Mexico’s second-longest bridge has been officially opened in Campeche, linking Isla del Carmen to the mainland.
Governor Alejandro Moreno Cárdenas and Communications and Transportation Secretary Javier Jiménez Epriú inaugurated the new Puente de la Unidad (Unity bridge) on Monday.
“This is a bridge that belongs to all Campechanos, to all Mexicans,” Governor Moreno said at the inauguration. “This project fills us with pride, and it shows that us Campechanos can aspire to bigger things, and that we can do everything we say we’ll do.”
Secretary Jiménez said the bridge will not only benefit Campeche, but also the thousands of people who travel to the Yucatán peninsula every year.
“This inauguration represents the fulfillment of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s promise to use federal resources on projects that optimize the efficiency of our infrastructure, benefit as many people as possible, and promote regional development,” said Jiménez.
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The bridge was built over a period of more than two years, with an investment of almost 2 billion pesos (US $105 million), of which 250 million pesos came from the federal government. At 3.2 kilometers, it is the second-longest bridge in Mexico and the fifth-longest in Latin America.
It replaces the old Puente de la Unidad, built in 1982. The old bridge has been in a state of poor repair for at least 12 years, and will soon be unusable.
Moreno said the previous federal administrations had not taken the need for a new bridge seriously, and that the project is 12 years overdue.
“This should have been built before my term,” he said. “But two federal administrations went by, 12 years, that the federal government didn’t support Campeche. But my responsibility was to build it, and finish it, and we did it in a record time of 24 months and 19 days.”
The new bridge is expected to last for at least 50 years.
In spite of offering a generous wage and benefits package for new recruits, the state of Guanajuato is still 650 officers away from reaching its goal of expanding the state police force by 1,000 officers, according to state Security Secretary Álvar Cabeza de Vaca.
“We have a goal of reaching 1,000 hires this year, and so far we’ve reached 350,” he told the newspaper Milenio. “The wage for a police officer is more than 16,300 pesos (US $852) per month in the state, and the state guarantees that you’ll have a lifelong career . . . Because of our professionalization committee, we have the highest standards for state police of any state in the country.”
Guanajuato hopes to expand its state police force, which currently consists of 3,200 officers, to over 4,000.
Cabeza de Vaca added that police officers in Guanajuato also receive benefits like paid vacation, annual bonuses and medical insurance.
At an event in May to inaugurate the recruitment plan, Government Secretary Luis Ernesto Ayala Torres invited residents with a “vocation of service” to sign up.
“We’re not just trying to reach a numerical goal, we’re looking for professional quality,” he said. “We’re looking for people who not only want to earn a dignified salary, but also have a clear desire to protect Guanajuato and protect their families.”
But the riskiness of the job may be keeping people from signing up. Guanajuato has become one of the most violent states in the country, recording the highest number homicides in 2018.
It’s especially dangerous for police officers. More cops are killed on the job in Guanajuato than in any other state in Mexico, with 64 in 2018, and 17 so far this year. And almost all the crimes go unpunished; only 11 people have been sentenced for killing officers in Guanajuato since 2011.
A Seguro Popular hospital: not the best of options.
For patients in Mexico’s health system, quality of care can vary greatly depending on which insurance system a patient is enrolled in, according to a doctor who works in two.
Dr. Moisés Díaz Mier, a surgeon who works at two hospitals in Mexico City, said that recent budget cuts have hit the Seguro Popular especially hard.
Díaz is in a good position to judge the quality of care across different insurance systems: every day, he works one shift at the General Ignacio Zaragoza Hospital, which serves patients enrolled in ISSSTE insurance, and one shift at the Tláhuac Hospital, which serves patients enrolled in Seguro Popular.
“I live two realities in one day,” he said. “In the morning, the ISSSTE, and at night, the Seguro Popular. An optimum reality in the ISSSTE, and a suboptimal reality with the Seguro Popular, in the Tláhuac Hospital.”
Díaz said that chronic problems at the latter hospitals include shortages of medicine, equipment and personnel, which leads to lower standards of care for patients. In contrast, Díaz says that at the ISSSTE hospital, “if I ask for something, I get it the next day.”
ISSSTE provides health care to government workers while the Seguro Popular provides insurance to people who are not covered by other programs.
Díaz also criticized the president’s decision to cut funding for academic travel to foreign countries, saying that such travel is necessary because educational opportunities for medical professionals are lacking in Mexico.
“If there’s nowhere we can get up-to-date training, we have to leave the country, but if we can’t leave because they’re cutting the scholarships, we’ll just stay as we are,” he said. “You don’t live like a king on a scholarship, you live with other people in a small room. They’re not tourists, they’re still students.”
Mexico’s efforts to reduce migration through the country to the United States will be evaluated on a daily basis, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said yesterday.
Pompeo told a press conference that the effectiveness of the measures to which Mexico committed as part of the agreement reached last week to avoid tariffs on Mexican exports to the United States – including the deployment of 6,000 National Guard troops to the border with Guatemala – will be evaluated by the U.S. government “literally daily.”
He acknowledged that there won’t be an “instantaneous” reduction in migration flows to the United States but stressed that the work to curb the arrival of undocumented immigrants “has already begun.”
The secretary of state said that in a month or 45 days, the governments of the United States and Mexico will have “a good sense of whether we’re able to achieve these outcomes in the way we’re hoping that we can.”
The agreement with Mexico “reflects diplomacy at its finest,” Pompeo said, adding that “the deal continues the Trump administration’s commitment . . . to confront the tide of illegal immigration and many other problems along our southern border, including drug trafficking issues.”
Ebrard speaks yesterday at the president’s morning press conference.
He described Mexico’s commitment to deploy the 6,000 troops to the southern border as “the biggest effort to date that the Mexicans have made and something that we pressed for,” adding that “we’ll work closely with them to make sure that is a successful effort.”
As a result of Mexico’s agreement to an expansion of the Migrant Protection Protocols – the U.S. government policy commonly known as the “Remain in Mexico” plan – Pompeo said that U.S. authorities now have the capacity to return asylum seekers to Mexico at “full throttle.”
That “will make a fundamental difference in the calculus for those deciding to transit Mexico to try to get into the United States,” he said.
However, if the agreement with Mexico doesn’t make “sufficient progress” to reduce illegal immigration into the United States, there is a risk that the tariffs averted by last week’s deal “will go back in place,” Pompeo said.
The secretary of state added that the United States hadn’t offered any additional financial assistance to Mexico or Central American countries to implement measures aimed at delivering the immigration outcomes it is seeking.
“Where we find it in our interest in the Northern Triangle [of Central America] or in Mexico to provide resources that make sense to protect the American people, we’ll do that but in the first instance these nations have the responsibility to take care of these immigration problems in their home country,” Pompeo said.
Secretary of State Pompeo.
However, the United States is sending federal agents to Guatemala to complement the deployment of National Guard troops to the southern border, according to the Guatemalan government.
After refuting a report that United States Homeland Security personnel would help Guatemala control the movement of migrants, the Guatemalan Ministry of the Interior said yesterday that it is awaiting the arrival of 98 U.S. agents.
Guatemalan migrants’ advocate Julia González said the United States deployment to northern Guatemala coupled with Mexico’s commitment to send troops to its southern border effectively creates a “double wall” against migrants trying to reach the U.S.
But the archbishop of San Salvador in El Salvador said the deployment of additional security forces won’t ultimately be able to stop people leaving Central America to escape the high levels of poverty and violence.
“The way to stop migration is to solve the problems that we have here,” José Luis Escobar said.
He said it was “sad” that President López Obrador had caved in to pressure from the United States whereas previously he acted “with so much humanity” towards migrants.
Migrants hitch a ride on a trailer.
López Obrador today described the task of reducing migration in a period of three months as an “interesting challenge.”
The president announced the creation of a special commission headed by Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard to comply with the commitments it has agreed upon.
Ebrard said the deployment of the National Guard will be stepped up today.
Mexico’s agreement to send such a large contingent of the new security force to the border prompted Amnesty International to warn that arresting migrants en masse without considering their individual circumstances is a violation of international law.
The humanitarian organization also said that it has received reports that migrants have been forced to go without food and water for more than eight hours after being detained, warning that the health of babies and children could be placed at particular risk.
AI said that deporting migrants to countries where their lives could be placed at risk is a violation of international law.
Most of the migrants entering Mexico at the southern border come from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, which are among the most violent countries in the world.
Meanwhile, President Trump asserted again today that there is an unrevealed aspect of the deal between Mexico and the United States.
“. . . Biggest part of deal with Mexico has not yet been revealed!” he wrote on Twitter.
Trump made a similar claim yesterday, stating that the there is a “very important part of the immigration and security deal” that “will be revealed in the not too distant future and will need a vote by Mexico’s legislative body!”
However, Foreign Secretary Ebrard said yesterday that there was no part of the deal that has not already been disclosed.
What was to have been an airport will be a lake instead.
The foundations of the X-shaped terminal building and a section of runway at the abandoned airport project in Texcoco, México state, will be left under water as the result of the restoration of a drained lake.
More than 14 billion pesos (US $728.7 million) was spent on those two elements of the project before the airport was canceled following a public consultation last October.
The federal government is now pursuing a project to convert the airport site and surrounding areas into a massive ecological park.
Architect Iñaki Echevarría, who is leading the project for the National Water Commission (Conagua), told the newspaper Milenio that part of the project entails restoring the Casa Colorada lake – which will cover the terminal foundations and runway – as well as the Xalapango, Texcoco Norte and Nabor Carillo lakes.
Water that previously ran into the first three lakes from seven Valley of México rivers was diverted to five smaller lakes at a cost of 17 billion pesos in order to allow the airport to be built.
Echevarría said there was no reason to remove the terminal foundations before refilling the Casa Colorada lake because they are 4.5 meters below the water table.
“There are certain pieces [of infrastructure] that don’t need to disappear to recover the proper functioning of the site,” he said.
Echevarría rejected the claim that the foundations could be used to build a sports center.
“No! That’s a misconception that people have, that it can be used, that something can be put on top . . . It’s 4.5 meters below the water table so you’d have to be constantly pumping [water out] so that it doesn’t flood,” he said.
Flooding the base of the unbuilt terminal is the most viable option, the architect added.
Construction of the Lake Texcoco Ecological Park will be divided into four phases and is expected to take five years.
The first phase involves construction of a 300-hectare park between Lake Nabor Carillo and the Peñón-Texcoco highway. Echevarría said that work will start in the next two months and the park will open in the second half of next year.
The second phase of the project will focus on the conversion of the airport site, the third will develop the northern Caracol area while the fourth will see the construction of sports and cultural infrastructure in a zone that borders the México state municipality of Nezahualcóyotl, the project chief explained.
In addition to restoring the lakes, artificial shores will be built to encourage native birds to nest.
At least 130 different types of vegetation that was stripped from the site before and during construction of the airport will also be reintroduced.
Once completed, the park will be one of the largest natural reserves in the world, Echevarría said, pointing out that it will be 20 times bigger than Mexico City’s Chapultepec Forest.
The park will help to prevent flooding in surrounding México state municipalities, reinvigorate native flora and fauna, mitigate air pollution and serve as an attraction for the more than 20 million people who live in the Mexico City metropolitan area.
Conagua estimated in March that the preliminary studies required for the project would cost 221 million pesos (US $11.5 million) but has not yet publicly revealed the total cost of developing the urban park.
The ninth edition of the International Wine Festival in San Luis Potosí promises to bring dozens of wine varieties close to the eager palates of wine enthusiasts.
Organizing committee president Alejandro Espinosa Abaroa says the fair expects to receive more than 5,000 visitors and see an economic spillover of between 4 million and 5 million pesos (US $208,000-$260,000) during its two-day run June 14 to 15 in the city’s Center for the Arts.
The event will host 500 wine labels from 180 different wineries from all over the world, including Spain, Argentina, Uruguay, France, Italy, South Africa, the United States and Chile, as well as many Mexican wineries, which will make up 40% of the total.
The festival has come of age in nine years; the first edition of the fair was attended by only 30 wineries.
In addition to wine tastings from 3:00-11:00pm on Friday and from 1:00pm-8:30pm on Saturday and wine and sommelier competitions, the festival will also feature a wide array of music, including a flamenco show with music and dancing, French folk music, Mexican rock and a DJ.
Festival-goers will also have the opportunity to sample local craft beer and local and national gastronomy. This year, chefs from the state of Michoacán were invited to showcase their regional cuisine.
“We try to raise awareness that this is not just a festival for [the state of] San Luis Potosí, but rather for the whole country. In nine years, we have had no mishaps. [This year] the Institute for Innovation and Gastronomy will hold a forum for students as well as a gastronomy competition, whose theme will be ‘the flavors of Mexico,’” Espinosa said.
He said visitors are expected from all over Mexico and that the city’s hotels have already filled up. A large number of international visitors is also anticipated.
“This is the most important wine event in all of Mexico. This year we are going to have visitors from Portugal, Argentina, Uruguay, France, Spain and Italy, and many other wine-producing countries around the world.”
Members of Tepalcayotl with fossils that have been discovered in Puebla.
Mammoth tusks, a camel skull and the fang of a giant wolf are among a range of Ice Age fossils recently discovered in Puebla.
Residents of Chietla, a neighborhood in the municipality of Puebla 45 minutes from the state capital’s city center, have discovered dozens of fossils near the Chiquihuitepec hill in the Alseseca river basin area.
The discoveries, which also include handmade weapons such as lances, are believed to belong to the late Pleistocene era, or Ice Age, which ended around 11,700 years ago.
The fossils were formally presented yesterday by the Tepalcayotl Association, a non-profit group dedicated to the conservation of ancient cultures and traditions.
Association secretary Héctor Aguilar Rosas said the discoveries have been made during the past one and a half years.
Remains of a mammoth that could be 14,000 years old.
“Different pieces continue to be found. Some residents have them at their homes. The truth is we don’t have a complete register of the finds,” he said.
However, many of the fossils have been transferred to a municipal government office for safekeeping, Aguilar said, adding that some of the remains are of a Columbian mammoth “that could have lived 14,000 years ago.”
He explained that some of the pieces, which also included ribs, vertebrae and teeth, have arrowhead indentations.
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Tepalcayotl president José Rosendo Muñoz Chetla said he will seek financial support from the National Institute of Anthropology and History as well as state and municipal authorities to build a new museum to house the fossils in the area where they were found.
Residents are also calling for the restoration of the Tepalcayotl archaeological area as well as pre-Hispanic settlements located near the Chiquihuitepec hill that are believed to have once been occupied by the Olmec and Chichimeca peoples.
Because as stated on your webpage you “strive for accuracy, balance and fairness in your coverage,” we believe it is important that you have the correct information related to your article. Although the article is based on information gathered from other sources, we will address the false statements that were published in your news outlet.
The United Against Human Trafficking Commission (Comisión Unidos Vs Trata), presided over by Rosi Orozco, since its inception in 2012 has been supported by private donations and does not depend on government funds in any way, nor has it recently received any direct or indirect awards from any government agency or ministry.
The use of properties seized from criminal organizations by the Mexican System of Administrative Allocation of Assets (SAE), arranged under authorized leasing contracts and maintenance commitments was, until the last few days, a legal use of property in Mexico.
NGOs that provide attention to victims rescued from violence and other crimes used this benefit to provide shelter, protection, security, privacy and well-being to the children under their care. It is fair to mention that Fundación Camino a Casa A.C., an organization that is not presided over by Rosi Orozco, took advantage of this benefit, but none of the contracts came under her signature or name.
Every citizen or NGO had a right to solicit these properties under their rules. The SAE published its rules and procedures in their web page. These properties were then leased as a means to produce income for the state.
With regard to the recent announcement of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador related to the decision made to auction all seized real estate and other goods, the new director of the recently created Institute to Return Stolen Goods to the People, recklessly mentioned, without having the full disclosure of information, that Rosi Orozco benefited personally from these properties.
Ricardo Rodríguez, head of the new institute, had to correct himself in a widely shared interview by the renowned journalist Adela Micha. Rosi Orozco, an activist for 14 years who has made a lifetime commitment dedicated to defend and protect children and teenagers rescued from sexual slavery, is in total agreement with President López Obrador concerning the eradication of corruption and the auctioning of all goods seized from criminals, because our organization has always made it clear that the fight against human trafficking is also an open war against organized crime that affects many criminal and political interests.
This being said, the only petition made by Rosi Orozco was to give the shelters enough time to find new facilities that provided the victims safety and well-being. It is important to clarify that our organization is perfectly structured. It is led by an executive board and works under strict accountability standards, the general assembly of members is advised by important philanthropic organizations such as Rotary International.
The executive board approves all budgets and projects. The United Against Human Trafficking Commission’s work has been recognized by different governments and supported by many people in different administrations. Our main achievements are helping to pass the Mexican human trafficking law to prevent, punish and eradicate this crime.
We also strive to provide long-term protection to victims. We have been able to successfully help more than 200 victims to heal and recover. We have a trajectory that has provided education, information and prevention programs to different institutions and communities, as well as training for law enforcement and those in charge of administering justice.
In recognition of this work, Rosi Orozco was honored with the Ignacio Manuel Altamirano Medal, an award given by the president of the High Court of Justice of Mexico City for social merit. Orozco, as well as the organization she presides over, the United Against Human Trafficking Commission, received this recognition from the mayor of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum.
The United Against Human Trafficking Commission holds consultative status in the United Nations Economic and Social Council and has actively participated in many national and international forums, conferences and UN initiatives, especially in the area of human rights in both New York and Geneva.
Journalists should dig further into the careers of those who have accused us of corruption, carefully reviewing their work, claims, the questionable statistics they provide and their true achievements as human trafficking activists.
Do they have any hard, reliable evidence to back up their accusations? The United Against Human Trafficking Commission has always strived to conduct its work with integrity, and will continue to keep the dignity and protection of victims at the forefront of its mission and work.
The writer is the legal representative of the United Against Human Trafficking Commission AC.
Santa María residents board a boat to reach their homes.
The federal government will spend 40 million pesos (US $2 million) to build a solar plant that will provide electricity to the community of Santa María del Mar, an indigenous Huave community in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, that has gone without electricity for the past nine years.
Community official Efraín Solano Alinarez said the community had signed an agreement to build the plant with representatives from the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples and the Federal Electricity Commission, the two federal agencies that will share its cost.
Santa María del Mar has been demanding access to electricity from the federal government since the inauguration of President López Obrador on December 1.
For almost 10 years, Santa María del Mar has been engaged in a bitter conflict with neighboring San Mateo del Mar, another Huave community, over access to 1,165 hectares of communal land claimed by both communities.
Near the start of the conflict, residents of San Mateo del Mar cut off the electricity supply to Santa María.
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They have also maintained a blockade on the only highway connecting Santa María to the rest of the state, forcing residents of the latter to travel by boat to reach their community. In 2017, three Santa María residents drowned when their launch overturned in Laguna Superior.
On June 19, 2018, a court issued a definitive ruling in favor of Santa María del Mar, but the conflict has continued, causing problems for Santa María in terms of access to education, health care and food.
Residents are also demanding the federal government build another road connecting them to the rest of the state, as well as a health clinic.
Communal landowners in Jalisco are once again protesting to demand “fair” compensation for land that the federal government expropriated almost 70 years ago to build the Guadalajara International Airport.
The El Zapote ejidatarios have protested inside the Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla airport in recent days and maintained a carpark sit-in.
The government expropriated 307 hectares of land for the airport in 1951 although an expropriation decree wasn’t published until 1975.
El Zapote landowners claim they were never adequately compensated for the expropriated land and have maintained that they are still the rightful owners.
Over the years, the ejidatarios have staged scores of protests to pressure the Secretariat of Communications and Transportation to pay them what they say they are owed.
Nicolás Vega Pedroza, a representative for the ejido of El Zapote, told the newspaper El Economista that the current protest is not only to demand payment but also to express opposition to a decision by a federal court in January to appoint Jorge Morett Ramírez as the government appraiser.
Vega accused Morett of wrongfully reducing the amount owed to the landowners.
He said the appraiser valued the land at 1.317 billion pesos (US $68.7 million) but indicated that 600 million pesos must be deducted from that figure because it has already been paid, an assertion that the landowners reject.
They also charge that Morret’s valuation significantly underestimates the true value of the land.
According to appraisals paid for by the landowners, the land is worth more than 3.2 billion pesos (US $166.9 million). The ejidatarios also want an additional 947 million pesos in damages.
“The ejido is willing to negotiate, but something fair,” Vega said.
