Businesses, governments join forces to fill tourism marketing vacuum

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June 14, 2019

Los Cabos will focus marketing efforts on California and Texas.

Some tourism businesses and local governments are joining forces to fill the vacuum left by the federal government’s closure of the Tourism Promotion Council (CPTM) last December.

Two airport operators, airlines Aeroméxico and Volaris, tequila maker José Cuervo and restaurant chain Hard Rock are among the companies that have stepped up to invest in tourism promotion.

In Los Cabos, one of Mexico’s biggest international tourism destinations, the companies and local government will create a trust fund to promote the destination in international markets, especially in California and Texas. Their initial goal is to raise US $50 million for the trust fund, which will be managed by tourism business groups.

In Quintana Roo, airlines and other businesses are working to promote tourism in the state, and to raise 600 million pesos (US $31.3 million) for international publicity.

President López Obrador decided to eliminate the CPTM shortly after he took office in December. He said that the council’s annual budget of 6 billion pesos would be used for the construction of the Maya Train.

The disappearance of the CPTM came at a time when tourism was already decelerating in Mexico due to a variety of factors, including sargassum, insecurity and travel warnings issued by the U.S. government, which a study by the Bank of México says prevented 335,000 potential visitors from coming to Mexico.

An international tourism organization says the cuts to publicity have not been a major factor in the slowdown of visitors, but have deterred investment.

However, the downward trend has continued since the CPTM was shut down. In the first five months of 2019, hotel occupancy was 1.5% lower than in the same period of 2018. And some destinations have been hit even harder: hotel occupancy in Guadalajara was down 4%, in Los Cabos 4.2% and in Quintana Roo 5.3%.

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

Private sector agrees to invest additional US $35 billion to fuel growth

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MND Staff

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June 14, 2019

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More investment: business representative Salazar, López Obrador and the president's chief of staff, Alfonso Romo, with the new agreement.

The federal government and a leading business group have reached an agreement to increase combined public and private investment to 25% of GDP from the current level of just over 20%.

The pact with the influential Business Coordinating Council (CCE) includes a commitment from the private sector to invest an additional US $35 billion in Mexico during the next two years.

According to the agreement, annual private sector investment currently represents 17.5% of GDP while government investment accounts for 2.8%.

Under the terms of the new deal, the former will increase its investment spending to 20% of GDP and the latter to 5%.

Investment in the energy sector, including renewable energy projects, is considered crucial to achieving the 25% of GDP goal.

Spending on infrastructure – including projects to build or upgrade highways, ports, bridges, railways and airports – health, education and development in the south and southeast is also prioritized in the new public-private agreement.

At a signing ceremony yesterday, President López Obrador said that members of the Mexican Business Council (CMN) – an elite group made up of 60 of the largest businesses in the country – will this year invest around US $32 billion, an amount he described as “significant” and which will “create jobs and boost economic growth.”

However, the president said that to achieve average 4% economic growth during his six-year term in office – as he has promised – total investment needs to increase to 25% of GDP.

CMN president Antonio del Valle agreed with the president’s assessment.

López Obrador thanked the business sector for their confidence in the economy and his government and said that the increased investment commitment will ensure that there is well-being and peace.

“. . .With this agreement . . . the country’s private sector will contribute to investment in every branch of the economy, in the farming sector, industry and services,” he said.

López Obrador pledged that his administration will do all it can to help business navigate the minefield of government bureaucracy so that investment plans are approved and become reality.

“Together we can push the rheumatic and difficult elephant that the government sometimes is with its tedious and long [bureaucratic] procedures, all that which prevent things from being put into practice . . .” he said.

CCE president Carlos Salazar Lomelín explained that López Obrador will play a central role in evaluating new investment projects and facilitating their execution, adding that the government and private sector will meet regularly to assess the progress of the agreement.

Other CCE members stressed that in order to promote investment in Mexico there must be a strong rule of law, macroeconomic stability and a commitment to resolve the legal problems often faced by new projects in strict accordance with the law.

José Manuel López Campos, president of the Confederation of Chambers of Commerce, Services and Tourism, described the inking of the new agreement as a “turning point” that will encourage investment in new projects that will stimulate economic growth.

The Mexican Employers Federation said the agreement is a “sign that it’s possible to begin a new phase of cooperation between the public and private sectors in which the rule of law, confidence and certainty prevail.”

Source: El Financiero (sp)

Teacher incorporates Latin dance into physical education class

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Madison Koen

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June 13, 2019

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If you want to shake up the daily routine, try dancing cumbia.

That’s what a physical education teacher at a primary school in central Oaxaca decided to do.

In a video that went viral on social media, Diego Cortez instructs a group of at least 14 students of mixed grade levels in his Latin rhythms class, directing the children in their first basic steps and turns.

“. . . Prepare the turn, I’ll tell you when . . . And there I go! Hug . . . Now out . . . Good job!”

A dedication below the post reads, “This is the result of the great effort and dedication of physical education teacher Diego A. Cortez, here at work in his Latin rhythms workshop, with the goal of developing first to sixth grade elementary students’ motor skills at Resurgimiento Primary in Reyes Etla, Oaxaca. Thank you for supporting our children!”

The video has been more than 38,000 times on Facebook, where many users celebrated the teacher’s efforts, noting that knowing how to dance is an important social skill in Mexican society as well as a demanding physical activity.

“Teaching them to dance cumbia is indeed useful; this way, when they’re a little bit older they’ll know how to ask their cousin to dance [at a family gathering] and they won’t have to sit in a corner and watch everyone else dance because they don’t know how,” one user remarked.

“Wow! It’s great to see this type of videos; it lights up my day. Congratulations to the teacher; without a doubt, this says a lot about his work and enthusiastic approach toward teaching. It even made me want to learn to dance; I could use a few dance classes. Congratulations and good luck,” commented another.

According to information provided by the school, the class, which transforms the school’s computer lab into a dance floor, incorporates other Latin dances in addition to cumbia, including salsa and bachata, as part of a club called Bailarte, which will be open to students for all of the 2018-2019 school year.

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

Collective believes it’s possible to revive abandoned airport project

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MND Staff

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June 13, 2019

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Group behind airport injunctions believes this airport can be revived. — Group behind airport injunctions believes the Mexico City airport project can be saved.

Reviving the abandoned Mexico City airport project is “legally possible,” according to a collective opposed to wasteful government spending.

The #NoMásDerroches (No More Waste) collective has already won four injunctions against the Santa Lucía airport including one granted this week that also instructs federal authorities not to make any changes to the site of the abandoned project in Texcoco, México state.

“We believe that it’s legally possible to raise Texcoco again,” said Gerardo Carrasco, a legal director at Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity, one of the collective’s members.

Appearing on the television program La Nota Dura, Carrasco added, “honestly, if we didn’t have faith that it’s legally possible, I wouldn’t be here . . . talking about these injunctions and suspensions [that have been] granted.”

The most recent court order states that the partially-built Texcoco project must be left intact until a thorough legal review has examined the reasons why it was cancelled.

Plans to restore a drained lake at the site that would leave the foundations of the terminal building and part of a runway under water were announced earlier this week.

President López Obrador cancelled the US $13-billion project after a legally-questionable public consultation last October found almost 70% support to build the Santa Lucía airport and upgrade the existing Mexico City and Toluca airports instead.

During his campaign last year, López Obrador opposed the project on the grounds that it was corrupt, too expensive, not needed and being built on land that was sinking.

While the #NoMásDerroches collective is now optimistic that the previous government’s signature infrastructure project could be resurrected, Carrasco admitted that when the group first initiated legal action, a lot of people expressed doubt about its chances of success.

“When we formed this collective and then more civil organizations and law firms . . . started joining, a lot of people called us crazy, they thought that it wasn’t possible that the federal judicial power would grant suspensions in this respect,” he said.

The collective has filed 147 separate injunction requests that could hold up or threaten construction of the new airport, meaning that the stage is set for a lot more legal battles.

Rogelio Rodríguez, an attorney who specializes in aviation law, believes that the government could challenge the ruling that orders it to preserve the abandoned airport site and those suspending construction of the new project in the Supreme Court.

Source: El Financiero (sp)

Undefined tourism policy, lack of promotion deter investment

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MND Staff

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June 13, 2019

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An undefined tourism policy and lack of tourism promotion is deterring investment in the sector, according to the president of a global industry group.

Gloria Guevara, president of the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) and a former Mexican secretary of tourism, said yesterday that “there is no interest” among the organization’s members in the government’s two largest tourism infrastructure projects, the Santa Lucía airport and the Maya Train.

“In the case of Mexico, some WTTC members have said that they’re going to wait in order to understand a bit more about what priority will be given to the [tourism] sector. I don’t mean that it’s all of them, some are continuing [to invest] in certain destinations, Quintana Roo and Los Cabos, for example, but they’re looking at Mexico with a little bit of uncertainty,” she said.

Guevara added that the government’s decision to disband the Tourism Promotion Council (CPTM) and the resulting lack of international marketing campaigns has also caused anxiety among members and acted as a barrier to investment.

However, she contended that the lack of marketing hasn’t yet affected visitor numbers.

“The impact hasn’t been seen yet. You have to remember that trips are sold in advance, especially international ones,” Guevara said.

The WTTC president noted that the public and private sectors are working together on a “new policy and strategy” to replace the CPTM but the preparation of a new international marketing campaign for the upcoming winter holiday season needs to begin now.

Several experts have already warned that other holiday destinations in the region, such as Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, will benefit from Mexico’s withdrawal of tourism marketing funds.

It’s important to promote new tourism products, Guevara said, adding that if people don’t know about them, they won’t buy them.

The industry leader also said that state governments, members of the private sector, the tourism secretary and Mexico’s overseas diplomatic staff – who have been given responsibility for promoting tourism in the countries in which they are based – must maintain close contact with travel agents to promote Mexico and its various destinations.

After four years of steady growth, Mexico dropped from sixth to seventh place last year in international tourism rankings.

But while Mexico was overtaken by Turkey in the rankings, international visitor numbers rose to a record 41.4 million in 2018, a 5.5% increase compared to the year before.

Source: El Economista (sp)

Chapo-linked actress’s lawsuit against government will go ahead

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Simon Schatzberg

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June 13, 2019

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Del Castillo is suing for moral and material damages.

Mexican actress Kate del Castillo passed another hurdle in her lawsuit against the federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR), obtaining a court ruling that will allow her case to proceed.

The lawsuit, which had previously been dismissed, was filed on December 21, 2018. It demands US $60 million from the FGR for “moral and material damages” to her person related to actions taken by the FGR (then called the PGR) during the administration of Enrique Peña Nieto.

According to Alejandro Rojas, del Castillo’s lawyer, the lawsuit is not against any specific functionary, but against the FGR as Mexico’s top justice institution.

Del Castillo says that her persecution by the Mexican government started in 2015 when she met with cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán to discuss the possibility of making a film about his life. The drug lord was arrested shortly afterwards, and del Castillo spent the next three years in self-imposed exile in California to avoid being forced to testify by the PGR.

The actress returned to Mexico in December 2018 after Andrés Manuel López Obrador took office as president.

The actions for which del Castillo seeks compensation include irregularities in an investigation that attempted to link her to Guzmán, as well as for leaks of FGR documents indicating she was being investigated for involvement in one of the drug trafficker’s prison escapes.

The lawsuit says that the actions amounted to “political persecution” and that the amount of $60 million is based on “expert evidence.”

Before her links to Guzmán became public, del Castillo was known for portraying fictional crime bosses in telenovelas like La Reina del Sur and Dueños del Paraíso.

Source: Milenio (sp), Sopitas (sp), W Radio (sp)

3 ex-Pemex officials ordered to stand trial for fuel theft

By

MND Staff

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June 13, 2019

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Former Pemex security chief Trauwitz, suspected fuel theft mastermind.

A federal judge today ordered three former Pemex officials to stand trial on charges of fuel theft and organized crime.

All three worked under the supervision of General Eduardo León Trauwitz, a former security chief at the state oil company who allegedly ordered security agents to “plant” illegal taps on petroleum pipelines.

The accused men are the former head of Pemex’s material assets department, Oziel Aldana Portugal, and Ramón Márquez Ledezma and José Carlos Sánchez Echavarría, both of whom worked in security roles.

Judge Rogelio León Díaz Villarreal set a period of four months for authorities to prepare their case against the accused, who will remain in preventative custody in México state as they await trial. The three men were arrested last weekend.

Sources with knowledge of the case told the newspaper Reforma that the organized crime unit of the federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) has already gathered large quantities of evidence linking the accused to the perforation of illegal taps on fuel pipelines and to criminal gangs.

Among the evidence are testimonies from three former Pemex security agents submitted to the FGR by lawyer Jorge García Adriano in March 2017. The declarations implicated at least 20 Pemex officials in fuel theft.

The newspaper Milenio reported earlier this year that the testimonies were apparently not taken into account by law enforcement authorities until the new federal government began its crackdown on fuel theft shortly after taking office last December.

General Trauwitz, who was allegedly the mastermind of the internal fuel theft racket, was granted a definitive suspension order last week against his arrest for any crime that doesn’t warrant preventative custody.

On May 31, the former Pemex security chief failed to attend a court hearing at which he was to be formally accused. Trauwitz’s lawyer said he didn’t appear in court due to an unspecified health problem.

Source: Reforma (sp)

Mexico turning itself into a border wall: Catholic bishops

By

Simon Schatzberg

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June 13, 2019

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Catholic bishops are critical of the deal between Mexico and the United States under which Mexico has agreed to step up enforcement against undocumented migrants.

The Mexican Episcopal Conference (CEM), the highest authority of the Catholic Church in Mexico, said the planned deployment of 6,000 members of the National Guard to the southern border would amount to turning Mexico into a border wall.

“If as Mexicans, we’ve rejected the construction of a border wall, we can’t turn ourselves into that wall,” the statement read.

The bishops also questioned whether stricter enforcement can really solve the migration issue.

“Sending 6,000 members of the National Guard to the southern border doesn’t address the true root causes of the phenomenon of migration,” they said. “It seems that the goal of fighting poverty and inequality in Mexico and Central America has been substituted with fear of the other, of our brothers and sisters.”

The church urged Mexico and the United States to reconsider their migration policies, and promised to continue to provide humanitarian aid to migrants in Mexico.

“We remain firm in our commitment to give migrants the humanitarian aid they need as they travel through our territory,” they said. “We express our respect and recognition of the thousands of men and women from the Catholic Church, from other churches and from civil society who have, for decades, risked their lives to defend the fundamental rights of migrants in Mexico, the United States and Central America.”

Under the deal, which was signed last Friday by representatives of the U.S. and Mexican governments, Mexico will crack down on migration on its southern border, and will allow people seeking asylum in the United States to remain in Mexico while their claims are being processed.

In exchange, U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew a threat to impose a 5% tariff on all Mexican imports.

Source: Catholic San Francisco (en), Religión Digital (sp), MVS Noticias (sp)

Suspect in ‘mariachi massacre’ arrested after visit to police station

By

Madison Koen

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June 13, 2019

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'The Tomato,' a suspect in Garibaldi killings.

An audacious suspected hitman and extortionist entered a police station yesterday to inquire about his girlfriend’s drug arrest. He did not leave of his own accord.

Authorities announced that a top suspect in last year’s deadly attack in Mexico City’s popular Plaza Garibaldi was taken into custody in the city’s northwestern borough of Azcapotzalco.

Police said José Mauricio “El Tomate (The Tomato)” Hernández Gasca, a suspected hitman with the Unión de Tepito gang, was detained when he went to check on his girlfriend, who had been arrested several hours earlier for selling cocaine on the street.

Police did not initially recognize Hernández, who had grown facial hair and lost weight since security cameras captured his face during the Garibaldi attack on September 14. But a fellow gang member in custody did and offered to identify him to police in exchange for his freedom.

Police promptly took the 25-year-old into custody and turned him over to the Attorney General’s Office.

Authorities believe that Hernández and Víctor Hugo Ramírez, the 23-year-old leader of the Tepito gang who was arrested in March, led last September’s so-called “mariachi massacre” in Plaza Garibaldi, a square in downtown Mexico City famous for its musicians.

Three men dressed in mariachi costumes opened fire on a bar located in a corner of the square, killing six people and wounding seven others, before fleeing on motorcycles.

Authorities say the attack was an unsuccessful attempt on the life of Sergio Flores Concha, leader of the Fuerza Anti-Unión, a rival gang to the Unión de Tepito.

The bloody rivalry between the two, both of which boast alliances with major drug cartels in Mexico, has been as as the cause of a surge in violent crime in the capital in recent months.

Authorities revealed that they expect Hernández’s trial to be an easy conviction and a victory for law enforcement owing to a large body of evidence and eyewitnesses of the Garibaldi attack.

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

State declares emergency over sargassum, citing ‘imminent disaster’

By

Simon Schatzberg

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June 13, 2019

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A man removes seaweed from a Quintana Roo beach. — A worker removes seaweed from a Quintana Roo beach.

The government of Quintana Roo has declared a state of emergency in order to access funds to deal with the large amounts of sargassum that are washing up on the state’s beaches.

The state described the situation as an “imminent natural disaster.”

“The arrival and decomposition of large quantities of sargassum should be addressed with a double perspective, of guaranteeing the protection and use of the natural environment, and consequently, guaranteeing the normal development of human health,” reads the decree.

The state of emergency makes it possible for federal funds to be directed toward gathering and disposing of sargassum in Quintana Roo, where eight state agencies are working together to craft a plan to address the problem.

The declaration applies to the municipalities of Lázaro Cárdenas, Isla Mujeres, Benito Juárez, Puerto Morelos, Cozumel, Solidaridad, Tulum, Felipe Carrillo Puerto, Bacalar and Othón P. Blanco.

Governor Carlos Joaquín González said the state hopes to receive 600 million pesos (US $31 million) to fund the emergency actions. He said the funds could come from local, state and federal governments, as well as the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. Any revenue generated by the commercialization of the macroalgae will be used to offset the cost of the program.

Over the past few months, hundreds of cubic meters of the seaweed have been washing up on beaches in the Mexican Caribbean, causing huge losses for tourism companies and damaging coastal ecosystems.

In addition, a study by UNAM scientist Rosa Elisa Rodríguez Martínez found that some sargassum contains high levels of arsenic and heavy metals. That could complicate ideas to reuse collected sargassum as livestock feed, compost or even as an ingredient in food for human consumption.

However, the environment secretary cautioned that there’s not enough evidence to conclude that all or most sargassum washed up on beaches contains dangerous levels of contaminants.

“From what I understand, in a preliminary analysis, some heavy metals were detected, but that’s not enough to say it’s a constant,” Alfredo Arellano told Milenio. “To make an affirmation about the presence of heavy metals, we would need many more samples, from different areas.”

Source: El Sol de México (sp), Milenio (sp)