Mexico proposes 7 Central American development projects for US

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May 24, 2019

Foreign Secretary Ebrard in Washington yesterday.

Mexico has proposed that the United States fund seven projects aimed at generating economic opportunities and well-being in Central America and stemming the northward flow of migrants.

After meeting with United States Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan in Washington D.C. yesterday, Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard told reporters that he presented “what would be the Mexican strategy with respect to the countries of the Northern Triangle: Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.”

He described the meeting as “very useful and interesting.”

The foreign secretary explained that several of the projects are energy-related, including construction of an electric grid and a network to distribute natural gas.

A US $1-billion plan for schools in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador to be led by the United Nations Children’s Fund is also among the seven proposed projects.

“I cannot tell you now whether the United States will take all the projects we bring, but certainly Mexico’s perspective needs to be taken into account,” Ebrard said.

“I hope President Trump, once he has the information we are providing, can reassess what Mexico is proposing,” he added.

“In a few words . . . what we are saying is that Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador should form part of the North American economic region, which is the largest in the world, but for that [to happen] we need to take these decisions and make these investments in the short term because if we don’t, the [migration situation] won’t have a solution.”

Ebrard was originally scheduled to meet with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo but he had to cancel at the last minute for a meeting with President Trump.

Yesterday’s meeting with Sullivan came three days after Ebrard and the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean presented a regional development plan designed to improve economic and social conditions in southern Mexico and Central America.

The foreign secretary remained in Washington today, where he met with senior White House adviser Jared Kushner, acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan and other officials.

After the meeting, Ebrard wrote on Twitter that “we explained the Mexican vision proposed by President López Obrador to attend to the causes of migration,” adding “it’s time to commit to the development of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.”

He also told a press conference that he hoped the United States would commit to additional development funding for southern Mexico and Central America beyond the US $10.6 billion it agreed to in December.

“We will seek, if possible, a higher figure but I won’t say it now because it’s possible that I’ll increase resistance,” he said.

Source: El Economista (sp), Associated Press (en), El Sol de México (sp)

Ecatepec leads the country in lynching with 28 incidents

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MND Staff

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May 24, 2019

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Nowhere in Mexico is violent vigilante justice more common than in Ecatepec, México state: there were 28 lynchings or attempted lynchings in the municipality between 2015 and 2018.

A new report by the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) said there were 336 lynchings or attempted lynchings in all of Mexico in the four-year period, and that the number of cases rose every year.

There were 43 in 2015, 59 in 2016, 60 in 2017 and 174 last year. The 2018 figure represents a 190% increase over the previous year.

A total of 188 municipalities recorded at least one lynching case during the four years studied by the CNDH.

There were 561 victims of whom 121 were killed in last year’s cases, the CNDH said. More than 90% of the victims were men.

The number of lynching cases in Ecatepec – a sprawling, heavily-populated municipality in the metropolitan area of Mexico City that is notorious for violent crime – is more than twice that in Puebla city, which recorded the second highest incidence of violent mob justice with 13 cases between 2015 and 2018.

Cárdenas, Tabasco, was next with 10 cases followed by Iztapalapa, Mexico City, with eight cases and Naucalpan, México state, with seven.

Milpa Alta, a largely rural borough in the south of Mexico City, Tehuacán, Puebla, and Villahermosa, Tabasco, all recorded six cases of lynching between 2015 and 2018.

The CNDH said that in 69% of cases the lynchings or attempts at lynching were retaliation for robberies, attributing the high percentage to the fact that it is more likely to catch someone in the act of stealing than when committing other crimes.

Alleged kidnappers were targeted in 11% of the cases while people believed to have committed sexual assaults were victims in 7%.

Last year’s cases occurred in 23 states but just five – Puebla, México, Tabasco, Mexico City and Hidalgo – accounted for 76% of cases.

A total of 34 people were killed in lynchings in those five states in 2018.

Impunity and a high perception of insecurity are key factors in the rising number of lynchings occurring in the country, the CNDH determined via a survey.

Source: Milenio (sp)

US asked Mexico not to accept Chinese investment, form common front

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MND Staff

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May 24, 2019

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The United States asked the Mexican government and the private sector not to accept investment from China, especially that directed to strategic projects, President López Obrador’s chief of staff has revealed.

Speaking at a meeting of the Mexican Iron and Steel Industry Chamber yesterday, Alfonso Romo said the request came from United States Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross at the conclusion of a bilateral business conference in Mérida, Yucatán, last month.

After the conference ended, several members of the Mexican delegation had a meeting with Ross, Romo said.

“I’m going to tell you a very interesting anecdote . . .” Romo said.

“He told us: ‘I want to request several things. We want to strengthen the [bilateral] relationship because the only way the United States can compete with China is to have a very strong common-front trading bloc,’” he continued.

According to Romo, Ross then said: “‘Secondly, we don’t want the participation of very active Chinese investment in Mexico, especially in strategic projects. Thirdly, we want you to help us to stop migration from Central America and fourthly, the president [Donald Trump] made a compromise, and consequently we’re going to take a lot of care with how we negotiate the 232 [metal tariffs].’”

The chief of staff said he was initially taken aback by the requests but quickly slipped into negotiation mode, using Mexican tomatoes (the United States introduced a 17.5% tariff on imports this month) and the U.S. metal tariffs – which have now been lifted – as bargaining chips.

“I remained silent. Then I said to him . . . you ask four things of us but you don’t want [Mexican] tomatoes; you have to decide if you want tomatoes or migrants, or steel or migrants,” Romo said.

Later in the meeting, the chief of staff clarified that investment from China, and any other foreign country, is welcome in Mexico.

“We want foreign investment to go from $29 billion or $30 billion [a year] to 35 or 40 billion. We see that a lot of American companies could come to Mexico, they’re Americans that produce in China and now because of the trade war they will look for a place to move,” Romo said.

“We must take advantage of the opportunity . . . a lot of industries that are there [in China] don’t have North American content [in their products] and they should come to Mexico.”

Source: El Financiero (sp)

Average temperatures are higher due to climate change, professor warns

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Simon Schatzberg

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May 24, 2019

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Professor Martínez warns that climate change requires attention from the state.

The average temperature in Mexico has risen 1.2 C over the last 30 years, according to a professor of hydraulic engineering, who believes Mexico should reconsider its policies regarding climate change.

Polioptro Martínez Austria, a professor at the University of the Americas in Puebla (UDLAP), told a conference on climate change that in some cities, such as Mexicali, Baja California, and Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, the increase in temperature has been three times higher.

Heat waves have also become longer, more frequent and more intense, Martínez said, lasting up to 20 days and pushing temperatures over 40 C.

Rising temperatures and heat waves have contributed to an increase in climate-related mortality in Mexico, which Martínez says sets the country apart from much of the rest of the world.

“While in the rest of the world the number of deaths because of natural disasters is decreasing, it is increasing in Mexico,” said Martínez. “We’re doing something wrong, and the cost of disasters is going up.”

Martínez suggested that the high levels of air pollution in Mexico City over the past few weeks are related to climate change.

“The emergency has already started,” he said. “What happened in Mexico City should be a wakeup call.”

Martínez noted that rising temperatures are mostly the result of greenhouse gas emissions. China and the United States are responsible for 27% of global greenhouse gas emissions, while Mexico is responsible for 1.5%.

He criticized the decision by President López Obrador to pursue policies that would increase greenhouse gas emissions, such as the construction of a new oil refinery.

“When I hear the president of this country say that we are going to generate carbon again, that worries us, as researchers,” he said. “It’s not about political support, but as a scientist, I can say it is an error.”

Source: El Economista (sp), Periódico Zócalo (sp)

Developers to invest 250 million pesos in CDMX residential restoration

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César Hernández

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May 24, 2019

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Renewed housing planned in historic center. — Restoration of housing planned in historic center.

Developers are planning a long-term investment of millions of pesos in renovating and restoring residential buildings in the historic center of Mexico City.

The president of the Mexican Association of Real Estate Professionals said that 250 million pesos (US $13.1 million) will be invested over the next five years, leaving old homes in the area ready to be sold or leased.

Pablo Vázquez Rodríguez said the real estate sector is interested in investing in the area due to its historic, financial, political and cultural relevance.

“Housing satisfies a family’s social needs, but it also creates community and gives society an identity,” he said, adding that the industry received Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum’s initiative to reinvigorate the historic center with “optimism.”

The initiative will recondition the area to encourage housing projects, attract investment and achieve an “inclusive urban development,” Vázquez explained.

He also remarked that the restoration of several areas, including those of Antigua Merced, Santa María La Redonda, the Alameda Central park and Hidalgo avenue, has already started, along with an assessment of the center’s subsoil, its sewer and water systems and the repaving of streets.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Court reaffirms 8-year prison sentence for ex-CFE executive

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Madison Koen

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May 24, 2019

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Ex-CFE executive Moreno. — Former CFE operations director Moreno.

A federal court has denied an appeal by a former electricity commission executive of an eight-year prison sentence.

Néstor Moreno Díaz, former director of operations at the Federal Electricity Commission, was handed the prison sentence in March 2017 when he was found guilty of illicit enrichment.

An investigation by the Attorney General’s Office was triggered by a United States investigation that found that Moreno had used a line of credit at a U.S. bank to purchase a $1.8-million yacht and a Ferrari Spider and enroll his son in a private military academy in Wisconsin.

Moreno accepted tens of millions of pesos in bribes from United States-based firm Lindsey Manufacturing in exchange for contracts.

A key part of the investigation was the discovery of an unaccounted-for 36 million pesos (US $1.9 million) in assets obtained by the former executive over the course of nine years, including 7.7 million pesos in bank deposits, a piece of land in Ensenada, Baja California, and several luxury vehicles.

During the same period, Moreno Díaz officially earned just 21 million pesos ($1.9 million).

Yesterday, a panel of federal judges unanimously voted to confirm Moreno’s prison sentence and fine of 31,315 pesos.

A 2017 ruling prevents the former executive from holding office for a period of eight years and any of his assets whose source cannot be verified were to be seized by authorities.

According to the newspaper Reforma, sources close to Moreno said he is expected to appeal the court’s decision again.

Reforma also reported it is one of the few cases that the Attorney General’s Office has won.

Source: Reforma (sp)

Heavy vehicle production soars 40%, breaks record in first quarter

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César Hernández

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May 24, 2019

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Bus and truck manufacturers broke a production record in the third quarter. — Bus and truck manufacturers broke a production record.

Heavy vehicle production soared 40% during the first quarter, breaking all records, the National Association of Bus, Truck and Tractor Manufacturers (ANPACT) announced.

A total of 36,422 units were produced between January and March last year, but this year the industry delivered 51,058 during the same period.

The previous record for the quarter was in 2015, when production was 50,210 units.

ANPACT executive president Miguel Elizalde told the newspaper El Economista that the increase in output was due to increased demand in the North American market.

Exports were up 34% to 41,940 units.

ANPACT represents 14 major manufacturers of heavy vehicles and engines, including Dina, Freightliner, Kenworth and Volvo.

Source: El Economista (sp)

National Guard will operate nationwide by June 30: AMLO

By

Simon Schatzberg

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May 24, 2019

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The lower house of Congress approved four laws last night that were necessary for the functioning of the new National Guard, paving the way for the force to begin operating across the country.

At his daily press conference Friday morning, President López Obrador announced that the National Guard will be operating nationwide by June 30.

“Although it is already operating in some states, the national, formal operation will begin on June 30,” he said.

He added that training courses for members of the guard have already started.

The initiative to create the new security force won the support of all the major political parties and the related secondary legislation was approved nearly unanimously by the Chamber of Deputies. Only independent Deputy Lucía Rojas voted against them.

Opposition deputies criticized specific parts of the legislation while supporting it in general.

Juan Carlos Romero Hicks, leader of the National Action Party in the lower house, expressed his reservations about the National Guard after voting in favor of the legislation.

“We’re worried about the treatment of migrants, who aren’t included in records of arrested people,” he said. “We’re worried about the impact it will have on the budget.”

René Juárez of the Institutional Revolutionary Party demanded that the guard be given the resources it needs to improve security.

“The government wanted the National Guard, now it has it,” he said. “Now Mexicans want results.”

Another issue that worried legislators is that the force will be able to intercept communications with the permission of a judge.

Under the legislation, army soldiers or navy marines who become part of the National Guard must leave the military institutions and subject themselves to civilian command.

Over the next 18 months, the Federal Police will be dissolved and its officers will be incorporated into the guard.

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

Hospitals warn of insolvency due to cuts but AMLO insists there have been none

By

MND Staff

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May 24, 2019

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A patient waits for a bed in the hallway of a hospital in Irapuato, Guanajuato.

Hospitals and national health institutes have warned that they are on the brink of insolvency due to federal budget cuts and the freezing of funds, threatening their ability to operate.

At a meeting with members of the budget committee of the lower house of Congress yesterday, the directors of nine government health institutes and two public hospitals said that a total of 2.3 billion pesos (US $120.7 million) has either been cut or withheld from their budgets as a result of austerity measures.

They demanded that the federal government release additional resources to ensure that they can continue to provide care to patients.

A document submitted to lawmakers warned that a shortfall in funding for the institutes of Nutrition, Pediatrics, Cancer and Neurology among others as well as the Federico Gómez Children’s Hospital of Mexico and the Gea González Hospital will reach critical levels in June.

Failing the provision of additional resources, the 11 facilities will be unable to pay for anesthetic services, purchase specialty drugs and medical equipment and hire new staff, the directors said.

They also said they wouldn’t have the funding needed to pay for overtime hours, water and internet services and predicted that the number of surgical procedures carried out would have to be reduced.

“It was an intense, important meeting,” said budget committee president Alfonso Ramírez Cuellar, a lawmaker for the ruling Morena party.

“They’re asking for the budget committee to be a mediator in a meeting with the finance secretary and the president . . .” he added.

The document entitled Position of National Health Institutes in the Face of Budget Cuts said that 50% of the budget allocated to the Federico Gómez hospital in Mexico City to subcontract medical services has been frozen.

It also said that the hospital faced shortages of anesthetics and nitric oxide, undermining its capacity to schedule surgeries and threatening the adequate treatment of serious medical conditions in newborn babies.

The document added that the hospital only has enough funds to pay cleaning staff until July and warned that nurses and lab technicians may have to be laid off.

Union secretary general Ayala says 10,000 workers have been dismissed.

The institutes of Psychiatry, Nutrition, Respiratory Illnesses, Perinatology, Pediatrics, Geriatrics and Neurology as well as the Gea González Hospital warned that a lack of funding to hire medical personnel is affecting their capacity to provide care to patients.

“There are repercussions in the working environment, delays in medical attention, shortages of medicines . . .” said Pediatrics Institute director Alejandro Serrano.

But President López Obrador today rejected the claims that 2.3 billion pesos has been withheld from the health sector.

“There are no [fund] retention problems, [the accusations] are inventions . . . They may have a lack of information, that’s why we’re going to clear it up without any problem,” he said.

Yesterday, the president asserted that there haven’t been any staff cuts in the public health sector.

“No one is being laid off, it’s propaganda, it’s to damage us. Now you’re seeing the ‘underworld of journalism,’” he charged.

But the secretary general of the Federation of Unions of Workers at the Service of the State (FSTSE) disputed the president’s assertion, stating there have in fact been 10,000 dismissals since the new government took office.

“Of course there have been dismissals and what’s annoying is that they can provide [the president] with data that has no truthful content,” Joel Ayala said in a radio interview.

“We have proof about the number of workers in the health sector who have been dismissed, how many doctors, how many nurses . . .”

Ayala added that his union is open to dialogue with the government to discuss ways to resolve the problems currently faced by the public health system.

“We’re waiting for the president to instruct the Secretariat of Finance to open the doors for dialogue. We will present in real terms the deficiencies of the medical sector,” he said.

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

Insecurity, sargassum blamed for drop on international tourism ranking

By

Simon Schatzberg

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May 24, 2019

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Sargassum and insecurity hurt tourist numbers.

Mexico fell to seventh place on the World Tourism Organization’s (WTO) ranking of most-visited countries in 2018 after being overtaken by Turkey for the first time.

According to the WTO, 41.4 million international travelers visited Mexico last year, a 5.5% increase over 2017. But international travel to Turkey grew 21.7%, and the west Asian country was able to overtake Mexico with 45.8 million international visits in 2018.

Jorge Hernández, president of the Mexican Association of Travel Agencies (AMAV), told Milenio that Mexico’s drop in the ranking is related to insecurity in many tourism destinations, as well as the large amounts of sargassum that are washing up on beaches around Cancún and the Riviera Maya, one of Mexico’s main travel destinations.

Hernández said that violence has been concentrated in certain places, including Cancún and the Riviera Maya, Guerrero, Tamaulipas and Sinaloa, but it affects the perception of the entire country.

He gave the example of Acapulco, which because of violence has lost its position as an international tourism destination, and now receives only Mexican visitors for the most part.

Countries that remain below Mexico on the ranking are Germany and Thailand, with 38.9 million and 38.3 million, respectively. Exact numbers have not been finalized, but the top three countries are expected to remain the same: France, Spain and the United States.

Hernández said another important reason behind Mexico’s drop in the ranking is that Turkey has become a “fashionable destination” for foreign tourists.

Visiting Turkey is becoming more popular because it has many attractive products and is close to many other destinations. Hernández said that even many Mexicans are starting to visit Turkey, often as part of multi-country trips that include other destinations like the Greek islands.

For the tourist industry, the outlook is not good. The National Tourism Business Council (CNET) says hotel occupancy was down 7% in the first three months, and rates were cut 15% in efforts to lure more business.

CNET president Pablo Azcárraga told Excélsior the disappointing numbers are a result of the decision by the federal government to disband the Tourism Promotion Council (CPTM).

“The problems are due to a mistaken tourism policy that we have in this country,” he said.

Source: Milenio (sp), Dinero en Imagen (sp)