Volunteers hand out food as part of federal anti-hunger program.
An anti-hunger initiative implemented by the current federal government failed to meet its key objective of ending food poverty, studies show.
President Peña Nieto announced the National Crusade Against Hunger (CNCH) in December 2012 as the main anti-poverty strategy of his administration.
The program, which had five main objectives including the total elimination of hunger through adequate food availability, was officially launched the following month at an event in Chiapas.
But almost six years later, there are still more than 20 million Mexicans who don’t have access to enough food, statistics show.
Several audits and assessments conducted during Peña Nieto’s six-year term revealed a range of problems in the design and implementation of the CNCH but the problems were not corrected, the newspaper Reforma reported today, and so the crusade failed to achieve its goals.
In addition to eradicating hunger, they included eliminating childhood malnutrition and increasing food production and income of small farmers.
Two years after the initiative was implemented, the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (Coneval), a government agency, warned that the CNCH was not making progress on its key objective of eliminating hunger.
“In terms of . . . the impact of the crusade, a two-percentage-point reduction in extreme poverty is observed but no effect is observed in the indicator regarding a lack of access to food,” a Coneval 2015 report said.
Later in 2015, the Federal Auditor’s Office (ASF) said that there were problems in the design of the crusade, which was implemented by the Secretariat of Social Development (Sedesol), and that there was no clear information about how its budget was being used.
The ASF also warned that the crusade’s coverage was limited to less than 60% of the population it targeted and that 50 programs participating in it weren’t supplying any data that allowed the impact on people’s lives to be measured.
In its 2016 public accounts report, the ASF said that Sedesol failed to adequately follow up on the implementation of its CNCH programs and that it had again failed to report the total budget that had been allocated to the crusade.
Late last month, the auditor’s office advised Sedesol to modify or terminate the program because more than five years after it started it was still plagued by the same problems in its design and implementation that undermined its effectiveness.
Alejandro Gómez, an expert in social development policy, said the crusade could only be described as a failure.
“. . . The ultimate indicator of success of the crusade, precisely [levels of] food poverty and access to food, did not improve substantially . . .” he said.
Ramírez, Velasco and López Obrador announce new moral constitution.
President-elect López Obrador and members of his transition team today issued a call to all Mexicans to contribute to the creation of a so-called moral constitution.
The incoming government’s intention is to establish a document which sets out ethical and moral codes for all citizens.
It argues that the moral constitution is needed because decadent practices such as corruption have become engrained and normalized in Mexican society.
“We call on all Mexicans to contribute individually or collectively to the development of this code which will contribute to the transformation of public life in Mexico,” said Jesús Ramírez, spokesman for the new government, which will receive submissions from the public via e-mail between December 3 and April 30 before unveiling the definitive document next July.
Verónica Velasco, a member of the team charged with managing the initiative, said the moral constitution would seek to guide citizens in their personal conduct but stressed that it would not be legally binding.
“The moral constitution is not [a] legal [document], it’s not an attempt to regulate private life, it’s not a pretext to build an authoritarian model of government, it will not force or impose anything on anyone, it’s not catechism, there are no citizens’ commandments. We live in a secular state,” she said.
Velasco argued that burdens on society such as “dishonesty, corruption and violence” are responsible for Mexico’s underdevelopment, adding that while government officials have a particular responsibility to set an example, “the practice of ethical principles and values also applies to the private sector, trade unions and society in general.”
The moral constitution seeks, she said, to create “a catalog of principles and moral values that guide and inspire us to develop the respect in society that corrupt politicians have sullied.”
For his part, López Obrador defended the government’s right to create the moral constitution, asserting that it would not be a religious document nor would it encroach on people’s privacy.
“It’s thought that we shouldn’t get involved in these matters, that it’s not our place. There are those who think it’s a religious thing, a personal thing, an invasion of our privacy. But as has been evident for a long time, since the Greeks, morality is very important. Politics is an ethical imperative and the need to strengthen values must be considered,” he said.
“We believe that transformation requires advancing materially and advancing in our moral and spiritual values. There is a great richness of values in our people. In the face of epidemics, floods, earthquakes, corruption [and] bad governments, what has always saved us has been our culture or cultures . . .” the president-elect added.
Tamales are big in Tabasco — big enough to earn a world record.
Yesterday, the city of Villahermosa recaptured the Guinness World Record for the world’s longest tamal.
Making the tamal began on Friday when a section of Francisco I. Madero street in the historic center was closed off to traffic to allow the cooks to set up a custom oven.
The list of ingredients gives an idea of the magnitude of the chipilín tamal: 350 kilograms of corn dough, 100 kg of pork, 35 kg of chipilín — a native legume, 25 kg of chiles, 15 kg of coriander, 800 kg of lard and 200 kg of green peppers.
Chipilín tamales are served with a special salsa, which required 60 kg of tomatoes, 20 of onions and 30 of garlic.
The tamal itself was wrapped first with 1,000 banana leaves and then with five 400-meter rolls of aluminum foil.
No expense was spared: it was estimated that preparing this monster tamal cost between 58,000 and 60,000 pesos (between US $2,800 and 2,900).
The cooks were local gastronomy students led by chef Fabían Romero, and their efforts produced the longest single-piece tamal ever recorded, measuring 50.05 meters long.
The official measurement was taken by the Guinness World Records representative in Mexico, Carlos Tapia Rojas.
Organizers expected to share the longest tamal with 2,500 people.
Villahermosa first took the record in 2016 with a 31-meter tamal. Peru snatched it away with one that was 39.5-meters.
A chicharrones salesman works among thousands of vendors at the market in San Martín. Mark Oprea
It happened on a Tuesday. Merchants at the Tianguis of San Martín Texmelucan caught wind of a duo of thieves that had assaulted and robbed a clothing vendor as he was going home for the day.
Fed up with the impunity, the merchants caught up with the thieves, two middle-aged men, and took them to the nearby town of Matamoros. In the town’s center, the men were tied up, shaved and beaten. Police did not intervene in time.
Known in central Mexico as the largest unofficial open-air market in Latin America, the Tianguis de San Martín is a 35-hectare mecca for food and clothing vendors (dubbed the tianguistas), a dense and sprawling flea market bazaar packed with affordable produce, imitation brands and lax security.
Some San Martín inhabitants jocularly refer to their overpopulated market as the “New York Stock Exchange of central Mexico.”
Situated on the border of Puebla and Tlaxcala, the tianguis (“open-air market” in English) brings in upwards of 800,000 patrons per week who arrive by bus or van from four different states — Oaxaca, Quintana Roo, Chiapas and México.
A seller of fruit-flavored water works in the center of the tianguistas, as the vendors are known. Mark Oprea
Neftalí Garzón Contreras, a former Puebla representative to Congress, told the newspaper Puebla Noticias in 2006 that this city-wide meeting spot was so dire to Mexican society that “it keeps 100,000 to 400,000 from poverty.”
“In view of the serious income problem of Mexico,” he said at the time. “it’s a priority to preserve and strengthen the market for the prosperity of our people. It belongs to everyone, and we must defend it, rescue it and restore it.”
Contreras was highlighting a tough and slightly controversial problem. Several governments have been trying to either perfect or shut down the Tianguis for just about the 45 years it has existed. Other than the 2016 humiliation incident in Matamoros, San Martín sees a large helping of normalized crime just about every week — from non-violent thefts to highway robberies.
In 2017, vendors threatened to hang a woman who stole 7,000 pesos, which led to a small riot. And upwards of 30 to 40 assaults nearby were reported that year, including violence between enraged vendors. Mexican blogger Jesús Contreras Hernandez explained the tianguis’s new politics — the fact that there’s not enough security to regularly keep justice — as its “anarchic functionality.”
None of this crime is denied by the municipal government of San Martín. Completely fresh since a change of administration in October (the last mayor, Rafael Nuñez Ramírez, “ran away,” according to a new official), the administration headed by Norma Layón says it has been taking rigid steps to curb the crime that has been growing in the past six months,
Measures run from funding safe shuttles to beefing up market security. The only problem, notes municipal secretary Lorena Migoya Mastretta, is that right now “we as a municipality are completely broke.”
The entrance to the tianguis of San Martín Texmelucan. Mark Oprea
“When you’re building a house, you need the bricks to sustain the house,” Migoya says. “And we are just doing that. Trying to analyze and diagnose what has to be fixed, and work from there. We see this as a huge opportunity to bring tourists to San Martín, but now the first thing we have to do is to bring order.”
With nearly one million people arriving solely for Tuesday event, the question as the tianguis continues to increase in size is simple: how can a brand-new, financially-deflated government promise to keep the tianguistas safe and coming back for more?
On a Tuesday morning in November, San Martín, a town of 70,000 people, has turned into a crowd-packed commercial metropolis. Individuals and families are hunting for deals on athletic shoes or women’s underwear. Walking further into the gigantic tarpaulin mass, there’s nothing a buyer couldn’t find: walls of plastic-wrapped shorts for 30 pesos each, vibrant mariachi suits for infants, glistening dresses, Disney princess bread cloths, mysterious health beans, products for girls’ hair. Witnessing the volume, it’s hard to believe that most of the clothing you see in the market is fake.
“I can sell each of these pants for 50 pesos,” says Raymond Rodríguez, the 52-year-old owner of a tiny jeans kiosk. Below him are stacks of hundreds of lookalike Levi’s and Tommy Hilfiger pants Rodríguez’s production facility imitates right down to the tag.
“Sure, all of this is illegal,” he says. “But no one really cares. The government, the police, they all know about this, and they don’t do a thing.” (“It’s not in our jurisdiction to fight illegal clothing. That’s a federal concern,” Migoya says.)
Born in San Martín, Rodríguez spent 24 years living in the United States, where he raised three children and ran a Mexican grocery store outside Pittsburgh. He returned a few years ago to work the tianguis with his wife, sister-in-law and brother, all of whom convene for the weekly market, paying about 300 pesos for their spot. To Rodríguez, who lives down the street, San Martín offers a simpler life than that in the U.S., despite the means with which he achieves it.
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“In Pittsburgh, you have to have two, three jobs at the same time,” he says. “But here? Yes, we compete, and you still have to work. I still have to sell six pairs [of jeans] to pay for my spot. But I like it.”
Oscar Sorea, 35, sells leather wallets for about 120 pesos each, and travelsfrom the state of México every Monday. His operation is similar to Rodríguez’s: sell product quick, keep an eye out for thieves and shady competitors (he’s had stuff stolen by other vendors). Sorea said he has been robbed once in the past year, an incident that made him question even participating at all.
“When we’re leaving [at the end of the day], there are always assaults,” he says. “Just a month ago, 25 trucks were robbed, and all the merchandise was stolen by a notable gang. And you know what? The police did nothing. There’s so much impunity here that people are starting to ask, ‘What happens if I’m robbed next?’”
The problem of criminal gangs, as noted by Migoya and San Martín’s government, is basically that the tianguis is too large a monster to properly control. Men in yellow shirts saying “Zona Segura” on the back walk around, but for the most part a heavy police presence appears minimal.
This summer, some of the tianguistas petitioned to have the market open on Sundays or Mondays, although the government rejected their plea on just these concerns of safety. Having hundreds of thousands of people arriving in the city more than once a week, Migoya says, wouldn’t just be hard to control. It would be near impossible.
“Imagine what it would be like with three days?” Migoya says. “And imagine the people living in San Martín. To them, it’s like having a mall inside your house. For many of these people, they just want tranquility.”
Around three o’clock every Tuesday, the market begins to shut down. Shoe salesmen push carts of sneaker boxes into the backs of trucks; racks of Pull & Bear coats are loaded into vans; women with sleeves of leather belts and buckles rest outside in the rain drizzle, others barrel through a crowd with a towering cart of tapestries.
The market is a commercial necessity that will be set up again in seven days, one that both San Martín and the tianguistas hope will be safer in future.
“Sure, we have flaws in our municipality,” she says. “But that’s not going to keep us from putting San Martín on the map.”
Lawmakers will meet with mining sector representatives this week before making changes to the federal Mining Law, the president of the Senate’s mining committee said.
A senator with president-elect López Obrador’s Morena party last week presented a bill that would require mining companies to obtain the consent of indigenous communities in order to be granted concessions.
Under the proposed changes, the Secretariat of the Economy (SE) would have authority to declare certain areas unviable for mining activities and to cancel concessions and permits that have already been granted if they had a negative social impact.
In an interview with the news agency Reuters, Senator Geovanna Bañuelos, whose Labor Party is a coalition partner of Morena’s, said the planned meeting with mining representatives is intended to allay concerns about the proposals and taking all perspectives into account.
“We want them to be calm. We will not [move forward] without listening to everyone,” the mining committee head said. “We are open to weighing all arguments.”
Grupo México, the country’s largest mining company, said it is analyzing the proposed bills, adding that much of their content is already covered by existing regulations.
“The content of the reforms is not innovative or disruptive,” said Jorge Lazalde, general counsel for Grupo México. “Many of the things in this series of initiatives are already in the law.”
Lazalde added that it was normal for industry representatives to work with lawmakers to analyze and improve bills.
“As a guild, as an industry, as a sector through the Mining Chamber, we will work closely with Congress and reconcile points of view,” he said.
Police used tear gas Saturday in Chiapas against members of the one caravan in Mexico whose destination is not the United States.
The caravan — made up of as many as 500 displaced indigenous people — had been marching from San Cristóbal de las Casas to the capital, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, arriving in time for the annual report to the state Congress by Governor Manuel Velasco Coello.
Police responded with tear gas when the marchers attempted to enter the building, which triggered a counterattack in which the latter threw rockets, stones and other projectiles at police.
The protesters also set fire to a truck and took down a section of the security fence set up around the Chiapas Congress.
Later, the Tzotzil people requested the intervention of the human rights commissions, alleging repression.
They weren’t the only ones with a beef against the government. Also on hand were health workers, teachers and teaching students who were demanding salaries and bonuses — and scholarships in the case of the students — that allegedly had not been paid.
Police disbanded the protest but several injuries were reported in the process.
Meanwhile, Governor Velasco gave his sixth and final report on the state of affairs in Chiapas while the protests continued outside.
He said he was leaving the state in healthy financial condition, with gains in tourism and security.
“Chiapas is no longer one of the 10 most indebted states in the country” and is also one of the safest, Velasco claimed.
However, it has not been especially safe for the marchers who arrived the same day from San Cristóbal. They were displaced from their homes in Chenalhó, Ocosingo and Zinacantán by attacks by armed civilians, and have been afraid to return.
Federal and state police implicated in Chihuahua extortion case.
Eight federal police were among nine officers arrested Friday in Chihuahua on suspicion of extortion.
The state Attorney General’s office (FGE) said an extortion victim filed a formal complaint that eight Federal Police and a state police officer had intimidated him and threatened him on the phone, demanding the payment of an undisclosed sum of money.
The victim works in a mall in Chihuahua city, which was where the police had arranged to collect the extortion money.
The state police was the first to be caught by FGE agents as he was leaving the mall. He was in possession of a firearm, while cocaine and methamphetamine were found in his vehicle.
The federal officers were arrested after they had contacted the victim to demand more money. Four had been involved in making the demands; the other four provided protection and surveillance.
Nearly one million people cast a ballot during the weekend consultation.
Voters gave resounding support to the Maya train project on the Yucatán peninsula and nine other proposals in a public consultation held over the past two days.
The organizers of the consultation, an initiative of incoming president López Obrador, told a press conference this morning that 89.9% of participants voted in favor of building the railroad that will link cities in five states in Mexico’s southeast.
Just under 950,000 people – around 1.1% of the electoral roll – cast votes in the two-day consultation that sought opinion on 10 “priority programs” of the López Obrador-led government that will take office this Saturday.
A proposal to develop a railroad across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec to link the Pacific and Atlantic oceans received 90.9% support while the plan to build a new oil refinery on the Gulf of Mexico coast in Tabasco was backed by 91.6% of voters.
The seven other proposals on the ballot also all attracted more than 90% support.
They were to plant fruit and timber trees on one million hectares of land; double the pension of adults aged over 68; offer scholarships and work training to 2.6 million disadvantaged young people; grant scholarships to all public high school students; offer pensions to people with disabilities; guarantee medical care to all citizens; and provide free internet coverage in public places such as squares, medical centers and schools.
Jesús Ramírez, spokesman for the incoming government, said the consultation cost 2.4 million pesos (US $116,500) and was paid for by lawmakers from López Obrador’s Morena party.
The president-elect subsequently announced that the partially built US $14-billion project would be cancelled.
But despite warnings that holding more public consultations would create further economic uncertainty and affect both domestic and foreign investment in Mexico, delegating decision-making to the people appears set to be a feature of the new government.
López Obrador said last week that he will also put the question of creating a national guard to yet another public consultation that is slated to take place in March.
Work by art show organizer and artist Jason Schell.
When it comes to street art, Mexico City is up there on the world stage. Street artists from around the city, the country and the world descend on the streets of Mexico’s capital to make their mark on the landscape, bringing to life a variety of designs — from the politically motivated to the aesthetically pleasing — on the walls of city streets.
Mexico has long been home to muralists. Diego Rivera, Siqueiros and Orozco, to name three of the most famous, have murals around the city and beyond that have stood the test of time. So it isn’t surprising that Mexico City makes such an appealing home for many modern-day street artists.
In many ways their work can be seen as a contemporary version of those murals, making a statement about Mexican society or about how they perceive the world. These muralists have also perhaps set the stage for an acceptance of public urban art in Mexico. Street art specialist Cynthia Arvide Sousa published her book about Mexican street art, entitled Muros Somos, in 2017, with the telling subtitle, Mexico’s new muralists, which speaks directly to this idea.
So rich is the scene that there are street art tours guiding visitors around the city to take in the colorful work and learn about the artists and the meaning behind their work. Street Art Chilango, for example, is known for its creations around the city and offers tours to anyone interested in exploring the scene further.
In some places, street art has also become corporate, with graphic artists being called upon to create designs that work in the place of billboards to advertise products. While street art is still in many ways a rebellious act, shrouded in illegality and secrets — who is the man behind the name Banksy? — and often ephemeral, a race against the clock before the art is painted over by the city, nowadays the art is also finding its way into galleries and into art lovers’ homes.
A piece of work by stencil artist Txoice.
And this is the very reason why artist and art collector Jason Schell decided to start the Urban Art Show in Mexico City. In its second year, the fourth incarnation of Urban Art Show opens on December 1 at Dlonngi Galeria de Arte in Condesa.
Being a mural artist himself, notably with murals in the Cuauhtémoc and Salto de Agua Metro stations in Mexico’s capital, Schell has come to know many of the street artists in the city and felt drawn to create a gallery exhibition that brings their work from the walls of the streets on to the walls of a gallery. The paintings will range in size and color, many instantly recognizable as the work of a well-known street artist.
Exposure is an important theme for Schell when it comes to art. For him, it is what makes an artist famous.
“It is not arrogant for a street artist to say, ‘a million people have seen my paintings.’ Other artworks you would say that about are pieces in museums,” he said highlighting the impact that street art can have.
In many ways, street art creates a level playing field that allows the general public to be the judge as opposed to art critics. The hierarchy of the art world — expensive art training and a few big-name critics who decide if your work has merit — can be bypassed when the city is your canvas.
An art teacher by day, Schell clearly thinks deeply about art and this show came out of a desire to bring the work of artists that he saw and loved around the city into a gallery and in turn into people’s homes.
An example of work by Noggami, who will be among the artists at the show.
For Schell, it makes little sense that someone “would spend $10,000 on a phone that might last a couple of years and not spend the same amount on a piece of artwork that lasts for a lifetime.”
With pieces in the Urban Art Show that will range in price from about 3,000 to 30,000 pesos, buyers might be investing in a piece of work that will rise dramatically in value as the artist becomes more well known.
Some of the artists who have exhibited with Urban Art Show have traveled globally with their work, creating murals everywhere from Time Square to the West Bank. These are artists with international acclaim in the new global world of street art.
For Schell and many art lovers, however, buying art isn’t just about the investment.
“There is this cool feeling of passing this artist’s work on the street and also having their work in your house,” Schell explained as we sat in his apartment sipping coffee, surrounded by his personal collection of work from some of the country’s best-known graphic artists.
This year’s show, which will run for two weeks, boasts the work of over 20 different urban artists from around Mexico. Names include Jenaro and Franc Mun of Street Art Chilango, Yescka, Txoice, Luisa Estrada and Noggami among many others. Schell will also have two pieces in the show.
A piece by street artist Jeavi Mental.
Speaking about the line-up, Schell expresses excitement about having Franc Mun participating again. “He keeps creating piece after piece of beautiful street art [the bulldog on Álvaro Obregón in Mexico City’s Colonia Roma comes to mind] and was just selected for the Tamayo biennial. He’s such a holistic artist . . . a guy that creates great murals, well-executed graffiti pieces, as well as high-quality gallery work.”
Street Art Chilango, in turn, described the show as “a unique rendezvous that gathers the talent and presence of devoted street artists,” indicating that the show also has a collaborative essence.
To this end, Txoice described how the collective nature of the exhibition “gives you the chance to connect with great and experienced artists.”
For Schell, “adding Txoice to our group hasn’t only led to getting great artwork but also to some fantastic experiences. I have a lot of respect for his stencils . . . . He’s a guy who is truly altruistic as an artist, inviting myself and other people to paint in all sorts of corners of the city.”
Another artist to watch is Noggami, who creates illustrations with what Schell describes as a “whimsical, feminine nature and slick technique.” She has been involved with Urban Art Show for a year and “watching her translate drawings smaller than an average sheet of paper into work for large walls has been just awesome,” Schell enthused.
Lovers of street art or art lovers in general should mark their calendars for what is sure to be an incredible show full of some of Mexico’s most well-known street artists and some rising stars. The inauguration is open to the general public and will be a chance to meet some of the artists behind the works that you see creating the backdrop to Mexico City every day.
• For more information check out the Urban Art Show page here.
Susannah Rigg is a freelance writer and Mexico specialist based in Mexico City. Her work has been published by BBC Travel, Condé Nast Traveler, CNN Travel and The Independent UK among others. Find out more about Susannah on her website.
United States border agents fired tear gas and rubber bullets at Central American migrants yesterday to thwart an attempt to illegally cross the Mexico-U.S. border.
The United States Customs and Border Protection agency also closed the border between Tijuana and San Diego in both directions for several hours following the attempted breach, and U.S. President Trump warned today that it could be shut permanently.
The Mexican government said in a statement issued by the Interior Secretariat (Segob) that it will “immediately deport” those who “in a violent manner tried to cross Mexico’s border with the United States.”
At 10:00am Sunday, a group of about 500 migrants gathered outside the Benito Juárez Sports Complex, where they and thousands more Central Americans have been staying since arriving in Tijuana over the past two weeks.
From there, they began a peaceful march towards the El Chapparal border crossing bridge, where they planned to stage a protest to appeal to United States authorities to speed up the processing of asylum requests from thousands of Central Americans currently stranded in the northern border city.
Some held signs with messages such as “not having papers is not a crime and doesn’t take away our human rights” and “Trump, we hate you,” the newspaper Milenio reported.
Waving flags of their countries of origin – Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala – the group chanted: “we’re not criminals, we’re international workers!”
At the entrance to the El Chapparal bridge, the migrants were halted by a contingent of Federal Police in riot gear.
After a standoff during which the Central Americans sang their respective national anthems, members of the group realized that the route towards the border at the side of the bridge was unguarded.
Many then ran across the dried-up Tijuana River, evading attempts by the police to stop them.
The group splintered off in different directions, with some of them breaking down or scaling metal barriers and crossing railroad tracks as they moved closer to the physical border separating Mexico from the United States.
As U.S. Border Patrol helicopters hovered overhead, agents on the ground fired tear gas and later rubber bullets at the migrants, forcing them to retreat.
Women and children were among those affected by the gas.
“. . . There were many children who fainted . . . my daughter also got gassed and there were pregnant women and many men who also fainted . . .” one female migrant said.
Another, 23-year-old Honduran Ana Zuñiga who was accompanied by her three-year-old daughter, told the Associated Press “we ran, but when you run the gas asphyxiates you more.”
According to Rodney Scott, chief patrol agent of the San Diego Sector Border Patrol, around 42 migrants managed to cross the border but were arrested.
“Only eight of those were females, and there were only a few children involved,” he said. “The vast majority of the people we’re dealing with are adult males.”
Scott said that agents only deployed tear gas after they were attacked by the migrants and claimed that the group pushed women and children to the front.
“The group immediately started throwing rocks and debris at our agents, taunting our agents,” he said.
“Once our agents were assaulted, the numbers started growing. We had two or three agents at a time initially facing hundreds of people at a time. They deployed tear gas to protect themselves and to protect the border . . . We try to target specifically the instigators . . . but . . . once that chemical is released it does go through the air.”
In response to yesterday’s events, Trump took to Twitter today to urge Mexican authorities to deport the migrants, while renewing his claim that some of them are criminals.
“Mexico should move the flag-waving migrants, many of whom are stone-cold criminals, back to their countries. Do it by plane, do it by bus, do it anyway you want, but they are NOT coming into the U.S.A. We will close the Border permanently if need be. Congress, fund the WALL!” he wrote.
National Immigration Institute (INM) commissioner Gerardo García Benavente said this morning that 98 migrants who tried to illegally cross the border yesterday have already been deported.
Those sent home, he said, were identified as having flagrantly violated the law.
Last week, media reports said the Trump administration was preparing sweeping new measures that would force Central Americans who arrive at the border to wait in Mexico while their asylum claims are processed.
The Washington Post reported Saturday that the incoming federal government had agreed to the United States plan known as “Remain in Mexico” but president-elect López Obrador’s future interior secretary denied the claim.
“No agreement of any kind exists between Mexico’s future federal government and the United States of America,” the office of Olga Sánchez Cordero said in a statement.
“The future government is not considering in its plans that Mexico assumes the role of ‘safe third country’ for Central American migrants or [migrants] from other countries, who find themselves in Mexican territory.”
More than 7,000 migrants are already in Tijuana or other parts of Baja California, according to Mexican authorities, and thousands more are farther south in the country.
With a large backlog of migrants already waiting for an opportunity to request asylum in the United States, recent arrivals could face waits of several months to plead their case.
The mayor of Tijuana last week declared a humanitarian crisis due to the massive number of migrants who have swamped the city and called on the federal government and international organizations to intervene.
