Marines find half a tonne of cocaine aboard boats traveling off Oaxaca

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February 6, 2019

Smugglers' boats found off coast of Oaxaca.

Navy marines seized half a tonne of what is believed to be cocaine after detecting two small boats traveling off the coast of Oaxaca.

Aircraft patrols, which have caught several such drug smuggling boats over the past year, located the vessels. Navy boats then forced the smugglers to the beach at Cerro Hermoso, near Huatulco.

Marines found 11 sacks of white powder that appeared to be cocaine and 66 containers holding some 350 liters of fuel.

Each of the two go-fast boats was powered by two outboard engines.

One of the boats’ crew members was detained; the others escaped arrest.

Mexico News Daily

Residents block highway: quake-damaged school still not replaced

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Madison Koen

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February 6, 2019

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Parents and teachers block the Oaxaca highway yesterday.

Parents and teachers blocked Federal Highway 200 yesterday to demand that the Oaxaca state government finish repairs to an earthquake-damaged elementary school in San Andrés Huaxpaltepec in the state’s coastal region.

Benito Juárez Elementary School principal Guadalupe Cruz Vásquez accused the state and federal governments of abandoning the work to replace five classrooms that were damaged in the September 2017 and February 2018 quakes.

“It is unacceptable for them [the government] not to reply to this petition. We demand the work’s completion and a decent space for our students’ education. They cannot just abandon us.”

Of the four damaged classrooms the government was going to replace, only one was completed, the principal said. Such repairs fall under the jurisdiction of the Oaxaca Institute for Educational Infrastructure Construction (Iocifed).

Teachers at the school, whose enrollment is 170, complained that the institute abandoned the construction and repair work in December after completing only about 50%.

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For more than a year and a half, fourth and fifth-grade students have had to study in temporary and improvised structures made of materials such as metal sheeting and tarps.

Vehicles traveling on the federal highway linking Pinotepa Nacional and Puerto Escondido were impeded by the roadblock, which was lifted intermittently to allow a few drivers at a time to pass.

A spokesman for the CNTE teachers’ union said the blockade would continue Wednesday to pressure authorities into resuming work. “If there is no pressure, the work will not proceed.”

Source: El Universal (sp), NVI Noticias (sp)

‘No more migrants:’ Coahuila at maximum capacity, governor says

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MND Staff

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February 6, 2019

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The governor of Coahuila has declared that no more migrants will be allowed into the state as thousands of Central Americans continue their journey through Mexico to the United States.

“We’re at maximum capacity,” Miguel Ángel Riquelme Solís said yesterday, referring to migrant shelters in the northern border city of Piedras Negras.

“We will not allow more migrants to travel through Coahuila because the border is overwhelmed, but neither will we invite chaos and therefore they should go to other states,” he said

The governor said that providing accommodation, food and services to more than 1,600 migrants who arrived in Piedras Negras yesterday had stretched the capacity of authorities, explaining that as a consequence, “we’ll block the entry to Coahuila.”

The Central Americans, mainly from Honduras but also Guatemala and El Salvador, entered Mexico in the middle of last month as part of a larger caravan of around 2,200. Authorities in Piedras Negras converted several old factories into shelters to house them.

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State news agency Notimex said that 51 other migrants had gone to Monterrey, Nuevo León, where authorities provided them with shelter in a gymnasium and humanitarian aid.

Manuel González Flores, general secretary for the state government, said that 35 of the migrants have family members in Nuevo León and intend to remain there, while the others are expected to continue their journey to the United States’ southern border.

At the other end of the country, around 3,800 migrants are currently traveling through Chiapas and yesterday reached Mapastepec, a municipality about 140 kilometers north of the Mexico-Guatemala border.

Hondurans also make up the bulk of that group but are joined by 500 Guatemalans, 300 Salvadorans and 50 Nicaraguans, caravan organizers told the news agency AFP.

The migrants plan to travel to Mexico City, where local authorities are preparing to receive them at the same sports stadium-cum-shelter that has housed previous groups.

From there, they will decide which section of the northern border they will travel to in the hope of claiming asylum in the United States, although U.S. President Donald Trump continues to maintain a hard line on immigration.

In his State of the Union address last night, Trump described the approach of migrants to the border as a “tremendous onslaught” of “large, organized caravans” and continued to press for funding for his long-promised wall.

“The lawless state of our southern border is a threat to the safety, security, and financial well-being of all Americans,” he said.

“We have a moral duty to create an immigration system that protects the lives and jobs of our citizens . . . In the past, most of us, the people in this room, voted for a wall. But the proper wall never got built. I will get it built.”

In a Twitter post earlier in the day, Trump wrote: “Tremendous numbers of people are coming up through Mexico in the hopes of flooding our southern border. We have sent additional military. We will build a human wall if necessary. If we had a real wall, this would be a non-event!”

As has become his trademark in assessing the U.S. president’s comments about Mexico and border security, President López Obrador said Trump’s address last night was respectful.

“. . . There were some remarks [I didn’t agree with] but that’s his right, that’s his vision . . . He was very respectful of our government and we thank him,” he said.

Asked specifically about Trump’s claim that Mexico allows migrant caravans to freely travel through the country, López Obrador simply responded: “We very much respect the point of view of the president, Donald Trump.”

Source: El Universal (sp), Animal Político (sp), Excelsiór (sp), Noticieros Televisa (sp)

11 hidden graves in Colima yield 19 bodies, and there may be more

By

Madison Koen

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February 6, 2019

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Nineteen bodies have been discovered in 11 hidden graves in the high-crime municipality of Tecomán, Colima.

The state attorney general’s office (FGE) announced on Twitter that the bodies were found after police obtained a search warrant for a property in the community of Santa Rosa.

The investigation has been under way for several weeks.

The FGE said the bodies had been transferred to the coroner’s office for autopsies and to begin the process of comparing the victims’ DNA with national banks and registries to determine if any of those found have been reported as missing.

Governor Ignacio Peralta Sánchez said that although the investigation has only discovered 19 bodies so far, the state would not rule out the possibility that there could be many more.

On Monday, federal undersecretary for human rights Alejandro Encinas declared that Mexico is an “enormous hidden grave” during a press conference in which he presented a 400-million-peso (US $21-million) initiative to fund searches for missing persons — at least 40,000 people, according to the government’s own estimate — and to combat forced disappearances.

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According to statistics from the National Public Security System, Colima was one of the most violent states in 2018 with 81 homicides per 100,000 residents.

In March, Tecomán was the most violent municipality in Mexico, with a violence index of 103.83. The national average was 23.4.

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

Button up: cold front No. 35 is on the way, bringing snow to some areas

By

César Hernández

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February 6, 2019

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Snow can be expected at higher altitudes in some northern states.

Cold front No. 35 will bring a drop in temperatures in some states and rainfall in others starting today.

The National Meteorological Service (SMN) warned that snow and sleet are expected in the mountains of Sonora, Chihuahua and Durango, with extremely cold weather, rain and the possibility of tornadoes expected in those states and in Baja California, Zacatecas and Coahuila.

The thermometer is expected to drop below -5 C in the mountains of Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua and Durango, while temperatures as low as -5 C can be expected in the mountains of the states of Coahuila, Nuevo León, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosí, Tlaxcala and México.

A slightly more bearable range of temperatures, between 0 and 5 C, has been forecast for mountain regions in the states of Jalisco, Michoacán, Guanajuato, Aguascalientes, Querétaro, Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Hidalgo and Puebla.

Rain and intervals of light showers are forecast in parts of Sonora, Chihuahua, Durango and Sinaloa, while isolated rainfall has been forecast for Baja California, Baja California Sur, Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Chiapas and Quintana Roo.

The rest of the country can expect stable and dry weather due to an anticyclonic circulation in the Gulf of Mexico coupled with gusts of southerly winds of 50 kilometers per hour or more on the coasts of Veracruz and Tamaulipas.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Quintana Roo puts new limits on hours of alcohol sales

By

Madison Koen

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February 6, 2019

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New legislation in Quintana Roo limits the hours in which alcoholic beverages can be sold in stores, bars and clubs.

According to the law, which takes effect February 10, the sale of intoxicating drinks in sealed containers in convenience stores and supermarkets will be prohibited after 11:00pm.

Approximately 600 stores in the state paid extra money for permits to sell sealed beverages until 2:00am in 2018 on contracts through September of last year. Local governments decided to offer extended contracts through January until the new legislation went into effect.

Playa del Carmen city treasurer Jorge Manuel Gutiérrez Sánchez told the news service SIPSE that as of February, extended hours past 11:00pm will not be renewed for supermarkets and convenience stores like Oxxo.

Last call for bars and clubs will also be 11:00pm, though establishments located in the downtown areas of Quintana Roo’s main cities and in the hotel districts of Cancún, Playa del Carmen, Isla Mujeres and Tulum have the option paying an additional fee for permission to serve until 3:00am.

Businesses that wish to renew an alcohol license must also comply with new safety measures.

Juan Pablo Aguirre de la Torre, former director of the restaurant industry association Canirac, warned the new law could negatively affect the restaurant industry and complained that owners of establishments that sell alcohol were not consulted about the law’s safety guidelines.

The head of a legislative watchdog group said those guidelines include a measure to revoke an establishment’s alcohol license for up to six years in the event of a violent incident on the premises.

Eduardo Galaviz Ibarra warned that could discourage businesses from reporting violent crimes for fear of losing their license.

“For the sake of safety we must work together in an organized fashion, and not in the improvised way [this law was implemented],” said former Canirac director Aguirre.

Source: El Economista (sp), Noticaribe (sp)

Probe demanded into sale of Pemex fuel that was intended for donation

By

MND Staff

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February 6, 2019

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A police vehicle carries a sign indicating its fuel was donated by Pemex. But not all donated fuel went where it was intended.

Lawmakers are demanding that Pemex explain where fuel and asphalt donations to federal departments, state and municipal governments and social organizations have ended up amid revelations that at least nine gas stations sold gasoline allocated for donation.

The Budget and Public Accounts Committee of the lower house of Congress will ask the state oil company to deliver a report on its donation program during the presidency of Enrique Peña Nieto, claiming that it was carried out without effective oversight and turned into a profitable venture for those involved.

“In reality, it was never well known what the criteria [for the donation program] were. There were officials, even relatives of officials who acted as intermediaries for municipal governments and they were [effectively] agents . . . What should have been donations turned into a business,” said Alfonso Ramírez Cuéllar, the committee’s president.

At least nine gas stations operated by the companies Hidrosina and Tecpex sold gasoline in 2015 that Pemex had donated to federal departments such as the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena) as well as state and municipal governments, an internal investigation at Pemex determined.

Four Mexico City service stations operated by the latter company received 22.6 million liters of gasoline between August 2013 and June 2015 that was destined to be donated to Sedena, the investigation found.

However, according to Pemex’s 2015 investigation report “it’s very probable that the product didn’t get to Sedena” and was sold to the public by the stations instead.

The report, seen by the newspaper Milenio, recommended that donation agreements be reviewed and that checks be carried out to ensure that fuel was arriving at its intended destination.

“. . . If there is no supervision of the allocation [of fuel] and monitoring of the provision of donations, there could be a loss of more than 1.12 billion pesos” in 2015 alone, the report said.

Milenio said the largest shareholders of Hidrosina, Mexico’s largest private petroleum group, are the brothers William, Gabriel and Paul Karam Kaasab, who along with other business people with interests in the company, have links to political figures from various parties.

México state was especially privileged with regard to fuel donations during the previous government’s six-year term, particularly while Emilio Lozoya was CEO of Pemex between December 2012 and February 2016.

Lozoya has also been accused of receiving bribes from Brazilian company Odebrecht and funneling some of the illicit funds to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) to help finance Peña Nieto’s 2012 election campaign.

The former Pemex CEO told Milenio that he didn’t recall any investigation into the alleged diversion of donations during his administration.

“. . . Pemex had a range of programs to donate fuel and asphalt to state governments and also to Sedena but it wasn’t an area that I dealt with . . . ” Lozoya said.

When José Antonio González Anaya took over the leadership of Pemex in 2016, a committee was formed to establish clearer rules for fuel and other donations, Milenio said.

Ramírez Cuéllar, a lawmaker with the ruling Morena party, said that Pemex needs to explain the irregularities detected in the delivery and use of the fuel it donated – and not just at the nine aforementioned gas stations.

He contended that the scheme became a wider vehicle for corruption.

“. . . They have to deliver a report about what was done because this has been a scandal for a very long time. Mayors themselves talked about the amounts they should give for the delivery of fuel, asphalt, oil or material for the paving of highways,” Ramírez said.

“Traditionally there was a section [in Pemex] that supposedly had to do with social assistance, both for civil associations and municipal governments, but in truth it was something that was completely discretional and without control, not just in the delivery of fuel but also material for the paving of streets and highways,” he added.

The deputy said it was imperative to know with certainty the final destination of all the donations and didn’t rule out the possibility that the Federal Auditor’s Office (ASF) would conduct a probe into the case.

Ricardo Monreal, Morena’s leader in the Senate, said the federal Attorney General’s office must “quickly” investigate the “very serious” irregularities detected at the Hidrosina and Tecpex gas stations, adding that he would take up the issue today with new top prosecutor, Alejandro Gertz Manero.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Zihuatanejo shooting kills two, shocks visitors

By

Tony Richards

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February 6, 2019

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The Zihuatanejo street where Monday's shooting took place.

Gunfire in downtown Zihuatanejo, Guerrero, Monday night killed two people, wounded three and shocked tourists who were nearby.

The shots were fired about 10:30pm at Bar Ego, known among locals as a “narco-bar,” located across the street from another bar that is popular with local residents and visitors.

One visitor who happened to be on hand when the shooting took place was a former nurse who treated one of the victims by attending to her injuries and stopping the bleeding. “There was blood everywhere,” the former nurse said later.

She said she urged the victim to take advantage of the ambulance that had arrived at the scene, but the woman refused, apparently afraid that the attackers would go after her. She fled down an alley instead.

Another tourist who witnessed the incident, a former firefighter and first responder from the United States, described it as the most traumatic thing he had ever seen.

The attack comes just a few days after another in which a young man was killed in the densely populated area of Plaza Kyoto, a few blocks away.

The shooting at the Bar Ego, which many residents hope will be closed by authorities, was the fourth in three years.

Mexico News Daily

Mexico’s biggest drug store company to open 300 new outlets

By

César Hernández

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February 5, 2019

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A troupe of Dr. Simis promote Mexico's largest drug store.

The stocky Dr. Simi, mascot of the national drug store franchise Farmacias Similares, is about to appear on many more sidewalks as the company intends to open 300 more stores this year.

Described by the newspaper El Financiero as the largest drug store in Mexico and Latin America, Farmacias Similares finished 2018 with 6,400 stores in Mexico.

” . . . The expansion goal is to add 300 more this year,” said the company’s strategy and product promotion director, Víctor González Herrera.

The plan will add 1,200 jobs to the franchiser’s existing 17,000.

According to the market research firm Euromonitor International, Farmacias Similares has beaten competitors like Farmacias Yza and Farmacias del Ahorro, taking 10.9% of the market, with estimated sales of US $2.9 billion.

The firm recently opened a number of stores in the tunnels of the Mexico City subway system, but their profitability does not compare to that of the more traditional drug stores.

Instead of looking for new venues or business models, González said, Farmacias Similares will focus on launching a wider variety of products, along with its own name brand.

The executive explained that the sale of over-the-counter medications, vitamins and skin care products represent 30% of the firm’s revenue.

González also said that Farmacias Similares intends to analyze sales of CBD — cannabidiol, a compound found in cannabis that has a relaxing effect and helps control anxiety — before deciding whether to offer it to the public.

While the firm has based its business model on the sale of generic drugs, hence its name, González remarked it has never ruled out selling patent medicines. “. . . We never stop analyzing anything,” he said.

Source: El Financiero (sp)

Petition calls for former self-defense force leader to head national guard

By

MND Staff

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February 5, 2019

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A gun-toting Mireles when he headed a self-defense force.

A prominent former self-defense force leader from Michoacán has garnered strong support in Tamaulipas to be the leader of the new national guard.

José Manuel Mireles garnered 100,000 signatures on a petition calling for his nomination as the head of the new security force proposed by the federal government, said Francisco Chavira, a former independent candidate for governor in the northern border state.

Mireles, a medical doctor and co-founder of Michoacán’s paramilitary self-defense groups, attended a rally yesterday in the municipality of Hidalgo, Tamaulipas, where local self-defense group Columna General Pedro J. Méndez also threw its support behind his candidacy.

At the event, the former self-defense leader, who was imprisoned for almost three years on weapons charges that were dropped last year, expressed his support for President López Obrador.

Mireles was also elected as Mexico’s national self-defense force leader via a show of hands by the thousands of attendees at the rally, among whom were members of self-defense groups from other states.

Chavira said the petition’s 100,000 signatures were collected in less than a month and will be presented to the federal government at the beginning of March.

He explained that the backing came from “everywhere” in Tamaulipas, including the cities of Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa, Matamoros, Tampico, Ciudad Victoria and Ciudad Mante.

Chavira told the newspaper Reforma that they are now waiting for Congress to approve the creation of the national guard after which Mireles will be formally nominated for the role of leader.

“There is an official letter being prepared to present his nomination . . .” he said, adding that yesterday’s event attracted more than 20,000 people.

“More than 5,000 people came on horseback. There was a parade with tractors, farmers. It was a march in solidarity and support of the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador,” Chavira said.

The ex-gubernatorial candidate explained that Mireles will undertake a national tour in support of López Obrador and to meet with activists and civil society groups.

The president’s national guard proposal attracted criticism from several non-governmental organizations, which said that it would only perpetuate the unsuccessful militarized security model implemented by former president Felipe Calderón in 2006 and continued by the previous federal government.

Federal Security Secretary Alfonso Durazo announced last month that López Obrador had decided that the national guard should have a civilian command and not a military one as was initially proposed.

The decision followed calls for the new security force not to be under the control of the army, including from within the president’s own party.

Source: Reforma (sp)