International partnership supports training of English teachers in Baja

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July 17, 2019

Baja California English teachers at an IAPE workshop.

Educational institutions in the United States have partnered with the state of Baja California in a project whose goal is to raise the standard of English-language education.

The Inter-American Partnership for Education (IAPE) will team up with the University of California San Diego and the Baja California Education Secretariat to train public school teachers through a method initially designed for the U.S. Peace Corps.

The initiative will introduce a seal of biliteracy that will be awarded to graduating students in recognition of a high level of English-language ability.

The IAPE, a partnership between the Rassias Center for World Languages and Cultures at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire and Educando by Worldfund, has operated English-language education programs in Mexico since 2007.

The IAPE was selected to implement the teacher training, which began in December with 32 Baja California middle school teachers.

The partnership seeks to support 340 teachers during the next two years and award the biliteracy seal to 85,000 students. IAPE director Jim Citron said that English-language ability is important in Baja California.

“Baja California is located directly south of the California border and over 50,000 out of the state’s 700,000 students in public elementary and middle schools were born in the U.S. By providing tools for English teachers to include and empower English-speaking students as leaders in the classroom, the project is building bridges across cultures and providing opportunities for advancement for all students.”

According to project organizers, Mexican professionals with English-language skills earn on average 28% to 50% more.

The partnership aims to address the findings of a 2015 study by the education advocacy organization Mexicanos Primero that 97% of middle school students do not achieve the English proficiency level established by the Secretariat of Public Education by the time they graduate.

Mexico News Daily

Another arrest warrant issued for former Pemex CEO

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MND Staff

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July 17, 2019

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The Ixtapa house owned by Lozoya's wife.

A judge has issued another warrant for the arrest of former Pemex CEO Emilio Lozoya on corruption charges.

The warrant orders Lozoya’s detention on charges of conducting operations with resources of illicit origin, criminal association and bribery.

The accusations relate to the purchase of a home in Ixtapa, Guerrero, which is registered in the name of Lozoya’s wife and was seized by the federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) on July 7. It has been valued at US $1.9 million.

The warrant was issued by a Mexico City judge on July 4 but its details weren’t made public until yesterday.

The first warrant for Lozoya’s arrest was issued in late May in connection with the 2014 sale of a fertilizer plant to Pemex by steelmaker Altos Hornos de México.

Ex-Pemex chief Lozoya and his wife, Marielle Helene Eckes.

The warrant was suspended in early June but reinstated two weeks later.

The FGR announced earlier this month that it also obtained a warrant for the former Pemex chief’s arrest in connection with bribes he allegedly received from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, which has been at the center of corruption scandals in several Latin American countries.

Lawyer Javier Coello Trejo told the state news agency Notimex that the Odebrecht arrest warrant also names his client’s wife, mother and sister, joking that authorities only forgot Lozoya’s dog and parakeet.

The Ixtapa home owned by Marielle Helene Eckes was allegedly purchased with funds provided by Altos Hornos de México owner and president Alonso Ancira, who was arrested in Mallorca, Spain, in May.

According to the government, the US $475 million Pemex paid to Ancira’s company for the fertilizer plant was more than nine times its real value.

Coello Trejo said in June that Lozoya is in Mexico City, but warned that he will not be arrested because authorities will not be able to find him.

Yesterday, he said that his client is not concerned about the warrants against him because he knows that he can prove his innocence.

However, the former Pemex chief, who managed the oil company between 2012 and 2016, is annoyed that his mother has been targeted, Coello added.

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

35 tonnes of sargassum arrives on popular Cancún beach

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Madison Koen

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July 17, 2019

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The scourge that has mired much of the coast of Quintana Roo with smelly brown algae has now affected Playa Delfines, burying one of Cancún’s most popular beaches under 35 tonnes of sargassum in just one day.

Mayor Mara Lezama called Tuesday’s seaweed arrival “unprecedented” and said that more than 100 federal and municipal workers were involved in clean-up efforts to remove the weed. They are being supported by nearly an equal number of volunteers.

The two-kilometer stretch of beach that comprises Playa Delfines is visited by an average of 5,000 visitors every day during peak tourist periods.

Half of Cancún’s GDP is generated by tourism-related activities, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council.

Meanwhile, nearly 650,000 tonnes of sargassum has buried the Quintana Roo coastline between the start of the year and June 24, and shows no signs of relenting, with July and August projected to be the worst months.

Hotel occupancy in the Riviera Maya is reported to be 50%, down from the 80% or more that is typical of the summer season.

Source: Noticaribe (sp), Milenio (sp)

Guerrero drug trafficker sponsored teaching students’ graduation class

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Simon Schatzberg

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July 17, 2019

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A photo of the class behind the head table announces sponsorship by wanted gang leader.

A graduation ceremony last Friday at a teacher training college in Guerrero was sponsored by a cartel leader who is a fugitive from justice.

The graduating class of 25 students at the Tierra Caliente Teachers’ College in Arcelia, Guerrero, chose Johnny “El Mojarro” Hurtado Olascoaga, the leader of the Familia Michoacana cartel, to sponsor their graduation.

Images of the ceremony uploaded to Twitter by the local government show the drug trafficker’s name printed on a poster. He did not attend the ceremony.

Arcelia is known to be a stronghold of the Familia cartel.

The Education Secretariat of Guerrero (SEG) released a statement distancing itself from Hurtado’s sponsorship of the class.

“The Education Secretariat of Guerrero has nothing to do with the designations of class sponsors, which are made by the graduating students,” the statement read.

“The decision is the responsibility of graduation committees, in which SEG personnel do not participate.”

However, SEG official Praxedis Mojica Molina was present at the ceremony, and Arcelia Mayor Adolfo Torales Catalán also attended and spoke positively of Hurtado.

“Today, we reaffirm our friendship and respect, and we ask for continued support to live in an environment of peace, harmony and coexistence,” said the mayor.

“Our greetings go to Johnny Hurtado Olascaoga, and we recognize him for having agreed to sponsor the 2015-2019 graduating class.”

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Hurtado has been wanted by federal authorities since 2012. In 2016, the Attorney General’s Office offered an award of 3 million pesos (US $158,000) for information leading to his capture.

He is wanted for at least 10 crimes, and Interpol has also circulated a red notice against him.

Source: Infobae (sp), Milenio (sp)

After describing prison as ’24-hour mental torture,’ El Chapo sentenced to life

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MND Staff

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July 17, 2019

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Guzmán will spend the rest of his life in jail.

Notorious drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán was sentenced to life in prison today on drug trafficking charges by a United States federal judge who accused him of “overwhelming evil.”

Before the sentence was handed down, the 62-year-old former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel told Judge Brian Cogan that his imprisonment in the United States “has been psychological, emotional, mental torture 24 hours a day.”

Guzmán claimed that the jurors who heard his case were influenced by media reports on his trial, an argument that his lawyers also made when requesting a retrial.

“Since the government of the United States is going to send me to a prison where my name will not ever be heard again, I take advantage of this opportunity to say there was no justice here,” he told the New York court.

The court also heard from Andrea Vélez, a former associate of Guzmán, who said that he paid the Hells Angels motorcycle gang US $1 million to have her killed but she escaped to the United States with the help of U.S. authorities.

Handing down the mandatory term of life plus 30 years, Cogan said he would have imposed the harshest possible sentence even if the law had given him any leeway.

Any redeeming qualities the convicted smuggler might have were canceled out by his “overwhelming evil” actions,” he said.

The judge also ordered Guzmán to forfeit US $12.6 billion, an amount that represents the total amount of illegal drugs the jury determined he shipped to the U.S.

The Sinaloa native, who was extradited to the United States in January 2017, was convicted in February on charges of trafficking, organized crime, involvement in multiple murder conspiracies and illegal use of firearms.

Jurors heard from 56 witnesses during the 11-week trial, including many former associates who offered an unprecedented glimpse into the inner workings of the Sinaloa Cartel.

They gave testimony about bribes El Chapo allegedly paid – including payments to former presidents Felipe Calderón and Enrique Peña Nieto, murders he ordered, his life of luxury and womanizing and the Sinaloa Cartel’s smuggling methods, among other details.

The defense portrayed witnesses as unreliable opportunists who in some cases were seeking reductions to their own prison terms.

During the trial and in the months since, Guzmán has been held in solitary confinement in the Metropolitan Correctional Center, a high security prison in lower Manhattan.

Cogan last month rejected Guzmán’s request to be allowed more time to exercise on the jail’s roof after prosecutors warned of an escape risk.

The drug lord escaped twice from prisons in Mexico, once in a laundry cart and once via a 1.5-kilometer-long tunnel.

After today’s sentence was handed down, United States Attorney Richard Donoghue told reporters that “never again will Guzmán pour poison over our border, making billions while innocent lives are lost to drug violence and addiction.”

“We can ensure that he spends every minute of every day of the rest of his life in prison,” he added.

But Guzmán’s lawyers said they will appeal the sentence, arguing that up to five jurors violated the judge’s orders by following the case in the media during the trial.

“All we had asked for is a fair trial. I’m not here to tell you that Joaquín Guzmán is a saint . . . Whatever you think of Joaquín Guzmán, he still deserves a fair trial, everybody does in America . . .” said Jeffrey Lichtman.

Source: Reuters (en), Milenio (sp)

7 mini-tremors recorded in 2-hour period in Mexico City

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Simon Schatzberg

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July 17, 2019

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Mexico City was hit by seven small earthquakes overnight, shaking buildings but causing neither injuries nor damage.

According to the National Seismological Service (SSN), a 2.9-magnitude earthquake with a depth of three kilometers and an epicenter in the Álvaro Obregón borough of western Mexico City took place at 10:59pm on Tuesday night.

And over the next two hours, Álvaro Obregón was shaken by as many as six other small earthquakes, with an average magnitude of 2.4.

The quakes could be felt in some parts of Álvaro Obregón, as well as in the Cuauhtémoc, Miguel Hidalgo, Benito Juárez and Cuajimalpa boroughs.

According to SkyAlert, a company that manages earthquake warning systems, the tremors did not trigger the earthquake alarm because of their small magnitude.

Earthquakes with epicenters in Mexico City are not unusual. According to the SSN, there have been 158 since 1998, 114 of which had magnitudes under 2. The largest Mexico City earthquake took place in 2003, and had a magnitude of 4.0.

Luis Quintanar, a geophysics researcher at the National Autonomous University, told the newspaper TeleDiario that the recent tremors are part of an earthquake swarm, a phenomenon that has not occurred in Mexico City since 1980.

Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said that city officials will meet with a group of experts on Wednesday to evaluate the earthquakes.

Source: El Universal (sp), TeleDiario (sp), El Financiero (sp)

Cancún lynch mob target gets 37 years for killing attacker

By

Madison Koen

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July 17, 2019

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The accused in one of his YouTube videos.

A judge has sentenced Russian citizen Aleksei Makeev to 37 years and six months in prison for killing one of his attackers when an angry mob tried to lynch him in Cancún in 2017.

The judge also ordered that Makeev pay 405,02 pesos (US $2,130) in reparations to the victim’s family.

The man was known to locals as #LordRussianNazi for his abusive and racist behavior, which he proudly displayed in a series of videos on his YouTube channel. Makeev had lived in Cancún since at least 2015 and had been employed as a dive instructor, but was dismissed for aggressive behavior toward clients.

Residents’ tolerance finally gave out in May 2017 when Makeev was seen hitting a woman and child in a neighborhood store. Later that same day, when a large crowd converged on his home Makeev stabbed and killed one of his attackers before the throng dragged him out of his house and beat him into a coma.

Makeev was saved by the arrival of police, who manage to subdue the crowd long enough to extract the Russian and rush him to the Cancún General Hospital, where he was treated for a fractured skull, broken arm, blows to his entire body and cerebral bleeding.

During last Saturday’s trial in Cancún, Makeev’s defense argued that he had stabbed his attacker in self-defense. But the state recreated the mechanics of the act itself, proving to the judge that the Russian had used his physical superiority over the deceased to stab him multiple times.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Economists say Pemex plan ignores concerns, warnings by agencies, experts

By

MND Staff

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July 17, 2019

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Pemex's new plan has not been warmly welcomed.

Pemex’s new business plan ignores the concerns of rating agencies and experts, according to analysts who predict there will be a downgrade to the state oil company’s credit rating.

“[The rating agencies] gave several warnings and they more or less said what they didn’t like but it seems that none of those warnings are considered. [The plan] is almost like a challenge to lower the rating,” said Adrián Calacaneo, an energy specialist at the business intelligence company IHS Markit.

Presented yesterday by Pemex CEO Octavio Romero, the plan proposes tax cuts, injections of capital and increased oil production for the beleaguered oil company, which has debt in excess of US $100 billion and whose output has been in decline for more than a decade.

But several analysts were critical that the plan doesn’t allow for joint ventures with private companies or farmouts, in which oil leases are assigned to third parties for development.

“It’s a very ideologically loaded business plan, it limits the participation of private companies in a big way and forces Pemex to do everything itself,” said Pablo Medina, vice president of Welligence Energy Analytics.

The plan does allow for service contracts to be issued to private companies but Medina said they won’t provide Pemex with the liquidity it needs to invest in profitable activities.

He told Bloomberg that the company needs “to take advantage of what the energy reform allows, leverage capital and stop trying to do it all by themselves.”

Carlos Serrano, chief economist at the bank BBVA México, said the “main problem is that farmouts won’t resume,” charging that the business plan “will not be so strong” as a consequence.

He told the newspaper El Financiero that the government will have to find an alternative revenue source for Pemex to avoid pressures on the company that could result in a credit rating downgrade or problems for public finances.

Fitch downgraded Pemex to junk status last month with a negative outlook, stating that the company was severely underinvesting in its upstream business and that its high levels of transfers to the government were pressuring cash flow and reinvestment ability.

Mario Correa, chief economist of Scotiabank México, said the plan is overly optimistic with regard to oil production targets, lacks detail and leaves a lot of questions unanswered.

He questioned where the funds for the cash injections would come from and whether the private sector service contracts will be successful. Correa also wondered if the plan would negatively affect Mexico’s sovereign rating.

Analysts at the investment bank Citigroup have already concluded that it will.

Citi said that a downgrade for both sovereign bonds and Pemex is only “a matter of time.”

In a note to clients, the bank said the strategy “doesn’t solve the main structural problems of the company” and “the probability of a rating downgrade by Moody’s to junk status has increased.”

Citi said “the long wait” for the plan “didn’t translate into new actions or ideas.”

The reduced tax burden had already been announced on June 6, it said, and the “business plan repeats the same repetition” about oil production increases. Furthermore, said the bank’s analysts, service agreements with private companies “haven’t worked in the past.”

Citi was also critical of the government’s plan to inject US $7.4 billion into Pemex over the next three years, asserting that it needs $10 billion to $15 billion per year.

In addition, it said the plan will have an impact on public finances in an already difficult economic climate.

With the economy slowing, tax revenue trending downwards, a less optimistic outlook for oil prices and with increased spending on social programs and infrastructure projects, it will be difficult for the government to maintain a primary surplus, Citi said.

As expected, government officials defended the plan.

Alberto Montoya, an undersecretary in the Energy Secretariat, said it “would be very strange” if rating agencies were to downgrade “a company that is taking these decisions.”

President López Obrador said yesterday that the plan was designed to transform “an oil industry in ruins” to one with the capacity to finance national growth.

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

El Chapo brand clothing debuts at Guadalajara fashion show

By

Simon Schatzberg

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July 17, 2019

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A model displays 'Chapowear' at Guadalajara show.

A new fashion brand was relegated to a cramped four-square-meter corner at the Intermoda fashion show in Guadalajara this week, but it still managed to be one of the event’s biggest attractions.

The “El Chapo 701” brand drew many curious shoppers with a huge printed image of its namesake, convicted drug trafficker Joaquín Guzmán, and a line of clothing inspired by him.

According to lawyer Gilberto de Anda, El Chapo 701 is owned by Alejandrina Guzmán Salazar, the daughter of the former head of the Sinaloa Cartel and his first wife María Alejandrina Salazar Hernández.

However, Emma Coronel, Guzmán’s current wife, introduced last week a line of El Chapo clothing and accessories, also using the 701 brand name. She announced in March that Guzmán had signed over the rights to his name.

Some of the products on display this week in Guadalajara were made by prison inmates, and proceeds from sales will go to supporting people in need and the reintegration of inmates into society, de Anda said.

The El Chapo 701 display at the Guadalajara fashion show.

Sales representative Adriana Ituarte told the newspaper Publímetro that some of the proceeds from online sales will go towards supporting an addictions treatment association founded by Alejandrina Guzmán.

The El Chapo 701 catalog includes around 20 items of varying prices, most bearing the 701 brand, which refers to El Chapo’s place on the Forbes list of the richest people in the world in 2009.

The cheapest items are shirts for 701 pesos (US $35), while some jackets and belts are as much as 1,900 pesos.

One of the stand-out pieces from the collection is a line of “piteado” belts, a traditional style of embroidery with thread made from agave plants on leather.

The belts are made by prisoners at the maximum-security Puente Grande prison in Jalisco, from which Guzmán escaped in a laundry cart in 2001.

Ituarte said the brand has been generally well-received at the show.

“There are people who give us a lot of support, who like it, who buy things and come from other places to distribute our products,” she said. “But there are some people who criticize us, who say we are promoting a drug trafficker.”

On Wednesday, Joaquín Guzmán was sentenced to life in prison by a judge in New York.

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

Mexico state landfill has become a toxic mountain of waste: residents

By

MND Staff

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July 16, 2019

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Residents claim runoff from the site is contaminating a river. — Residents claim runoff from the site is contaminating a river used for drinking water.

A garbage dump in greater Mexico City has become a toxic mountain of waste that is contaminating the subsoil and local rivers, according to neighbors.

The Tepatlaxco metropolitan landfill, located in Naucalpan, México state, is in clear violation of federal environmental regulations, according to a report published today in the newspaper El Universal.

The dump stinks, it’s infested with flies, cockroaches and rats and its toxic runoff is polluting rivers in the Rincón Verde area of Naucalpan.

During visits to the site, El Universal reporters observed the arrival of hundreds of garbage trucks operated both by municipal governments and private companies.

Toxic waste is indiscriminately thrown on to a massive pile of trash that is as high as 50 meters in parts, the newspaper said.

The landfill is operated by the company Bio Merik, which was granted a 20-year concession in 2018. There are plans to extend the dump over 33 hectares of communal land.

Rincón Verde residents filed a complaint against the company but the public services director at the Naucalpan council denied that it is not complying with environmental regulations.

However, Carlos Trujillo Anell said that authorities will inspect the site to confirm that is the case.

Bio Merik told El Universal that an average of 1,100 tonnes of waste arrives at the dump every day but its landfill manager denied that toxic runoff is causing contamination.

“It’s rainwater because it rains a lot here,” Francisco Zúñiga said.

But residents dismissed that claim and outlined the route the toxic liquids take to a local river that supplies drinking water.

Dozens of 100-year-old ahuehuete trees, or Montezuma cypress, that line waterways are dying off amid the toxic runoff, said one resident identified only as Claudia.

She added that the presence of toxic waste near people’s homes is causing health problems such as headaches and stomachaches.

Fetid odors reach neighborhoods more than three kilometers from the dump site and unusually large numbers of insects and rodents have invaded the surrounding area, residents said.

Source: El Universal (sp)