The label might say manchego but that’s not necessarily what it is

By

-

April 9, 2020

The label might say manchego but that's not necessarily what it is. — The label might say manchego but is it?

It may look, smell and taste like cheese, but much of the creamy manchego on grocery store shelves in Mexico simply isn’t, according to the federal consumer protection agency Profeco.

The agency analyzed 46 popular brands found in supermarkets across the country and found that many do not give the consumer the product advertised on the label.

The study looked at the contents of 29 brands from Mexico, six from Spain, eight cheese imitation products, two processed cheeses and one made from goat’s milk. It found that the brand Sabores de Mi Tierra had too much added vegetable oil to be called cheese.

Other labeling problems the study found included incorrect nutritional value information, undeclared ingredients, omission of the country of origin of the ingredients and even brands that contained less product than stated on the label, among others.

The brands Walter and Cremería Covadonga failed to include the country of origin on the labels, as did Lalo on its regular and lactose-free manchego slices.

Eight of the products analyzed were found to contain less than the amount advertised on the label. These were all 200 to 400-gram packages of block, sliced, reduced-fat, lactose-free and imitation cheese from the brands Caperucita, Cremería Covadonga, NocheBuena, Portales de Prividencia, Zwan Premium, Capone’s and Aurrera.

Profeco went on to list a number of problems found in manchego labeling including the absence of fat or protein content and other nutritional information.

The original Spanish recipe for manchego calls for sheep’s milk, and produces a cheese wholly different to that in Mexico, which is basically Monterrey Jack.

The use of European names for Mexican cheeses has been an issue in the past but two years ago trade negotiations with the European Commission gave Mexican producers the OK for using the names manchego, parmesan and gruyere.

Profeco has also studied the risks to the consumer posed by the labelling and actual content of other foods, such as ketchup and popcorn, and found similarly untrustworthy and incomplete information for the consumer.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Employers’ group to AMLO: don’t be irresponsible, protect jobs

By

Susy Buchanan

-

April 9, 2020

0

De Hoyos, left, and the president: they don't quite see eye to eye.

With nearly 350,000 jobs lost in the last month due to coronavirus, the Mexican Employers Federation is urging President López Obrador to take measures to help keep businesses afloat during the health crisis.

This appeal comes at the same time that Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum warned businesses in the capital city that if they fire workers in response to the crisis, there may be consequences.

“If a large company that has the possibility of paying its workers and is laying off its workers, we could consider, for example, that they will no longer be able to operate these businesses in Mexico City because we can implement a scenario where only socially responsible companies can operate in Mexico City,” said Sheinbaum.

Gustavo de Hoyos, president of the Employers Federation, pleaded with the president to work with business owners to develop measures that will ensure their survival, rather than point fingers at those who have been forced to lay off workers.

The federation “invites President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to collaborate with measures that promote job protection . . . This is not the time to continue on the path of social polarization,” said de Hoyos.

He asked López Obrador for tax deferrals and breaks on paying government-run utilities such as water and electricity.

As for Sheinbaum’s warning, the federation said “these statements lack a legal and constitutional basis at a critical moment in the life of the country in which unity is required, rather than placing blame on those guilty of an economic reality.”

De Hoyos cited recommendations from the International Labor Organization (ILO), which reports that the coronavirus pandemic is poised to eliminate 195 million jobs globally in the second quarter of 2020 alone.

“Workers and businesses are facing catastrophe, in both developed and developing economies,” said Guy Ryder, ILO’s director-general. “We have to move fast, decisively, and together. The right, urgent, measures, could make the difference between survival and collapse.”

De Hoyos said this morning that the private sector is preparing a national strategy intended to preserve jobs and businesses. He said a national accord is being developed as a result of talks initiated by the Business Coordinating Council and will be presented to the government.

The latter organization, an umbrella group that represents the interests of the private sector in Mexico, has had a somewhat warm relationship with the federal government until this week, when it issued a strong criticism of the government’s economic plan and its president even suggested that revoking the mandate of President López Obrador, which is to be put to a vote in 2022, was an option to be considered.

De Hoyos, meanwhile, has been strongly critical of the president, to the point that some Coparmex members have questioned his political impartiality.

Their plan might not go far with an obstinate president who is firmly on the other side of the political divide.

Source: La Reforma (sp), El Milenio (sp)

Ministry of Health estimates there are at least 26,000 people with Covid-19

By

MND Staff

-

April 9, 2020

0

López-Gatell: estimates of case numbers were produced by sentinel surveillance system.

There are more than 26,000 people with Covid-19 in Mexico, according to Health Ministry estimates, a figure more than eight times higher than the number of confirmed cases of the disease in the country.

Director of Epidemiology José Luis Alomía reported Wednesday night that the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases had grown by 396 – the largest single-day increase – to 3,181. He also reported that coronavirus-related deaths had increased by 33 to 174, that there are 9,188 suspected Covid-19 cases in Mexico and that 17,209 people have tested negative for the disease.

Later in the coronavirus press briefing, Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said that authorities estimate that the real number of people who have Covid-19 in Mexico is 26,519. He said that the estimate is derived from the sentinel surveillance system in which data about a disease is collected in certain locations and extrapolated to predict total numbers across the country.

López-Gatell said that health authorities are collecting data about confirmed and possible cases of Covid-19 at 375 different heath care facilities.

“The epidemic is eight times bigger” than the number of confirmed coronavirus cases, he said, adding, “that doesn’t change the decisions” made by authorities to contain the spread of Covid-19.

“When we had only 12 cases, with this systematic exploration [through the sentinel system] it was sufficient to take the decision … to begin the social distancing activities,” López-Gatell said.

He said that the surveillance system was established in Mexico in 2006 after collaboration on its development with the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Pan American Health Organization and the World Health Organization.

The “proven, scientifically founded” system “allows us to assume the reality as it is and not how it is mistakenly thought to be in the sense that only what is seen exists,” the deputy minister said.

“We estimate 26,000 cases … so someone could say, you have a lot more cases than several Latin American countries that have a thousand and something cases. No, we explicitly acknowledge that we have 26,000; in any other country that only has [a figure for] observed cases, they also have to … multiply [that number] by a number … not identical to that in Mexico but by a similar one, 10 or 12 cases … for each [confirmed case],” he said.

“In the countries where very unfortunately they’ve had enormous epidemics, they also have to multiply their cases by a similar number, it’s specific for each country,” López-Gatell added.

Given that there are a large number of undetected cases of Covid-19, it is especially important that people continue to maintain a healthy distance from each other and stay in their homes as much as possible, he said.

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

Virus protection tunnels not effective, say health authorities

By

Susy Buchanan

-

April 9, 2020

0

The disinfecting tunnel at Guadalajara's food market.

Automated sanitation arches and tunnels such as those erected outside Guadalajara’s outdoor food market last month have not proven to be effective in the fight against the spread of coronavirus, government officials say. In fact, they may actually help propagate the virus.

The tunnels, which are being installed in many locations in Mexico, purport to sanitize those who pass through them by spraying people with a high concentration of ozone, which was thought to disinfect a person for up to one hour.

As Salvador Hernández Navarro, president of the Grocery Merchants Union, told media when the tunnels debuted, “we took the initiative to launch this new technology and install this ozone tunnel to serve the large number of visitors we welcome daily. We are the second-largest supply center in the country, and we want people to have peace of mind knowing that we care about your health and the food that is consumed.”

But the reality is something else, says Mexico’s Ministry of Health. “Inhaling disinfectants can cause, among other things, damage to the airways, coughing, sneezing and irritation of the bronchi, triggering asthma attacks, producing chemical pneumonitis and irritation of the skin, eyes and mucosa,” the department said in a press release.

A simple sneeze, according to the Health Ministry’s Hugo López-Gatell, can propel the virus for a distance of up to 10 meters. “There are drops that are too heavy and fall two meters, there are drops that are light and fall six meters and there are drops that are lighter that fall 10 meters away, which can happen if I sneeze.”

Apart from provoking coughing and sneezing, the concentration of the oxygenated disinfectant may be insufficient to inactivate the virus, and the aerosol generated may help spread the virus, which could be present in tiny particles adhering to the clothes, hair or belongings of those who pass through the tunnel.

People would be better served, says López-Gatell, by sticking with the basics of coronavirus recommendations, like social distancing, avoiding crowds, washing hands thoroughly and frequently and wearing masks in public.

Rather than serving as a panacea for market-goers during the global pandemic, the automated tunnels create a false sense of security and could even be making things worse.

“Those virus particles are going to be mobilized and if the sanitization time is not technically monitored, and that depends on the size of the person, the area to be covered and the intensity, … it will not be enough to inactivate the virus and would have the opposite effect,” López-Gatell cautioned.

Source: Milenio (sp), El Norte (sp)

Rights commission issues alert over home delivery of sexual services

By

Susy Buchanan

-

April 9, 2020

0

The National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) asked authorities on Wednesday to investigate strip clubs in Tlaxcala that offer home delivery of sexual services, such as table dances, when isolation measures and the suspension of non-essential activities due to the coronavirus pandemic are in force.

In a statement, the agency said that offering the services violates coronavirus health guidelines and women’s rights.

In ads posted on social media (that have since been removed), one Tlaxcala club offered color-coded packages featuring multiple women in various states of undress, from topless to totally nude. The entry-level blue package promised three girls and six dances for 4,000 pesos (US $170), whereas the high-end red package came with 13 women, 26 dances and 10 “surprise gifts” for 14,000 pesos (US $593).

Reaction on social media ranged from those who criticized the stripper delivery service as irresponsible, to others who called it a “noble gesture.”

The CNDH was not amused. “This situation violates not only the right to health, but constitutes discrimination and possible trafficking in persons for the purpose of sexual exploitation,” it stated in a press release.

The head of the Tlaxcala Attorney General’s Office (PGJE), José Antonio Aquiahuatl Sánchez, stated that his department has opened an investigation into the strip club for the probable commission of a crime threatening public health and a violation of measures imposed by the state government to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

Tlaxcala currently has 28 confirmed cases of coronavirus with one death.

Source: El Sol de Mexico (sp), Sin Embargo (sp)

Robbers steal gold, silver in air-land assault on Sonora mine

By

Cody Copeland

-

April 9, 2020

0

A commando attacked from both land and air to steal an unspecified amount of gold/silver alloy from the Los Mulatos mine in Sahuaripa, Sonora, on Wednesday.

The company Minas de Oro Nacional, a subsidiary of the Canadian firm Alamos Gold, said the attack occurred a little before 8:00 a.m. when five armed men subdued the security personnel loading the bars called doré into an airplane contracted by a security company on the mine’s airstrip.

What appeared to be a Cessna 206 aircraft landed while they subdued the guards, and the thieves loaded the bars onto their own plane.

The heist took less than 10 minutes to carry out and ended with the plane taking off into the morning sky loaded with the stolen precious metals and the commando escaping to the mountains.

The company, which said no one was hurt in the robbery, implemented security and emergency protocols and alerted the authorities.

Theft of doré bars from mining companies has been a problem in Sonora for years, but usually on the highway during transportation. This may be the first instance of thieves using a plane to carry out a robbery.

An unspecified amount of doré bars were stolen from a pair of armored trucks contracted by the Canadian mining company Penmont on a Sonora highway as recently as March 23.

A similar operation took 47 doré bars also owned by Penmont in November, the loot valued at around US $8 million at the exchange rate at the time.

Source: El Universal (sp)

‘Money cannot be our god:’ AMLO accuses big business of laying off staff

By

MND Staff

-

April 8, 2020

0

Labor Minister Alcalde: tourism-dependent Quintana Roo saw the highest number of lost jobs.

President López Obrador on Wednesday took aim at large businesses that have laid off workers due to the coronavirus pandemic, charging that they should put the wellbeing of their employees before profits.

“Small businesses … are resisting the crisis … small business owners, men and women, are acting very responsibly, heroically, because they’re the ones who are taking greater care of the employment of their workers, [the small business sector] is where there have been fewer dismissals,” López Obrador told reporters at his morning news conference.

In contrast, the president continued, some large companies – “not all of them, of course” – have dismissed workers despite the government’s directive to maintain their workforces and continue paying their full salaries even if they been ordered to close.

López Obrador called on large employers to avoid dismissals and show solidarity with their workers as Mexico faces a growing public health and economic crisis.

“Let’s all behave well. These are times for fraternity, solidarity, humanism, not selfishness, not for only thinking about material things,” he said. “It cannot be that our god is money, that is not what characterizes the majority of Mexicans,” he added.

“We don’t want the bad behavior of a few [companies that are dismissing workers] to be copied by others. We still have time to make a respectful call … to those who are doing this: correct [your decision], it’s wise to change your opinion.”

López Obrador claimed that some of the recent dismissals from large companies and a large number late last year are related to outsourcing.

“This is wrong, now that we are going through this health crisis it’s doubly wrong that … they’re acting in this way. How is it possible that from one day to the next, a company is left without a single worker [because] they dismissed 800? It’s incredible,” he said.

Labor Minister Luisa Alcalde said that almost 347,000 workers lost their jobs between March 13 and April 6, and that dismissals by businesses with more than 50 employees accounted for 85% of the total.

Quintana Roo, whose tourism industry has been decimated by the coronavirus pandemic, recorded the highest number of job losses in the period, with almost 64,000, followed by Mexico City, Nuevo León, Jalisco, México state and Tamaulipas. A total of 193,000 jobs, or 56% of the total, were lost in those six states, Alcalde said.

She said that there is no legal justification for companies to dismiss workers during the month-long health emergency period or not pay their full salaries. Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said last week that employers that don’t comply with the government’s directive to keep workers on their books will face administrative sanctions or even criminal penalties.

For his part, the director of the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) said Wednesday that those dismissed have already lost, or will soon lose, their IMSS benefits, including access to medical care.

“Small businesses have withstood [the crisis]; they have greater solidarity with their workers but large companies are always doing their [profit margin] calculations,” Zoé Robledo said.

Dismissing workers and and consequently taking away their medical benefits could place lives at risk, he added.

Source: Reforma (sp), La Jornada (sp)

In Xalapa, people still out and about, despite the coronavirus emergency

By

Sarah DeVries

-

April 8, 2020

0

Navy medical personnel at the ready at a Mexico City hospital.

I went for a walk yesterday to the pharmacy. The closest one is a bit of a hike downtown, but I didn’t have the car and didn’t want to risk taking a taxi.

I was surprised to see quite a few people out and about, and plenty of cafes and restaurants open and only slightly less filled than they normally are.

Though restrictions have been put out for “nonessential business,” many people, and not just those whose livelihood depends on crowds, are ignoring what they consider “suggestions” from the government. I can’t help but wonder the extent to which López Obrador’s flippant attitude in the beginning has influenced the public at large.

On the other end of the spectrum, we have “news” that I can only assume is a bad joke: a declaration from Navy Secretary Rafael Ojeda that, “disciplined countries like Mexico are winning the battle against Covid-19.”

His evidence? That “… 40 intensive care beds have been prepared for Covid-19 patients at the hospital in the capital’s south and that seven other navy hospitals in port cities will treat up to six patients each.” I think I speak for many here when I issue a drawn out and sarcastic “Woooooow, that many? Well, stop your worrying then, everyone!”

Dare I ask if there are medical personnel on standby to actually care for those patients? How about medicine and ventilators? Can we assume that, given the number of confirmed cases so far, they’ll be putting approximately 10 people in each bed?

Here are the facts: the numbers of Covid-19 diagnoses and deaths are growing exponentially by the day in Mexico, and are most certainly much higher than what’s reported since there are such narrow requirements for even getting tested in the first place.

According to superstar Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell, patients with diabetes are 95% more likely to develop complications or die as a result of the coronavirus. As Mexico has the distinction of being one of the top countries for diabetes and obesity, things aren’t looking too good on that front.

Pair with that the fact that hospitals weren’t prepared or able to cope with the work they already had. Especially after the closure of the Seguro Popular hospitals that were replaced with an ill-planned and mostly-on-paper healthcare scheme that is actually nothing like those in Canada or Europe as promised, we seem primed for a health disaster.

Overcrowded morgues have also long been a problem in many cities in Mexico, and I fear that we will soon be facing some of the same horrific scenarios that others in Latin America have. Guayaquil, Ecuador, for example, has been unable to avoid the terror of dead bodies simply being taken out to the sidewalk since their system is simply not equipped to handle that many deaths at once.

I know that Mexicans are not known for their collective willingness to follow instructions (or stand in line, for that matter). Many right now seem to be taking the position of those who stay behind in evacuated cities waiting for the hurricane to actually not hit, and I’ve been trying hard to understand the logic behind it.

I think a part of it is simply the well-known cultural trope “better to ask forgiveness than permission.” And of course, there are those who simply believe that everything is a hoax or a conspiracy, a proposition as maddening as it is eye-roll-inducing.

I’m not trying to be an alarmist. I’m well aware that most people won’t get it, and that most of those who do will recover. But “most” people don’t need to suffer in order for our entire health and economic system to be completely overwhelmed, and we seem to be heading there fast.

It’s not all bad news. In a recent survey, almost three-fourths of Mexico City residents said they were staying home as much as possible, and hand-washing and social-distancing is up.

And although AMLO was late to the game, he finally seems to be understanding the gravity of the situation, and has wisely ceded most of his comments to the Health Ministry. (Comments on his economic plan during this time are being saved for next week’s column.)

Part of the duty of a good leader is to surround yourself with honest, competent, and principled people who are smarter than you in areas that you don’t know much about, and I hope AMLO will continue leaning in this direction in all areas.

Plus, there’s the added bonus that those folks in the Health Ministry are very good looking — perhaps that will translate to higher ratings! (I can’t decide if I have a bigger crush on López-Gatell or Dr. de la Garza. But I digress.)

I just hope it’s not too late to avoid total disaster.

Sarah DeVries writes from her home in Xalapa, Veracruz.

Previously announced projects will contribute to AMLO’s job creation goal

By

MND Staff

-

April 8, 2020

0

The government has included jobs at the Santa Lucía airport among the 2 million it plans to create.

More details have emerged about how President López Obrador plans to create 2 million jobs by the end of the year to help reactivate the coronavirus-battered economy.

The president met with his cabinet on Tuesday to review the economic plan he presented in a televised address on Sunday.

The government intends to create a significant proportion of the new jobs via its large infrastructure projects, including the Maya Train railroad in the country’s southeast, the Santa Lucía airport north of Mexico City, the Dos Bocas oil refinery on the Tabasco coast and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec trade corridor between Salina Cruz, Oaxaca, and Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz.

Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) chief Manuel Bartlett said after the meeting that the heads of each ministry and agency involved in the government’s infrastructure projects outlined how many jobs were expected to be created.

“With the CFE plan, we’ll have significant job creation,” he said. “There will be a lot of jobs [in government projects], more than a million.”

Bartlett didn’t disclose how many jobs will be specifically created by CFE projects, such as the construction of power plants in Yucatán and Baja California Sur, but stressed that the utility has an “enormous investment program” that will strengthen the state-owned company.

Communications and Transportation Minister Javier Jiménez Espriú said that projects in which his department is participating, including construction of the new airport and an upgrade of the capital’s existing airport, are expected to generate 110,000 direct jobs and 240,000 indirect ones.

For his part, National Tourism Promotion Fund (Fonatur) chief Rogelio Jiménez Pons said that construction of the Maya Train through the states of Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán, Quintana Roo and Chiapas will create 80,000 jobs.

He said that Fonatur, which is managing construction of the 1,500-kilometer railroad, is taking the necessary steps so that the project can commence as soon as Mexico has the Covid-19 outbreak under control. Construction had been expected to commence at the end of this month.

The general director of the state-owned Banco del Bienestar (Bank of Well-Being) told reporters that the construction this year of 1,350 branches of the so-called “bank of the poor” will also create jobs, although he didn’t cite a specific number.

Rabindranath Salazar said that more jobs will be created once the branches have been built because they will need employees to staff them. The government intends to distribute welfare payments to people living in rural areas via the new banks, which will have the largest network of branches in the country if the plan to build 2,700 by the end of 2021 comes to fruition.

Salazar highlighted that the other projects the government is building will also require large numbers of personnel once they are completed. However, none of the major projects – the airport, the refinery, the Maya Train – will be completed before 2022.

In his address Sunday, López Obrador said that 200,000 new jobs will be created via an expansion of the tree-planting program known as Sembrando Vida (Sowing Life) and that some 228,000 people will be employed to build 50,000 homes in marginalized areas of the country.

In a Twitter post on Tuesday, he reiterated that the three “basic objectives” of the government’s economic response to the coronavirus pandemic are to support 22 million poor people; provide 2.1 million loans between April and December; and create 2 million jobs in eight months.

López Obrador said on Wednesday that distribution of 25 billion pesos (just over US $1 billion) worth of loans to small businesses will commence in the first week of May. He said that 1 million small business owners in the formal and informal sectors will initially be offered loans, explaining that they will be distributed via three private banks that won’t charge any commissions.

“They will be distributed … where the epidemic is having the greatest impact and where the economy is most affected,” López Obrador said.

However, he added that the loan scheme will mainly benefit people in urban areas because other programs, such as Sembrando Vida, will provide employment opportunities and financial support to those in the countryside.

The president said that the loans will be repayable at the current Bank of México benchmark interest rate of 6.5% over a period of three years. The aim of the loans, he said, is to provide an injection of funds into the economy that will stimulate growth.

The federal Finance Ministry (SHCP) is predicting that the Mexican economy could shrink by as much as 3.9% this year due to the coronavirus pandemic while the Bank of America is forecasting an even more dire contraction of 8%.

Business groups and financial institutions have been critical of the economic plan announced by López Obrador, claiming that it will do little to help the economy through the biggest economic crisis in generations.

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

Tourists harass and attack reporter on Puerto Vallarta beach

By

Cody Copeland

-

April 8, 2020

0

Tourists vent their anger at a reporter on a beach in Puerto Vallarta. — Tourists vent their anger at a reporter in Puerto Vallarta.

Two foreign tourists verbally and physically assaulted a female Mexican reporter in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, as she filmed them in a report on visitors not following the government’s Covid-19 mitigation guidelines.

Doraliz Terrón was reporting on the situation at the tourist destination’s Los Muertos beach for the regional news outlet Paralelo Informativo on Monday when a foreign tourist approached her and used physical force to try and stop her from recording him.

“Nobody wants you filming us,” he says as he rushes to her and forcefully puts his hand over her phone.

“I want to tell you that you’re not supposed to be here,” Terrón says in English as the man interrupts her.

“Oh yeah?” he says, the camera shaking violently from his assault. “Fuck off!”

Agreden turistas a reportera por señalarlos de estar en la playa durante cuarentena

Watch this video on YouTube

“We don’t want you here,” the man shouts angrily at the reporter.

Despite his threatening demeanor, Terrón didn’t back down. “I don’t care,” she says. “We are working here.”

“You are not working here. You are filming people on the beach,” he says, claiming that Terrón needed permission to film him in public.

When Terrón said she was going to report them to the authorities, another man shouted, “Report all you want, you stupid bitch!”

After the reporter spoke with two navy marines who were nearby, they approached the visitors, who agreed to follow the physical distancing guidelines.

But after the marines left, Terrón was approached once again by the man, accompanied by a woman, who repeatedly told her to “fuck off!”

“You’re a terrible person!” the man screamed as the two filmed each other.

After leaving the scene, Terrón said on camera that authorities would do nothing about the assault and that the tourists would carry on as if nothing happened.

“… it’s not a problem if they assault [people].”

Source: Infobae (sp)