Six weeks later, thieves removed a Banamex ATM from the IMSS hospital in Salina Cruz.

Another ATM theft was foiled March 7 when police received a 911 call advising that someone was trying to remove a machine from the Santander branch in Tehuantepec.

That was followed by an incident June 7 in Juchitán in which thieves successfully spirited away an ATM located outside the office of the Federal Electricity Commission.

There was another failed attempt last Tuesday at the first-class bus terminal in Juchitán. Armed civilians entered the building and held passengers and staff at gunpoint while trying to free a BBVA Bancomer ATM.

A sledge hammer, an axe and a lopsided ATM after a failed robbery attempt in Juchitán. — A sledge hammer, an axe and a lopsided ATM are evidence of a failed robbery attempt in Juchitán.

After struggling unsuccessfully with their task for a few minutes, the men gave up and fled.

The most recent incident took place early Saturday morning when a cargo truck approached a hospital in Salina Cruz, carrying thieves whose sights were set on a Banorte ATM.

But they were caught unawares while attempting to pry the money machine free. They fled the scene, leaving their truck — and the ATM — behind.

There have been no arrests in any of the cases.

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

Quintana Roo’s sargassum problem is ‘not very serious:’ López Obrador

By

Simon Schatzberg

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June 24, 2019

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The governor says a tonne of sargassum is being removed every day from the state's beaches.

President López Obrador today downplayed the gravity of sargassum landing on beaches in the Mexican Caribbean during a visit to Quintana Roo, emphasizing the actions his government is taking to address the problem.

“It’s not a delicate issue, and much less a serious issue,” he said at his daily press conference. “It has a solution, and we’re working on it.”

The president said that emergency declarations by the government of Quintana Roo were irresponsible attempts to make contracts with sargassum-collecting companies and discredit the federal government.

He also pointed out that the amount of sargassum collected on Quintana Roo beaches every day is less than 3% of the 13,000 tonnes of trash collected daily in Mexico City.

The figure, however, proved incorrect. After reporters called for clarification of the numbers, an aide approached the president with a note: the correct figure was given as 341 kilograms.

But Quintana Roo Governor Carlos Joaquín González said on Sunday that a tonne of sargassum is being collected daily.

Navy Secretary Rafael Ojeda also spoke this morning, observing that the sargassum issue is being treated as a “state problem” for the first time, with a coordinated response from the three levels of government.

“They used to invest a lot of money, but just in contracts and half-measures,” he said.

López Obrador last month put the navy in charge of combating the sargassum problem.

Ojeda announced an investment of 52 million pesos (US $2.7 million) of federal money to install barriers to keep sargassum from reaching beaches and build a fleet of 10 to 12 sargassum-collecting vessels in navy shipyards. Each will take between one and two months to build.

The principal problem with sargassum, according to Ojeda, is not how to collect the macroalgae, but what to do with it once it has been collected.

In May, the federal government predicted a 30% drop in tourism in Quintana Roo because of sargassum washing up on 200 kilometers of the state’s beaches. According to the governor, who appeared with the president at Sunday’s press conference, sargassum has not seriously affected hotel occupancy, although it has had an impact on providers of beach activities, sports and restaurants.

“We need to prevent problems for the next vacation period with more efficient direct actions for collection and removal,” he said.

A Cancún hotel association has predicted the weed would cost the industry millions of dollars.

Source: La Jornada (sp), El Universal (sp), El Economista (sp)

For the next 19 years, passenger tax will pay off debt of abandoned airport

By

MND Staff

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June 24, 2019

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London Heathrow leads with the highest passenger tax. el universal

Planning to use Mexico City International Airport (AICM) during the next two decades? Be prepared to help pay off government debt.

Over the next 19 years, taxes paid by passengers flying into or out of the airport will be used to pay back debt associated with the cancelation of the previous government’s signature infrastructure project, the new Mexico City airport.

It will be no mean feat. According to the Secretariat of Communications and Transportation, cancelation of the partially-built Texcoco project left a US $6-billion bond debt and a 30-billion-peso (US $1.56-billion) liability associated with the issuance of securities known as Fibra E shares.

In that context, the airport tax for both domestic and international passengers at the AICM rose on January 1.

The former now pay US $23.79 to use the airport, a 116% increase compared to 2014, while the latter pay $45.18, a 232% hike.

Tariffs paid by passengers at CDMX in comparison with other airports in Mexico — Tariffs paid by international passengers at CDMX in comparison with other airports in Mexico. el universal

The newspaper El Universal reported that the new international passenger rate makes the Mexico City airport the second most expensive in the world after Heathrow in London, England.

The use of an airport tax to repay debt is unconventional – resources raised by the duty are most commonly spent on airport maintenance and improvement projects.

“We’re facing an unusual situation in which this charge is being used for something that isn’t maintenance, improvement, refitting or the construction of more runways that can increase the number of planes per hour,” said Rafael Camacho, an aviation analyst for the financial company Ve Por Más.

Rogelio Rodríguez, an attorney who specializes in aviation law, agreed with Camacho’s assessment.

“Mexico is a unique case in the world because airport taxes are always paid to improve an airport . . . but we’re paying to finance the debt of a government decision that in a sense threw away all the investment [of the abandoned airport] and took on the debt,” he said.

Under the current arrangement, none of the airport tax funds can be used for either the construction of the Santa Lucía airport or for the upgrading of the AICM, Rogelio explained

Tariffs paid by domestic passengers at airports in Mexico. el universal

The lawyer said that those projects – including the construction of a third terminal and the installation of new technology at the existing airport – will have to be paid for out of the federal budget.

However, as a result of the decision to direct airport tax funds to pay off debt at Texcoco, a trust associated with that project paid the operator of the existing airport almost 57 billion pesos (US $3 billion) in compensation in April 2018.

The previous government planned for the abandonment of the AICM in 2021, the year when the Texcoco airport was to begin operations.

But based on the results of a controversial and legally-questionable referendum, President López Obrador decided to cancel the new airport project and instead build a new one at the Santa Lucía Air Force Base in México state and upgrade existing facilities in the capital and Toluca.

The plan, however, is not currently running as smoothly as the government would like.

The Santa Lucía project is currently facing legal challenges from a collective opposed to government waste that believes that reviving the abandoned airport is “legally possible,” while earlier this month the Environment Secretariat suspended assessment of the environmental impact statement until it receives more information.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Mexico City offers businesses a four-level security program

By

MND Staff

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June 22, 2019

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Mexico City authorities are offering a new security program that offers businesses in the capital’s historic center the option of choosing from four different levels of protection, but only one is free.

The free option gives business owners a mobile app that enables them to report crimes to police but the three more sophisticated levels of protection come at a cost.

Installation of a panic button costs 2,000 pesos (US $105), while two cameras connected to the C5 security command center come with a 7,000-peso price tag.

For shopping centers, there is a “Plaza Package” option, which includes 16 security cameras and a panic button for 60,000 pesos (US $3,100).

“The idea is to have a complete catalogue [of options] . . .in keeping with the purchasing power of businesses,” said C5 Command Center chief Juan Manuel García.

Presenting the new security initiative, García said the Mesones and Mixcalco shopping plazas in downtown Mexico City are already participating in a pilot program.

“We’re going to continue with the historic center in order to cover the greatest quantity of plazas in the shortest possible time. In those two places, the program is already operating and if they press the emergency button, the attention will be similar to what currently occurs with the [street] panic buttons . . .” he said.

If a business owner presses a panic button, both a strobe light and an alarm will be activated and security camera footage will be immediately relayed to the C5 Center, where security personnel will notify police.

Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum explained that the government will obtain the security equipment from a range of suppliers in order to avoid any claims of preferential treatment.

“We’re not orienting the program around just one brand of cameras or transmission equipment . . . We’re certifying different equipment so that the business owner can decide which to use . . .” she said.

The mayor said that together with other security schemes that her government has developed the business protection program “is going to create a much safer historic center.”

Ángel Mussi, a member of a historic center business association, praised the government’s initiative, describing it as a significant step forward for law enforcement.

It is unclear when the program might extend to businesses beyond the capital’s downtown area.

Robberies of businesses in Mexico City have soared since Sheinbaum took office last December.

There were 8,338 robberies between December and March, according to the National Public Security System, an increase of 54% compared to the same period a year earlier.

The capital has also been plagued this year by high levels of other crimes including homicides and kidnappings but Sheinbaum last week denied that there is a crisis of insecurity in the city.

Source: Milenio (sp)