Coronavirus claims second victim; health officials confirm there are 203 cases

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March 21, 2020

One of the many protests against violence in Mexico City.

Mexico saw a record number of reports of sex crimes in February, when 5,239 investigations were initiated.

It was the highest number of reported cases since the National Public Security System (SNSP) began keeping such records in 1997.

Reports of sexual abuse, assault and harassment surged 28.5% from January to February, after the first month of 2020 saw 4,078 cases.

Mexico City had the highest number, where incidents skyrocketed 63.8% from 490 in January to 803 in February. Sexual abuse accounted for 415 of the cases and 167 were for sexual assault.

On a brighter note, intentional homicides dropped 1.8% in February to 2,766.

The most reported sex crime in the country was sexual abuse, which accounted for 2,237 of the cases, followed by rape, with 1,135. There were 565 reports of sexual assault, a 56% increase from the 363 reported in January.

There was also a rise in reports of sexual harassment, from 128 in January to 228 last month, a 78% increase.

The federal government’s Specialized Committee on Sexual Violence estimates that nine of every 10 people reporting such crimes were female and that as many as 40% of them were under 15 years old.

Femicides increased by 24.6% in February, with 91 cases. The majority of them took place in México state, which saw 16. It was followed by Veracruz (12), Puebla (10), Nuevo León (7), Baja California (6) and Mexico City (5).

Those six federal entities accounted for 61.5% of the reports of femicide in the country in February.

Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum announced on February 21 that her administration would strengthen the city’s security strategies to focus on violence against women in order to detect and prevent such crimes.

At the beginning of March, she announced the program called S.O.S. Mujeres, or S.O.S. Women, which aims to visit every single household in the city to inform women of the institutions available to victims in need of support.

She also proposed a campaign to promote equality and nonviolence, as well as a public sex offender database, the approval of a law to criminalize the publication of sexual material without the person’s consent and a street security campaign called Camina libre, Camina segura (Walk free, Walk safe).

Over 80,000 women marched in Mexico City on March 8 to demand better security in the wave of femicides that has swept over the country.

Source: Milenio (sp)

CORRECTION: Homicide numbers were incorrect in the earlier version of this story.

Zihuatanejo’s Sotavento resort: a dream project on the cusp of completion

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Elisabeth Ashe

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March 21, 2020

For many years, construction of the iconic Sotavento Ocean Resort & Villas overlooking the bay of Zihuatanejo has been a source of frustration — for both buyers as yet unable to realize their dream of owning a beachfront condo and locals who’ve had to view the unfinished project with seemingly no end in sight.

For many it was an eyesore that would never be completed and the source of rumors and half-truths that surrounded the project.

After receiving an invitation to check it out, I caught up with Mike Drever, the project’s developer since 2018, at his “Meet the Developer” social event. I wanted to find out firsthand why he believes this project will finally come to fruition. But first I wanted to know how and why he came to Zihuatanejo in the first place.

“I worked on a 46.6-foot Bertram sportfishing yacht as a deckhand when I was in my early 20s, called Muy Loco. I ran the boat from Vancouver to Acapulco and of course found Zihuatanejo along the way and fell in love with it. I also discovered the Sotavento Hotel, which I frequented regularly.”

I couldn’t help but see the irony and asked him whether his 20-year-old self ever thought he would one day own the hotel he loved to watch sunsets from at the Sunset Bar, to which he replied, “Never.”

It made me curious how someone went from being a deckhand to working in the travel/hospitality industry.

At 26 Drever opened his first travel agency, CruiseShipCenters, then sold 50% to Expedia in 2006 and renamed it ExpediaCruiseShipCenters. Over the next few years he began to reduce his percentage of ownership until in 2012 he resigned completely. As an entrepreneur behind many companies over the years, he saw to it that three of his businesses were directly involved with the Sotavento project: Performing Equity Ltd, a real estate development company; BranchUp, the travel technology company for sales and marketing of the hotel; and Glory Juice Co. for the wellness, food and education programs.

“When we first took possession of the property, we had to kind of take a deep dive and do an assessment as to what would be the best utilization of the property — what would be the best way to build it out. And as you know there is a legacy. There were a bunch of people who originally purchased a property here and when the project stalled, we made the decision as a new developer to protect their investments. We were able to, in working with them, move them out of what is known as the North Tower. And everyone got into the South Tower.” They then added 10 more units.

The reasoning behind that, Drever explained, was to get the existing owners into the project and get the project opened as fast as possible. Technically (and legally) they could have just foreclosed on the property.

“But that was not something we wanted to do and so we honored all contracts with previous buyers. From where we are right now, we could be open in eight months, but realistically I believe we will open February/March 2021.”

Drever then explained that his program differs quite a bit from timeshares, admitting that some programs are good while others are “not so good.”

“With our program we all become travel agents. In other words, the Sotavento Travel Club pays you commission wherever you travel in the world in the form of savings, with up to 60% off online travel agencies such as Expedia, Travelocity and those types of companies.”

The other reason that Drever is confident about the project is the support they’ve received from various levels of government, including the municipality and the state.

“This is an iconic piece of property. When we open, it will be one of the largest employers in the city. As far as what we can give back to the community, we are working with all the organic farms that are currently working at 5% capacity. It’s a great opportunity to get those farms going and be able to bring that produce into the market, and this kind of helps in creating some employment. The city works very closely with us and last year they rezoned this entire beach. There is a lot of work that has been done here that people can’t see because it is all on the inside.”

As I toured the incredibly beautiful suites, I tried to imagine waking up to the view of the bay of Zihuatanejo – but as of today’s writing, the property is 75% sold.

The writer is a Canadian who has lived and worked in Mexico for many years.

CORRECTION: A photo that appeared in the original version of this story was not an accurate depiction of the project as it is today and has been removed.

General Motors, Volkswagen announce temporary plant closures

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March 21, 2020

The coronavirus is shutting down more automotive plants in Mexico.

More automobile manufacturers have announced that they will temporarily close plants and take other precautionary measures in response to the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.

Ford, Honda and other major car companies announced earlier this week that they would limit or suspend production in Mexico in attempts to mitigate the spread of the virus. Now others have also decided to take action.

General Motors had originally planned to close only plants in the United States and Canada, but the company announced Friday that it would temporarily halt production at its four plants in Mexico for cleaning and sanitization.

The plants are located in México state, San Luis Potosí, Guanajuato, and Coahuila. They will suspend operations at different times between March 23 and 30, and the company has set a tentative reopening date for April 13.

Volkswagen will also suspend operations at its plants in Puebla and Guanajuato beginning March 30, resuming production on April 12. The plant in Puebla is the site where that state’s first case of Covid-19 was confirmed.

Volkswagen said in a press release that it took many factors into consideration when making the decision, but safety was the top priority.

“The most important part of the analysis was the behavior of the contagion in other countries and how they compare with the virus’s evolution in Mexico, all with the purpose of mitigating as much as possible the risk to our collaborators, their families and the general population,” it said.

The week before the suspension of activities, the company will attempt to control the spread of the virus with checkpoints equipped with thermal cameras at the entrances and exits to the plants, the suspension of all new international travel and 14-day home quarantines for employees returning from international business trips currently in progress.

Nissan also announced that it will suspend its manufacturing in Mexico, shutting down from March 25 to April 14.

“There are currently no cases of the coronavirus in any Nissan installation [in Mexico],” said the company in a press release. “The other areas essential to the company will function with optimal security measures.”

Pirelli Tires took into account both the health risk from the virus and the current lack of demand for its product when deciding to scale back production.

The Italian company said that it will halt operations on Monday and monitor the situation day by day. It did not say when it would resume production.

“For the people who keep working, even with reduced production, Pirelli established security protocols to protect the health of its workers, who continue to be its priority,” the company said in a statement.

It will keep its warehouses functioning at reduced levels in order to keep providing limited services to customers.

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

Coronavirus pandemic is bad business for the bad guys too

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March 20, 2020

Mexico City vendors must continue to pay extortion even as sales decline.

The coronavirus pandemic is not only having a big economic impact on legal industries such as tourism, retail and entertainment; it’s also hitting Mexican criminal groups.

Citing several Mexican media sources, a report by InSight Crime, a foundation dedicated to the study of organized crime in Latin America and the Caribbean, says that criminal groups are struggling to source illicit items from China such as fake luxury goods and chemical precursors to make fentanyl because of the outbreak of Covid-19.

It was reported in February that La Unión de Tepito, a criminal group that controls much of the counterfeit goods trade in Mexico City, was facing pushback from businesses when its members went to collect extortion payments known as cobro de piso. The businesses said that they couldn’t afford to make the payments because they were not receiving illegal merchandise from China.

A cell within La Unión de Tepito, which is based in the notorious Mexico City neighborhood of the same name, has been going to China since 2010 to purchase counterfeit clothes, jewelry and other goods to be sold later in shops and markets in neighborhoods such as Tepito, Lagunilla and the capital’s historic center.

However, due to the outbreak of coronavirus in Wuhan, China, late last year, the members of the cell known as Los Marcos Polos have been unable to travel to the east Asian nation to purchase new supplies. La Unión de Tepito reportedly told shopkeepers that the trips to China have been suspended.

While some business owners are threatening to stop paying extortion payments after paying for merchandise from China that hasn’t arrived, La Unión de Tepito remains determined as ever to collect them.

Business owners in the central Mexico City borough of Cuauhtémoc who spoke with the newspaper Milenio said that even though their sales are down due to the growing outbreak of Covid-19 in Mexico, members of La Unión have made it clear that they will not be stopping the collection of payments.

One person who asked to remain anonymous told Milenio that a gang member said: “Start saving because there won’t be a reprieve because of the virus.”

“We don’t give a damn that there are not a lot of people [shopping, frequenting bars, etc.]. … [If you don’t pay] there will be abductions, you toe the line or you’re fucked.”

Milenio reported that La Unión has incurred massive losses due to the failure to secure and sell counterfeit goods from China and is determined to make up for them by charging an additional “tax” in areas where it holds sway.

The business owners said that young, armed men on motorbikes are sent to collect the cobro de piso payments and threaten them. They renewed their call for the National Guard to be deployed to central Mexico City to combat crime.

As La Unión de Tepito sees its revenue fall due to the disruption of supply chains in China, another much larger criminal organization is also experiencing an interruption to business as usual as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Citing a source within the federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR), MVS Noticias journalist Óscar Balderas reported on the radio show Nación Criminal earlier this month that the China contacts of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) have been unable to ship precursors to make the synthetic opioid fentanyl due to the outbreak of Covid-19.

According to the FGR source, the CJNG may be forced to raise its fentanyl prices and could lose customers to other criminal groups as a result.

Headed by Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera, the Jalisco cartel is one of two main importers of fentanyl into the United States, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

InSight Crime reported that the supply chain troubles of La Unión de Tepito and the CJNG are likely only the beginning of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on organized crime.

In an analysis of the situation, it predicted that “criminal groups across the region will feel the squeeze.”

“Countries across Latin America are shutting down borders and preventing air travel, which is likely to significantly disrupt criminal economies like drug trafficking, contraband smuggling and human trafficking. With most aircraft grounded, illicit drug flights that have become a mainstay of drug trafficking in the region may become easier to track,” Insight Crime said.

Larger organizations, such as the CJNG, are better equipped to withstand the coronavirus-fueled economic slowdown but smaller groups such as La Unión de Tepito may struggle, the foundation said.

Source: Insight Crime (en), Milenio (sp)

Central bank cuts benchmark rate to 6.5% in response to pandemic

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March 20, 2020

The Bank of México (Banxico) cut its benchmark rate by 50 basis points to 6.5% on Friday, mimicking other central banks around the world that have eased rates in response to the global coronavirus pandemic.

The decision came after an unscheduled meeting of the Banxico board whose members were not due to meet until March 26.

“Considering the risks for inflation, economic activity and financial markets derived from the Covid-19 pandemic, significant challenges arise for monetary policy and the economy in general. In the face of the forecast impact, with the presence of all of its members, the board decided by a majority to reduce … the interbank interest rate …” the central bank said in a statement.

It added that one board member voted in favor of a quarter-point rather than a half-point cut.

Noting that the value of the Mexican peso has declined significantly, the prices of raw materials, especially oil, have fallen markedly, financial conditions around the world have deteriorated and global growth forecasts have “severely” slumped, the Bank of México said that it would also take additional measures to “provide liquidity and improve the operation of domestic financial markets.”

They include reducing the minimum amount of cash reserves that banks must hold and offering dollar auctions.

The central bank said that the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on economic activity in Mexico, “in the context of greater weakness in the global economy,” will result in a “deterioration of growth prospects.”

The prediction comes three weeks after Banxico cut its growth forecast for 2020 to between 0.5% and 1.5%, citing weakness in the global economy, trade tensions and the outbreak of coronavirus as factors.

With cases of Covid-19 increasing in Mexico and around the world, that forecast now looks fanciful.

Investment bank Credit Suisse is now predicting that the Mexican economy will contract 4% this year while the Bank of America anticipates that GDP will shrink by 4.5%.

With regard to inflation, the Bank of México said that it expects the rate to continue to trend downwards, albeit more slowly, toward the goal of 3%. Lower energy prices will help push prices down but the falling exchange rate could place upward pressure on the inflation rate, Banxico said.

Source: El Financiero (sp)

Supposedly ancient sculpture returned to Nigeria declared a ‘total fake’

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March 20, 2020

The sculpture presented by Mexico to Nigeria.

A sculpture thought to be an ancient artifact that was seized at the Mexico City airport and returned to Nigeria in February is a fake, according to the ethnography curator of a museum in Belgium that specializes in the culture and history of Africa.

On February 25, Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Julián Ventura handed over a small bronze sculpture believed to have come from the ancient Yoruba city of Ife to Nigeria’s ambassador to Mexico, Aminu Iyawa.

Ventura said at the time that returning “illegally extracted” cultural artifacts to their country of origin was a “priority” for Mexico.

Without guaranteeing that the sculpture was authentic, Raffaella Cedraschi, a researcher at Mexico City’s National Museum of Cultures, said in a a report prepared in conjunction with the National Institute of Anthropology and History that it “very probably” came from Ife, an ancient city in the southwest of Nigeria that is famous for bronze, stone and terracotta sculptures dating back to between 1200 and 1400 AD.

The sculpture, which depicts a man and was sent to Mexico by post from Cape Town, South Africa, could be the product of “archaeological looting” or “trafficking of ancient objects,” the report said.

“We believe that it is necessary … to deem it an important cultural asset for the Yoruba people of Nigeria.”

However, the ethnography curator at the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren, Belgium, told the newspaper El Universal that it was “really simple” to arrive at the conclusion that the sculpture is a “total fake.”

Julien Volper was able to reach his conclusion simply by looking at a photograph of the piece.

The “appearance, style and patina” of the sculpture all belie its authenticity, said Volper, who also advises the police, customs and other authorities in Belgium when they are investigating cases related to African artifacts.

“I would never make a declaration [that the sculpture is fake] … if I wasn’t 100% certain. This piece is totally fake, without a doubt,” he said.

Volper said that any other expert, curator, collector or merchant of African art would reach the same conclusion.

“Honestly, just seeing the photo is enough,” he said.

The curator said that he didn’t know how the authorities in Mexico could have determined that the sculpture is authentic but suggested that it was probably because they have a lack of knowledge about African art.

“They habitually work with Mexican and pre-Columbian art but not likely with African art. The biggest mistake was to leave the work to people who don’t specialize in African art,” Volper said.

Source: El Universal (sp)

CDMX nurses protest shortage of supplies to deal with coronavirus

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March 20, 2020

Protesting nurses claim shortages are not new.

Nursing staff at a Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) hospital in Mexico City blocked the avenue outside the facilities on Friday to protest a lack of supplies to face the spread of the coronavirus Covid-19.

They complained of a shortage of face masks, gowns and gloves, a problem they have faced since before the arrival of the coronavirus in Mexico, they said.

“We have to go out and buy that stuff ourselves,” said one nurse in the protest. “This shortage has been going on for a long time, but now it’s getting worse because of the coronavirus.”

He said that they have seen possible cases of Covid-19 at the hospital but have not been able to attend to them as they haven’t received any training.

Another nurse said that on the rare occasions when supplies are provided, they’re not of good quality and often break or must be replaced more often than necessary.

“They give us face masks that soon break. We need more materials to attend to patients and protect ourselves,” she said.

The protesters demanded to speak with the director of the hospital, and a committee of five was formed and received by the hospital administration to open a dialogue.

The number of cases of Covid-19 in Mexico rose to 164 on Thursday.

Health workers at another IMMS hospital in Mexico City’s Tlatelolco neighborhood protested for the same reasons on Thursday. IMSS announced that same evening that it had supplied the hospital with what it needed.

The Mexican health system has also been experiencing shortages of cancer medications for nearly a year, and parents and family members of cancer patients have been protesting regularly to pressure the government to solve the problem.

Source: Reforma (sp)

Spanish chain shuts down hotels on Riviera Maya due to Covid-19

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March 20, 2020

The Riu Palace Mexico in Playa del Carmen is one of the hotels that will close.

The Spanish hotel chain Riu announced on Thursday that it will temporarily close many of its hotels in Mexico due to the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting downturn in tourism.

Among the hotels set to close effective March 23 are the Lupita, Tequila, Playacar and Palace México hotels in the Riviera Maya region of Quintana Roo as well as the Dunamar property on Costa Mujeres north of Cancún.

Riu said in a statement that other hotels will “gradually” close “depending on occupancy needs.“

The chain, which has 20 properties with more than 11,500 rooms in Mexico, said that its hotels currently have very low occupancy levels and therefore it has to adjust to “the reality of the market at this time.”

Riu employs more than 10,000 people in Mexico, many of whom appear set to be laid off, at least temporarily.

According to a report by the tourism news website Reportur, other Spanish chains that operate hotels in Quintana Roo are also planning month-long closures.

Lenin Amaro Betancourt, president of the Riviera Maya branch of the Business Coordinating Council, said that hotel cancellations are already up 40% over normal levels and that he expects the situation to worsen as Covid-19 continues to spread around the world and more countries close their borders.

He called for financial support from all three levels of government to help tourism-oriented businesses maintain as much of their workforces as possible.

Authorities in Cancún, where hotel occupancy has plummeted this week, have announced that movie theaters, bars, nightclubs, casinos and other venues that bring together large numbers of people will be temporarily closed to limit the spread of coronavirus, which had sickened 164 people in Mexico as of Thursday and killed at least one.

Source: EFE (sp), Reportur (sp)

US announces partial border closure; trade to continue

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March 20, 2020