Seade: the more time passes the more complicated is the ratification of USMCA.
A foreign affairs official has criticized the United States for complicating the ratification process for the new North American trade deal by making unjustified demands.
Interviewed today at a Mexico-Canada forum in Mexico City, Jesús Seade said the United States government and Congress should instead be praising Mexico for changing its labor laws so that they are consistent with provisions set out in the trade pact known as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
“My concern is that as the clock ticks, they continue to make demands that are sometimes not very coordinated and certainly not at all justified. The labor reform we did is a revolution and there is great commitment on the part of the president. They should be celebrating that we’re doing something good,” he said.
“While they continue with their rounds of shadow boxing, the deadlines are approaching. If it isn’t approved before August, it will be much more complicated in the fall,” Seade added.
The foreign affairs undersecretary for North America said that “Plan B” for Mexico was to at least have the lower house of the U.S. Congress approve the USMCA within the next two and half months.
“That’s where the political difficulty is; if they approve it before the end of July, I’m happy,” Seade said.
While criticizing United States demands – which he didn’t specify – the official laid out one of Mexico’s own, reiterating that Congress will not ratify the three-way trade pact unless the U.S. withdraws its tariffs on Mexican steel and aluminum which took effect on June 1 last year.
“They have to be lifted before it’s ratified . . . It’s completely incongruent but they know that,” Seade said.
Canada’s ambassador to Mexico said at today’s event that his country’s government is working closely with the López Obrador administration to convince the United States of the importance of trade relations in North America.
Pierre Alarie said there is a lot of ignorance in the United States about how beneficial trade with Mexico and Canada is to the U.S. economy, especially with regard to jobs.
“There are 15 million jobs generated in the United States because of trade with Canada and Mexico, and the Americans ought to know that,” he said.
The former governor of Tabasco was absolved yesterday of embezzlement charges a little more than a year after he was sent to jail for over 10 years.
Andrés Rafael Granier Melo, who was arrested for embezzling 196 million pesos (US $10.19 million at today’s exchange rate) and tax fraud six years ago, was sentenced in March 2018 to 10 years and 10 months and ordered to pay reparation of the amount stolen.
But the sentence was overturned by a state court on appeal.
Tabasco Governor Adán Augusto López Hernández said the state government respected the court’s decision.
“The verdict is ‘not guilty’ and as the state government, we respect the decisions that the judicial authorities make.”
One of Granier’s attorneys, Miguel Alberto Romero Pérez, said the ex-governor was in good health and will be permitted to return to Tabasco as soon as the official court proceedings are concluded.
Another of his lawyers indicated that the charges were politically motivated. Yesterday, Eduardo Luengo Creel said “the political persecution has finally come to an end.”
Granier was the state’s Institutional Revolutionary Party governor from 2007 until 2012.
Officers at the scene of the attempted ATM robbery—by an officer.
A municipal police officer in Querétaro was foiled yesterday after attempting to break into an automated teller machine.
An anonymous caller informed the police department of the attempted robbery inside a convenience store.
The cop and two accomplices tried to flee the scene but were apprehended after a short chase in the Villa de Santiago neighborhood of the city.
Police confirmed later that one of the suspects was an officer within its ranks, while one of his accomplices was a former police officer from México state.
The three were in possession of two loaded firearms at the time of their arrest.
Police chief Juan Luis Ferrusca Ortiz declared that the institution has zero tolerance toward “bad elements” within it, adding that “corrupt cops should leave.”
Sargassum could be devastating on tourism this year.
Tourism will fall by as much as 30% at Quintana Roo beach destinations this year due to the invasion of sargassum, according to the federal government.
The secretariats of the Environment (Semarnat) and the Interior (Segob) predicted in a joint report that at least 200 kilometers of coastline in the Riviera Maya will be affected by the seaweed.
Cancún, Playa del Carmen, Puerto Morelos, Tulum, Cozumel and Isla Mujeres are all located on the stretch of coast where more than a million tonnes of sargassum could sully the turquoise waters and stain the white-sand beaches.
Cancún and Puerto Morelos Hotels Association president Roberto Cintrón said the downturn in tourism due to sargassum will cost the industry millions of dollars.
“If the problem is not adequately contained the economy of the state and country will be at risk,” he said.
Cintrón contended that the viability of the Maya Train project and the National Tourism Promotion Fund (Fonatur) – which is managing the ambitious Yucatán peninsula rail project – could also be placed at risk if visitor numbers to the state significantly decline.
“Quintana Roo attracts 50% of international tourists who arrive in the country, Fonatur depends on the non-resident tax that international tourists pay. If that’s affected by 50% the Maya Train as well as the fund for international promotion and the National Tourism Promotion Fund will be at risk,” he said.
“The problem will grow to a national scale because if there is a reduction [in funds] for the organization in charge of international promotion, other tourist centers like Los Cabos will be affected, they all need international promotion,” Cintrón added.
In Mahahual, where large quantities of sargassum have begun washing up on the beach, 40% of hotel reservations have been canceled in recent days, according to a Quintana Roo tourism official.
“This is serious. A lot of sargassum has already arrived . . . People who arrive say: ‘I’m not going to the beach, I’m better off going to another place’ and they leave,” Arturo García said.
He added that it was concerning that authorities haven’t yet begun contributing to clean-up efforts, leaving local hoteliers and their employees to remove the seaweed from the beaches themselves.
Armina Wolpert, the Russian consul in Quintana Roo, also said that there are “apparently no concrete actions” from state and federal authorities to combat the arrival of sargassum.
She said that “Russian tourists come only and exclusively for the Mexican Caribbean Sea,” pointing out that they are prepared to put aside security concerns to visit Quintana Roo.
However, Russian media has published images of people swimming amid sargassum and “that generates a negative impact on tourists’ plans,” Wolpert said.
There are currently 11 direct flights between Moscow and Cancún each month but the consul warned that flights will be canceled if demand from tourists drops as a result of the sargassum invasion.
According to a forecast made by a Quintana Roo sargassum council in January, three times as much seaweed will invade the Caribbean coast this year. If the prediction comes true, 1.56 million tonnes of the brown macroalgae will arrive.
Federal, state and municipal authorities spent 332 million pesos (US $17.2 million) between June and December last year to attend to the invasion of sargassum but this year an investment of more than 720.5 million pesos (US $37.6 million) is predicted in the Semarnat/Segob report.
The two secretariats estimated that the arrival of the smelly and unsightly seaweed caused economic damage of just under 5.3 billion pesos (US $275 million) last year. At least 522,226 tonnes of sargassum were removed from the sea and beaches in Quintana Roo, they said.
The report, which was obtained by the newspaper Milenio, revealed that a four-phase plan to tackle the sargassum problem has been developed.
The first 30-million-peso phase involves tracking the movement of the seaweed using radar and satellite images, while the second 420-million-peso phase consists of using boats to remove sargassum from the sea.
A third phase involves removing sargassum from beaches at a cost of just under 235.5 million pesos while the fourth and final 35-million-peso phase consists of monitoring water and air quality at Quintana Roo beaches.
Energy Secretary Nahle and Pemex boss Romero at this morning's press conference.
The federal government has scrapped the bidding process for the new oil refinery in Tabasco on the grounds that the bids were too high and the project would take too long.
Instead, the state oil company and the Secretariat of Energy (Sener) will build the refinery at Dos Bocas, President López Obrador said today.
Speaking at his morning press conference, López Obrador declared that the tendering process for the project was “void.”
Four companies – Bechtel-Techint, WorleyParsons-Jacobs, Technip and KBR – were invited by the government in March to offer bids to build what will be Mexico’s seventh refinery.
The president said their estimates ranged between US $10 billion and $12 billion – the government had estimated US $8 billion – and that none of the companies would commit to completing the project within three years.
“. . . They exceeded US $8 billion and the [requested] construction time and we’re not going to do any project that we can’t finish during the six-year term,” López Obrador said.
“. . . Only one [company] committed to finishing it in 2023 and that doesn’t give us security, another [said] 2025,” he added.
“. . . The refinery will be built with the coordination, management and supervision of Petróleos Mexicanos [Pemex] and the Secretariat of Energy,” López Obrador said.
Energy Secretary Rocío Nahle will be in charge of the project, and it will also be supported by the state-owned Mexican Institute of Petroleum, he explained.
The president said that construction will commence on June 2 to have the refinery ready for operations in May 2022.
Priorities for the government will be to complete the project in three years, stay within the budget of US $8 billion and ensure that the facility complies with international standards for quality and energy efficiency, the secretary explained.
“As president of the Pemex board . . . I have the authority to coordinate and promote the construction project of the Dos Bocas refinery, and also to establish the technical guidelines in the contracting processes and guarantee that time, cost and quality goals are met,” Nahle said.
Pemex CEO Octavio Romero said that about 50 billion pesos (US $2.6 billion) will be invested in the project this year.
The company’s oil production has been declining for years, a factor that has contributed to debt in excess of US $100 billion.
López Obrador says the new refinery will help Mexico reduce its reliance on imported petroleum.
Tourists in Oaxaca city: their numbers were up nearly 50% in March.
International tourist spending increased by more than 7% in March even as overall visitor numbers declined slightly.
Data collected by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi) shows that foreign tourists spent US $2.21 billion in Mexico in the third month of the year, 7.3% more than the amount they spent in March 2018.
Visitor numbers in the same month fell by 0.7% to just under 2.36 million.
However, one destination that bucked that trend – and in a big way – was Oaxaca city.
The number of foreigners who flew into the state capital’s airport in March increased by 48.6% to 12,081. The increase in foreign arrivals was higher than that recorded at any other airport in the country.
State Tourism Secretary Juan Carlos Rivera said part of the growth could be attributed to the introduction of 15 new flights to Oaxaca city from different parts of Mexico. There are also connections to six United States cities including Los Angeles, Houston and Dallas.
The numbers of tourists arriving in the state from that country as well as Canada, Europe and Latin America are all on the rise, statistics show.
In March, 83% of tourists who spent at least one night in Mexico arrived by plane, a 1% increase compared to the same month last year, while the number of land arrivals declined by 10.5%.
Although tourist numbers went backwards, the total number of foreigners who came to Mexico in March – including migrants, residents and daytrippers – increased by 5.5%.
Just over 4.2 million foreigners entered the country compared to just under 4 million in March last year.
Almost 1.9 million of them were “border tourists,” meaning that they crossed into Mexico at ports of entry with the United States, Guatemala and Belize and only remained in the country for a short time.
The number is almost 15% higher than that recorded in March last year and they spent 7.7% more while in Mexico.
There is greater merit and more adrenalin in scaling a volcano while it is active, according to a climber who reached the peak of Popocatépetl last week.
The alert level for the volcano known colloquially as El Popo and Don Goyo was raised to yellow Phase 3 on March 28 due to increased activity and remained at that level for 41 days before it was reduced one notch yesterday.
Iván Suazo, a 31-year-old mountaineer, summited Popocatépetl on May 2 and recorded a video while perched on the lip of the crater of the smoldering volcano.
“It’s a challenge in itself to scale a mountain . . . but it’s more of a challenge to climb a mountain, in this case Popocatépetl, while it’s active. I believe that it has more merit and [there is] more adrenalin at the top,” he told the newspaper El Universal.
Following last week’s ascent, Suazo said that he and his climbing companions were only able to remain on the crater for 10 minutes because of a range of factors, including earth tremors and that “approximately three-quarters of Popocatépetl felt hot underfoot. . . It wasn’t a good sign that we should stay up there long,” he said.
Suazo added that very heavy snow was falling, reducing visibility to almost zero, and that gases were emanating from the volcano.
During the eight-hour ascent, the architect said that he and his fellow mountaineers only took short breaks due to the risk of suffering from hypothermia, explaining that “it was very cold.”
Suazo has now climbed Popocatépetl twice and has also reached the summits of the Iztaccíhuatl and Pico de Orizaba active volcanos, meaning that he has conquered Mexico’s three highest peaks.
He said he was aware of the warnings about increased activity at Don Goyo, adding “we don’t want to disrespect the authorities.”
However, Suazo also said that he would likely climb El Popo again.
“I’m going to wait a while, it won’t be immediately. I don’t have a fixed time to go up again but we probably will . . .”
Suazo and his party are not the only daredevils to have scaled Popocatépetl while it was in a phase of increased activity.
Ramón Espinasa, deputy director of volcanic risks at the National Disaster Prevention Center (Cenapred), said that it was “reckless” to climb El Popo when it was active.
“If they want to have adventures, go and climb Iztaccíhuatl, Pico de Orizaba or other mountains because [scaling] Popocatépetl . . . is a kind of Russian roulette.”
Life-sized, Huichol beaded deer at Artesanías Morett.
In Colonia Centro, Mexico City, across the park from the original Ciudadela where Mexican independence leader José María Morelos was jailed before his execution, and where much of the blood of the “10 Tragic Days” of the revolution was shed a century later, sits a monument to a different kind of Mexican history – the collected handiworks of artisans from Sonora to Yucatán.
At first view when entering on Balderas and Emilio Donde, the Mercado de Artesanías La Ciudadela appears to be the cheeseball tourist entanglement sort of souvenir market, with cartoon Frida t-shirts, tequila magnets and bright green ponchos that scream, “Spring Break!”
But just a few paces in and the true handmade crafts come into focus, many of them created to order, on site.
At Familia García, the doña is busy with a gang of Japanese tourists gobbling up her tiny, exquisitely designed colored glass animals, flowers and cactuses set atop glass swizzle sticks. Her grandson works with a torch at a well-worn table in the corner to create more stock. At only 7.50 to 10 pesos a pop, they’re hard to resist.
The government originally established the Artisan Market as “La Feria de la Ciudadela” on June 1, 1965 in preparation for the 1968 Olympics as a way to display the traditional arts and crafts of the cultures of Mexico to visitors from around the world.
The beautiful glass work at Familia García — only 10 pesos each.
Then, during the 1970 World Cup, the market sold related souvenirs, as well as artisan goods, and it was such a success that it was soon established as a permanent market.
Textiles from Oaxaca, silver from Guerrero, ceramics from Chiapas and beaded art from Nayarit – a tour through the traditions and colors of Mexico under one roof. At Mercado de Artesanías, your wallet is your oyster — you can get a well-made blanket for only 130 pesos (US $7) or a life-sized Huichol bead-coated deer for 120,000 (US $6,280).
Walk into a mind stupor of hundreds of hanging alebrijes – the fantastically bright animal figures, kaleidoscopic in color and form. I was surprised to learn that the story of these famed Oaxacan flying donkeys and eagle-headed lions only goes back to the 1930s, when artist Pedro Linares dreamed them up in a deep fever and created the first alebrijes out of cardboard and papier-mâché.
At La Casa del Alebrije, a man sucking on a toothpick with an earring declaring his love of ska music capably though reluctantly helps through the designs. The papier-mâché varieties are made locally and can go for as little as 400 pesos, while wooden versions come from Oaxaca and can go as high as 6,000.
Inside Escorcia the walls and glass cases reflect a brilliant shine from silver mined from Taxco and obsidian from Teotihuacán.
At Imperart the hand-carved statues of eagles and Aztec and Christian gods shimmer blue, silver and copper from an electrolytic chemical coloring process.
Lost in the alebrije jungle at La Casa del Alebrije.
At Tejidos Típicos, all of their wonderfully colorful textiles are made by hand on wooden looms, as they have been for centuries. They have everything from small table coverings and sarapes to huge rugs and embroidered dresses. Most of the larger pieces come from Tlaxcala, while many of the smaller ones are actually made on the loom inside the shop.
La Ciudadela provides the pleasure of actually seeing artists at work. You feel as if you’re walking through a tiny town, with restaurants and cafés at the palenque center. Abundant light and knowledgeable staff help to properly illuminate the goods.
Many of the larger ateliers are in the back of the market, surrounding the parking lot. In the stained glass studio of Vidrio Diseño Guzmán, Alan Guzmán is happy to show me around. Much of his work is done in the south of the city, but smaller pieces are created in the workshop upstairs.
Colored glass sheets sit on racks for the choosing, and clients can bring their personal drawings or choose from a library of popular designs for between 6,500 and 10,000 a square meter. The glass comes from Guadalajara and most of Guzmán’s handiwork goes into churches or centerpieces on residential entrance doors, he tells me.
Across the way at Decor-Art, Ernesto Bonilla has been pounding and sculpting tin into lamps and mirror frames for nearly 40 years. His work is classically Mexican and some of the most perfectly produced that I’ve seen at the price, many featuring Talavera tiles from Hidalgo – from around 550 pesos for wall mirrors to about 800 for full-size standing ones.
Like a practitioner of the modern nose-to-tail movement, Bonilla says he uses every part of the tin. “I get it in sheets because I’m not a huge producer,” he tells me. “So I use every little scrap – for the hanger or the pieces on the back to hold the mirror into the frame.”
Just like every great artisan, Bonilla learned his craft on the job. “From watching friends,” he says. “We’d get together, have a little drink, hang out. And I saw them working. I asked if they’d loan me some tools. And I started from there.”
Maybe bring a beer or two with you to the artisan market, you could learn something. And there are always group dance classes at Plaza de La Ciudadela across the street, for when the beer kicks in.
• Mercado de Artesanías is located at the intersection of Balderas and Emilio Donde, Colonia Centro, Mexico City, and is open Monday through Friday, 10:00am to 6:00pm.
This is the ninth in a series on the bazaars, flea markets and markets of Mexico City:
Drink a beer, rescue a dog could well be the slogan for Apolo, a Mexican craft beer born from the collaboration of an animal rescue organization and a brewer.
The beer is named after Apolo, a dog that had been trained to fight and was later abandoned by its owner. The animal was subsequently rescued by a family.
Part of the price for every bottle of Apolo sold is donated to an initiative organized by Apolo & Friends that rescues street dogs, rehabilitates them and then finds them a home and family.
The brewer, Dos Palomas, is also made up of people “interested in making animal abuse less frequent, dignifying mongrel dogs, promoting respect toward animals and in making adoption an alternative to the purchase of a friend.”
The beer, an India pale ale, is currently only available at several Mexico City and Taxco, Guerrero, establishments that support Apolo’s cause.
The Mérida Initiative has supported crime-fighting for a decade.
President López Obrador wants to end the Mexico-United States security cooperation agreement known as the Mérida Initiative, declaring that “it hasn’t worked” and contradicting earlier comments by his secretary of security.
Instead of the crime-fighting agreement, the president hopes to direct U.S. funding to development programs and job creation in Mexico’s south and southeast, as well as in Central America.
“We don’t want the so-called Mérida Initiative,” López Obrador told reporters yesterday at his daily press conference.
“The proposal that we’re putting forward is for a development plan for the southeast [of Mexico] and Central American countries,” he added.
“We don’t want armed helicopters. We don’t want resources for other kinds of military support, what we want is production and work. We’re seeking cooperation for development, not for the military, not for the use of force.”
Launched in 2008, the Mérida Initiative has directed about US $3 billion to Mexico to assist in the fight against drug trafficking and other forms of organized crime. Funding has also helped to train Mexican security forces and supported justice programs.
The United States Congress approved funding of US $145 million in fiscal 2019 under the initiative, according to the U.S. Congressional Research Service. The money is particularly aimed at stopping opioids such as heroin and fentanyl reaching the United States.
The president’s remarks contradicted comments by Public Security Secretary Alfonso Durazo, who told the newspaper Milenio that the government wanted the United States to agree to Mérida Initiative funding to be partially used for the “growth and consolidation of the National Guard.”
With regard to the new security force, however, López Obrador said “we have a way to finance it without needing those funds.”
He also said Mexico doesn’t need assistance from the United States to train the Guard, stating “the army is capable, it has training academies.”
Some opposition lawmakers called on the president to rethink his proposal to redirect the Mérida funding, warning that it could disappear altogether.
Citizens’ Movement Senator Samuel García said United States President Donald Trump was unlikely to accommodate López Obrador’s “whim,” adding “that’s why I ask for more caution and not to risk [the funding].”
