A family in Tabasco has made an unusual discovery beneath their home – while drilling for water, they struck oil.
Members of the Hernández family told the news agency EFE that they were drilling a well inside their home in Belén, a town in the municipality of Macuspana, when instead of water they came across black gold.
“. . . First water started to shoot up, then mud and later oil came out,” Óscar Hernández said.
Manuel Silvan, a blacksmith and neighbor of the Hernández family, confirmed the story, explaining that he had been promised free drinking water.
“The gentleman told us that he was going to install a little well . . . he was going to give us water,” he said.
After the discovery, Civil Protection personnel and soldiers cordoned off the home while technicians from Pemex carried out an investigation.
Forty families in the Fortuna Nacional neighborhood of Belén were evacuated yesterday due to the danger of an explosion.
Macuspana Civil Protection inspector Luis Pereyra said that Pemex personnel believed that the oil either came from an old pipeline or from a petroleum reserve located beneath the family’s home.
Tabasco Governor Adán López told reporters that there is no record of a petroleum pipeline in the area but declined to rule out the possibility that there was one.
EFE reported that authorities are investigating the possibility that the discovery of the oil was in fact a concerted effort to tap a petroleum pipeline and sell the fuel on the black market.
Customers of Santander no longer need a debit card to withdraw funds from an ATM.
The bank has introduced a new mobile app that allows users to access their bank accounts without the hassle of inserting a debit card into a cash machine, joining the ranks of Bancomer — which introduced a similar feature in 2017 — and other banks around the world.
Santander representatives explained that with the push of a few buttons on a smart phone screen, users will receive a reference number and password, which they will then be able to type in to an ATM to access their bank account, adding a measure of personalized security.
The bank said the service can be used at any of its 8,700 ATMs throughout Mexico, each of which have been updated to include a special button to access the feature, in conjunction with the Santander SuperMóvil app, granting customers the ability to make as many transactions as desired up to a daily limit of 5,000 pesos (US $257).
Representatives highlighted that there is no extra charge to use the card-less feature and that so far, over 64,000 customers have used the new service.
Alhough the feature is relatively new in Mexico, card-less apps have been been available in other countries, such as the United States and much of Europe, for several years.
The federal government and that of Durango are exploring the possibility of constructing a rail line that would connect Durango city to the port of Mazatlán, Sinaloa.
Speaking at his morning press conference on Friday, President López Obrador said Durango Governor José Rosas Aispuro had requested federal support for the project.
“He spoke to me about expanding and better connecting the port of Mazatlán,” said López Obrador. “Even though it’s in Sinaloa, he says that the development of the port is very important for the development of Durango, and the possibility of a Durango-Mazatlán rail line.”
The president also said he had spoken with Governor Aispuro about water projects, including an aqueduct to carry water to the Laguna region in eastern Durango, and the construction of a second dam on the Tunal river to supply water to Durango city.
“I want to make a promise: we are going to build an aqueduct to bring water to the Laguna,” he said. “I will make a commitment to that because, of all the demands, I think that one is the most important, the most urgent, because it has to do with health.”
He noted that improving water infrastructure in the Laguna is important because the water consumed by Laguna residents has high levels of arsenic.
“The aquifers of the Laguna are being overexploited,” he said. “And the reality is, there is pollution, the water is contaminated with arsenic. We can’t fix this problem with arsenic treatment plants.”
The president also reaffirmed his commitment to cancel a Metrobús project in the Laguna region.
“My position is that we can’t do projects that are against the will of the people,” he said. “Nothing can be done by force, and that project is very unpopular.”
The president conducted an opinion poll on the project by asking for a show of hands at a meeting in Torreón in June. The vast majority of those present at the meeting, held to dish out social program funds, were against it.
Bus drivers in the state of México announced that they will form self-defense groups to protect themselves from criminals who target public transportation in the Mexico City metropolitan area.
Axel García Aguilera, the president of the Izgasa transportation company and a representative of the Autonomous Drivers’ Alliance (AAA) in México state, said state and municipal police have failed to address the problem of crime on public transportation because they are infiltrated by organized crime.
“Yes, we are planning to create self-defense groups, and not just for transportation, but citizen self-defense groups,” he said.
A year and a half ago, the AAA gave the state government a Risk Atlas showing the neighborhoods where organized crime operates, as well as documentation of the murders of 10 bus drivers and nine transportation union representatives by organized crime. But García says the government has not taken any action.
According to statistics gathered by the alliance, over 1,000 crimes take place on public transportation every day, but most are not reported because victims don’t trust the police or they see filing a report as a waste of time.
García explained that extortion gangs put colored stickers on buses to mark which drivers have paid protection fees, which run between 3,000 and 5,000 pesos per vehicle (US $154 to $257). Failing to pay fees has resulted in vehicles being burned and drivers being beaten and even killed.
In his morning press conference on Thursday, President López Obrador said the National Guard could be deployed to México state to help monitor public transportation.
México state authorities say the Jalisco New Generation Cartel is involved in the extortion racket.
Gridlock on the Mexico City-Puebla highway during a 12-hour blockade on Thursday.
President López Obrador declared today that he won’t be an “accomplice” to the corruption of farmers’ groups, which he claims have misappropriated government funding rather than distribute it to farmers.
“Little by little they have to understand that all the support for the countryside will be delivered directly to the beneficiaries, we’re not going to take a backward step. I won’t be an accomplice to the corrupt,” López Obrador told reporters at his morning press conference, held today in Durango.
The president said that farmers’ groups received 10 billion pesos (US $515 million) in government funding during the past three years but “instead of handing over the complete support [to farmers], they bought groceries and divvied them up.”
“They kept most of the resources,” López Obrador charged.
Later this morning, the general secretary of the Coduc farmers’ group accused the president of lying.
Marco Antonio Ortiz said in an interview that representatives of farmers’ groups went to the federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) to ask what evidence there is to show that public money has been stolen.
If there is no evidence, he said, the president should offer an apology.
“The delivery of money to farmers is proven, we have a file for all the support that was delivered to colleagues in the entire country,” Ortiz said.
Álvaro López Ríos, leader of the National Union of Agricultural Workers, conceded that some money had been stolen but said that it was unfair to label all famers’ groups as corrupt.
“. . . We think that it’s over the top for the president to treat us all as thieves . . . when both he and we know who did it, including people who are close to him today,” he said without specifying who was responsible for stealing public resources.
The union leader rejected the president’s claim that the purpose of this week’s protests was to demand that agricultural sector funding go to farmers’ groups rather than directly to farmers.
‘We’re not all thieves,’ said López Ríos, who accused the president of lying.
“We’re not asking for them to give us the money, he’s lying. What we’re asking for is for spaces for dialogue to be opened in order to build consensus in relation to public policies directed at the countryside,” López said.
Four farmers groups affiliated with the Authentic Front of the Countryside staged nationwide protests Wednesday and Thursday, and are continuing to protest today in some parts of the country.
In addition to calling for dialogue, the groups are demanding more resources for the agricultural sector, greater transparency in the delivery of funding and the repeal of the so-called ley garrote, or club law, that was passed by the Tabasco Congress last month and which sets harsh punishments for protests that block access to businesses and highways or obstruct public works projects.
Farmers yesterday blocked highways across the country, although blockades in Tabasco, Morelos, Tamaulipas, Puebla and Guerrero were lifted in the mid-to-late afternoon.
However, protests are continuing today in Mexico City and on highways between the capital and both Querétaro and Cuernavaca.
A report in the newspaper La Razón said that farmers were protesting this morning outside the federal Senate and the Mexican Stock Exchange, both of which are located on Reforma avenue in Mexico City. Another protest was held outside the Interior Secretariat on Bucareli avenue. Traffic on both roads was affected.
Motorists using the Mexico City-Querétaro highway reported hours-long delays due to the presence of protesting farmers, while traffic on the Mexico City-Cuernavaca highway was affected by a protest at a dangerous curve known as La Pera.
The conflict in Michoacán between the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and the Los Viagras crime gang gained greater infamy this week with the discovery of 19 bodies in Uruapan.
The CJNG has been identified by both Mexican and United States authorities as the most powerful and dangerous criminal organization in the country, and its leader, Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, is one of the most wanted men on the planet.
And he and his gang are going up against Los Viagras, what Michoacán Governor Silvano Aureoles described in 2017 as “the most bloodthirsty and dangerous” criminal group operating in the state.
A turf war between the two groups was always going to be a bloody affair. This year the violence has become even worse.
Ten people were killed in a shootout between the CJNG and Los Viagras in Uruapan in May, a series of confrontations between the two warring cartels left at least nine people dead on a single day in June and yesterday citizens and authorities alike were given a grisly reminder of the conflict with the appearance of nine bodies hanging from an overpass and the discovery at two locations of 10 more bodies, many of which had been mutilated.
The CJNG claimed responsibility for killing the 19 people in a message left with the bodies that in part read: “Kind people, go on with your routine. Be patriotic, and kill a Viagra.”
But who exactly are Los Viagras?
Originating from Huetamo, a Michoacán municipality in the state’s Tierra Caliente region, Los Viagras was established by the seven Sierra Santana brothers under the leadership of Nicolás Sierra Santana, who is also known as “El Gordo.”
The gang began operating as a self-defense force in 2014 and was asked by former Michoacán security commissioner Alfredo Castillo Cervantes to assist in the efforts to locate and capture the leader of the Los Caballeros Templarios cartel, Servando “La Tuta” Gómez, who was arrested in Morelia in February 2015.
But Los Viagras later morphed into a drug gang, first by becoming involved in the production and transportation of methamphetamine, a move that brought it into direct competition and confrontation with the CJNG, especially in Michoacán’s Tierra Caliente region.
However, according to some media reports, the bitter rivalry between the two groups stems from El Gordo’s belief that authorities in Michoacán were providing protection for the CJNG and its leader, “El Mencho.”
Governor Aureoles: ‘a dangerous gang.’
The former’s disdain for the latter reportedly intensified further when in 2017 his brother, Carlos Sierra Santana, was murdered, allegedly on the orders of Oseguera Cervantes.
In addition to gaining infamy as a result of its clashes with the CJNG, Los Viagras – which now operates as a branch of the Nueva Familia Michoacana cartel – is notorious for setting up narco-blockades to retaliate against the capture of its members and to hinder security force operations against it.
While the war between Los Viagras and the CJNG has led to a surge in violence in Michoacán, the Jalisco cartel is also engaged in bloody conflicts with criminal groups in other states such as the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel in Guanajuato and Los Zetas in Veracruz.
“Unfortunately, we’re seeing that violence is getting worse in a large part of the country because of this group [the CJNG],” said Doria Vélez, a researcher at the National Citizens’ Observatory, a crime watch group.
“It’s happening because the authorities haven’t created public policies to solve the problem,” she added.
With regard to Michoacán, Vélez told the newspaper La Razón that the CJNG and Los Viagras are fighting for control of the crystal meth trade, which in addition to being produced domestically also enters the country at Pacific coast ports from countries such as China.
“Unfortunately, in Michoacán history is starting to repeat,” she said, referring to the cartel violence in the state that led former president Felipe Calderón to initiate the so-called war on drugs there shortly after he took office in December 2006.
“. . . Michoacán is a strategic area for the transport of a lot of [illicit] products via the port of Lázaro Cárdenas so what we’ve seen since 2006 is that . . . it is [part of] criminal groups’ operating range.”
San Miguel de Allende has seen 72 homicides this year, according to a local organization.
Cantinas in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, are closing down because of extortion by crime gangs.
Bar owners who spoke to the newspaper El Universal on the condition of anonymity say that suitcases filled with marijuana and cocaine were left in their premises three weeks ago, accompanied by notes saying they had between 22 days and a month to sell the drugs.
The owners preferred to throw the drugs away and close their bars before the deadline. At least five located in the historic center of San Miguel have closed down because of the threats, leaving at least 80 people without jobs.
The owners also said they did not report the extortion to the authorities because of fear of retaliation similar to that which took place earlier this month in the nearby city of Celaya. On August 5, after Celaya business owners staged a demonstration to protest extortion, businesses were attacked and four people were killed.
Violence has been on the rise in San Miguel de Allende, a city that was chosen by Travel & Leisure magazine as the top travel destination in the western hemisphere in 2019.
The NGO Semáforo Delictivo registered 49 homicides in the municipality in the first six months of the year, compared to 15 in the same period last year. And according to federal statistics, high-impact crimes like residential burglary have gone up 36%.
According to the organization More Security in San Miguel de Allende, there have been 72 murders in the city this year, and the rise in crime is related to the federal government’s crackdown on fuel theft in the state.
A lack of public policy coherence is undermining investor confidence and will hold back economic prospects through mid-to-late 2020, the ratings agency Moody’s says in a new report.
Entitled Hesitant Investment, higher costs and trade tensions undermine Mexico’s growth prospects, the report said that concern about the government’s economic policy direction has lessened investors’ appetite to invest in the country.
“We forecast that Mexico’s real GDP growth will slow to 1.2% in 2019 and 1.5% in 2020, down from 2% in 2018, amid persistently weak private investment and a tight fiscal stance,” said Moody’s assistant vice president Sandra Beltran.
“Anxiety over economic policy has dampened investor sentiment and gross fixed investment remains relatively stable but has weakened, particularly for foreign direct investment,” she added.
The report said that higher wages will pose credit risks for a number of Mexican companies through 2020 and beyond and that environmental, social and governance risks will also increase.
“New laws granting greater freedom of association and collective-bargaining power to unions would further increase cost risks in labor-intensive industries such as automotive and mining,” Moody’s said.
Further threats to companies operating in Mexico that will also dissuade new investment include higher electricity costs, trade tensions and weaker domestic consumption.
“Exporters may face stress from trade uncertainties . . .” the report said.
Moody’s also cited the August Bank of México survey, which showed that 72% of private sector financial experts who were consulted by the central bank believe that it is currently a bad time to invest in Mexico.
Moody’s assessment of Mexico’s sovereign rating is currently at investment grade A3, higher than the other two major ratings agencies.
Standstill traffic in Guadalajara helped revive a 2018 viral dance phenomenon when frustrated drivers got out of their vehicles to blow off steam and dance to the beat of La Chona on the weekend.
Daniel Cárdenas, who recorded a video of the festive scene that went viral yesterday on social media, told the newspaper El Universal that the dancing began when drivers encountered gridlock on Guadalajara highway. When a nearby van began playing music Cárdenas and his companions began to dance in the back seat of their vehicle.
The occupants of the van then put a speaker on the roof and that kicked things off.
“We would move two meters and then stay stopped for five minutes, so we made the most of it by getting out and dancing. Many others came over to join us, and we were all [dancing] for about 45 minutes or so.”
The video shows men, women and children singing and dancing at the impromptu fiesta.
#Video 📹 Conductores tapatíos decidieron disminuir el estrés ocasionado por el tráfico y salen de sus autos para bailar al ritmo de la “La Chona” pic.twitter.com/Hv9qq2rIBt
Eventually, traffic began to flow normally once again and the merrymakers waltzed back to their vehicles.
It was not the first time that La Chona, a 1995 hit by the norteña band Los Tucanes de Tijuana, has been used to accompany spontaneous dancing on the road. Last year, the song was part of a viral internet challenge that involved motorists jumping out of their moving cars while singing or miming the lyrics to the song.
The Oaxaca local of the CNTE teachers’ union has announced that it will implement an alternative education plan in the state that eliminates English language instruction.
Section 22 leader Eloy López Hernández and spokesman Wilbert Santiago explained that the CNTE’s curriculum stipulates the teaching of indigenous languages rather than English and puts an end to teachers’ grading of students, who will instead evaluate their own educational progress and that of their peers.
The plan also proposes that two teachers work with each class – one who provides academic instruction and another who teaches extracurricular courses.
López and Santiago said that copies of the CNTE curriculum will be distributed to 13,500 public schools in all 570 municipalities in Oaxaca.
Santiago said that schools in Oaxaca will take delivery of the official texts developed and distributed by the National Commission of Free Textbooks but their use won’t be a priority.
“We’ll distribute our own materials in photocopies . . .” he said.
“We didn’t take or regain control of [teaching] positions . . .We’ve demanded that the state have responsibility,” he said.
López said the CNTE will be watchful of the processes used to allocate those positions and that the union meets regularly with Oaxaca and federal education authorities but said “that doesn’t mean having control.”
