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

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July 16, 2019

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)

Isla Mujeres among top five island destinations: Travel + Leisure

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Simon Schatzberg

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July 16, 2019

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Isla Mujeres, highly-ranked island destination.

Isla Mujeres in Quintana Roo was chosen one of the top five island destinations in Mexico and Central and South America by Travel + Leisure magazine’s World’s Best rankings.

Isla Mujeres came in third place behind Ecuador’s Galapagos Island and Chile’s Easter Island, in the rankings, which are determined by a poll of Travel + Leisure readers. Fourth and fifth place went to Ambergris Cay and Caye Caulker, both in Belize.

The magazine described Isla Mujeres as “a relaxing spot that is perfect for visiting,” and “a peaceful place surrounded by coral reefs.”

Isla Mujeres also came in third place in the 2018 rankings, which are based on readers’ ratings of activities and sights, natural attractions and beaches, food, friendliness and overall value.

The municipal government of Isla Mujeres released a statement saying the municipality works constantly to promote a good image and maintain Isla Mujeres’ status as an important destination on the Mexican Caribbean. To achieve that, the municipality promotes efforts to maintain the island’s beaches and mangrove forests and runs programs to educate residents and visitors about the environment.

The municipality also employs permanent clean-up brigades on the three beaches that have been designated Blue Flag beaches by the Foundation for Environmental Education.

Source: La Jornada Maya (sp), Travel + Leisure (sp)

Citizens, local company provide Mexicali with air quality monitoring

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MND Staff

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July 16, 2019

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The Redspira app indicates air quality in Mexicali. Green is good, red is otherwise.

Mexicali, Baja California, has an air quality monitoring network thanks to the initiative of a local company and the support of residents, the local government and the state of California.

Called Redspira – a portmanteau of the Spanish words for network (red) and breathe (respirar) – the system is the largest of its kind in Mexico and its measurements can be accessed via a smartphone app and website.

Alberto Mexía Sánchez, director of software, engineering and consulting company Certuit, told the newspaper Reforma that the idea for the project came out of a conversation he had with friends about allergies triggered by contamination in the Baja California capital.

He subsequently put together a team that designed a sensor that measures levels of fine particulate matter in the atmosphere. Each sensor costs around US $350.

After initially making and installing 20 sensors at people’s homes and local businesses, a further 32 sensors donated by the state of California, the Mexicali government and 11 citizens were added to the network.

Mexía explained that the sensors provide a much more economical way to measure air quality compared to traditional monitoring stations, which cost 4 million pesos (US $210,000) to make and install and 500,000 pesos ($26,000) annually to operate and maintain.

A city such as Mexicali requires at least 12 stations to adequately measure air quality, he said.

“That’s 48 million pesos that the Mexicali council isn’t going to invest in technology which doesn’t solve the [air pollution] problem but is used to develop strategies,” Mexía said.

He explained that the air-quality data collected by Redspira is compared with that collected at a traditional monitoring station installed in Mexicali and the results have been similar.

“. . . That validates our data,” Mexía said.

According to statistics from the Baja California Secretariat of Health, there were 715 premature deaths in 2018 linked to air pollution in the state.

More than 30,000 medical consultations were required by people suffering from air contamination-related diseases last year and at least 17 million pesos was spent on the treatment of those illnesses.

Source: Reforma (sp)

5 die in Chiapas after eating poisonous mushrooms

By

Madison Koen

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July 16, 2019

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Of the 13,000 species of mushrooms in Chiapas, only 300 are edible.

Five people are dead and two others are in intensive care in Chiapas after two incidents involving poisonous mushrooms.

Health spokesman Octavio Alberto Coutiño Niño said that a family of four from Huixtán was admitted to a hospital in San Cristóbal de las Casas with symptoms indicating they had consumed poisonous mushrooms.

But doctors were unable to save three of the victims. A fourth family member is still receiving treatment at the Huixtán health center.

In another incident, a family of three collected mushrooms for personal consumption in a forest near the community of Chichelalo in San Andrés Larráinzar. Days later, all three were hospitalized but a 30-year-old man and his 6-year-old son died shortly thereafter. A third family member survived and is recovering in the San Andrés Larráinzar hospital.

The secretary of health called on citizens in the Tsotsil-Tseltal highlands region to collect mushrooms only while accompanied by someone experienced in distinguishing which varieties are edible.

There are 13,000 species of mushrooms in Chiapas, of which only 300 can be eaten. Among the most toxic species are the amanita verna, better known as the fool’s mushroom, and the amanita virosa, also known as the destroying angel mushroom, which account for most of the serious poisoning cases seen in the state.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Gang leader still on the run but officials say he has no resources left

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MND Staff

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July 16, 2019

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The second mansion to be seized in Santa Rosa de Lima.

The leader of a fuel theft gang believed to be responsible for much of the violence plaguing Guanajuato remains on the run but he has no resources to fund his criminal activities, according to federal and state authorities.

Government sources told the newspaper Milenio that the bank accounts of Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel leader José Antonio “El Marro” Yépez Ortiz are frozen, undermining his capacity to bribe authorities, pay other gang members and buy the loyalty of people in different parts of the state.

The federal Financial Intelligence Unit has blocked accounts held by Yépez or people linked to him. They contain nearly 35.5 million pesos (US $1.85 million).

Authorities said the joint federal and state government operation launched in March against the Santa Rosa gang and its leader is ongoing, and that by intercepting cartel communications they have confirmed that key members have deserted, leaving “El Marro” isolated and vulnerable.

A total of 62 people involved with the cartel – including a municipal police officer in Irapuato who provided intelligence – have been arrested since the operation began and one gang member was killed in a confrontation with federal forces last month.

Authorities have seized 14 properties, 129 vehicles — including several luxury cars and a fuel truck, close to 50 weapons, ammunition, bullet-proof vests, jewelry, drugs and cash, among other items, from the cartel.

A luxury home seized in March in the municipality of Villagrán with extensive gardens, a large swimming pool and two stone lion statues is believed to have been Yépez’s personal residence, while later the same week another similar home was secured.

The former property is now being used as barracks for the National Guard.

Other homes have been seized in Comonfort and Celaya. Behind one property in the former municipality, authorities discovered buried barrels containing human remains and weapons.

Authorities also reported that nine kidnapping victims have been rescued during its operation, some of whom are believed to be members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, which is engaged in a turf war in Guanajuato with the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel.

One of the kidnapping victims was a former police officer from Juventino Rosas while another was an active officer from Uriangato.

Yépez has been sought by authorities since 2008 on charges of fuel theft and organized crime. He became the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel leader in 2017, according to a report published today in Milenio.

In January, a narco-banner allegedly signed by Yépez appeared in Salamanca warning President López Obrador to remove security forces from Guanajuato or innocent people would die.

Explosives, referred to in the narcomanta as a “little gift,” were also left inside a vehicle parked in front of the Salamanca oil refinery but were removed by the army before they detonated.

Pemex CEO Octavio Romero said last month that fuel theft in Guanajuato had declined 93% since the government took office last December but the state remains Mexico’s most violent.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Sinaloa Cartel behind enslaved workers in Chihuahua: attorney general

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Madison Koen

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July 16, 2019

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This was home for Sinaloa Cartel slaves.

The Sinaloa Cartel was behind the enslavement of 21 men who were held in caves and forced to work on marijuana and poppy fields, the Chihuahua attorney general said.

“We have identified the criminal group that operates in the region, which is presumably the same one that deprived these people of their freedom,” César Augusto Peniche said, referring to the Sinaloa Cartel.

The men were rescued by more than 50 state police officers in the municipality of Ocampo last Thursday. The attorney general said that authorities received their key break in the case when an escaped captive gave police the location of the caves.

“We were able to establish contact with a person who told us that he had been deprived of his liberty to work in these [marijuana and poppy] fields. He himself gave us details that allowed us to pinpoint the location of where [the 21 captives] could be found.”

However, it was not the first attempt to rescue the men. Police first began receiving anonymous tips that a crime gang was forcing people to work in the Sierra Tarahumara along with reports by family members of some of the men’s disappearances over a year ago.

Some of the 21, several of whom are indigenous and nearly all of whom are from Chihuahua, were reportedly lured into captivity by promises of high-paying agricultural work. But the men worked all day and were given only flour, water and beans for food.

Some of the men said they had been forced to work for as long as two years.

Augusto Peniche said the investigation had been complicated by the vast territory and uneven terrain in the region. He added that the state was currently attempting to locate the victims’ families.

None of the men’s captors was present at the time of the rescue and no arrests have been made.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Scientists develop formula to preserve bodies without refrigeration

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Simon Schatzberg

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July 16, 2019

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Scientists at the National Autonomous University (UNAM) have developed a chemical formula to preserve cadavers without the use of refrigeration.

The formula is safer than using refrigeration and maintains the flexibility of the bodies, which allows them to be used for research and teaching.

According to Diego Pineda, the head of the biological innovation department at the UNAM’s medical school, researchers experimented for a year and a half before discovering the formula, which has several advantages over formaldehyde, commonly used for most chemical preservation of cadavers.

To be preserved in the latter, bodies need to be treated for three months, but the new formula developed at UNAM can preserve a body in 15 days, after which the body will not need further treatment or refrigeration to remain preserved. The formula contains less than 3% of formaldehyde mixed with other substances.

Formaldehyde and other alcohols that are used to preserve cadavers also dehydrate bodies, make them rigid and distort their natural colors, which limits their usability for research and teaching.

“With better cadavers, we will develop better skills, and reduce medical errors,” said Pineda. “And that will have a positive impact, because medical errors are the third-most-common cause of preventable death in the world.”

The new preservation process, along with an expansion of the medical school’s body donation program, has allowed the school to offer more postgraduate courses. Currently, more than 2,000 people have signed up to donate their bodies to the school. On average, one body can be used to teach eight courses.

The preservation formula is currently in the process of receiving Mexican and international patents.

Source: El Universal (sp)

No serious damage expected from Guaymas spill: environment secretary

By

Simon Schatzberg

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July 16, 2019

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Guaymas, site of the sulfuric acid spill.

Last week’s spill of sulfuric acid into the Gulf of California at a Grupo México facility will probably not have a serious environmental impact, according to Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) Secretary Víctor Toledo Manzur.

Toledo told a press conference that Semarnat will continue monitoring the situation and examine Grupo México’s history of environmental accidents. According to the environmentalist group Poder, the company has been implicated in 120 environmental infractions since the year 2000.

The environmental protection agency Profepa has opened an investigation into the July 9 spill.

Carlos Navarrete, a Social Encounter Party deputy in the Sonora legislature, blamed Grupo México for what he called an “environmental tragedy,” and said he will push the federal government to cancel the company’s mining concessions in Sonora.

“We have serious problems because of Grupo México, because they’re polluting every day, and there hasn’t been a complete investigation by Profepa or Semarnat,” he said. “It’s more like ‘Grupo Tóxico’ than Grupo México, because it’s hurting the health of all Sonorans.”

In his morning press conference on Monday, President López Obrador promised there will be an investigation into the accident, and that Grupo México will be punished if wrongdoing is discovered.

Grupo México stocks have already suffered as a result of the spill. Between July 10, when the accident occurred, and market close on Monday the company lost over 16 billion pesos (US $838 million) on the Mexican stock exchange, or 4.4% of its value.

Meanwhile, Profepa said the death of a sea lion in Guaymas, photos of which appeared on social media, was not connected with the spill. The photos were taken last month.

But an autopsy is being carried out on a dead sea turtle to determine the cause of death.

Grupo México is owned by Germán Larrea, the second-richest person in Mexico, and is the country’s largest mining company.

Source: El Financiero (sp), Uni Obregón (sp), Eje Central (sp)

Cartier, Rolex, Gucci: jewelry and watches on the block in next auction

By

Simon Schatzberg

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July 16, 2019

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oyster — Bids will start at 655,000 pesos for this diamond-encrusted, gold Rolex Oyster.

A 3-million-peso Piaget watch and a jewel-encrusted Montblanc fountain pen are among 153 lots of jewelry that will be auctioned July 28 in Mexico City.

The 1,978 pieces, which President López Obrador described as a demonstration of social decomposition, have been valued at 22.6 million pesos (US $1.2 million).

They had been confiscated by the courts, the Federal Tax Administration and the federal Attorney General’s Office.

Brands include Cartier, Corum, Rolex and Gucci and Montblanc.

The cheapest piece is a woman’s Gucci watch, which has a starting price of 10,200 pesos.

This 375,000-peso Montblanc gold pen has a Mexican flag made of emeralds, rubies and diamonds.

The most expensive is a men’s Piaget watch, with the face and band made of 18-carat white gold and encrusted with 49 diamonds.

It has a starting price of almost 3 million pesos.

A Montblanc fountain pen, adorned with a Mexican flag made of emeralds, rubies and diamonds, has a starting price of 374,400 pesos.

The president told his morning press conference today that the extravagance of the jewels demonstrates the level of social decomposition that existed in Mexico before he became president.

“We should do an exposition of how this cheap luxury became so important,” he said. “How did these material goods become more important than cultural, moral and spiritual values?”

He encouraged people to participate in the auction because the money raised will support poor communities around the country, although he did not specify which.

Highest-priced piece is this Piaget men's watch of white gold and diamonds. — Highest-priced piece is this Piaget men’s watch of white gold and diamonds. Starting prices is almost 3 million pesos.

Anyone interested in participating can buy a pass at regional offices of the System of Administrative Allocation of Assets (SAE), or at convenience stores. After buying a pass, participants will need to register at an SAE office.

Earlier auctions have sold automobiles and real estate seized from drug lords and other criminals.

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

Pemex business plan: tax cuts, capital injections and more oil

By

MND Staff

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July 16, 2019

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Pemex CEO Romero presents the oil company's new business plan.

Tax cuts, large injections of capital and increased oil production are proposed in the new business plan for the heavily-indebted state oil company Pemex.

Company CEO Octavio Romero said today that the company will pay 7% less tax and duties next year and an additional 4% less in 2021.

The plan will reduce the tax rate paid by Pemex from 65% to 54% in 2021, he said.

The government will inject 141 billion pesos (US $7.4 billion) into the company over the next three years, including 66 billion pesos in 2020.

Pemex will reinvest 221 billion pesos of its own funds next year while the tax cuts will generate savings of 45 billion pesos and the private sector will provide 14 billion pesos in the form of service contracts, according to a presentation at this morning’s presidential press conference.

All told, investment in Pemex will total 347 billion pesos ($18.2 billion) next year, while in 2021 it will rise to 411 billion pesos ($21.6 billion).

President López Obrador said the plan, approved unanimously yesterday by the Pemex board, is designed to transform “an oil industry in ruins” to one with the capacity to finance national growth.

“We are sowing oil . . .” he declared. The president has also pledged that a new $8-billion refinery on the Tabasco coast will start operations in May 2022.

Romero said that in the second half of President López Obrador’s six-year term “it will be Pemex which supports the federal government to finance growth and development in our country.”

He said the state-owned company is focusing its exploration efforts in shallow waters and onshore areas.

Pemex, which has long been the biggest contributor to public finances, currently provides about a fifth of the national budget even as oil output continues to decline, falling to a historic low of 1.625 million barrels per day (bpd) in January.

However, by the end of López Obrador’s administration in 2024, the company expects to produce 2.697 million bpd, a 66% increase on January numbers.

According to the new business plan, production will average 1.707 million bpd this year, 1.866 million bpd in 2020 and 2.069 million bpd in 2021.

While the production figures cited are positive, further downgrades to Pemex’s credit rating are expected if the plan fails to convince, the Financial Times said.

Fitch downgraded the company to junk status last month, reducing its credit rating from investment grade to speculative with a negative outlook. Pemex has debt in excess of US $100 billion.

Analysts at the investment bank Citigroup said after the presentation of the new business plan that a downgrade for both sovereign bonds and Pemex is only “a matter of time.”

A cut to Pemex’s rating would likely place pressure on the peso, which fell 0.6% today on news of the plan.

In a note to clients, Citigroup also said the strategy “doesn’t solve the main structural problems of the company.”

Pablo Medina, vice president of Welligence Energy Analytics, told Bloomberg that “Pemex is trying to be too many things at the same time under the new government policy, and its portfolio is very inefficient.”

He said that to improve its financial situation, Pemex needs to sell non-core assets and restart joint ventures.

“They need to take advantage of what the energy reform allows, leverage capital and stop trying to do it all by themselves.”

Source: Financial Times (en), El Financiero (sp), Bloomberg (en)