7 days of Narda leaves a trail of damage on Pacific coast, killing at least 2

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October 1, 2019

Washed-out bridges and mudslides cut off many communities in Guerrero.

Tropical storm Narda left a trail of damage along Mexico’s Pacific coast as it moved northward during the past seven days, hitting the states of Oaxaca and Guerrero particularly hard.

The storm claimed the lives of two people in Oaxaca: a 23-year-old man and a 17-year-old boy who were swept away by floodwaters while trying to cross rivers in the municipalities of San Pedro Mixtepec and San Jerónimo Coatlán respectively.

About 300 homes and at least 11 schools were damaged in the southern state as was the hospital in Tutupec, a municipality halfway between Puerto Escondido and Pinotepa Nacional.

At least nine rivers broke their banks, scores of trees fell, access to 47 Oaxaca municipalities was cut off and more than 800 people took refuge in shelters.

Federal transportation official Jaime López Carillo said that sections of three federal highways in Oaxaca collapsed due to heavy rain brought by Narda.

A National Guardsmen provides aid to flood victims.

Federal Highway 200 was closed on Monday from the Guerrero border to Puerto Escondido due to landslides and flooding, while sections of the Oaxaca-Miahuatlán-Puerto Ángel highway and the road between Pinotepa Nacional and Putla de Guerrero were also impassable.

Oaxaca transportation official David Mayrén Carrasco said that 23 rural roads in the state had also closed.

In Guerrero, Narda caused the collapse of sections of several roads and highways, triggered landslides, damaged schools, felled hundreds of trees, cut power in parts of the state and flooded about 800 homes.

Acapulco Mayor Adela Román Ocampo said the city’s three water supply systems sustained rain damage and that residents could be without running water for two to three weeks.

The newspaper Milenio reported that at least eight towns in the municipalities of Juan R. Escudero and Tecoanapa remained cut off on Monday after the Omitlán river broke its banks and caused a 100-meter-long section of road leading to a bridge to collapse.

In Tixtla, a municipality just east of the state capital Chilpancingo, the entire drainage system collapsed after Narda dumped torrential rain. One person was reported missing in the area.

Damaged bridge leaves Guerrero residents stranded.

Guerrero Governor Héctor Astudillo asked federal authorities on Monday to declare a state of emergency in 28 municipalities in order to access funds to purchase food, water and other essential supplies.

Narda also caused damage in Michoacán, Jalisco, Colima and Nayarit.

The Colima-Manzanillo and Manzanillo-Barra de Navidad highways closed on Monday due to landslides, while at least 120 homes were damaged in Jalisco. Three people were rescued from a flooded creek in Nayarit while activities in the port of Mazatlán, Sinaloa, were temporarily suspended.

National Civil Protection authorities said that rain brought by Narda forced the closure on Monday of schools in 138 municipalities in six states: Guerrero, Oaxaca, Michoacán, Jalisco, Colima and Sinaloa.

The United States National Hurricane Center (NHC) said the remnants of Narda were located 210 kilometers northwest of Los Mochis, Sinaloa, at 10:00am on Tuesday.

Maximum sustained winds had decreased to about 45 kilometers per hour and no coastal watches or warnings were in effect but rainfall is still likely across portions of northwestern Mexico, the NHC said.

Source: Expansión Política (sp), El Universal (sp), El Imparcial (sp), Informador (sp), Milenio (sp)

AMLO favors university admission without entrance exams

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Simon Schatzberg

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October 1, 2019

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Students line up for a university entrance exam in Guadalajara.

President López Obrador said Tuesday he would support ending admission exams for public universities.

“I don’t support admissions tests,” he told reporters at his morning press conference. “I think everyone should have the chance to study. If they are behind there should be a catch-up period so that they can study, but we shouldn’t reject people.”

He noted that 60% of students at the National Autonomous University (UNAM) are from poor families because UNAM automatically admits students who come from UNAM high schools, while only 35% of students at other public universities come from poor families.

“In the neoliberal period, they used the excuse that young people hadn’t passed the test to reject them,” he said. “But it was a lie. It’s not that they didn’t pass the test, it’s that there were no spaces, because there was no budget for the universities; it was a pretext to privatize education.”

The president added that a central part of his political project is improving access to higher education, and that his government is working on opening 100 public universities around the country.

“Everyone needs to have the opportunity to study,” he said. “I don’t believe in the policy of rejection, it’s a thousand times better for a young person to study than to have them on the street.”

Source: El Financiero (sp), Forbes México (sp)

Over-exploitation of water is drying up Chihuahua oasis of Cuatro Ciénegas

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MND Staff

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October 1, 2019

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In Cuatro Ciénegas, there is far less water than there used to be.

Over-exploitation of water has dried up more than 90% of the Cuatro Ciénagas marshland in Coahuila’s Chihuahua Desert.

One hundred years ago, natural springs and waterways covered 2,500 hectares of land in the Cuatro Ciénagas reserve, a unique biosphere located about 80 kilometers east of Monclova.

Today, water extends over an area of less than 250 hectares, mainly due to the diversion of the natural resource for use in alfalfa farming during the past 20 years.

To begin to remedy the situation, federal authorities and the Coahuila government intend to lobby President López Obrador to support a restoration plan for the wetlands.

They also plan to hold a series of public meetings so that local residents, alfalfa farmers, researchers and government representatives have the opportunity to analyze and discuss how to restore Cuatro Ciénagas to its former glory.

Diversion of water for irrigation is blamed for the depletion of the marshlands.

“The Cuatro Ciénagas valley is in a situation of extreme stress because its [water] area has been reduced by more than 90%,” said National Water Commission (Conagua) chief Blanca Jiménez Cisneros.

“It’s an issue of concern because it’s on the verge of disappearing, the problem is very complex. It’s not just [a matter of] Conagua holding back the water . . . biological recovery has to be achieved in a comprehensive way [with the participation of several] government departments, we can’t do it on our own,” she said.

Valeria Souza, a researcher at the Institute of Ecology at the National Autonomous University who has studied the drying of Cuatro Ciénagas for the past 20 years, told the newspaper Milenio that canals that carry water away from the natural pools and waterways for agricultural purposes are to blame. She called for the immediate closure of all irrigation canals that deplete the area of its water.

One canal, known as Saca Salada, which was built in 1900 and diverts up to 2,000 liters of water per second, is one of the main culprits.

Souza said that due to the poor planning of the uncovered canal and evaporation, only 10% of the water it carries reaches its final destination: agricultural lands 80 kilometers away in the municipality of Frontera.

“It’s pure stupidity, [the canal] was thought up a hundred years ago when they started to establish agricultural lands and the wetlands were in a good state . . . This is the bleeding of Cuatro Ciénegas,” she said.

Cuatro Ciénegas biosphere reserve in Coahuila.

Since the 1960s, increasingly greater quantities of water have been diverted for agricultural purposes and in the 1980s, the Cañón river, which for years was the main source of drinking water in the area, ran dry.

In 2000, a project that diverted water to the south of the municipality of Valle del Hundido began placing even greater pressure on Cuatro Ciénegas’ water resources and eventually caused both the Nuevo Atayala spring and the Churince lagoon to dry up, the latter in 2016.

Patricia Olmedo, head of the genetic engineering department at the Center for Research and Advanced Studies in Irapuato, Guanajuato, said that the damage to the lagoon is “irreversible,” explaining that fish and endemic turtles were victims of the project.

“If we close the sluices, it will take us five years to restore the site. It’s possible to recover it but we have to do everything very quickly. What we can’t allow is for the spring to dry out because then there would be nothing we could do,” she said.

Over time, environmental authorities hope to convince local farmers to transition away from the cultivation of alfalfa to crops that don’t require such large amounts of water, such as the nopal, or prickly pear cactus.

To begin to restore the area in the short term, Conagua and the Natural Protected Areas Commission have designed a project that diverts water from one irrigation canal back to dried-up marshland.

However, Coahuila Environment Secretary Eglantina Canales acknowledged that it will only restore a very small area of the bacteria-rich Cuatro Ciénegas reserve and that a lot more needs to be done.

“Of course, it’s not enough . . . We hope . . . to do a longer-term project that allow us to flood a much larger area and which avoids unnecessary losses [of water] . . .” she said.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Morena lawmakers launch initiative for nationwide decriminalization of abortion

By

MND Staff

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October 1, 2019

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Morena deputies announce their decriminalization plans.

The abortion debate is shifting from the state to the federal level with the announcement by lawmakers with the ruling Morena party that they will seek to decriminalize the practice in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

Female deputies told a press conference at the lower house of Congress on Monday that if the modifications to the federal criminal code are approved, they will ask state legislatures to change their laws to make them consistent with federal legislation.

But the states have the last word on the issue.

Paola González Castañeda said Morena will propose changes to four articles of the criminal code.

One change would stipulate that the termination of a pregnancy is only considered an abortion if it occurs more than 12 weeks after a woman conceives, she said.

The deputy explained that another article would be modified to establish a penalty of between three and six months’ imprisonment or 100 to 300 days of community work for women who have an abortion after the first 12 weeks.

González also said that Morena is seeking to modify the General Health Law so that access to the legal termination of a pregnancy is a sexual and reproductive right.

She said Morena’s proposal recognizes the right of medical personnel to refuse to perform an abortion on moral or religious grounds but also establishes the obligation for healthcare providers to have staff who are willing to carry out the procedure to ensure that women can access the service.

Wendy Briceño, a Sonora deputy and president of the gender equality commission, said that guaranteeing access to safe abortion services is a federal government responsibility.

“The main focus [of the proposal] is the guarantee that the Mexican state has to provide,” she said, adding that lawmakers from Morena, which leads a coalition with majorities in both houses of Congress, are committed to ensuring that the decriminalization of abortion becomes a reality.

“There are no taboo issues and we believe that [the decriminalization of abortion] would be real substantive representation [of women] . . .” Briceño added.

If Morena succeeds in changing the federal criminal code but a state doesn’t change its laws to reflect the modifications, women could still access legal abortion services in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy at IMSS and ISSSTE hospitals, which are run by the federal government.

Morena’s announcement that it will seek to decriminalize abortion comes just days after lawmakers in Oaxaca approved removing criminal penalties for abortion in the first 12 weeks.

Oaxaca became the second state to decriminalize abortion for any reason after Mexico City. Some other states allow abortion in cases of rape or to protect the life of the mother.

An amnesty law proposal sent to Congress by President López Obrador last month would exonerate women imprisoned for having an abortion as well as medical personnel convicted of illegally carrying out the procedure.

Source: Reforma (sp)

Will Pemex take control of US firm’s huge oil find in Gulf of Mexico?

By

MND Staff

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September 30, 2019

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The Zama discovery in the Gulf of Mexico.

Pemex wants to take over a lucrative private company oil project in the Gulf of Mexico, according to a report by the news agency Reuters.

Two company executives with knowledge of discussions at the state oil company and two former federal energy officials told Reuters that Pemex has its eyes on an oil field where the United States oil firm Talos Energy found a reserve of almost a billion barrels two years ago.

Talos – which has a 35% stake in the field – was the first private company to find oil after the government of former president Enrique Peña Nieto opened up the sector to private and foreign companies after an almost 80-year state monopoly.

However, the new government has indefinitely suspended further auctions of oil blocks in favor of offering restrictive partnerships to private oilfield services firms that allow Pemex to have greater control.

Reuters’ sources said that taking over Talos’ shallow water field, named Zama after the Mayan word for dawn, would be a symbolic blow to the previous government’s energy reform. They also said that it could act as a further deterrent for investment from the world’s largest oil companies.

However, Pemex does have a potential claim to Zama because it holds the drilling rights for an adjacent field.

An unpublished draft report by the consultancy firm Wood Mackenzie seen by Reuters said that about a third of the reserve discovered by Talos likely extends into Pemex’s field although that hasn’t been confirmed because the state-run company hasn’t yet drilled there.

The two companies began talks last year about carrying out a joint project and agreed to discuss later how revenue would be divided and who would ultimately have operational control. The Secretariat of Energy would settle disputes and designate which company would take control if the talks break down.

Energy Secretary Rocío Nahle, who is also the chair of the Pemex board, hinted in August that control of the project could go to Pemex.

“We definitely have to talk to Pemex, to Talos — another company that’s there — to see who will be in charge of the operations, because Pemex has a big part of it,” she said.

If Pemex takes control, Talos would retain its stake but have to rely on Pemex to drill efficiently and profitably. There is no certainty that would occur considering that Pemex is the world’s most indebted oil company and has seen a decline in oil production for 15 consecutive years.

“If Pemex does end up operating it, that would not send a good signal to private investors,” the executive of a major oil company that has several projects in Mexico told Reuters.

In the latter years of Peña Nieto’s presidency, oil executives said that investing in oil projects in Mexico was as attractive as drilling off Brazil’s coast or in the shale fields of Texas.

But with President López Obrador determined to wrest back at least some of the control ceded to private companies, Mexico is not nearly as attractive as it was.

George Baker, a Houston-based energy analyst and publisher of the newsletter Mexico Energy Intelligence, said “the door is closed on newcomers in Mexico right now while it’s wide open in places like Brazil and Guyana.”

Some firms that entered the market during Peña Nieto’s presidency have now decided to get out. One such company is Sierra Oil & Gas, which sold its 40% stake in Zama and all of its other Mexico assets to Wintershall DEA. Premier Oil said last month that its 25% stake in Zama was for sale although it plans to continue with three other energy projects in Mexico.

Talos CEO Tim Duncan declined to comment directly on a Pemex takeover of Zama but asserted that his company was the best qualified to manage the project.

“We’re fully prepared to go execute this project, finish it, wrap it up and get it into production,” he said.

Even though the federal government would get almost 70% of net profits from Zama under the terms of Talos’ contract, one of Reuters’ industry sources said that Pemex is resolute in its desire to seize control, claiming “for them, there is no other scenario.”

Source: Reuters (en)

Chinese motorcycle manufacturer opens its first Mexico dealership

By

Cody Copeland

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September 30, 2019

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The Zontes motorcycles showroom in Mexico City.

Chinese motorcycle manufacturer Zontes has opened the first of 25 dealerships in Mexico.

One of the four brands of Chinese motorcycle giant Guangdong Tayo Motorcycle Technology, Zontes says its goal is to offer a high-quality, affordable bike to middle-class consumers.

Zontes México sales director Juan Ballester said that talks about bringing the company to Mexico began in 2018. He would not say who the Mexican partners were, but said they saw the product’s performance in China and worked to foster a joint venture between Zontes and a group of Mexican investors.

The four models that will be sold in Mexico are manufactured in Guangdong, China, one of that country’s three principal motorcycle manufacturing cities. Highly automated and dedicated to proprietary products, the Guangdong plant has already produced 256 appearance patents, 121 utility model patents and 36 invention patents.

Such numbers have produced high levels of confidence among those who have brought the brand to Mexico.

The bikes even come with the seal of approval of Mexican motorcyclist Dubanok, who said the stigma of Chinese products being low-quality is now a thing of the past.

“There were those who categorized Zontes as the ‘Huawei of motorcycles,’ but Huawei is a company that has been a watershed with respect to the idea of a bad product or bad Chinese quality. In the case of Zontes, we like the epithet,” he said.

The firm expects to thrive in two sectors in the Mexican market: riders of bikes with smaller engines who want to be introduced to the world of touring bikes, and with those who already have bikes with large engines and are looking for a second motorcycle for city riding.

Zontes will be competing with other well-established Asian brands like Honda and Suzuki.

The company’s first dealership opened in Mexico City, and it also opened a logistics center in Toluca, in which it invested 10 million pesos (US $506,000). It plans to open 24 more dealerships across the country by the end of 2020.

Zontes already has a presence in other Latin American countries, such as Argentina, Chile, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Bolivia, and Ecuador, but the joint venture that brought the company to Mexico aims to operate exclusively within the country.

Source: Expansión (sp)

Mexico mourns crooner José José, Prince of Song

By

MND Staff

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September 30, 2019

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José José, the Prince of Song. — José José died Saturday in Miami. He was 71.

José José, an acclaimed and widely-loved Mexican crooner who shot to fame almost 50 years ago died on Saturday in Miami, Florida.

The Secretariat of Culture announced the death of the singer, whose real name was José Rómulo Sosa Ortiz, describing him as “one of Mexico’s most loved voices.” He was 71.

José José, also known as the “Prince of Song,” was born into a family of musicians in Mexico City in 1948: his father, José Sosa Esquivel, was a tenor in the National Opera of Mexico; his mother, Margarita Ortiz Pensado, a concert pianist.

As a child, José José sang in his school’s choir and at the age of 15 formed a musical trio. As a young singer and musician, he would go on to perform in nightclubs and played double bass in a jazz and bossa nova group he formed.

The singer released his first solo album in 1969 under the stage name of José José, which he said was inspired by his father, who succumbed to a battle with alcoholism in 1968.

José José sold more than 250 million albums and was nominated for nine Grammy awards.

However, it was the singer’s rendition of El Triste (The Sad One) at the 1970 Latin Song Festival in Mexico City that made him a household name in the Spanish-speaking world.

The memorable performance also had a less desirable effect: like his father, José José became a heavy drinker soon after and battled alcoholism throughout much of his career.

But it didn’t stop him from achieving phenomenal success. José José sold more than 250 million albums and was nominated for nine Grammy awards, although he never took one home.

During the 1980s, the most successful decade of his career, José José sold two million copies of his hit album Secretos in the space of just a few weeks and he also starred in several films including the autobiographical Gavilán o Paloma (Sparrowhawk or Dove).

He achieved fame and acclaim beyond the Spanish-speaking world in countries such as Japan and Russia and in 2004, the “Prince of Song” won the Musical Excellence Prize at the Latin Grammy Awards.

His musical talent also caught the eye – and ear – of legendary American singer Frank Sinatra.

Complications from treatment for pancreatic cancer spelled the end for the beloved singer.

In an interview with Roberto Cantoral Zucchi, the son of the composer of El Triste, José José said that Sinatra told him he had seen his performance at the 1970 Latin Song Festival and thought he should have won (he placed third).

Three years after his introduction to the man who would become the “Prince of Song,” Ol’ Blue Eyes, as Sinatra was known, was at his office at his record label Reprise Records in Los Angeles, California, when he heard a José José song playing faintly on the building’s stereo system.

Sinatra demanded to be put into contract with the Mexican singer and soon after he proposed that the two record and release an album of duets.

José José accepted immediately but his record label, RCA Víctor, with whom he had an exclusive contract, refused to allow the collaboration with Sinatra to go ahead.

In his autobiography Esta Es Mi Vida (This Is My Life), José José said he became deeply depressed as a result of the situation and drank heavily for weeks while listening to Sinatra songs.

In the 2008 book, he opened up about his battles with the bottle, describing the troubles it brought him with his second wife Anel Noreña, the financial problems it created and the effects that heavy drinking had on his health.

In the early days he played string bass in a jazz and bossa nova group he formed.

José José separated from Noreña in 1993, with whom he had two children, and remarried in 1995 to Sarita Salazar, a Cuban he met while in an alcohol rehabilitation center in the United States. The pair had a daughter, Sara who was born in 1995.

Even though his health was deteriorating, José José continued performing throughout the ‘90s and into the 21st century.

Even several unsuccessful operations to repair his damaged vocal cords and a facial paralysis in 2007 didn’t put an end to his career, although it did make it very difficult for him to sing.

Greek composer and pianist Yanni said it took José José seven days to get ready “just to attempt to sing” before the pair performed at a concert together in 2008.

In a video posted to Twitter, Yanni said “that was an act of bravery on his part,” adding “he fought hard for every word, for every sound.”

In the end, it was complications from treatment for pancreatic cancer that finally spelled the end for the beloved singer, whose melancholic love ballads have been the soundtracks to countless people’s lives for the past half a century.

Fans of José José paid homage on the weekend by flocking to a park in the Mexico City borough of Azcapotzalco, where a statue in his likeness stands.

President López Obrador told reporters that he was saddened by the death and described José José as “an extraordinary singer from an era that, with his songs and his romanticism, made a lot of people from my generation cry and be happy.”

Source: Reuters (en), Milenio (sp), Infobae (sp), The Associated Press (en)

Here are 5 festivals to see before the end of the year

By

Cody Copeland

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September 30, 2019

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The balloon festival in León, Guanajuato, is one of several big festivals scheduled during the remaining months of 2019. — The balloon festival in León, Guanajuato, is one of several big events scheduled during the remaining months of 2019.

There are only three months left in 2019, but the calendar still has plenty of festivals and fairs to enjoy. From film and dance presentations to book releases and DJ sets, entertainment and cultural enrichment opportunities abound.

Here are five big ones coming up in what remains of the year.

2019 Christmas Ornament Fair

Now in its 20th year, this artisans’ festival is held in the Pueblo Mágico, or Magical Town, of Tlalpujahua, Michoacán. Highlighting the work of over 300 glass blowers, the event is sure to dazzle spectators and shoppers as they begin to feel the holiday spirit. All pieces are handmade and hand-painted, making for lots of unique ways to decorate the Christmas tree. There are also workshops for visitors to learn the process themselves.

The fair opened on Sunday and runs through December 15. Admission is free.

Entijuanarte 2019

One of the biggest festivals of northwestern Mexico, the 15th anniversary of Entijuanarte invites visitors to immerse themselves in contemporary Mexican culture in Tijuana’s Centro Cultural. This year’s festival brings together over 100 wide-ranging projects, including theater, dance, film, concerts and visual arts expositions, all tinged with the essence of Tijuana’s vibrant energy.

Aguascalientes is this year’s guest of honor, and other invited states include Coahuila, Guanajuato, Jalisco, Morelos, Zacatecas, Oaxaca, México state and Mexico City. Admission is free.

Festival Internacional Cervantino

Now in its 47th year, Guanajuato’s El Cervantino, as it’s popularly called, is one of Latin America’s most important cultural events. Celebrating the life and work of Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes, it hosts plays, dances, concerts, film screenings, workshops, readings, book releases and much, much more. The festival has become so important to the commemoration of the Don Quixote author’s work that in 2005 UNESCO dubbed Guanajuato the “Capital Cervantino” of the Americas.

This year’s event takes place on October 9-27, and hosts Guerrero and Canada as honored state and country. Tickets to the events can be bought through Ticketmaster.

Morelia International Film Festival

The 17th iteration of this small but respected film festival in Morelia, Michoacán, is dedicated to the people who came to Mexico after fleeing Spain during its Civil War in the 1930s. One such exile was Spanish film director Luis Buñuel, who himself wrote much of his work in Michoacán and ended up becoming a nationalized Mexican citizen. A total of 94 films from states across Mexico will be featured. Check the Cinépolis website for tickets.

2019 International Hot Air Balloon Festival of León

The fun begins at 6:30pm on November 15 when over 200 hot air balloons from 16 countries take off from León, Guanajuato. There will be workshops, camping, concerts, a magical night glow and, of course, hot air balloon rides. The featured concerts include musicians like María José, Yahir and world-renowned DJ Martin Garrix.

It all takes place in León’s Metropolitan Ecological Park, ending on November 18. The entrance fee is 143 pesos (US $7).

Source: El Universal (sp)

Emigrants abandon 20 municipalities in Zacatecas but send home millions

By

Cody Copeland

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September 30, 2019

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'Welcome to Juan Aldama, land of beans and corn.'

Academics and public servants alike admit that emigration has turned at least 20 municipalities in Zacatecas into all but ghost towns.

The representative of the National Immigration Institute (INM) in Zacatecas, Ignacio Fraire Zúñiga, says the state has the third highest levels of emigration in the country, surpassed only by Michoacán and Oaxaca.

“This exodus shouldn’t fill us with pride. People don’t emigrate to another country for pleasure, but rather out of necessity, and it’s not something we desire. [Mobility] should be something optional for people and not an obligation in order to have a better quality of life,” he said.

He said emigration rates are the highest in the state’s canyon country, in towns like Jerez, Tlaltenango, Juchipila, Jalpa, Fresnillo, Nochistlán, Río Grande, Sombrerete, Miguel Auza and Juan Aldama.

And although emigration has been a problem in Zacatecas for years, Fraire says it has also brought economic benefits to the state through remittances sent from the United States.

“The amount of money that comes as remittances is almost equal to what the federal government invests in the state,” Fraire said. “The money that people from Zacatecas send home is the second most important source of revenue, providing a subsidy for our economy.”

This importance is also recognized by Javier Mendoza Villalpando, a state delegate of the Secretariat of Foreign Relations (SRE).

“The total budget for the state is around 26 million pesos [US $1.3 million] and we’re talking about almost 18 million pesos of that coming from remittances,” Mendoza said. “That’s how important our compatriots in the United States are.”

A professor and researcher at the Autonomous University of Zacatecas (UAZ) says that Mexican authorities have not been able to provide the education or work opportunities necessary for its citizens so they are not forced to leave the country.

“For at least 40 years, bilateral emigration to the United States from Mexico has become an escape valve for problems like poverty, marginalization and lack of growth and development, which are the consequences of the neoliberal economic model,” Rodolfo García Zamora said, using the catch phrase preferred by President López Obrador to describe Mexican governments of the last few decades.

Contrary to Fraire and Mendoza, García claims that the remittances have not been a benefit to Zacatecas, but rather a palliative for the state’s social, economic and labor deficiencies.

“In Zacatecas we have a 100-year history of international emigration, and the billions of dollars that come in annually haven’t been able to rectify the marginalization and lack of employment,” he said.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Migrants protest in Chiapas as UN official opens new registration center

By

MND Staff

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September 30, 2019

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African migrants attempt to stop UN officials from leaving new registration center.

As United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi opened a new registration center for asylum seekers in Tapachula, Chiapas, on Saturday, African migrants renewed their protest to demand transit visas that would allow them to travel to the northern border.

The migrants also tried to storm the new facility but were prevented from entering by Federal Police, the newspaper Milenio reported.

When Grandi and other UN Refugee Agency officials left the building, the protesters — with children placed in front — surrounded their vehicles and tried to prevent their departure. A Congolese woman even grabbed onto the front tire of one of the vehicles in a desperate attempt to be given the opportunity to plead her case to the UN officials.

But Grandi boarded the vehicle without speaking with the protesters.

The migrants, many of whom have been stranded in Tapachula for months, are demanding transit visas in order to travel legally to the northern border to seek asylum in the United States.

Police wrestle with a Congolese woman who wished to plead her case before UN officials.

Luis García Villagrán, head of a local human rights center, said that Mexican law stipulates that migrants have the right to travel through and leave the country.

However, the National Immigration Institute (INM) has insisted that their departure be via the southern rather than the northern border and in recent months it has only issued visas that allow the migrants to stay in Chiapas.

Citizens of countries including Ethiopia, Mali, Cameroon, Somalia, Congo, Mauritania, Guinea and Haiti have protested in Tapachula on several occasions and in early September they damaged a service module that had been set up to review their cases.

Migrants clashed with security forces during one protest in August, while a group of African migrants rioted in June at a temporary shelter in the southern city to demand food, better conditions and visas.

At Saturday’s inauguration of the registration center, Grandi acknowledged that there is room for improvement in responding to migrants’ claims for asylum and transit visas.

“Chiapas receives the highest number of asylum applications of any state in Mexico. We have to work together to respond [to them] efficiently, quickly and fairly, respecting the rights of those who have to flee,” he said.

Commissioner Grandi speaks at Tapachula registration center.

The high commissioner said the new center – a converted coffee warehouse located in south Tapachula that will be managed by the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (Comar) – will play an important role in ensuring that happens, stating that it will enable asylum applications to be dealt with “promptly and fairly.”

However, at a news conference, Grandi also called for more resources for Comar, which has been overwhelmed with asylum applications this year.

“Comar needs more resources and room to work because the challenge is increasing,” he said. “There has been an important increase [in migrant arrivals] but this does not equate with the resources that Comar has . . .”

Meanwhile, federal authorities said on Saturday that they had arrested two suspected leaders of a human smuggling ring that earned up to US $40,000 a week by bringing migrants into the country illegally via the Mexico City and Cancún airports.

“According to intelligence information, the alleged culprits led a criminal group that received on average 25 foreigners per week, mainly Ecuadorians and Peruvians as well as undocumented persons of Indian origin,” the Secretariat of Security and Citizens Protection (SSPC) said in a statement.

The SSPC said the migrants were transferred to properties in Mexico City and México state where they stayed for one or two days before being put on buses to Mexicali, Baja California.

The arrests of the two suspected ringleaders followed a tip-off from a citizen, the secretariat said, adding that each foreigner brought into the country illegally paid between US $1,500 and $2,500 for the criminal organization’s services.

Source: Milenio (sp)