AMLO accuses past presidents of theft; Calderón demands proof

By

-

February 5, 2019

President López Obrador and past president Felipe Calderón have engaged in a testy tit-for-tat after the former accused the latter of corruption for the second time in as many months.

At his daily press conference yesterday, López Obrador charged – without mentioning his name – that Calderón had acted corruptly by taking up a position on the board of United States energy company Avangrid in 2016, four years after his six-year term concluded.

During Calderón’s administration, the company was awarded contracts to supply energy to the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE).

“A company that sells energy to CFE hired an ex-president as a member of their board of directors. And it wasn’t just the ex-president, those who were in the Secretariat of Energy went to companies to which they had awarded contracts. What do you call that? Coyotaje [crookedness/cronyism], corruption?” López Obrador said.

Later yesterday, Calderón rejected the president’s claim of improper conduct, pointing out that the Federal Law of the Responsibilities of Public Servants stipulates that past officials must abstain from taking up such a position for a period of only one year after they leave their post.

“I’ve never committed an act of corruption with any company. If the president has proof, he should show it and if he doesn’t he’s better off keeping quiet,” he said.

The former president also challenged López Obrador to a public debate.

“I would invite the president of the republic, I would ask that he allows me to speak to him personally and that we discuss these issues . . . in the National Palace or that we have a public debate on television or at one of his morning press conferences . . . to talk about personal wealth and sources of income, both his and mine,” Calderón added.

“. . . I live from my work because I was born and brought up to make a living from honest work and if I work for a company, it’s because I need to work and I do it without breaking the law.”

It’s not the first time that Calderón has rebuked López Obrador after being accused of unethical or criminal conduct.

After the president claimed last month that not just he but also former presidents Vicente Fox and Enrique Peña Nieto were complicit with or knew about fuel theft from the state oil company during their respective administrations, Calderón hit back.

“With complete respect, I don’t accept his slandering of me because as the president says himself ‘it’s better to bequeath honor and poverty than dishonor’ and what I have for my children is a good name and it’s a name [of someone] who governed our beloved Mexico with honesty – making mistakes, of course, but I never stole a centavo and I was never an accomplice to the theft of a single drop of fuel,” he said in a January 15 television interview.

“It’s serious and it’s false. It’s truly slanderous. President López Obrador doesn’t have any evidence at all to make such a reckless accusation, which made by any person is serious, but made from [the pinnacle of] power is extremely serious and abusive,” Calderón charged.

Responding to the former National Action Party (PAN) president’s latest comments, López Obrador today rejected the offer of a debate and even offered an apology to Calderón before asserting again that he had “crossed the line” by accepting employment with a company that had links to his government.

“I’m not going to debate with the ex-president. The only thing I said was former presidents because [Ernesto] Zedillo did it as well . . . I have to raise it because I always say what I think. I’m president and I must be careful with the power invested in me but I don’t think that I should shut up like a mummy,” he said.

On Calderón’s board appointment and Zedillo’s consultancy work with a company that benefited from the privatization of Mexico’s railways, López Obrador declared: “You can’t do that, it’s not a legal matter [but] it should be a legal matter. If it’s not illegal, it’s immoral.”

He added: “These things shouldn’t continue to happen and we shouldn’t keep quiet because cleaning up corruption isn’t just going after those who commit crimes or acts of corruption, it’s also [a matter of] public questioning.”

The leftist president, who has made combating corruption a central crusade of his administration, said that powerful politicians who committed corruption in the past didn’t even lose any respectability or status, declaring that “they devoted themselves to looting but continued being Mr. so-and-so.”

“The thieves were those who stole a cylinder of gas and those above, the white-collar criminals, [were] gentlemen to whom you had to pay homage,” López Obrador said.

Source: Milenio (sp), El Universal (sp), Nación 321 (sp)

Former Coahuila governor arrested in Puerto Vallarta

By

Tony Richards

-

February 5, 2019

0

A former governor of Coahuila was arrested today on corruption charges, some 13 months after the United States sought his extradition from Mexico.

Jorge Juan Torres López, wanted in the U.S. since November 2013 for money laundering and fraud, was arrested in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco.

Torres, who served as interim governor of Coahuila between January and November 2011, transferred more than US $5 million to banks in Texas in 2008. The money was later moved to banks in Bermuda.

Former Coahuila treasurer Héctor Javier Villarreal Hernández was also charged. The latter has already pleaded guilty and is scheduled to be sentenced in San Antonio, Texas, on July 10.

Torres was placed on the U.S. most-wanted list by the Drug Enforcement Administration and was described as armed and dangerous.

Mexican authorities opened an investigation into his activities in October 2013, shortly before the U.S. issued an arrest warrant, to determine the source of $2.8 million in a Bermudas bank account in his name.

The investigation determined that the money had been a gift from Torres’ father.

Torres became interim governor of Coahuila after then-governor Humberto Moreira resigned to become national president of the Institutional Revolutionary Party.

Widely accused of corruption himself but never charged, Moreira lasted only nine months in his new job, resigning over a scandal in which it was revealed that he ran up the state’s debt from $200 million to $35 billion while in office.

He was arrested in Spain in 2016 on suspicion of money laundering and embezzlement but later released.

Source: Milenio (sp), Vanguardia (sp)

Telescope, observatory scientists in Puebla stop work due to insecurity

By

Madison Koen

-

February 5, 2019

0

The Puebla telescope, difficult to access due to criminal activity.

Scientists at the Alfonso Serrano Large Millimeter Telescope (GTM) and the High Altitude Water Cherenkov Observatory in Puebla have abandoned their posts because of the threat of organized crime in the region.

The telescope, the largest of its kind in the world, is located on top of the Sierra Negra volcano on the Puebla-Veracruz border.

The roads leading to the telescope, nicknamed “Death’s Way” by locals, have been taken over by criminal organizations, employees told reporters. Scientists who work at the site say they have been the victims of constant attacks by crime gangs engaging in robbery and kidnapping.

The Alfonso Serrano telescope is the culmination of 20 years of work and an investment of US $20 million. The binational project, a collaboration between the National Institute of Astrophysics, Optics and Electronics (INAOE) and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, was completed just last year.

The telescope is the world’s largest in its frequency range. According to the project website, it is uniquely suited to the study of the birth and evolution of stars, the formation of planets, the growth and distribution of galaxies, the constitution of comets and planetary atmospheres and the origins of the universe.

According to the newspaper Diario Cambio, the highways that cross the boundary between Puebla and Veracruz are considered to be some of the region’s most dangerous because of the “cockroach effect,” produced by the government’s strategy to combat fuel theft. Such operations tend to push criminal gangs from one area into another.

The INAOE confirmed today that activities at both the telescope and the observatory have been reduced due to insecurity, but expressed hope that the problem would be resolved soon.

Scientific work will resume at the two facilities once authorities have confirmed that conditions are safe, the institute said.

Source: Milenio (sp), Diario Cambio (sp)

400 people flee their homes after fuel leak at pipeline tap

By

César Hernández

-

February 5, 2019

0

Location of the gas leak in México state.

About 400 people in two communities in Otumba, México state, fled their homes last night after a nearby fuel spill.

The spill is believed to have been caused by fuel thieves who lost control of the flow of fuel after tapping into the pipeline and decided to abandon the scene.

Neighbors noted a strong smell of gasoline about 10:00pm and decided to leave their homes, fearing an explosion.

Otumba Mayor Mauricio Cid Franco reported the spill to officials at Pemex, requesting that the affected pipeline be shut down.

Police and military personnel arrived soon after to cordon off the area around the illegal tap.

Residents began returning to their homes after midnight.

Local officials said there were no reports of injuries or attempts to scoop up free gasoline.

A large number of illegal pipeline taps have been detected in this region of México state, where pipelines are buried under farmland.

Source: El Financiero (sp)

Experts say DNA identification of victims of pipeline blast almost impossible

By

MND Staff

-

February 5, 2019

0

Victims' remains are removed from the scene of the Hidalgo explosion and fire.

Recovering DNA from the charred remains of people killed in the petroleum pipeline explosion in Hidalgo last month is almost impossible, genetics experts say.

The death toll from the blast and fire that spread across a field in the municipality of Tlahuelilpan on January 18 has reached 126. Of the 68 people who died at the scene, just 16 have been identified.

The remaining 52 bodies are undergoing DNA testing at the Pachuca morgue to look for matches with victims’ family members who have provided genetic samples, but as fire damages DNA molecules more than anything else, the task is extremely difficult.

“When organic remains are massively burned and charred, the DNA degrades,” explained Jean Phillipe Vielle, a researcher at the National Laboratory of Genomics for Biodiversity in Irapuato, Guanajuato.

“Even though it’s a molecule that is present in many parts of the body and [is located] on its surface, it has a tendency to degrade at high temperatures and that prevents us from being able to decipher the DNA code with current technology,” he told the newspaper Milenio.

At a temperature of 95 C, Vielle said, DNA begins to undergo a process of denaturation – “it loses the double helix make-up that allows it to be sequenced.”

In Tlahuelilpan, temperatures exceeding 1000 C – more than 10 times higher – were detected in the fire that followed the pipeline explosion, caused by an illegal tap to steal fuel.

However, Vielle said that hopes that the bodies can be identified are not completely lost because DNA in victims’ teeth could still be intact, despite the intense heat to which it was exposed.

“Fortunately, teeth are hermetic and in their roots you can often recover DNA that is preserved to such a degree that it can be extracted,” he said.

Mauro López, head of genetic laboratories at the Institute of Forensic Sciences of the Mexico City Superior Court of Justice, agrees that the task national and international experts are confronted with is extremely complex, meaning that victims’ families face a long wait for their loved ones to be identified – if it is possible at all.

“From my experience and certainly that of other researchers . . . it’s clear that a genetic profile cannot be obtained from burned, charred material. It’s going to depend on the [fire] conditions to which it was subjected,” he said.

López said that if remains received by laboratories tasked with conducting the DNA testing are in a state of virtual calcination or carbonization “genetic materials won’t be obtained,” adding that direct fire is one of the things that damages DNA the most.

Asked whether scientists faced a worst-case scenario with respect to the possibility of identifying the charred bodies, López responded, “unfortunately, that’s correct.”

Neither the National Laboratory of Genomics for Biodiversity, one of the leading centers in Latin America in its field, nor the Mexico City Institute of Forensic Sciences is involved in the identification process.

However, the director of the former, Alfredo Herrera, said the Irapuato facility stands ready to lend its expertise, although he explained that it has not been accredited to issue forensic reports.

“. . . Working with DNA is our daily bread here, we have specialists in human genetics as well as old [human] remains. Their degree of knowledge in working with such samples is significant. Indeed, we have a specialized laboratory that avoids contamination when working with human samples,” he said.

Last month, Hidalgo Governor Omar Fayad said that identifying the remains could take months and “the most difficult cases” could be sent to laboratories in the United States or Innsbruck, Austria, for analysis.

Researchers at the Innsbruck Medical University previously carried out DNA testing on bone fragments recovered from a river near the Cocula garbage dump in Guerrero, where the bodies of 43 students are believed to have been burned in 2014.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Formula 1’s future in doubt as funding will go to Maya Train

By

MND Staff

-

February 4, 2019

0

The Hermanos Rodríguez race track, home of the Mexican Grand Prix.

The future of the Mexican Formula One Grand Prix is in doubt because the federal government intends to allocate its funding to an ambitious rail project in the country’s southeast.

The mayor of Mexico City, which hosts the race, told a press conference last week that as of next year, most of the 400 million pesos (US $21 million) the government puts up annually for the event would go instead to the Maya train project.

“For 2020, the federal government is no longer contemplating this spending as most of it has been set aside for the Maya train,” Claudia Sheinbaum said.

The mayor, who is a close ally of President López Obrador and governs for his Morena party, described hosting the Gran Prix as “onerous,” stating that “the issue is how much public funds are invested in this when there are so many needs in the city.”

However, Sheinbaum said that there is no doubt that the 2019 edition of the race, scheduled for late October, will go ahead and explained that her government has entered into talks with the company that organizes the event to look at alternative funding arrangements.

“We’ve sat down with Ocesa, which has the concession for this spectacle, to see if it can reduce the amount [of funding] or if there are any other alternatives,” she said.

The federal government’s decision to pull the plug on funding for the F1 race is in keeping with López Obrador’s frequent criticism of anything he considers “fifí” — frivolous or snobbish.

On Friday, he said he was prepared to shift his government’s policy of “republican austerity” up a notch to “Franciscan poverty” in order to “transfer money to the people so that there is development, work and well-being.”

The leftist political veteran, who took office on December 1, has already cancelled the US $13-billion Mexico City airport project, disbanded the Tourism Promotion Council (CPTM) and enforced pay cuts for public officials.

But cancelling the F1 race, which returned to Mexico in 2015 after a 23-year absence, would be counterproductive, a former Mexico City sports chief argues.

Horacio de la Vega said the event brings a lot of money to Mexico, including that spent on accommodation, and that it projects a positive image of the country.

“There is no other event that compares to it,” he said.

Alejandro Soberón, chief of Ocesa parent company CIE, said the economic spillover effect of last year’s race, including money spent in Mexico and media rights, was 14.8 billion pesos (US $774 million).

The Mexican Grand Prix, held at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez race track, attracts around 33,000 motorsports enthusiasts, among whom are a large number of foreigners.

Last year, fans from the United States were expected to make up 22% of all spectators at the race, according to data from StubHub, an online ticketing company,

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

Give AMLO time, says Bank of México’s new deputy governor

By

MND Staff

-

February 4, 2019

0

The federal government must be given time for its economic decisions and actions to yield results, a new deputy governor of the Bank of México said today.

In an interview with the state news agency Notimex, Jonathan Heath said he expected economic growth to strengthen – possibly towards the end of this year – although the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last month cut its 2019 and 2020 growth forecasts for Mexico by a combined 0.9%, citing lower investment.

“Just because we’re seeing a temporary slowdown now, there’s no need to be pessimistic and think that everything’s bad. You have to give it time for everything to begin to fit into place and to redirect the growth of this country,” Heath said.

“We’re going through difficult times [but] it’s not going to be something that’s permanent, rather I’m sure that, in a while, we’re going to see better news on the horizon,” he added.

Heath, a University of Pennsylvania-trained economist, said it was natural for the first year of a new government to be complicated, explaining that the López Obrador-led administration is trying to redirect public spending and that can cause difficulties in the short term.

He said that while it was very likely that there will be a significant economic slowdown in the first half of this year, steps taken by the new government – such as austerity measures, the introduction of a northern border free zone, the crackdown on fuel theft and the undertaking of infrastructure projects – could start to have a positive impact towards the end of the year or at the start of 2020.

“Sooner or later, they have to start delivering results. We’re starting in a very uncertain environment both externally and internally but I believe that the government is very conscious of that and little by little we’ll put things in their place and create the [necessary] environment [for the economy] to be able to grow,” Heath said.

The deputy governor explained that the gasoline shortages, teachers’ rail blockade in Michoacán and strike action by workers in Tamaulipas would all continue to impact negatively on the economy in the short term but added that they are temporary issues that will be resolved.

“. . . I have complete faith that down the road we’ll see much more favorable conditions,” Heath said.

He highlighted that inflation slowed in the first half of January and said that it would likely continue to trend downwards, allowing it to reach the bank’s target of 3% – if not by the end of this year, definitely during 2020.

Heath said that there is now greater stability in energy prices, particularly with regard to the cost of gasoline, whose spike at the start of last year contributed to the inflation rate ending 2018 at 4.83%.

He explained that the bank will closely monitor inflation in order to take appropriate monetary policy decisions, adding that it was very difficult to predict what will happen with the benchmark interest rate, which is currently set at a 10-year high of 8.25%.

He described President López Obrador’s respect for the autonomy of the Bank of México as “a kind of anchor,” which to a certain extent guarantees Mexico’s macroeconomic stability.

The 64-year-old economist, who has more than 30 years’ experience analyzing the Mexican economy, will remain as a Banxico deputy director and sit on the central bank’s board until 2026.

Heath said that he was conscious of the responsibility he has taken on and the decisions “of great importance” he will make as a board member.

He added that he had a lot of fun in his “previous life” and expects to keep enjoying himself in his new role.

“For me, it’s really fascinating to look at and analyze economic indicators, interpret them, try to formulate outlooks, try to see where the country’s going. That’s what has fascinated me and I’ll keep doing it, just in another environment with another level of responsibility,” Heath said.

Heath contended that it didn’t matter whether Mexico moved towards the right or towards the left politically speaking, the most important focus for the government remained constant: that the economy grows, that more jobs are created, that wealth is distributed more equally and that poverty is reduced.

Joining him as a new deputy governor and member of the central bank board is Gerardo Esquivel, a Harvard-trained economist who previously served as an economic advisor to López Obrador.

Heath said he was confident that both he and Esquivel would contribute to the strengthening of Banxico and help it to achieve its main goals of ensuring purchasing power stability, especially for lower socio-economic classes, and creating an environment of macroeconomic stability capable of helping Mexico to achieve higher growth and greater development.

The five-member Banxico board also includes Governor Alejandro Díaz de León and deputy governors Javier Guzmán and Irene Espinosa.

Source: Notimex (sp)

Anti-fuel theft operations affect propane deliveries in Baja

By

César Hernández

-

February 4, 2019

0

Propane is being rationed in Baja California Sur.

Propane supplies began running short in at least two municipalities of Baja California Sur Friday as a result of the federal government’s strategy against fuel theft.

The situation had worsened by Sunday, when the state’s Sustainable Energy Secretariat issued a statement to explain that while there were no shortages of propane, the fuel was being rationed in order to avoid reaching a “critical state.”

“The situation with the federal government’s strategy against fuel theft has had an effect and, even though there is supply, the reserves were rationed and states in central [Mexico] were given top priority,” said Secretary Luis Solís Miranda.

Rationing affected the whole country, he continued, in an effort to make supplies last for everyone.

He said federal agencies have assured the state that distribution of propane should be back to normal by Tuesday.

Yesterday, the newspaper El Universal confirmed that propane delivery services had been suspended in the state capital, La Paz, and Los Cabos.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Project Loon internet balloon crashes in Morelos

By

Madison Koen

-

February 4, 2019

0

The internet balloon that came down in Morelos.

Federal authorities recovered an internet balloon after it crashed Sunday afternoon in Jonacatepec, Morelos.

The balloon was part of Project Loon, an initiative by Alphabet Inc., owner of the technology company Google, to provide high quality internet access to rural and remote populations and areas affected by natural disasters.

It does so with high-flying networked balloons that are linked to an internet service provider on Earth.

It earned the name Project Loon because early reports of the venture called it “unprecedented and loony.”

The balloon that came down Sunday was launched in Puerto Rico on November 8 and remained airborne for 87 days before the crash.

Federal, state and local authorities responded to the crash and secured the area. An instruction booklet and contact information was found among the wreckage, which authorities used to contact the Alphabet subsidiary Loon LLC . Company employees soon arrived on the scene.

The crash in Morelos was the first to be witnessed publicly. According to Google, the Project Loon balloons have flown all over the world for millions of kilometers. The company claims to be on the cusp of securing continuous internet connections for some rural areas with its balloon network.

Source: El Financiero (sp), La Razón (sp)

Canadian expat, 78, shot and killed in Chapala, Jalisco

By

Tony Richards

-

February 4, 2019

0

Location of Friday's shooting in Chapala.

A 78-year-old Canadian expatriate was shot and killed in the Jalisco municipality of Chapala last Friday.

Local authorities confirmed the incident in a press release today.

Neighbors of the victim reported Friday that the man had been walking near the El Dorado subdivision in San Antonio Tlayacapan just before noon.

A witness who saw the shooting said on social media that the attacker fired at the man, who fell, and shot him again in the head before fleeing the scene.

Authorities said nothing about the case until today when they reported the murder, but with few details. The victim’s name was not released.

Canadian authorities said Saturday they were aware of the incident and were providing consular services to the family, but would not comment further due to privacy laws.

The municipality of Chapala said security had been reinforced in the area of the shooting.