Developer fined 40 million pesos for removing trees in Mexico City

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June 1, 2019

One of 80 stumps in Mexico City's Xoco neighborhood.

The developers of the Mítikah luxury apartment tower in Mexico City have been fined 40.8 million pesos (US $2 million) for cutting down 80 trees on one of most picturesque boulevards in Mexico City’s Xoco neighborhood.

The Mexico City Environment Secretariat (Sedema) said Friday that Fibra Uno, the company responsible for the 80-year-old trees’ removal on Real de Mayorazgo, was unable to present permits authorizing the cutting.

Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum dismissed the company’s claims that it had received a temporary environmental impact permit from the previous government, asserting that the company had ignored the fact that the permit also required authorization by the secretariats of Mobility and Security, which were not sought before Fibra Uno proceeded.

In an interview with the newspaper Reforma, former Sedema chief Tanya Müller said that an inter-institutional committee made up of different government agencies had indeed issued an environmental impact permit to Fibra Uno with the understanding that the developer would eventually donate part of the development for the construction of tree-lined public sidewalks.

The construction project, which began in 2008, was originally slated for completion at the end of this year.

Many of the luxury tower’s apartments are already available for sale online, some of which are listed for as much as 25 million pesos (US $1.3 million).

Despite the government’s fine for cutting down trees and the consistent and voluble complaints of residents whose concerns included everything from a dwindling water supply and pollution to apprehensions about traffic overload on the neighborhood’s streets, the project will continue on schedule and apparently meets with all other required authorizations.

Source: Animal Político (sp), El Financiero (sp)

US agents will seek to slow migrant flows into Mexico: report

By

Simon Schatzberg

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June 1, 2019

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Huehuetenango, Guatemala, focus of efforts by US agents.

The United States is sending agents to the Mexico-Guatemala border to attempt to stem migration flows from Central America to the United States, according to a report by The Washington Post.

The plan follows an agreement between the governments of U.S. President Donald Trump and Guatemala President Jimmy Morales, the report said.

An unnamed source said the 80 personnel will act as advisers to Guatemalan security forces to break up human smuggling networks.

Acting Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kevin McAleenan was in Guatemala last week to meet with government representatives from the Northern Triangle region, which also includes Honduras and El Salvador. On Tuesday, he signed an agreement with the Guatemalan interior minister on security cooperation.

“Through our continued collaboration and partnership, the U.S. and Guatemala are formalizing a number of initiatives to improve the lives and security of our respective citizens by combating human trafficking and the smuggling of illegal goods,” said McAleenan.

A DHS press release stated that “areas of cooperation include increasing the security of the Guatemalan border to stem the flow of illegal migration.”

The release did not mention the deployment of U.S. agents to Guatemala.

According to sources who spoke with The Washington Post, the operation will be focused on Huehuetenango in the western highlands of Guatemala, which borders the Mexican state of Chiapas.

Huehuetenango has some of the highest emigration levels in Guatemala. DHS officials say that the region has lost 3% of its population to U.S.-bound emigration in the past seven years.

Since October, more than 400,000 migrants have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border without documents.

Source: Milenio (sp), The Washington Post (en)

US arrests nearly 200,000 undocumented migrants in 2 months

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MND Staff

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June 1, 2019

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Rafts ferry migrants across the Suchiate river at the Mexico-Guatemala border.

Almost 200,000 undocumented migrants were arrested in March and April after crossing the Mexico-United States border between ports of entry, according to U.S. statistics.

United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said its officers detained 98,977 people in April and 92,831 in March for a total of 191,808 arrests.

In addition, 21,055 people who presented themselves at ports of entry in the two-month period were deemed inadmissible, CBP said.

Of the migrants arrested in March and April, 17,870 – or just over 9% – were unaccompanied minors, 111,679 – 58% – were members of a family unit and 62,259 – 32% – were single adults.

The total number of migrants who were either apprehended or deemed admissible at the border in April was up 79% compared to October, the month in which a series of migrant caravans began entering Mexico at the southern border.

CBP data shows that border apprehensions increased by nearly 40% in February compared to January, and by 39% in March. A 6.6% month-over-month increase was recorded in April.

The influx of undocumented migrants prompted the White House to ask Congress for US $4.5 billion in emergency funds at the start of May in order to cover humanitarian assistance and bolster security at the border, while on Thursday President Donald Trump announced that he will impose a new 5% tariff on Mexican imports to pressure the country to do more to stop the flow of migrants into the U.S.

After taking office in December, the Mexican government initially adopted a permissive approach to dealing with the tens of thousands of migrants who flowed into the country via the porous southern border.

In January, the National Immigration Institute (INM) issued around 13,000 humanitarian visas to migrants, allowing them to work in Mexico and access services for a period of 12 months.

The visas also allowed migrants to travel legally to the northern border to apply for asylum in the United States, an option that most chose to take up.

Migrant activist Solalinde claims migrant caravans are funded by political interests.

In February, the INM issued a few thousand additional humanitarian issues but the program then abruptly stopped.

Immigration sources told Reuters in April that near-daily pressure from the United States government had resulted in the secretariats of the Interior and Foreign Affairs pushing the INM to adopt a tougher approach towards migrants.

Arrests and deportations have both increased in recent months but with unauthorized entries into the United States rising rather than falling, Mexico’s efforts have failed to appease Trump, who said that his proposed incremental tariffs on all Mexican goods will not be removed unless “the illegal migration crisis is alleviated through effective actions taken by Mexico.”

Mexican authorities say they have detained 74,000 undocumented migrants since December 1, of whom 53,000 have been deported.

President López Obrador dispatched Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard to Washington yesterday to try to reach an agreement to stop the implementation of the tariffs.

Speaking yesterday at an international forum on migrants, refugees and human rights in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Catholic priest and migrants’ advocate Alejandro Solalinde claimed that Trump’s tariffs were designed to fund the U.S. president’s long-promised border wall even though American importers rather than Mexican exporters will pay them.

He also suggested that migrant caravans were funded by political interests, airing the conspiracy theory that prominent Democrat donor, businessman and philanthropist George Soros financed the exodus of Central Americans from countries including Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.

Source: UPI (en), Reforma (sp), Milenio (sp)

Guerrero farmers detain soldiers, police to demand delivery of fertilizer

By

Simon Schatzberg

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June 1, 2019

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Soldiers and police have been held captive by farmers in Guerrero since Friday.

Some 400 farmers have detained soldiers and police officers in the municipality of Heliodoro Castillo, Guerrero, demanding the government honor an agreement to distribute free fertilizer.

The unarmed farmers arrived in pickup trucks at a military barracks in the town of Puerto de Gallo yesterday, blocking access points and trapping 30 soldiers and 20 state police officers inside.

The farmers, who live in 27 communities in Heliodoro Castillo and San Miguel Totolapan, are demanding a meeting with the federal government’s Guerrero delegate, and said they won’t release the soldiers until their demands are met.

The group came prepared for a long standoff, having stocked up with on food, blankets and firewood.

Guerrero Governor Héctor Astudillo Flores spoke to a representative of the group by telephone, and agreed to meet with them on Saturday in Acapulco.

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One of the farmers told La Jornada that President López Obrador had promised to distribute free fertilizer to farmers in the area, but the government has not followed through on that promise.

“They haven’t kept their promise,” said Tomás García Sánchez, “and that’s why there’s discontent in these 27 communities. We need the fertilizer now because in some places our crops are already growing, but no matter how fertile the ground is our crops won’t grow.”

Farmers say the delivery of the fertilizer is urgent because the rainy season has started, and they may miss their chance to plant.

García said that if their demands are not met, the group is ready to take action to put more pressure on the government.

“We’ll go to Chilpancingo, we’ll block highways, we’ll take over toll booths, we’ll even take over their offices,” he threatened.

Another group of farmers detained about 50 soldiers on April 11 in the nearby town of Campo Morado after the soldiers fumigated opium poppies and fruit trees.

Many people in Heliodoro Castillo rely on growing opium poppies for income, but a decline in the price of opium over the past few years is pushing them to look for other options.

Source: El Sol de México (sp), El Financiero (sp), La Jornada (sp)

Trump’s migration tariff hits stocks, oil and peso; puts trade deal at risk

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MND Staff

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June 1, 2019

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Foreign Secretary Ebrard was in Washington yesterday to meet with US officials.

President Donald Trump’s announcement that he will impose a 5% tariff on all Mexican imports this month to pressure the country to curb migration flows to the United States hit stocks, oil, the peso and economic growth forecasts yesterday, and could put the new North American trade deal at risk.

The Mexican Stock Exchange fell 1.38% Friday, Mexican crude prices dipped 3% to US $56.57 per barrel and the peso lost more than 3% against the dollar before strengthening slightly to trade at just under 20 to the greenback.

Bank of México Governor Alejandro Díaz de León said the tariffs will generate volatility in the exchange rate and could have an impact on both inflation and economic growth, while analysts at oil broker PVM said they will affect the lucrative cross-border energy trade.

“U.S. refiners import roughly 680,000 barrels per day of Mexican crude. The 5% tariff adds an extra $2 million to the cost of their daily purchases,” they said.

The Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq indexes in the United States also lost ground yesterday as did stock markets in Japan and Europe, mainly because the value of shares of large auto makers and parts suppliers fell on news of Trump’s tariff.

Many companies, auto makers among them, moved to Mexico from China last year after trade tensions between the latter country and the United States flared.

However, the viability of Mexico as a refuge from United States protectionism is now at risk.

The U.S. president said Thursday that the universal 5% tariff on Mexican goods will start on June 10 and increase by an additional 5% at the start of each subsequent month to a maximum of 25% if Mexico doesn’t take “action to dramatically reduce or eliminate the number of illegal aliens crossing its territory into the United States.”

Experts warned that the new tariffs will damage the economy on both sides of the border and that Mexico could introduce its own retaliatory tariffs, although President López Obrador said in a letter to Trump that he doesn’t want confrontation and doesn’t believe in “a tooth for a tooth” and “an eye for an eye.”

In the United States, the governors of Texas and New Mexico both voiced their opposition to Trump’s plan, warning that their economies would take a significant hit.

“I’ve previously stated my opposition to tariffs due to the harm it would inflict on the Texas economy, and I remain opposed today,” Greg Abbott of Texas said.

New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham said that the tariff on imports has the “potential to be economically catastrophic” for the state.

She called on Trump to retract his proposal, warning that tens of thousands of jobs were at stake.

Goldman Sachs said that if the tariffs take effect as planned it is less likely that the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) will be ratified before 2020 elections in the U.S, while Fitch Ratings also warned that the approval process could be delayed.

However, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told reporters that implementation of the new tariff won’t affect the ratification process.

“The two are absolutely not linked,” he said. “These are not tariffs as part of a trade dispute. These are tariffs as part of an immigration problem.”

The White House sent a draft statement to Congress on Thursday that would allow Trump to submit the USMCA for ratification after 30 days, and United States Vice President Mike Pence said Thursday that he was pushing to get the trade deal approved this summer.

The Mexican Senate began examination of the trade pact yesterday and López Obrador has urged its ratification, while Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said that Canada is pressing ahead to ratify the deal despite its trade partners’ “bilateral issue.”

But even if ratification of the USMCA proceeds relatively unhindered, the Mexican economy appears poised to take a hit as the tariffs will affect exports to the United States worth close to US $1 billion a day.

BBVA Bancomer cut its 2019 growth forecast to 1% from 1.4% hours after Trump’s announcement, stating that the “tariff threat changes the outlook for monetary policy.”

Fitch also warned that the tariffs would “disrupt Mexico’s economic growth,” noting that there are already signs of a slowdown.

To present Mexico’s case against Trump’s new hard-nosed strategy, Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard traveled to Washington yesterday and is scheduled to meet with United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday.

“. . . There is a willingness for dialogue. We will be firm and we will defend the dignity of Mexico,” Ebrard said on Twitter.

The foreign secretary declared yesterday that migration flows from Central America to the United States is “not the responsibility of Mexico” but López Obrador said that Ebrard will present data to U.S. officials that demonstrate the government’s efforts to control migration into and through the country.

President López Obrador said today that Mexico has a plan to avoid economic damage should the tariffs proceed to prevent “. . . further impoverishment of the people . . .”

“. . . we are going to transform Mexico into a powerhouse” even if the tariffs are applied, he said.

Source: Milenio (sp)

In some municipalities development comparable to European countries

By

MND Staff

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May 31, 2019

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The United Kingdom is comparable to Mexico City's Miguel Hidalgo in terms of human development. — The United Kingdom (London is pictured) is comparable to Mexico City's Miguel Hidalgo in terms of human development.

Human development in some Mexican municipalities is comparable to that in European countries, a new United Nations report shows.

At the top of the list are the Mexico City boroughs of Benito Juárez and Miguel Hidalgo, where development is virtually on a par with Switzerland and the United Kingdom respectively.

Published yesterday by the Mexico office of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the report reveals that the first of the two boroughs achieved a score of 0.944 on the UN Human Development Index (HDI), placing it just above Switzerland’s 0.942.

Miguel Hidalgo, home to the capital’s affluent Polanco district, has an HDI score of 0.917, which is only fractionally below the UK’s 0.918.

The HDI is a summary measure of average achievement in key dimensions of human development including life expectancy, education and per-capita income. The closer the score is to one, the higher the level of development.

Chochoapa el Grande is on a par with Burundi.

The Mexico data contained in the report comes from national statistics agency Inegi.

San Pedro Garza García, a municipality in the metropolitan area of the Nuevo León capital Monterrey, achieved an HDI score of 0.901, placing it on a par with France.

The Mexico City boroughs of Coyoacán and Cuauhtémoc came next, with HDI scores comparable to those in Italy and Malta respectively.

Rounding out the top 10 municipalities in the country were San Sebastián Tutla, Oaxaca — comparable to Cyprus; Corregidora, Querétaro — Poland; Iztacalco, Mexico City — Andorra; San Nicolás de los Garza, Nuevo León —Andorra; and Azcapotzalco, Mexico City — Saudi Arabia.

At the other end of the scale, Cochoapa el Grande, a municipality in the Montaña region of Guerrero, has an HDI score of just 0.420, placing it on a par with Burundi.

The landlocked central African country ranks 185thout of 189 countries on the United Nations HDI, ahead of only Chad, South Sudan, Central African Republic and Niger.

According to a 2017 report by the social development agency Coneval, nearly 90% of residents in Cochoapa el Grande live in extreme poverty.

The next most disadvantaged municipality in Mexico is San Martín Peras, Oaxaca, where the HDI of 0.425 is just above Burkina Faso’s 0.423.

The municipalities with the next lowest HDI scores are: Batopilas, Chihuahua — comparable to Liberia; Santos Reyes Yucuná, Oaxaca — Mozambique; Coicoyán de las Flores, Oaxaca — Eritrea; San Simón Zahuatlán, Oaxaca — Yemen; Mezquitic, Jalisco — Gambia; Mitontic, Chiapas — Ethiopia; Chalchihuitán, Chiapas — Ethiopia; and Mixtla de Altamirano, Veracruz — Djibouti.

The UNDP said that to decrease inequality across Mexico authorities need to increase funding for municipal projects and improve transparency in the distribution of those resources.

Improvements in terms of human development in municipalities located in states such as Oaxaca, Chiapas and Guerrero have been slow because public resources are limited and not used efficiently, the UNDP added.

As a nation, Mexico ranks 74th on the UN HDI, one spot below Cuba and one above Grenada.

With an HDI score of 0.774, a life expectancy of 77.3 years, 13.1 expected years of school and an average per-capita income of US $16,944, Mexico ranks as a country with high human development.

Norway, Switzerland and Australia are the top three and are ranked very high, according to the most recent United Nations global report.

Source: El Financiero (sp)

Yucatán announces 2.2 billion pesos in infrastructure spending

By

Simon Schatzberg

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May 31, 2019

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The cultural center in Progreso will be renovated to provide an exhibition space and a museum.

Yucatán Governor Mauricio Vila Dosal has announced that the state will invest 2.2 billion pesos (US $112 million) to improve infrastructure.

At a construction expo organized by the Mexican Chamber of the Construction Industry, Vila said that the largest portion of the money will go toward housing for the state’s poorest residents.

“We came to an agreement with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to fight extreme poverty,” he said. “That’s why a billion of the 2.2 billion pesos will go toward housing.”

The money will be used to construct new housing units, as well as improve existing ones and build modern sanitation facilities in areas where they don’t exist.

Another 35 million pesos will be used to build a highway connecting Mérida to the neighboring municipality of Umán, which is home to several Mexican and foreign factories.

The Yucatán 21^st Century Convention Center will be renovated with an investment of 200 million pesos, while 177 million pesos will go towards renovating public schools across the state.

Other projects will improving urban infrastructure in Mérida and Progreso, and dredge the ports of Yucalpetén, Dzilam Bravo, Chabihau and Telchac Puerto.

In addition to the investment by the state government, the federal Communications and Transportation Secretariat is spending 550 million pesos this year to improve highway infrastructure in Yucatán.

Source: El Financiero (sp), El Diario de Yucatán (sp)

Heavy rain turns streets into rivers in San Luis Potosí

By

César Hernández

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May 31, 2019

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Heavy rain caused flash flooding in Matehuala, San Luis Potosí, yesterday evening, damaging some 300 vehicles and sweeping away about 50 of them.

Rain began falling at 7:00pm yesterday and subsequent floodwaters were enough to almost cover vehicles and currents were strong enough to carry them away.

About 40 stores were also affected.

Officials said there were no casualties.

There was also heavy rain yesterday in Morelia, Michoacán. Minor flooding and power outages were reported.

Causa tromba afectaciones en SLP

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The rainy season is in full swing throughout the country. The National Water Commission has forecast torrential storms for areas in the states of Oaxaca and Chiapas and intense storms are expected in Guerrero, Veracruz and Tabasco, where there is a risk of mudslides.

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

Daily minimum salary of 249 pesos proposed for domestic workers

By

MND Staff

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May 31, 2019

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December approval expected for new wage level for domestic workers.

The National Minimum Wage Commission (Conasami) has proposed setting the daily minimum salary for domestic workers at 249 pesos (US $12.70).

Commission president Andrés Peñaloza Méndez said that a Conasami study estimated that 90% of employers have the financial capacity to pay the wage proposed.

The rate is more than double the national minimum wage, which increased by 16% to 103 pesos on January 1.

Peñaloza predicted that the pay increase will be approved in December, adding that Conasami will hold talks with the relevant government agencies to ensure the new wage scheme is implemented effectively.

Just over 1.4 million domestic workers, most of whom are impoverished women, are expected to benefit.

According to Consami, almost 40% of people employed in homes in urban areas earn a monthly wage below 3,104 pesos (US $160), an amount which social development agency Coneval says is the minimum required for a person to be able to afford to pay basic expenses.

Peñaloza also said that Conasami will explore the possibility of offering a range of other incentives to domestic workers including tax breaks.

Statistics showed that almost 97% of household employees didn’t have access to social security benefits in the first quarter of 2019 but that is expected to change as the Senate approved new labor legislation earlier this month.

The legislation guarantees basic employment rights to domestic workers including a minimum wage, paid vacations, social security benefits, health care, annual bonuses and maternity leave.

Under the law, anyone who employs a cleaner, cook, live-in maid, babysitter or gardener in their home must formalize the relationship with a written contract.

Source: El Economista (sp)

Barking up the wrong tree on illegal immigration: leave Mexico alone

By

Carlisle Johnson

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May 31, 2019

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Nentón, Guatemala, where 1,000 migrants have been reported crossing the Mexican border every day.

When Washington scolds or threatens Mexico for its failure to halt illegal migrants, it chooses the wrong target. The target should be far tinier and less strategically, economically or politically important Guatemala.

Geography 101: To get to Mexico, emigrants from Honduras and El Salvador must cross Guatemala, which crosses the Central American isthmus from sea to sea. While it is legal for Hondurans and Salvadorans to enter Guatemala it is not legal to depart clandestinely for Mexico without completing emigration requirements.

Yet thousands do each day on foot by wading or rafting, often in plain sight of Guatemalan authorities. This exodus used to be mostly confined to Tapachula in the far southwestern corner of Chiapas but as Mexico turns up the heat on illegal immigrants the flow has spread eastward.

One source quoted by National Public Radio placed the number at 1,000 per day in remote and almost unreachable Nentón, hundreds of kilometers away. Last week I saw scores of vehicles with Guatemalan license plates streaming away from Nentón toward larger Comitán in Mexico from where northbound bus and truck service is readily available.

Either the Mexican or the Guatemalan government can stop this flow, but Guatemala is an acknowledged narco-state and probably a failed state by any definition and working in an openly dishonest environment is problematic.

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U.S. diplomatic initiatives toward Guatemala feature a tepidly effete effort to discourage illegal emigration, and a more complex and noisier push to reestablish the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), a UN-sponsored investigative agency whose operating authorization has been canceled in spite of its playing a key role in jailing over 200 allegedly corrupt mostly government functionaries, including two former presidents and one vice-president of Guatemala.

Indictment of both the son and brother of the sitting president led the latter unilaterally to break the treaty with the UN that established CICIG, in open defiance of a ruling by the country’s highest constitutional court that the treaty was inviolate.

To date the U.S. has discussed but not funded an initiative called the Alliance for Prosperity to channel billions of dollars into the emigrant countries (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras) with the aim of stimulating investment and hence jobs, although Congress may have trouble when it comes to a vote to provide money to countries whose ex-presidents are accused of or have been found guilty of embezzlement (five to date). This initiative is still on the table.

Instead of offering pie in the sky, the U.S. should turn the official and unofficial screws on Guatemala to enforce existing laws against migrant smuggling, turn back undocumented crossers at the border river with Mexico and stop promoting an official policy suggesting that Guatemalan emigrants have a moral right to live in the U.S.

The writer is a Guatemala-based journalist.