Mexican growers predict US tomato shortage in 15 days

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May 29, 2019

Mexico is a big supplier of tomatoes to the US.

The United States will face a shortage of tomatoes starting in 15 days if it does not lift a 17.5% tariff on Mexican tomato imports, according to a growers’ association.

Alfredo Díaz, director of the Mexican Protected Horticulture Association, told Milenio yesterday that Mexican producers are struggling to absorb the cost of the tariffs. He said the tariff has forced some small producers to lower their export volumes, while for the moment most medium and large producers are still exporting at full volume.

“Pretty soon, there will be a shortage in the United States if this goes on,” he said. “In about 15 days, we’ll start to notice supply going down, and that will be reflected in higher prices.”

Two weeks ago, Mexican tomato producers sued the U.S. Department of Commerce in the U.S. Court of International Trade in New York. The lawsuit requests an injunction suspending the tariff and the investigation of Mexican producers for dumping, or selling products below their production costs.

Díaz said the two sides finished making their arguments last Friday and that a ruling could come at any time.

He added that whatever the court rules, Mexican tomato growers are ready to negotiate with U.S. trade officials and growers’ associations.

“We made another offer last week and we are waiting for them to look at it so we can negotiate,” he said. “What they told us is that the U.S. is negotiating with China about other issues right now, so we’re still waiting for them to call us.”

The Department of Commerce imposed tariffs on Mexican tomatoes on May 7 after allowing a six-year-old agreement that suspended anti-dumping investigations to expire. The U.S. withdrawal from the agreement was largely in response to complaints from Florida tomato growers, who say they struggle to compete with Mexican imports.

Mexico’s share of the U.S. tomato market grew from 32% in 1996 to 56% in 2017, while U.S. farmers produced 40% of tomatoes consumed in the country in 2017.

Source: Milenio (sp), The Produce News (en)

Mexico living through security emergency unseen since Revolution: Durazo

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MND Staff

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May 29, 2019

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Unity is fundamental to combating violent crime, says Security Secretary Durazo.

Mexico is living through a security “emergency” unseen since the Mexican Revolution, the secretary of public security said yesterday.

Speaking at the launch of a regional security plan in Apatzingán, Michoacán, Alfonso Durazo said that a large part of the wave of insecurity plaguing Mexico is the result of the corruption of security forces.

“For many years, violence and crime have been supported by the deviance of officials, who shelter and protect criminal groups and their conduct, and the result has been the most serious crisis of violence that our country has experienced, perhaps since the Mexican Revolution,” he said.

Last year was the most violent year on record, with more than 33,000 homicides, and the murder rate in the first quarter of 2019 was up almost 10% compared to the same period of 2018.

“Insecurity isn’t an issue [that arose] today or yesterday, it’s the result of an accumulation of years that will take time to correct but we’re 100% determined to [find] the solution, without losing a minute,” Durazo said.

The secretary described the situation as an “emergency” and declared that “unity is fundamental” to combat the high levels of violent crime.

No political or ideological pretext can take precedence over the responsibility to guarantee public security and to put an end to impunity, Durazo added.

“The fight against crime is a matter of the state and as such it requires the . . . political will of all,” he said.

The official explained that a gradual deployment of 4,050 members of the National Guard to Michoacán will begin in July to complement the state security strategy and “guarantee as soon as possible reasonable standards of security and stability.”

There has been a spike in violence in the state in recent days including a clash between police and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) in Zamora on Sunday in which four officers were killed, and a confrontation between the CJNG and the Viagras gang in Uruapan last Wednesday that left 10 people dead.

The recent violence “reminds us that criminal groups don’t stop in their attempt to distort the security [situation] and commit criminal acts,” Durazo said.

“For those reasons, we must close ranks with complete determination to combat them, with intelligence and with a capacity for force.”

Source: El Financiero (sp)

Airbnb won’t disappear so its regulation is essential: hotel owners

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MND Staff

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May 28, 2019

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Hotelier Arsuaga wants to see regulations that foster fair competition.

Greater regulation of Airbnb and similar accommodation platforms is needed to ensure a level playing field in the tourism sector, according to the head of a national hotels association.

“We’re conscious that Airbnb is not going to disappear and we know that no country has found the perfect formula to regulate it but we believe that there is a lot to do, in terms of regulation,” said Braulio Arsuaga Losada, president of Hotels for Mexico, an association that represents 20 major hotel chains.

“For the moment, as hoteliers we want to be part of the roundtable discussion; we [the tourism sector] are one of the three largest industries in the country and we generate 9% of GDP,” he added.

Seven Mexican states including Guerrero and Mexico City charge Airbnb hosts booking taxes of 2% to 3% but federal Tourism Secretary Miguel Torruco has proposed the introduction of a nationwide regulatory framework for online hospitality services.

Speaking at a tourism industry event, Arsuaga said that a review of current regulations should extend to all companies that operate in the sector.

“It’s about there being game rules that stimulate investment, innovation and sustainable development. We want regulations that foster fair competition but which also make us competitive,” he said.

Arsuaga, who is also the CEO of the Presidente hotel group, contended that the Mexican tourism industry needs to reinvent itself to better compete in the global market.

“The great challenge for Mexico is to react with speed and intelligence to this revolution; that implies the intensive use of technology to get to know the needs of tourists and to attend to them better,” he said.

“By the same token, we must improve our tourism competitiveness. We’re in 22nd place, according to the World Economic Forum, but we can advance a lot more. That means taking meaningful steps on a lot of things: infrastructure, regulation, human capital and sustainability among other things.”

The industry representative also addressed the government’s decision to disband the Tourism Promotion Council (CPTM).

“We understand the decision of the government and we want to be proactive. There are three tasks that they did at the CPTM and we want to work, with maximum collaboration between the public and private sectors, so that they continue to be done: tourism promotion, public relations and crisis management,” Arsuaga said.

“At present, insecurity and sargassum need a highly-coordinated crisis management effort. It’s about being in constant communication with tourism operators abroad and sending a message to potential tourists; the Mexico brand requires a sustained effort over time.”

Source: El Economista (sp)

Father pushes wheelchair-bound son so he can play soccer

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César Hernández

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May 28, 2019

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Marito and his father playing soccer in Ciudad Juárez.

Parents aren’t generally permitted to play on their children’s soccer teams but there’s an exception to the rule in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua.

The father in this case is effectively the 12th member of the León Juárez team, but he has a special role: he pushes his son’s wheelchair.

Photos have appeared on social media showing Marito’s father running around the field with his disabled son, allowing him to participate in the sport.

The team’s managers wrote online that soccer “encourages society’s fundamental principles of teamwork, fraternity and effort.”

They also said the were “very proud to have Marito on our team.”

Source: El Mexicano (sp)

Interpol arrests steelmaker chief, warrant out for ex-Pemex boss

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Tony Richards

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May 28, 2019

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Ancira, left, has been arrested, and Lozoya could be next.

Mexico’s Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) has made another move against the country’s biggest steelmaker and the former CEO of Pemex.

Interpol police today arrested Alonso Ancira, the owner and president of Altos Hornos de México, in Mallorca, Spain, and the arrest of Emilio Lozoya may soon follow.

Warrants for both were issued on Sunday in connection with the 2014 sale of a fertilizer plant to Pemex by Altos Hornos.

The UIF froze the bank accounts of both Lozoya and Altos Hornos yesterday, alleging that financial operations had been carried out with illegal resources.

Unnamed sources said the move was in connection with the fertilizer plant sale, for which Pemex has been accused of overpaying.

The UIF has offered no further details.

Source: Reforma (sp)

Sewage from Mexico’s Tijuana river closes San Diego beach

By

MND Staff

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May 28, 2019

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A two-year-old file photo of a San Diego beach indicates the problem is not new.

Large amounts of sewage-contaminated runoff moving into southern California from the Tijuana river in Mexico have forced San Diego authorities to prohibit swimming on the entire shoreline of Imperial Beach.

A beach closure has been in place for months at the southern end of the city’s coastline but the San Diego County Department of Environment Health expanded the closure Sunday after recent rains sent yet more polluted water across the border.

The beach closure will remain in place until testing shows that the water is safe.

According to officials, more than 110 million gallons (416.4 million liters) of toxic storm water has flowed north from Mexico since April.

“The sad thing is that with just a quarter inch of rain . . . [contaminated water] can begin to flow and impact our beaches,” said Paloma Aguirre, director of the environmental NGO Wildcoast.

“Every time that it rains, here in Imperial Beach we have the closure of beaches caused by the Tijuana river. The state of Baja California simply hasn’t done enough [to stop the flow of contaminated water],” she added.

Aguirre said last year that the Tijuana wastewater treatment plant, known as San Antonio de los Buenos, or Punta Bandera, is dumping 1,750 liters of untreated sewage into the Pacific Ocean per second.

Before the expanded closure was announced, Imperial Beach resident Patricio Amores told broadcaster Telemundo 20 that he wouldn’t risk swimming in the ocean due to the possibility of catching a contamination-related illness.

Local residents holding signs that read “stop the poop” attended a rally Sunday morning to demand that officials do more to stop the ongoing pollution problem.

In 2017, more than 50 United States border patrol agents became ill after being exposed to contaminants while working in the vicinity of the border, while last year the state of California and the cities of Imperial Beach and Chula Vista sued the United States government over the recurring flows of polluted water from Mexico.

The plaintiffs would like to see a beefed-up diversion system and funding for sewage infrastructure in Tijuana, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

Experts and officials say that hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure spending is needed to stop water pollution affecting the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California.

Beaches on the Mexican side of the border have also been closed intermittently due to high pollution levels.

To stop wastewater contaminating the beaches of Rosarito, a city 20 kilometers south of Tijuana, a candidate for mayor believes that another treatment plant is needed.

Dora Esquivel Machado, who will represent the Institutional Revolutionary Party at elections this Sunday, said that untreated wastewater flows to Rosarito from neighborhoods in the east of Tijuana.

“We already have one [plant] but it’s not enough because it’s in the rural part of Rosarito. We need one on the central side,” she said.

Source: Telemundo 20 (sp), CBS News (en), The San Diego Union-Tribune (en), El Sol de Tijuana (sp)

Cancún’s ‘Russian Nazi’ claims his rights have been violated in jail

By

Simon Schatzberg

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May 28, 2019

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Makeev in a selfie on his Facebook page two years ago.

The Russian citizen who was almost killed by an angry lynch mob in Cancún two years ago and then charged with manslaughter says his rights have been repeatedly violated during his two-year incarceration.

Aleksei Makeev, also known as #LordRussianNazi for racist behaviour in Cancún two years ago, tells of a series of violations of his rights by Mexican authorities in a 15-minute video posted on YouTube by Russian human rights lawyer Gennady Makarov.

In the video, Makeev says his jailers have denied him his right to consular assistance, medical attention and contact with his family. He also says that his government-appointed lawyers have given him ineffective representation and that court interpreters have been translating his statements into Spanish incorrectly.

Makeev addressed his pleas to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and asked for assistance from the Russian Consulate.

It is not clear how Makeev was able to record the video and send it to the human rights lawyer.

Makeev in late 2017 when he was still being treated for injuries suffered during an attempted lynching.

After the video was uploaded, the Facebook page Identidad Quintana Roo reported that Makeev was attacked by a group of his fellow prisoners in the Cancún jail, and was wounded with a sharp object. Another prisoner who tried to defend Makeev was seriously injured in the incident, and had to be hospitalized.

Makeev, who had worked as a dive instructor, had lived in Cancún since at least 2015 and earned a reputation for the videos he posted under the name Alextime. The videos show Makeev harassing people and making racist comments in Russian, English and Spanish.

In May 2017 a group of his neighbors, fed up with his antics, tried to lynch him. The mob was able to pull Makeev out of his house and beat him into a coma, but not before the Russian allegedly killed one of his aggressors with a knife.

He is to appear in court on Wednesday.

Mexico News Daily

Oaxaca to go after 1,500 former mayors and other officials for corruption

By

César Hernández

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May 28, 2019

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The anti-corruption unit of the Oaxaca Attorney General’s Office has documented over 3,000 cases of corruption, and more than half were allegedly committed by mayors and other municipal officials.

The anti-corruption prosecutor said his office is ready to file formal complaints against more than 1,500 municipal officials who are believed to have diverted over 2 billion pesos (US $104.2 million).

The announcement follows investigations that took place in recent months, Jorge Iruegas said, adding that he hoped judges would issue arrest warrants promptly.

The only delay in bringing the allegedly corrupt municipal officials to justice, he said, is caused by a limited budget.

Iruegas would like state lawmakers to enact reforms to the anti-corruption system in order to strengthen his office and give it the autonomy to create a new specialized anti-corruption police force.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Soldiers freed in Michoacán in exchange for return of confiscated weapons

By

MND Staff

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May 28, 2019

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Some of the soldiers who were detained by civilians on Sunday in Michoacán.

A group of soldiers detained by self-defense force members in Michoacán on Sunday was released the same day in exchange for the return of weapons confiscated by the army, the governor said.

Silvano Aureoles said the soldiers were disarmed and detained in the municipality of La Huacana after a confrontation with armed civilians.

They were freed six hours later when other soldiers returned four high-caliber firearms that were seized following the clash.

“What happened is that there was an act of aggression on the part of some armed civilians towards elements of the army,” Aureoles said.

“The aggression was repelled and two civilians died; unfortunately a minor was also injured but he’s stable.”

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According to a report in the newspaper La Jornada, armed civilians detected the presence of nine soldiers in La Huacana and began shooting at them.

After the confrontation, the gunmen fled, abandoning several high-caliber weapons that were seized by the soldiers.

A group of residents who identified themselves as self-defense force members subsequently approached the soldiers to demand the return of the weapons.

A video that circulated on social media shows one man saying to the commander of the group: “Look buddy, we’re not playing around, I want the weapons.”

Footage then shows the residents pushing and disarming the soldiers, who put up little resistance.

Aureoles said the soldiers were unharmed during their ordeal, adding that the situation in La Huacana was now “calm.”

Referring to the incident at his morning press conference today, President López Obrador said “the attitude of the soldiers was very responsible, very honorable and very brave.”

He added: “Abusing our fellow beings is cowardice . . . that’s why [I give] all my support to the soldiers.”

The president described the situation the soldiers faced as “difficult” and said that members of the National Guard are being trained to respond to such cases.

“. . . Prudence is much better than authoritarianism,” López Obrador said, adding that the armed forces will always respect human rights.

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

Driver survives after his car crushed between truck and bus

By

Madison Koen

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May 28, 2019

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The driver survived but his car did not.

A man was lucky to escape with his life after a multi-vehicle pileup completely crushed his vehicle between a semi-trailer and a large bus.

The accident took place near the Xonacatepec bridge at kilometer 133 of the Puebla-Mexico City highway.

Although his small sedan was almost flattened between the two heavy vehicles in an accident that involved a total of six vehicles, the driver sustained only non-life-threatening injuries.

Paramedics transferred the man to Betania Hospital in Puebla City. No one else was injured.

The newspaper Milenio reported that while authorities temporarily closed off the highway toward Mexico City, vehicles were still permitted to travel along the somewhat slower access road.

According to the National Council for Accident Prevention, the Puebla-Mexico City highway is the nation’s most accident-prone and deadliest. Two other major arteries connecting Mexico City were awarded second and third place for the high number of accidents: the Cuernavaca-Mexico City highway and that between Toluca andMexico City.

The Pan-American Health Organization reports that Mexico was the seventh deadliest country in the world in terms of traffic accidents in 2018, while the Secretariat of Public Health reported that traffic accidents are one of the three top causes of death in the country.

Source: Milenio (sp), Poblanerías13.com (sp)