Mexico City orders shopping centers, department stores to close

-

March 31, 2020

Ebrard: employers may not dismiss workers.

Employers who don’t pay their workers their full wage during the one-month health emergency declared by the federal government on Monday or fail to follow the instruction to close their businesses will face fines and could even go to jail.

Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard also announced Monday night that employers cannot dismiss their workers as a result of the government’s decision to order the suspension of all nonessential public, private and social sector activities until April 30.

“[With regard to] the protection of workers – their wages cannot be taken away from them this month, according to the law,” Ebrard said.

In addition to breaking the law, businesses that dismiss workers or reduce their salaries will “destroy” their capacity to operate in the future because they will be left without the knowledge and skills they require, he said, charging “it’s almost like suicide.”

The foreign minister explained that businesses that don’t pay their employees their wages in full, dismiss workers or continue to operate even though they don’t offer a service that is considered essential will face “administrative sanctions” such as fines or closures.

If a non-essential business continues to operate, obliges employees to go to work and as a result one or more person is infected with Covid-19, the business could face “criminal responsibilities,” Ebrard said.

“In general, those who oppose [the order to close] and continue with their [business] activities despite this prohibition will be deserving of administrative sanctions that range from closure of the business to the imposition of a fine,” the foreign minister said, adding that in more serious or “very extreme” cases, criminal courts could hand down harsher penalties.

“We’re appealing to … the social conscience we have. The process we are going through … is equivalent to the earthquake we had in 1985,” Ebrard said referring to the temblor that killed thousands of people in Mexico City.

“We’ve gotten through [in the past] and we will get through this because we’re acting on time and with force,” he said.

Speaking at his morning news conference on Tuesday, President López Obrador also called on the private sector to comply with the order to pay salaries in full and urged employers not to attempt to fight it in court.

“There is no need to go to court,” he said, imploring employers to keep paying regular salaries out of humanism, solidarity and fraternity.

The CCE's Carlos Salazar Lomelín called on the government to allow deferring taxes. — The CCE’s Carlos Salazar Lomelín called on the government to allow deferring taxes.

“In terms of the legal issue, it’s a matter of interpretation. In a reform that was made to the Federal Labor Law it was established that in the case of a health emergency, the minimum salary can be paid for a month but there is a regulation in the same law that establishes that it is the full salary” that must be paid, López Obrador said.

“I’m also asking the business leaders to keep helping us. … [Business magnate] Carlos Slim [said] that he wasn’t going to dismiss any worker, that’s the example to follow,” he added.

In response to the government’s health emergency declaration and the measures it entails to limit the spread of Covid-19, the Business Coordinating Council (CCE) urged the López Obrador administration to allow greater flexibility in the payment of taxes.

The influential business group presented a series of recommendations in a statement that warned that the quarantine ordered by the government threatens businesses’ capacity to survive.

The CCE stressed that it is “not asking for any kind of tax reduction” but said that it was urgent that the federal government issue a decree that stipulates that both individuals and business can defer the lodging of their 2019 tax declarations for a period of six months.

It also said that businesses and individuals should be automatically exempt from having to make provisional tax payments in 2020. Once taxes for this year become payable, taxpayers should be permitted to settle their obligations in 12 installments, the CCE said. The business group also said that authorities should expedite tax refunds to those who have a credit.

“These measures will allow businesses to have the minimum liquidity necessary … to preserve sources of employment,” the CCE said.

López Obrador said last week that the government would provide interest-free or low-interest loans to 1 million small businesses to help them weather the coronavirus storm, stressing that the aim was to support the neediest.

He ruled out any possibility of waiving taxes for large companies and said that there wouldn’t be any “rescues” for banks and corporations as occurred in the “neoliberal period,” a term he uses to describe the 30 years before he came to power in late 2018.

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

Disinfection tunnels installed in 3 Nuevo León municipalities

By

-

March 31, 2020

A disinfection tunnel in Escobedo, Nuevo León.

Three Nuevo León municipalities have begun installing inflatable disinfection tunnels in strategic points to help mitigate the spread of Covid-19.

People who must leave their homes in Escobedo, Allende and Monterrey can use the structures voluntarily and free of charge to protect themselves from the virus and bacteria for up to 12 hours, officials said.

The project was initiated by Escobedo Mayor Clara Flores Carrales, who said that the provisional structures have sprinklers overhead that spray a mist of the protective substance into one’s clothing.

She did not name the substance, but said it was a hypoallergenic material used in hospitals.

As many as 30 people can pass through the tunnel every minute.

Flores had five tunnels installed in Escobedo on Sunday in areas where people can pass through them before entering public transportation facilities and the city’s industrial park. Three more will be installed on Wednesday in strategic, high-traffic areas.

She said that the tunnels were purchased from a company named Water Drop with an investment of 600,000 pesos (US $25,000).

Allende Mayor Patricia Salazar also installed a disinfection tunnel in her city on Monday.

Monterrey Mayor Adrián de la Garza installed a similar tunnel at the Municipal Palace so that all government employees and citizens who enter to carry out official business can pass through it for protection.

Authorities in other states, including Tamaulipas, Coahuila, Chihuahua and Tabasco, have expressed interest in the system.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Be it a virus or an earthquake, garbage collectors carry on

By

-

March 31, 2020

No masks or gel unless they buy the products themselves.

The federal government has ordered non-essential workers to stay at home but among those who will continue to work through the Covid-19 pandemic are the nation’s invaluable garbage collectors.

“With coronavirus, earthquakes, whatever it is, we can’t stop,” Javier, a garbage collector in the Mexico City borough of Miguel Hidalgo, told the newspaper Milenio, adding that he and his colleagues will continue to work “with a smile.”

He and the other members of his trash collecting team meet in the early hours of every morning at the Bordo Poniente dump in Mexico City before heading to Miguel Hidalgo to complete their rounds through eight different neighborhoods.

Despite the growing outbreak of Covid-19 in Mexico, Javier said that the collectors haven’t been given face masks or antibacterial gel to help protect them infection.

“There are no masks or gel nor a boss who will give us the day off because of coronavirus, there’s not even water,” he said.

The possibility of wearing a mask and even gloves while on the job “depends on whether we have money or not to buy them,” Javier said, although he added that people sometimes gift the items to them.

“My gloves are the ones I’ve always used … now I try to wash them every day,” he said.

Édgar, the youngest member of the crew, said that the garbage collectors are aware of the risks of their job but like millions of other Mexicans have to continue working in order to be able to support themselves.

“We’re always exposed [to health risks] and with the virus even more; people put everything in the trash – toilet paper, tissues they use to blow their nose, the things that they eat, the things they don’t eat, everything. Everything is a focus of infection for us but what can we do? I live from this and if I don’t work I don’t eat,” he said.

Nadia, a 25-year-old mother and garbage collector for the past two years, said that her partner also works in trash collection and that one of them takes care of their 9-month-old baby while the other is at work.

“He’s on another route in the afternoon … so he looks after Brandon in the morning and I arrive [home] when he leaves,” she said.

The driver of the Miguel Hidalgo team’s truck, Gilbrán, told Milenio that even though he has less contact with the trash they collect, he faces the same health risks.

“But my daughters are worth it; the truth is that you get very tired [but] you get used to the smell. … It’s a decent job, my daughters go to school because of it,” he said.

Gilbrán added that because more people staying at home amid the outbreak of coronavirus outbreak, there is more rubbish to collect. However, one positive is that the collectors have noticed that their tips have increased slightly over the last week.

The extra money will come in handy should any member of the crew fall ill. After explaining that his five co-workers are like his second family, Javier said:

“If one of us gets sick, we all have to put in part of our tips [to buy medicine] so that they get better quickly. It’s an agreement, a deal between us. Who else will pay for the medicine for he [or she] that gets sick from coronavirus?”

Source: Milenio (sp)

Hospital staff protest lack of supplies, equipment to combat virus

By

-

March 31, 2020

Hospital personnel protest in México state.

Doctors, nurses and other hospital staff in México state protested on Monday to demand they be given the supplies they need to treat safely and effectively those infected with Covid-19, whose numbers are growing in at least a dozen municipalities in the state.

Beginning around 8:00 a.m., they gathered outside state hospitals in Toluca, Atizapán de Zaragoza, Naucalpan, Nicolás Romero, Nezahualcóyotl, Ecatepec, Tecámac, Texcoco and Ixtapaluca.

It was day two of the protest for staff of the Adolfo López Mateos state hospital in Toluca, who demanded sufficient and quality personal protection equipment after 14 nurses and one resident doctor at the facility were put into isolation and hospitalized for Covid-19.

Nurse Liliana Romero said that some supplies were sent to the hospital for the crisis, but not enough. “There aren’t any goggles or face masks. We got some body suits, but they aren’t fully sealed.”

There was a similar demonstration outside the Salvador González Herrejón state hospital, in Atizapán de Zaragoza.

“We can’t go to war without rifles,” said pediatrician Josefina Onofre Díaz. “We’re the most exposed [to the virus], those who fall first.”

Dr. Daniel Arellano of the hospital’s intensive care unit said there are not enough ventilators and other equipment to deal with the crisis.

A shipment of new beds and containers that Arellano said “we hope are full of equipment, supplies and high-grade medications” was sent to the hospital toward the end of the protest on Monday.

Elsewhere in the state, doctors, nurses and other staff from the José María Rodríguez state hospital in Ecatepec blocked a street in that city to protest a similar lack of supplies.

Source: El Universal (sp)

AMLO ignores crime victims but salutes drug trafficker’s mother: LeBaron

By

-

March 31, 2020

When he saw President López Obrador greet the mother of notorious drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán in Sinaloa on Sunday, Bryan LeBaron felt betrayed.

He said that after an organized crime-related attack left three women and six children of the LeBaron family dead in November, the president did not want to meet him and his family — the victims of organized crime — but had time for the families of its perpetrators.

“The president has misidentified his priorities. When we marched he didn’t want to receive us … but yesterday he sent a very hurtful message to all of Mexico when he stopped to greet [Guzmán’s] mother and speak with the lawyer for one of the most dangerous drug traffickers in the world,” said LeBaron.

“This seems like a betrayal to me. Not for the fact of having greeted a mother, but because he [is closer to] the relatives of organized crime than the relatives of those who have been victims of the violence of that organized crime.”

President López Obrador met El Chapo’s mother, María Consuelo Loera Pérez, while in Badiraguato, Sinaloa, where he was overseeing the construction of a highway connecting the town to the municipality of Guadalupe y Calvo, Chihuahua.

In a video that enraged political opponents in addition to disappointing the LeBarón family, the president walks toward Loera, who is in the passenger seat of an SUV, telling her, “Don’t get out, I’ll come to greet you.”

They shake hands and AMLO, as he is commonly known, confirms that he received a letter she recently sent him.

Political rivals were critical on social media, even accusing him of colluding with organized crime.

Said LeBaron, “It’s terrible because while we march, the criminals keep killing people. While [AMLO] ignores the victims, it appears as though he puts himself at the service [of organized crime].”

Sources: El Universal (sp), Sin Embargo (sp)

The shift to home office could slow the internet but won’t break it

By

-

March 31, 2020

As more people work from home, the higher the demand for internet.

As Mexico braces itself for more quarantine and social distancing, technology experts warn that the massive shift in internet usage from the office to the home could cause speeds to drop significantly, as has been seen in other countries dealing with outbreaks.

“The crisis we’ve seen in the last few weeks has effectively produced a worldwide phenomenon of massive displacement of internet communications and data consumption,” said Félix Barro, director of the Cybersecurity Hub at Monterrey Tech’s Mexico City campus.

He said that countries like China, France, Italy and Spain have experienced the worst effects on internet performance, with speeds regularly at only 45% of full capacity.

“It’s because the whole world is trying to connect to the internet, downloading videos, making video calls, streaming. [They] weren’t prepared for these increases in network traffic,” he said.

Up to now, internet speeds and capacities in both fixed and mobile networks in Mexico have remained stable, according to global broadband speed assessment website Ookla.

The CEO of Megacable, Enrique Yamuni, said the cable company’s current internet capacity can take an increase of about 40% more traffic, but beyond that networks will become saturated and customers will begin to see much slower service.

AT&T and Movistar said that they are permanently monitoring their networks and haven’t seen a significant increase in data consumption.

Telcel and Telmex did not respond to an inquiry from the newspaper Reforma as to the status of their networks, but information security specialist Rafael Pazarán cited Telmex as the only telecommunications company in the country that is ready for a surge in traffic.

“Not all of the internet service providers are prepared for this increase in rates. Just one, Telmex, is prepared because it has response plans for pandemics,” he told the newspaper El Sol de México.

The main problem, however, is not the amount of internet traffic on companies’ servers, but where that traffic will be going.

Telecommunications specialist Fernando Borjón said that the most likely situation is that the wifi networks in people’s homes will become saturated, rather than a company’s infrastructure itself.

“What could happen in the home is there are suddenly many people connecting to a wifi network at the same time. The networks currently in people’s home are wifi 4, so if you have lots of people connecting, or neighbors joining your network, the local system is going to crash,” he said.

“Capacity is not infinite and the first bottleneck is the modem,” he added.

But beyond possible decreases in speed and overloaded modems, Pazarán said that internet users in Mexico do not have to worry about entire networks or service providers breaking down completely.

“If the question on everyone’s minds is if the internet is going to crash, the reality is no. The internet is [built] with very strong and robust architectures and technologies. … We could have no service, but that doesn’t mean the internet has crashed, but that the bridge to the internet [such as a modem] has crashed,” he said.

Sources: El Sol de México (sp), Reforma (sp)

Mexican crude plunges 20% to US $10.37 per barrel, lowest in 21 years

By

-

March 31, 2020

The price of Mexico’s export crude plunged to its lowest level in 21 years on Monday as demand continues to decline due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

A barrel of Mexican crude was selling for US $10.37 at the close of trading on Monday, a 20.3% decline compared to Friday.

The price is the lowest since March 1999 and represents an 82.5%, or $49, decline compared to the highest price a barrel of Mexican crude has yielded this year.

Global oil prices have taken a significant hit in recent weeks as the coronavirus pandemic worsens. A glut of oil in the international market as large oil producers such as Saudi Arabia ramp up production has also placed strong downward pressure on prices.

A comparison conducted by the newspaper El Universal found that a liter of Mexican oil sold on Monday for one-quarter of the price of the same quantity of bottled water and 1/23 the cost of beer.

The price slump is yet another hit for the heavily indebted state oil company, whose average per barrel production cost in 2019 was $14.20, 37% higher than yesterday’s price.

According to a report by the newspaper El Economista, Pemex may be forced into closing some of its fields where the cost of oil extraction and refining is well above current prices. Producing a barrel of oil from reserves in some fields costs Pemex as much as $24.

The plunging price for Mexican crude also affects private and foreign companies that are drilling in Mexico after being let into the petroleum sector as a result of the former government’s energy reform. Some companies could seek to make use of exit clauses if they deem that their projects will not be economically viable.

To March 30, the average price of Mexican crude this year has been $40.90 per barrel but analysts at Citibanamex are now predicting that the average 2020 price will be $22.

The government’s oil hedging program will cushion some of the blow to Pemex but public finances are still expected to suffer considerably as a result of lower oil prices. In its 2020 budget, the government anticipated an average per barrel price of $49.

Gabriel Farfán, a public finance consultant and director of a Mexico City-based think tank, said that the decline in oil prices has not yet been reflected in government revenue figures because only those for January and February have been published.

“On the last day of February, there was a per barrel price of $39, which is $10 less than what was established in the [2020] economic package. The interesting thing will be to see the quarterly report [for January, February and March],” he said.

According to data from the Finance Ministry, oil revenue in 2019 was just over 955 billion pesos (US $40.4 billion at today’s exchange rate), an amount that represented 17.7% of the government’s total income.

If the crude price continues to decline to an average of just $20 in the first five months of the year, the government’s oil revenue will decrease by 60-63%, predicted Tec. de Monterrey economist Raymundo Tenorio.

“That’s a significant reduction in government revenue. If, despite that, they want to maintain a primary surplus they will have to make a lot of cuts but I don’t see where [they can make them]” he said.

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

Archaeological objects deposited in lake of Nevado de Toluca volcano

By

-

March 31, 2020

Underwater archaeologist Roberto Junco deposits the archive on the bottom of the Lake of the Moon. Alberto Soto SAS-INAH

Underwater archaeologists have returned 52 pre-Hispanic ritual objects to the place where they were found: the bed of one of the two crater lakes of the Nevado de Toluca volcano.

Members of the underwater archaeology team at the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) deposited the mostly spherical and conical resin objects on the bed of the Lake of the Moon earlier this month.

The objects, believed to have been made by the Matlatzinca people between the 13th and 15th centuries and placed in the lake by pre-Hispanic priests, are stored in a specially-made container that allows water and sediment to flow over them. As a result, they are protected from deterioration.

The trove of objects is the first in situ underwater archaeological archive in Mexico, according to an INAH statement. The decision to preserve the objects in their place of origin complies with recommendations in the 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage.

The objects were found at the Nevado de Toluca crater lake in 2007 and have been studied and analyzed for the past 13 years.

Enna Llabrés and Roberto Junco prepare the collection of artifacts for deposit on the lake bottom. Iris Hernández SAS-INAH

Enna Llabrés Torres, a researcher with the INAH underwater archaeology department who made the container in which the resin relics are stored, said that the objects could be removed for further study in the future as new technologies and methods of analysis emerge.

She explained that while the objects were studied over the past 13 years, they were stored underwater in conditions similar to those found at the Lake of the Moon, which is located more than 4,000 meters above sea level and has an average temperature of 3 C.

The conical objects measure 20-30 centimeters while the spherical ones are roughly the size of a baseball. INAH archaeologist Iris Hernández said that the Nevado de Toluca volcano has been considered a sacred site since pre-Hispanic times and for that reason, relics used in rituals and ceremonies have been found there.

She said that the conical objects – made out of resin of the copal tree – may have been specifically made to resemble the form of the volcano, located in modern day México state.

According to carbon dating tests conducted by experts at the National Autonomous University Institute of Physics, the ritual objects date back to between 1216 and 1445 AD.

The time period corresponds to the rule of the Matlatzinca people in the Valley of Toluca prior to their domination by the Mexicas.

Mexico News Daily

Yucatán to pay citizens’ water, garbage collection for 2 months

By

-

March 31, 2020