Public opinion to be sought on Maya train project: López Obrador

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November 14, 2018

Displaced Tzotzil indigenous people in Chiapas.

A dispute in the Tzotzil town of Chavajebal, Chiapas, has left three people dead and displaced at least 1,500 people although it remains unclear what the conflict is about.

It began last month when local authorities jailed a man for reasons that are also unclear. Two hours later, 30 people armed with sticks and stones and led by a local teacher set him free.

Shortly after, three representatives from the town traveled to the capital, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, where they filed a formal request before the federal Secretariat of Public Education to remove the teacher from his job.

But they were ambushed on their way back to Chavajebal, and two of the men were killed.

The alleged perpetrators of the ambush were later identified, and three were apprehended and incarcerated on Wednesday by residents.

Later that day, however, an armed gang blocked the road to prevent moving the prisoners out of town. Hours later, the same group broke into the prison and released them and then attacked the town, triggering the exodus of more than 1,500 people.

At least one person was killed during the attack.

News of the incident were only made public after a delegation of Catholic church representatives visited Chavajebal on the weekend.

Church authorities say some 1,500 Tzotzil people from Chavajebal have left their homes and are unaccounted for. A human rights group puts the figure at more than 1,700.

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

80 police investigated for excessive use of force in Tlalnepantla

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November 14, 2018

A burned-out car after Sunday's demonstration. — A burned-out car after Monday's blockade.

Eighty Mexico City police officers are under investigation for excessive use of force in a México state neighborhood early Monday morning.

Videos circulating on social media show police punching and kicking people on the street in San Juan Ixhuatepec, a neighborhood in the municipality of Tlalnepantla, which borders the capital.

They also allegedly broke windows of houses and businesses in the neighborhood and damaged cars as well.

The police had arrived in San Juan Ixhuatepec in pursuit of four men who allegedly committed a robbery at a gas station in the Mexico City borough of Gustavo A. Madero.

After arresting one suspected criminal, “taxi drivers from the state of México and civilians” attacked police in an attempt to free him, Mexico City police chief Raymundo Collins said.

San Juan Ixhuatepec residents blocked the Mexico City-Pachuca highway for 20 hours Monday to protest against what they claimed was excessive use of force by officers.

Mexico City Mayor José Ramón Amieva yesterday acknowledged that police had committed abuses but ruled out dismissing Collins, as residents are demanding.

“Here the issue is to impart justice and the dismissal [of Collins] would be an injustice. What we’re doing is investigating in order to impose sanctions,” he said.

Amieva pledged that victims of a “crime [or] abuse” committed by police will be directly compensated by the Mexico City government.

For his part, Collins made it clear that he wouldn’t step down voluntarily.

He said that among his roles as police chief are to guarantee citizens’ safety and support officers when they come under attack, as allegedly happened in Tlalnepantla.

The Mexico City Secretariat of Public Security (SSP), whose internal affairs department is conducting the investigation into the 80 police officers, said yesterday that 90% of those involved in the San Juan Ixhuatepec operation had been interviewed.

However, no officers have been arrested.

The México state Attorney General’s office (FGJEM) has received 63 criminal complaints from residents who alleged that they had been injured by Mexico City police or that their property had been damaged.

The FGJEM has asked the SSP to supply it with a list of the names of the officers involved in the alleged incidents with a view to conducting its own interviews with them.

The Attorney General’s office also said it will seek to interview the commander of the operation and that its investigation will require security camera footage from state and municipal authorities as well as private citizens and businesses.

Officials from the Mexico City and Tlalnepantla governments visited San Juan Ixhuatepec to assess damage caused to cars and homes.

Their records will be submitted to investigators.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Guerrero violence kills 7, closes schools in five municipalities

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November 14, 2018

Armed gangsters invade Filo de Caballos on Sunday.

Public transportation services and schools have shut down in the mountains of Guerrero after a gang of armed civilians launched an attack in Leonardo Bravo in which seven people were killed.

Buses operating between the capital of Chilpancingo and several towns and municipalities in the mountains have suspended service and a number of schools have been closed since Monday.

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A state education representative said bus service that usually transports 270 teachers to their schools was suspended indefinitely.

“Unfortunately we had to suspend the school year once more in schools located in the sierra because violent conditions do not allow us to send our teachers. We will resume activities as soon as conditions allow it,” he said.

Sunday’s clash took place in Filo de Caballos, where 400 suspected gangsters invaded the towon to attack the rival Cártel del Sur in an attempt to take over territory in the opium poppy-growing region.

Seventeen people were injured and several houses were damaged by gunfire.

Source: El Financiero (sp), Apro (sp)

Cold front leaves winter wonderland in several states

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November 14, 2018

Winter has arrived in higher regions of Chihuahua.

A few months ago thermometers around the country were edging close to the scorching 50 C mark. Conditions are much different today.

Meteorological authorities say cold front no. 10 is in full force, covering parts of several states in a white, snowy blanket.

Parts of Nuevo León located in the Sierra Madre woke up yesterday to temperatures as low as -7 C and a wintry landscape after snow and sleet fell.

The spectacle extended to the mountains around the city of Monterrey, including the nearby Chipinque ecological park and Mitras hill.

The National Water Commission (Conagua) forecast that temperatures will remain below freezing in several parts of the state.

In Chihuahua, the town of Majalca saw snowfall and reported a low temperature of -9 C.

Farther south, temperatures dropped to -3 C in Pinal de Amoles, Querétaro, early this morning and a snowfall affected power lines, leaving several towns without electricity.

In México state, sleet was reported on the Nevado de Toluca volcano, while authorities in Hidalgo suspended all school activities due to the severe cold weather.

Highways linking Mexico City to Toluca, Ajusco, Oaxtepec and Cuernavaca were affected by a thick cover of fog that impeded visibility.

It did not snow on the Gulf coast, but the cold front has caused heavy rainfall in Campeche and Tabasco.

In the former, trees fell during the storm, causing blackouts. The rain was so severe that schools were closed at all levels.

In Tabasco, close to 700 residents of El Alacrán, Cárdenas, were cut off from the rest of the state when a nearby lagoon overflowed. Residents had to use boats to leave town.

The National Meteorological Service (SMN) says the cold front and its intense mass of continental polar air will cause thermometers to continue dropping as the weather phenomenon moves south.

In a statement issued this morning, the SMN forecast temperatures of between 0 and -5 C in the mountainous regions of the states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Durango, Zacatecas, Tamaulipas, San Luis Potosí, Guanajuato, Querétaro, Hidalgo, México, Tlaxcala, Puebla and Veracruz.

In the mountains of Baja California, Aguascalientes, Jalisco, Mexico City, Morelos and Oaxaca, temperatures are expected to range between 0 and 5 C.

Snow and sleet will continue to fall in mountainous regions in Tamaulipas and San Luis Potosí, and in regions located 1,200 meters above sea level in the states of Querétaro, Hidalgo, Veracruz, Puebla, Tlaxcala, México and Mexico City.

Rain and intense storms are forecast for southern Veracruz, eastern Oaxaca, northern Chiapas, southern Tabasco, central, southern and western Campeche and southern Quintana Roo.

Very strong storms are expected today in Yucatán, while Tamaulipas, Puebla, Michoacán and Guerrero also see stormy weather.

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

El Chapo’s lawyer claims cartel bribed presidents Peña Nieto, Calderón

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November 14, 2018

Calderón, left, and Peña Nieto accepted bribes from cartel, lawyer alleges.

A lawyer for former drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán claimed yesterday that the Sinaloa Cartel paid huge bribes to the current Mexican president and his predecessor.

In his opening statement at the New York trial of the former capo, Jeffrey Lichtman said that the “real” Sinaloa Cartel leader, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, paid millions of dollars in bribes to President Peña Nieto and ex-president Felipe Calderón to avoid capture.

Zambada has been left free because he “bribes the entire government of Mexico including up to the very top, the current president of Mexico and the former,” Lichtman said.

Presidential spokesman Eduardo Sánchez and Calderón, who left office in 2012, quickly rejected the claim.

“The government of Enrique Peña Nieto pursued, captured and extradited the criminal Joaquín Guzmán Loera. The assertions attributed to his lawyer are completely false and defamatory,” Sánchez wrote on Twitter.

Lichtman’s assertions “are absolutely false and reckless,” Calderón tweeted. “Not him [Zambada] nor the Sinaloa Cartel or any other person made payments to me.”

On the first day of Guzmán’s trial for drug smuggling, conspiracy, firearms offenses and money laundering in a Brooklyn federal court, Lichtman told the judge and jury that Zambada is the real mastermind of the cartel and that Guzmán is no more than a “scapegoat” — a “nobody” with a second-grade education.

“He’s blamed for being the leader while the real leaders are living freely and openly in Mexico. In truth, he controlled nothing. Mayo Zambada did,” he said.

“The world is focusing on this mythical El Chapo creature,” Lichtman continued. “The world is not focusing on Mayo Zambada . . . Mayo can get people arrested and get the Mexican army and police to kill who he wants.”

The lawyer said that since El Chapo’s extradition to the United States in January last year, “the flow of drugs [to the U.S.] hasn’t stopped.”

Prior to Lichtman’s opening remarks, federal attorney Adam Fels presented the United States government’s case, asserting that prosecutors would prove that Guzmán rose from a small-time marijuana trafficker in the 1970s to chief of the Sinaloa Cartel.

Guzmán, 61, established relationships with Colombian cartels that allowed him to move massive amounts of cocaine into the United States, bringing him billions of dollars in profits, Fels told jurors.

Cocaine shipments seized by authorities add up to “more than a line of cocaine for every single person in the United States,” he said.

Fels also told jurors that Guzmán was responsible for turning parts of Mexico into war zones as he fought against rival cartels to expand the Sinaloa Cartel’s influence and power.

The jury will hear about how Guzmán personally shot two members of a rival cartel and ordered that their bodies be thrown into holes and burned, he added.

“He was a hands-on leader,” Fels said, referring to Guzmán’s involvement in day-to-day cartel activities.

All told, Guzmán faces 17 criminal charges and, if convicted, a possible life sentence. He appeared in court yesterday dressed in a dark suit and remained calm as he listened to proceedings with the aid of a translator.

The notorious drug lord, who has been held in solitary confinement in a Manhattan prison for almost two years, appeared almost happy and blew a kiss to his 29-year-old wife, Emma Coronel, who was sitting in the public gallery.

Prosecutors’ witnesses are expected to include former Sinaloa Cartel members and Guzmán associates including Zambada’s brother, Jesús “El Rey” Zambada, and son Vicente Zambada.

The latter, known by the nickname El Vicentillo, last week pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges in a United States federal court.

Vicente Zambada, a former logistics chief for the Sinaloa Cartel, said in a plea agreement that he will cooperate with prosecutors in the hope that in exchange he will receive a reduced sentence and protection for his family from cartel retribution.

Lichtman, an experienced criminal lawyer who previously defended New York mobster John A. Gotti, attacked the credibility of the potential witnesses.

“Why is the government going so far in this case using these gutter human beings as the evidence?” he asked.

“It’s because the conviction of Chapo Guzman is the biggest prize this prosecution could ever dream of.”

Lichtman also urged the jury “to keep an open mind” and consider that law enforcement authorities in both Mexico and the United States could be corrupt.

“They work together when it suits them, Mayo [Zambada] and the United States government,” he said.

Almost immediately after Lichtman’s opening remarks, Judge Brian M. Cogan excused the jury and cautioned the lawyer against making statements that might not be supported by evidence.

The trial is being held under extraordinarily tight security. Jurors are escorted to and from the court by armed federal marshals.

Guzmán, who twice escaped from prison in Mexico, has been accompanied by heavily armed federal officials and New York police on his journeys from his cell to the federal court.

The trial, which is expected to last between two and four months, continues today.

Source: AFP (sp), Reuters (sp), El Financiero (sp)

Mexico’s police: ill paid, poorly trained — and overweight

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November 13, 2018

It is widely known that Mexico’s police are ill-paid and often poorly-trained. But a new study shows that many are also carrying a lot of extra weight.

Eight of every 10 police officers in Mexico are overweight or obese, according to a report by the National Statistics Institute (Inegi).

The first National Survey of Professional Police Standards and Training, which was published yesterday, shows that 79.4% of officers exceed their recommended body mass index (BMI).

Nearly 52% of Federal Police officers were found to be overweight last year, while 50% and 47% of their state and municipal counterparts respectively were in the same category.

Inversely, the Inegi survey found that municipal police forces had the highest percentage of obese officers.

Just under 35% of municipal cops were deemed to be suffering from obesity compared to 27.7% and 26.5% of state and federal police with the same condition.

Police engaged in operational tasks had slightly higher overweight and obese rates than officers performing administrative duties.

The national survey also determined that 81.4% of police officers suffered from at least one chronic disease.

High blood pressure was the most common ailment followed by diabetes, chronic stress and heart and lung diseases.

Smaller numbers of officers were found to be suffering from anemia, liver disease, HIV and cancer.

Through responses to its survey, Inegi determined that just over 30% of officers joined police forces because they had always wanted to do so.

However, an even higher percentage of respondents – 36.5% – said they became police out of economic necessity.

Just over 5% of police said that they joined a police force because they wanted to help other people and 3.3% said that combating insecurity was their main motivation for becoming a cop.

The survey also found that Mexico City police were most likely to be offered a bribe by citizens, followed by those in Chihuahua, Michoacán and Coahuila.

On the contrary, Chiapas cops were least likely to be subjected to attempts to pay them off followed by police in Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Sinaloa and Campeche.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Hold your breath: Mexico City air contains 172 toxic compounds

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November 13, 2018

mexico city pollution — There's something in the air.

Mexico City residents and visitors beware: breathing in the capital is risky.

Residents of the megalopolis collectively inhale 50,000 tonnes of toxic contaminants a year, according to a study.

The 2016 Emission Inventory for the Valley of Mexico Metropolitan Area reported 172 different toxic compounds in the city’s air including large quantities of toluene, xylene and trichloroethene, which is commonly used as an industrial solvent.

More than 59,000 kilograms of toxic metals including barium, phosphorous, lead and aluminum were also detected in the atmosphere during 2016.

Breathing in the pollutants can cause a range of adverse health effects including respiratory illnesses, cardiovascular disease, cancer, reproductive and neurological problems and premature death.

Solvents, pesticides, untreated wastewater and automotive products are the biggest sources of contaminants in Mexico City’s atmosphere, the study found.

Air in areas of the capital with high population densities and/or a high concentration of industry and commerce was found to be particularly polluted.

Factory emissions, particularly from the printing and chemical industries, were found to be significant contributors to poor air quality in the boroughs of Venustiano Carranza, Gustavo A. Madero and Iztapalapa.

Heavy traffic in the capital’s central areas as well as on the city proper’s fringe with México state also causes a notable concentration of toxic emissions, the report said.

Vehicles used for both private and public transport are the largest source of atmospheric particulate matter measuring 10 and 2.5 micrometers or less as well as nitrogen oxide and carbon dioxide.

The number of vehicles in 12 densely populated México state municipalities that form part of the greater Mexico City metropolitan area has increased on average by 600% since the year 2000, statistics show.

In 2017, Mexico City’s air was only considered “clean” on 81 days, according to the capital’s Environment Secretariat.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Ex-president’s resignation seen as reflection of crisis within party

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November 13, 2018

Zavala and Calderón will launch new political party next year.

Former president Felipe Calderón’s decision to quit the National Action Party (PAN) is indicative of a “deep crisis” within the party, according to an ex-PAN lawmaker.

Calderón, who governed Mexico for the conservative PAN between 2006 and 2012, announced Sunday that he was leaving the party.

In a two-page letter addressed to the party president, the ex-president outlined a range of reasons for his decision to quit.

They included the PAN ceasing to be “an instrument of citizen participation for the construction of a better Mexico,” the abandonment of “the fundamental principles, basic ideas and proposals” of the party and the destruction of “internal democracy” by the party leadership.

“Mexico urgently needs an option for political participation . . . [with] new citizen voices, especially young people. Remaining in the PAN only implies a detour [from that course] and a net loss of time, resources and organizational capacity that must be dedicated to driving the [new] force forward . . .” Calderón wrote.

Roberto Gil, who has served as both a senator and deputy for the PAN, told the newspaper El Financiero that Calderón’s departure is “bad news for the party” and “reveals the deep crisis of our party [and] the crisis of our own ability to build spaces for internal dialogue and to maintain the unity of the organization.”

He also said that the ex-president’s letter made difficult reading because “it reveals what has been happening to us over the past few years.”

The PAN’s candidate for president in the July 1 election, Ricardo Anaya, finished runner-up to president-elect López Obrador but only received 22% of the popular vote.

Other panistas, as members and supporters of the party are known, also expressed disappointment that Calderón had decided to quit although they stressed that they don’t share his views.

Héctor Larios, who was elected as the party’s new secretary general the same day Calderón quit, said the former president was within his right to leave and that he respected his decision.

“I regret the resignation of any member of the party, more so when it’s someone who was president of the republic, but I don’t necessarily share his ideas,” he said.

“He has the right to try another option but what’s important is to strengthen the party that already exists and which has the greatest possibility of being a brake on what’s to come,” he added, referring to the new leftist government that will be led by López Obrador.

Larios will serve the party under new national president Marko Cortés, a 41-year-old former lawmaker who won 79% of the vote in the leadership ballot.

Cortés’ opponent for the party presidency – and Calderón’s preferred candidate – Manuel Gómez Morin garnered just 21% support.

Calderón said in an interview last week that the PAN had been “completely destroyed” and was incapable of confronting the new government.

However, he contended that the party could remedy the situation by choosing Gómez, a veteran politician, as its new president because it is currently controlled “by the group that destroyed it.”

Whether he goes ahead with the launch of a new party will be decided in large measure by the choice the PAN makes, Calderón said.

Within that context, Calderón’s wife Margarita Zavala announced yesterday that she and her husband would indeed create a new party.

She said in a radio interview that the new party would be launched in January and would be called Libertad (Freedom).

“The name will be Libertad, it’s a cardinal rule, it’s not the only [party] value but through this value we can fight for ourselves, for the truth, for justice and for public honesty but we have to wait for it to be approved by authorities,” Zavala said.

Source: El Financiero (sp)

Athletes look to Tokyo after historic medal win in gymnastics

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November 13, 2018