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Poor upkeep, not sabotage, caused craft carrying governor to crash: report

March 27, 2020

The 2018 helicopter crash that killed the governor of Puebla.

The 2018 helicopter crash that killed then-governor of Puebla Martha Erika Alonso was the result of mechanical failure and negligence, rather than a premeditated attack, according to the Communications and Transportation Ministry (SCT).

Alonso was killed along with her husband, Senator Rafael Moreno Valle, and the helicopter crew when the pilot lost control of the aircraft just outside the city of Puebla on Christmas Eve 2018.

Transportation Minister Javier Jiménez Espriú told the president’s Friday morning press conference that the official cause of the crash was “loss of control … due to a sudden roll to the left, from which the pilot was unable to recover, causing the helicopter to flip over and make impact with the ground in this position.”

He said the final report shows that there was damage to parts of the rotor that move the blades and keep the helicopter balanced.

Jiménez said that the investigations found no evidence of sabotage or other foul play, but the flight log recorded damage to a rotor part that helps control the aircraft’s horizontal roll, though no maintenance was done on the part.

The president of Alonso’s National Action Party, Marko Cortés, alleged in February 2019 that the federal government’s “suspicious silence” about the crash led him to believe that there was foul play involved.

He said the fact that the helicopter fell upside-down was suspicious, but the SCT’s investigation appears to account for the unusual fall without finding any sinister intentions.

The report states that the rotor’s linear actuator had two loose screws, which caused it to roll to the left unexpectedly. The pilot probably had only about three seconds to correct the mistake.

Other contributing factors to the crash that Jiménez cited were an inadequate safety culture at the company that operated the helicopter, insufficient supervision of maintenance and operational procedures and an overworked pilot.

The evidence led investigators to believe that the company that operated the helicopter was fully aware that it was not in a condition to be adequately operated, but used it anyway.

“According to the equipment log, … [the helicopter] should not have been flown, it should have been on the ground. It’s a huge blunder,” said Jiménez.

Sources: El Universal (sp), Milenio (sp)

Human rights group slams AMLO for downplaying coronavirus danger

MND Staff

March 27, 2020

amlo hugging — Too much hugging, says rights group.

The international non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) has harshly criticized President López Obrador for putting the people of Mexico in “grave danger” with his “reckless disregard” for providing accurate information on the Covid-19 pandemic and failing to lead by example in the practice of social distancing.

The human rights group said in a statement on Thursday that López Obrador is refusing to follow public health advice and failing to provide accurate information about the severity of the disease, which had infected 585 people in Mexico and killed 11 as of Thursday.

HRW noted that AMLO, as the president is widely known, has “directly contradicted” the recommendations of health authorities by encouraging people to go out while officials are asking Mexicans to stay home as much as possible.

“If you can do it and you have the financial means, keep taking your family out to eat, to the restaurants, to the fondas [cheap diners] because that strengthens the family economy and the working class economy,” López Obrador said in a video posted to social media last Sunday.

HRW also criticized the president for continuing to hold rallies and attend events at which he hugs, kisses and shakes hands with supporters despite his own government’s social distancing recommendations.

While López Obrador is now heeding the advice to keep his distance from others, just a week ago he presided over a National Guard graduation ceremony in Mexico City during which he shook hands with more than 100 new guardsmen and guardswomen.

HRW also noted that when the first coronavirus case was detected in Mexico at the end of February, AMLO “blatantly misinformed the Mexican public, saying: ‘according to the information available, it is not terrible or fatal. It is not even as bad as the flu.’”

In addition, the human rights group was critical of the president’s declaration earlier this month that people should continue to hug each other because “nothing will happen.”

José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at HRW, said that López Obrador’s behavior amid the Covid-19 crisis is “a profoundly dangerous example that threatens Mexicans’ health.”

He added that the president has “shown outrageous unwillingness to provide accurate and evidence-based information about the risks of a virus that has already killed thousands of people worldwide.”

López Obrador “needs to take this issue seriously for the sake of the health and lives of the Mexican people,” Vivanco said.

HRW noted that Mexico has some of the highest rates of obesity and diabetes in the world, meaning that Covid-19 is an even greater threat to many Mexicans.

In that context, Vivanco said that “leaders should faithfully meet their obligation to ensure people have access to accurate, evidence-based information essential to protecting their health.”

“Failure to do so is not just a violation of the right to health, but will also lead to many preventable deaths.”

Mexico News Daily

Street vendors making a killing off sales of antibacterial gel

Cody Copeland

March 27, 2020

A Profeco agent seizes a product being sold as hand sanitizer.

With the shelves empty at pharmacies, supermarkets and other stores, people selling hand sanitizer on the streets of Mexico City’s historic center are raking in the profits, getting three to four times the regular market price for the product.

“Even by the 20-liter jug,” said one police officer working on Avenida Juárez, alongside the city’s famous Alameda Park.

Vendors here and elsewhere in downtown Mexico City have posted signs advertising hand gel, much of it sold in containers without labels.

The newspaper Reforma found a vendor in Chinatown, just to the south of the Alameda, selling 525-milliliter bottles bearing the labels of the Blumen brand for 100 pesos (US $4.30). Supermarkets were charging around 30-40 pesos for the same product before stocks ran out.

The same vendor also had unlabeled 280-milliliter bottles for 50 pesos and even smaller ones for 15 pesos.

The federal consumer protection agency Profeco announced on March 21 that the average black-market price for hand sanitizer in Mexico was 13.83 pesos per 60 milliliters. At that price, a liter costs 230 pesos. A 1-liter bottle of Blumen hand sanitizer cost around 55 pesos in the supermarkets.

Three days later, Profeco agents seized 1,435 unlicensed, unlabeled bottles of hand sanitizer and face masks.

The agency warned of the danger of such products in a press release, saying that the hand gel “might not disinfect, or could even contain a prohibited ingredient.”

But fear has bolstered demand on Mexico City streets and the commerce, although illegal, is evident.

“I see them get it from that booth there,” said a shoe shiner on a corner of the popular pedestrian street Calle Madero.

Reforma reporter Jorge Ricardo found a wide range of prices on the street. He saw 60-milliliter bottles being sold for as low as 10 pesos to as high as 50 pesos.

Bootleg hand gel vendors are finding they can’t even make enough to meet demand. Ricardo asked a group of young people who passed him with bags full of unlabeled 5 and 10-liter plastic bottles if they were going to sell them.

“Yes, but not until tomorrow, because we ran out of alcohol,” one of them replied.

As she sold the last of her plastic bottles, a vendor in the La Merced market told Ricardo that she did not believe that all the hand sanitizer would even do any good.

Still, she was able to ask for as much as 180 pesos for an empty 2-liter plastic bottle.

Despite benefiting from the fear caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the vendor claimed not to believe the news of the virus and said that people were wasting their money on hand sanitizer.

“It’s a rumor. The whole world’s getting sick, but this is utter nonsense from the federal and world governments,” she said. “You go and find out who caused this disorder.”

Source: Reforma (sp)

Opium poppy cultivation down 9% in Mexico, UN agency reports

MND Staff

March 27, 2020

Opium poppies are not the cash crop they used to be.

The area of land on which opium poppies were cultivated in Mexico between July 2017 and June 2018 declined by 9% compared to the previous year, according to a report published on Thursday.

Completed by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Mexican government, the report Mexico Opium Poppy Cultivation Survey 2017-2018 estimates that poppies were grown on 28,000 hectares in the 2017-18 period whereas between July 2016 and June 2017 it was estimated that the plant was grown across 30,600 hectares.

The estimate was based on the interpretation of satellite images that are validated with ground and aerial field verifications, the report said.

It said that the largest concentration of poppy cultivation in the 2017-18 period was located in the mountainous Golden Triangle region of the Sierra Madre Occidental, where the states of Sinaloa, Durango and Chihuahua meet. Large concentrations were also found in the northern part of Nayarit and in the Sierra Madre del Sur of Guerrero.

“Most poppy cultivations are found in remote areas with unpaved roads and trails that are difficult to access,” the UNODC/government report said.

It said that there is “no single explanation” for the 9% decrease in opium poppy cultivation between the 2016- 2017 and 2017-2018 periods but noted that one “important factor to consider in explaining trends in opium poppy cultivation in Mexico is the fluctuation in opium gum prices.”

The Network of Researchers in International Affairs said in a report early last year that Mexican opium gum prices had plummeted by as much as 80% in 2018 due to to the rise in demand for the synthetic opioid fentanyl among United States drug users.

In addition to the reduction in the cultivation of opium poppies, authorities eradicated less of the plant in 2018 than they did the year before.

According to federal government data, 23,625 hectares of poppy fields were eradicated in 2018, a 20% reduction compared to 2017 when 29,692 hectares were cleared.

In turn, seizures of opium gum, poppy seeds and morphine decreased by 56%, 49% and 64%, respectively, but confiscations of heroin went up by 39% from 358 kilograms to 496 kilograms.

The survey completed by the UNODC and the Mexican government was the first to generate estimates for opium gum yields, which was reported at 16.1 kilograms per hectare, and the potential domestic production of dry opium, which was estimated at 450 tonnes.

The report also said that the opium gum produced in Mexico is estimated to have a pure opium content of 16.2%.

The data contained in the report “will allow Mexico to better understand the trends in cultivation and production of opium poppy,” the UNODC and Mexican government said, adding that the information is “fundamental to the planning of comprehensive public policies to reduce supply and mitigate the social consequences of the illicit drug market.”

Source: Reforma (sp)

To your health? Cheeky brewer debuts Coronavirus brand

Cody Copeland

March 27, 2020

There isn’t much to celebrate at present with the global Covid-19 pandemic, but when it does end it may be possible to drink a toast to good health — with a glass of Coronavirus beer.

At least that’s the hope of one brewer in Hidalgo who decided that he would appropriate the name and use it for a product known for bringing people together, rather than keeping them apart.

Isaac Palafox registered the name with the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property on March 9. He is the owner of The Coffee Legacy, a cafe chain with locations in Real del Monte and Huasca de Ocampo, in Hidalgo, and in Guadalajara.

Palafox had already created the beer recipe but had yet to name it. He described it as an English-style brew with hints of chocolate, molasses and coffee extract.

“This drink is already being produced and sold in my cafes, but it didn’t have a name, until now,” he said, adding that the coffee he uses to make the beer is toasted by artisanal roasters whose methods date back to the year 1900 and incorporate practices brought to Hidalgo by German immigrants to the region.

In order to register the trademark, Palafox first had to check the market for other products that may already have the name. Needless to say, the name doesn’t exactly cry “go out and buy me,” and he had no trouble nabbing the moniker for his beer.

Palafox is uncertain as to whether his Coronavirus beer will be a success, but his main goal is simply to maintain the quality of his microbrew and continue producing it for his cafes.

Meanwhile, a bakery in the Mexico City borough of Iztapalapa recently started selling a new product it calls conchavirus — the Mexican sweet bread known as concha, or shell, decorated to look like the deadly microbe — which has “gone viral” among neighborhood sweet-tooths.

Bakery manager Martha Rivas said they wanted to think of something new that takes a humorous angle toward the pandemic. She said people are seeking the product out and buying it, and that the fun bread gives them something to get excited about in these anxious times.

But Mexican businesspeople aren’t the only ones looking to capitalize on the coronavirus. The newspaper El País reported that six brands in Spain have made trademark requests for names related to Covid-19, including T-shirts that read, “I survived the coronavirus.”

Sources: El Universal (sp), Entrepreneur (sp), Excélsior TV (sp)

110 new virus cases in 1 day as community transmission advances

MND Staff

March 27, 2020

Ministry of Health official Ana Lucía de la Garza at Thursday's press conference.

For the first time, Mexico has reported more than 100 new Covid-19 cases on a single day while the death toll from the disease almost doubled from six to 11 on Thursday.

Health Ministry epidemiology official Ana Lucía de la Garza told a press conference Thursday night that there were 110 new confirmed coronavirus cases, taking the total across the country to 585.

She said that 398 people confirmed to have Covid-19 recently traveled abroad and 151 had direct contact with someone who did. The other 36 cases are unrelated to overseas travel, de la Garza said, explaining that the number is evidence of accelerating community transmission of Covid-19.

Almost two-thirds of the total number of community transmission cases were detected on Thursday.

De la Garza also reported that there are 2,156 suspected cases of Covid-19 and that 2,965 people had tested negative for the disease.

She said that the coronavirus death toll had increased to eight from six after the deaths of a 55-year-old man with hypertension in Jalisco and a 57-year-old man with hypertension and diabetes in San Luis Potosí.

However, the Health Ministry data didn’t include three deaths that were reported on Thursday after the 1:00 p.m. cutoff for the preparation of its daily report.

Health authorities in Quintana Roo, México state and Michoacán reported one Covid-19 death each on Thursday afternoon.

A 74-year-old man with hypertension, diabetes and a history of smoking died in Quintana Roo, a 42-year-old man who suffered from obesity passed away in México state and an elderly man succumbed to Covid-19 in Michoacán.

All but one of the coronavirus patients who have died in Mexico have been men. The only female fatality was that of a 61-year-old cancer patient who passed away in a Mexico City hospital on Monday.

Mexico is currently in stage 2 of the coronavirus outbreak, according to the federal government, meaning that local transmission of the disease has begun.

Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said Thursday that the arrival of stage 3, in which community transmission of Covid-19 is widespread and cases number in the thousands, is inevitable. However, he reiterated that he was confident that Mexico can reduce the number of cases and deaths through the social distancing initiative that formally commenced Monday and is currently scheduled to run through April 19.

López-Gatell said earlier this week that authorities expected a “long epidemic that could extend until September or October” and that its peak will be in August.

Despite that prediction, President López Obrador told reporters at his regular news conference on Thursday that the worst of the coronavirus outbreak would be over by April 19, seemingly assuming that the scheduled end of the social distancing initiative would coincide with a reduction in the threat of transmission of Covid-19.

In fact, it is likely that Mexico will need to impose even stricter restrictions to limit the spread of Covid-19. Cristian Morales, Mexico representative for the World Health Organization, said this week that it’s “probable” that the government will have to implement a curfew and/or order a home quarantine to slow down the coronavirus spread.

While the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases increased sharply on Thursday, López Obrdaor said Friday morning that the situation is under control, asserting that “there is no overrun of coronavirus.”

The president, who came under fire earlier this month for continuing to hug and kiss his supporters despite his government’s advice to avoid physical contact, ruled out any possibility that he would go into isolation to avoid possible infection with Covid-19.

“I can’t put myself into quarantine, I can’t isolate myself. … I have to be attentive [to the situation] and I have to continue my work – I’m dedicating a lot of time to all the actions related to coronavirus,” he said.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Covid-19 phase 3 strategy: obligatory quarantine, health curfew

MND Staff

March 27, 2020

López-Gatell at the president's morning press conference.

Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said on Thursday that the arrival in Mexico of phase 3 of the coronavirus outbreak, in which community transmission of the disease is widespread and cases number in their thousands, is inevitable.

“There is no doubt that phase 3, the maximum transmission phase, is coming,” he said.

But what will that mean in terms of the restrictions that will be imposed in order to limit the spread of Covid-19 as much as possible?

Obligatory quarantine, a “health curfew” in which people are only permitted to leave their homes during certain hours, strict restrictions on the departure and arrival of flights at Mexico’s airports, the closure of businesses where Covid-19 outbreaks have occurred and restrictions on the entry of foreigners are all likely once health authorities declare that the country has reached phase 3.

Other protocols that have already been activated, such as the social distancing initiative and the suspension of large events, would continue to be enforced.

It remains to be seen what penalties people would face if caught violating a government directive, such as an order to stay at home.

In phase 3 of the coronavirus outbreak, Mexico’s health care system is predicted to face significant pressure if it is not completely overwhelmed. The Health Ministry is currently predicting that 0.5% to 1% of Mexico’s population will be infected with Covid-19, meaning that close to 1.3 million people could catch the disease.

As of Thursday, 10% of the 585 people confirmed to have Covid-19 have required hospitalization. If that trend continues, and the Health Ministry prediction is accurate, as many as 130,000 people could need hospital care over the course of the pandemic.

However, López-Gatell said on Thursday that if a majority of people strictly observe the recommendation to stay 1.5 meters apart from each other during the March 23 to April 19 social distancing initiative and stay at home as much as possible, the possibility that Mexico’s hospitals will be overwhelmed with Covid-19 patients during phase 3 will be significantly reduced.

“We need you not to go out because this is the opportunity to reduce [the severity of] … the most intense stage of infection … and ease the rising trend of the epidemic,” he said.

López-Gatell added that the “social confinement” measures would not, however, be sufficient to put an end to the coronavirus outbreak. “It must be made clear that this cannot be achieved,” he said.

The deputy minister stressed that if Mexicans don’t follow the directive to keep their distance from each other, the consequences will be serious.

“Once the epidemic curve starts to grow exponentially, we can’t stop it,” he said, explaining that is what happened in Italy, Spain and the United States, which now has more confirmed cases of Covid-19 than any other country.

Asked whether decisions made by governors at a state level to limit the spread of coronavirus were a help or a hindrance, López-Gatell said that they were beneficial. Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum and governors of at least 11 states have enforced their own measures to combat Covid-19 such as ordering the closure of a range of non-essential businesses including bars, movie theaters and gyms.

“Each state government has its own health authorities. We shouldn’t be concerned that governors are being proactive, it’s a virtue,” López-Gatell said.

Source: El Financiero (sp), La Jornada (sp)

Pandemic used as pretext to promote looting on social media

Ann Deslandes

March 27, 2020

A security camera catches looters in a store in Chimalhuacan, México state.

As Mexico is hit by the global coronavirus pandemic, criminal groups are using social media to call for looting of department and convenience stores including Bodega Aurrera, Elektra, Coppel, and Walmart.

Calls to steal TV screens, cellphones, household appliances, clothing, cigarettes, alcoholic beverages and food have been made on social media in several parts of the country, and violent break-ins of stores have been reported in Oaxaca, Mexico City and México state.

On Wednesday morning, in the municipality of Herreros in México state, a group of approximately 15 men broke into a department store and stole TVs, cell phones and a motorcycle before fleeing on mopeds. Police sources said the men were wearing face masks.

Another department store in the neighboring municipality of Texcoco was looted Wednesday evening, with a group taking screens and cellphones.

On the same day in the municipality of Santa Cruz Xoxocotlán in the city of Oaxaca, four people were detained after a group violently broke into a Chedraui supermarket.

In Mexico City, 23 robberies have been reported in 10 municipalities, with 19 reports across 10 municipalities in México state.

Authorities in México state said they have identified 45 Facebook profiles of people acting as administrators of pages or groups promoting looting. They said that 41 had previously been involved in looting during the 2018 federal election period and in 2017 in response to a gasoline price hike. In Mexico City, the cyber-crimes police force located seven Facebook profiles in the same network.

Authorities in the states of Quintana Roo, Yucatán and Guanajuato have also said they detected individuals and groups on social networks that promote theft and incite disorder.

Police in Mexico City told El Universal that most of these groups share an ideology in which looting or pillaging activities are considered a right of citizens as a consequence of the Covid-19 prevention measures.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Mexicali brewery referendum unconstitutional: bar association

Cody Copeland

March 26, 2020

The Mexican Bar Association announced its legal opinion on the legality of a referendum to halt construction of a brewery in Mexicali, Baja California: they say it’s unconstitutional.

Nearly 37,000 residents of Mexicali and surrounding areas voted overwhelmingly to reject Constellation Brands’ US $1.4-billion plant over the weekend.

The association said in a press release that the consultation violated four articles of the Mexican Constitution, making it illegal to force the company to halt construction.

Calling the vote a “participatory exercise,” it also claimed that the results of the referendum were not intended to be legally binding.

“… its results cannot be binding because that would mean that the [permits] already issued could be revoked by a groundless participatory exercise, … without due process, resulting in the violation of article 14 of the Constitution,” it said.

Citizens of Mexicali have protested the plant for years, citing the threat they say it poses to the area’s water supply, though construction is now 65% complete.

Constellation Brands claims that the plant will not negatively affect the water supply and will create 32,000 direct and indirect jobs.

Although the National Water Commission and the Environment Ministry had both stated that their inquiries revealed that the plant would not negatively affect the water supply in Mexicali, they will not issue future permits as a result of the referendum.

A Heineken bottling plant located in Tecate, which gets its water from the same aquifer the Mexicali plant would use, is currently increasing its output by 25% and has received no opposition at all from the public.

The Bar Association urged federal authorities to comply with the Constitution and the international trade agreements that afford certain rights to Constellation Brands, “strengthening our deteriorated state of law with justice.”

Seeing Constellation Brands experience so many problems completing the Mexicali brewery, the governors of Nayarit and Tabasco have both recently invited the company to visit their states to find more welcoming investment opportunities.

Source: Milenio (sp)

AMLO urges ‘economic truce’ to confront coronavirus in message to G20

MND Staff

March 26, 2020

The president and other officials during the G20 video conference.

President López Obrador has called for an economic “truce” between “the great powers” of the world in order to confront the coronavirus pandemic and its global economic impact.

Speaking during a virtual G20 leaders summit on Thursday morning, López Obrador told leaders including United States President Donald Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that Mexican has “three concrete proposals” to ensure that all countries have the capacity to respond to the global outbreak of Covid-19.

Firstly, the World Health Organization (WHO) should intervene so that all countries have equal access to medications and medical equipment, he said.

“They are [currently] being stockpiled due to the [health] emergency by those who have greater economic means,” he charged.

Secondly, López Obrador, or AMLO as he is commonly known, said that “the WHO must also intervene so that there is no speculation in the purchases of medications, equipment, ventilators [and] everything that is required” to treat patients with Covid-19.

Thirdly, the president urged “the great powers, the hegemonies” of the world to agree to a truce in which they “avoid unilateral tariff policies” and reject “trade monopolies.”

AMLO also said that G20 countries should “review the management of the oil price,” which he said is “affecting the global economy a lot.”

The leaders to whom he was speaking via video hookup included Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, whose countries are engaged in a price war that has driven down global oil prices including those paid for Mexican crude.

In addition, López Obrador urged the world leaders to “help to stabilize the financial markets and attack speculation” in the buying and selling of essential medication and medical equipment and supplies.

He concluded by saying that racism and discrimination must be rejected during the current crisis, adding that the countries of the world will “overcome” the Covid-19 health crisis “with universal fraternity.”

Flanked by high-ranking government officials including Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard and Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell – the government’s main coronavirus spokesperson, López Obrador at the start of his address expressed the “solidarity” of Mexico “with all the people of the world who are suffering from this pandemic.”

“This crisis is leaving us with important lessons,” he said, adding that Mexico is basing its response on the advice of doctors and scientists. “Politicians aren’t todólogos,” or experts in everything, the president quipped.

AMLO also said that Mexican families are playing a key role in the battle against coronavirus, which has sickened at least 475 people in Mexico and killed at least eight.

“The Mexican family is the main institution of social security and now they are helping us to look after the most vulnerable people, our senior citizens, those who have diabetes, hypertension, kidney problems, pregnant women; we have millions of nurses in our homes,” he said.

López Obrador also said that his government believes that “the poor,” small businesses and those who work in the informal economy must be prioritized for financial support during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“They’re the most affected,” he said. “Those who try to get by day by day any way they can.”

Mexico News Daily

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