Federal land is being subdivided illegally into lots in Sinaloa

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March 14, 2019

Subdivided federal land next to Sinaloa highway.

Dozens of Sinaloa residents are attempting to illegally expropriate federal land located next to the highway between Culiacán and Navolato.

The unlawful subdivision was first reported by social media users and subsequently confirmed by the newspaper Reforma, which said that people have driven wooden posts into the ground and cordoned off lots they wish to claim alongside a 12-kilometer stretch of the highway.

Manuel Clouthier Carrillo, a businessman and former federal lawmaker, was among those who denounced the “invasions” online.

“Culiacán is waking up to land invasions on Highway 50 . . .” he wrote on Twitter.

“Authorities must put a stop to the current invasions in the Valley of Culiacán . . . The invaders are like hawkers: at first they arrive afraid on a corner but if they see that nothing happens, they take over a little bit more of the sidewalk until they end up with the whole corner as if they were the owners,” Clouthier wrote in later posts.

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People who were cleaning one of the illegally claimed lots told Reforma that the land grab began on March 10.

One man said he didn’t know much about laws but added that on the side of highways “there are normally houses, corrals, stalls, other kinds of businesses.”

He hinted that he and others who have claimed lots were acting out of economic necessity.

“If the government comes to realize the situation we are going through, they should support us in one way or another, [such as] a salary we can live on,” the man said.

The Sinaloa government said in a statement that it had called on people to respect the law, while Sustainable Development Secretary Carlos Gandarilla García told a press conference that alternative housing options would be sought for those who most need it.

The federal attorney general’s office has opened an investigation into the illegal land expropriation in conjunction with the National Water Commission, as there are federally-owned irrigation channels nearby.

Source: Reforma (sp)

Walmart says 5.5% wage deal ends strike threat but union disagrees

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MND Staff

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March 14, 2019

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Walmart de México (Walmex) announced today that it reached a wage deal with a trade union that will avoid job action planned for next week. But the union said that negotiations are ongoing and that a strike remained a possibility.

The big-box retail chain said in a statement that it reached an agreement with the Revolutionary Confederation of Laborers and Farmworkers (CROC) that offered workers an average annual pay rise of 5.5%.

In addition, Walmex said that workers will get a productivity bonus linked to the company’s sales.

However, CROC spokesman Eduardo Miranda said that Walmex and the union had not signed an agreement and that workers still plan to strike if negotiations haven’t concluded by March 20.

The 5.5% salary increase on offer is well short of the 20% raise that the union demanded last week for around 8,000 Walmart, Sam’s Club and Bodega Aurrera workers it represents.

Cashiers and other low-ranking employees at Walmart earn on average between 140 and 150 pesos (US $7 to $7.50) per day.

If it goes ahead, the March 20 strike is expected to affect 121 Walmart stores in 10 states as well as Sam’s Club and Bodega Aurrera outlets.

In a call with analysts, Walmex said Tuesday that the CROC represents only 6,500 workers who had agreed to participate in a strike, or less than 3% of its unionized workforce.

The company’s shares fell by 2.25% this morning in line with losses across the Mexican Stock Market’s benchmark index.

Walmart workers’ threatened strike follows widespread job action in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, where thousands of factory workers have won 20% pay increases and annual bonuses of 32,000 pesos (US $1,650).

Source: Notimex (sp), Reuters (en)

Grupo Xcaret continues to invest, its confidence in Mexico unshaken

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MND Staff

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March 14, 2019

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High-speed ride on a jet boat is one of the attractions at Xcaret's new park.

Tourism company Grupo Xcaret continues to invest in new projects because it has “great confidence” in Mexico, despite having some reservations about the new federal government.

Vice-president and founding partner Carlos Constandse told a press conference yesterday that Xcaret’s latest theme park called Xavage will open next month.

Located just off the highway between Cancún and Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, the US $78-million park will allow visitors to participate in a range of adventure experiences on water, land and in the air.

Next year, Xcaret will open its second hotel – a US $85-million all-inclusive resort in Cancún called La Casa de la Playa (The Beach House) – for which orchestra conductor Alondra de la Parra will be an official ambassador.

“We’re at a key moment for the group in its three business divisions [theme parks, hotels and tours] and despite everything we’ve opted not to stop [investing]. We’re moving forward with our whole heart in it . . . The results are clear: last year we had close to 4 million visitors at our facilities, which represents a 19% increase with respect to 2017,” Constandse said.

The businessman expressed misgivings about the government’s decision to disband the Tourism Promotion Council (CPTM) but added that Grupo Xcaret is part of a working group of the National Tourism Business Council (CNET) that in conjunction with the federal Secretariat of Tourism is developing a new organization to replace it.

“[Mexico] is a very big country and together we’ve been through a lot of crises but we’ve come out of all of them. Now, we’re not in a crisis but in times of change. We all wanted a change and the change is happening, possibly not as we wanted it but it was necessary,” Constandse said.

He also said that Grupo Xcaret is interested in participating in the government’s ambitious Maya Train project.

“It’s a decision . . . that we have to support . . . There are natural attractions [on the Yucatán peninsula] that only a few places in the world have and we have to make the most of it.”

Source: El Economista (sp)

National guard declared constitutional following states’ approval

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César Hernández

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March 14, 2019

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Congress today declared the new security force constitutional.

The new security force known as the national guard is on its way to becoming a reality following unanimous approval by all 32 states and both houses of Congress.

It is the first time in 30 years that a constitutional amendment has been approved unanimously.

After the completion of the vote by state congresses yesterday, the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate today declared the National Guard is constitutional.

Approval by only 17 states was needed for the amendment to proceed, but the lower house of Congress decided to wait until all 32 had debated it.

The last step in the process is promulgation by President López Obrador.

Congress will then prepare the secondary legislation necessary to create the new force.

Source: El Economista (sp)

64 blocks of bricks form a new art installation in Oaxaca

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César Hernández

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March 14, 2019

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Atlantes, the new art installation at Casa Wabi, Oaxaca. — Atlantes, the new art installation made from thousands of bricks.

A beachfront site near Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, is now home to a unique piece of art — a grid of 64 two-meter-high cubes made from thousands of red bricks.

The large-scale art installation was created by Mexican contemporary artist Bosco Sodi at Casa Wabi, an artists’ retreat and art center designed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando for his Casa Wabi Foundation.

Called Atlantes, a reference to the pre-Hispanic motif of stone columns carved to resemble human figures, Sodi’s installation is comprised of stacks of bricks arranged in an eight-by-eight-foot grid. Identical spaces are left around each to create a symmetrical arrangement that draws on the concept of a chessboard.

“I wanted to do 64 cubes because I wanted to use the same structure as chess,” Sodi told the architectural and design magazine Dezeen. “I wanted it to be very mathematical. The cube is a completely human form; you do not find the cube in nature.”

Each of the 64 blocks is made of 1,600 clay bricks that Sodi and a team of local craftsmen made by hand — a total of 102,000 pieces.

ATLANTES PAVILION 1 from Studio Bosco Sodi on Vimeo.

To make the bricks, the team used raw earth and mixed it with water and sand to form clay, and then shaped and smoothed each one by hand. They were then left to air-dry in the sun.

Once hardened, the bricks were fired in a traditional kiln near the beach site using local wood, jacaranda seeds and coconut shells. This process imbued the bricks with terracotta hues, as well as green and black streaks.

“This concept, of getting materials that come from the earth in all of the four elements – earth, fire water, air – to form clay, and after time, to bring it back to its origins [is important to me],” Sodi said.

The installation took over two years to complete, but will eventually disintegrate.

The bricks will slowly deteriorate and the form will become organic again over a period of many years, Sodi said.

“[Eventually] they will become mountains of clay that are completely abstract and random, but in a very human way of arranging them.”

Source: Dezeen (en)

Mexico should aim for US $40 billion in foreign investment, forum told

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MND Staff

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March 14, 2019

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Chief of staff Romo: inertia is not an option.

Mexico must aim to attract between US $35 and $40 billion annually in foreign direct investment (FDI) in order to stimulate economic growth, the president’s chief of staff said yesterday.

Speaking at a forum on the National Development Plan (PND), Alfonso Romo described the 2% growth of recent years as “an embarrassment.”

Consequently, the plan – a wide-ranging public policy blueprint – will seek to attract greater capital in order to make Mexico more competitive, he said.

“We can’t be conformist or become accustomed to inertia. Rather we have to see what we have to do in the plan to bring $35 billion or $40 billion [into the country],” Romo said.

In 2013, the first full year of Enrique Peña Nieto’s presidency, FDI spiked to US $48.5 billion but in the subsequent five years it ranged between US $29.5 billion and US $35.8 billion.

To ensure that Mexico achieves higher economic growth – President López Obrador is targeting 4% – Romo said the government needs the nation’s productive sectors to help define the PND.

“We don’t know the sectors like you know them,” the official said, signaling that the PND will be developed via a bottom-up approach.

Foreign trade undersecretary Luz María de la Mora also emphasized that the PND must aim to attract greater investment.

“Mexico is an important [economic] actor, contributing 2% of exports on a global scale and [receiving] 2% of foreign direct investment. We want to increase that participation, for Mexico to join the trillion-dollar foreign trade club . . . because we have the potential to do so,” she said.

Economy Secretary Graciela Márquez Colín called on the private sector to help build a strategic economic agenda that guides public policy in the medium and long term.

The PND will be a “roadmap” for the entire six-year term of the current government, she said.

Márquez also said that negotiations with the United States aimed at the removal of U.S. tariffs on Mexican steel and aluminum are progressing well.

“. . . We believe that there is an opportunity to negotiate the elimination of the tariffs on steel and aluminum before the ratification of the USMCA [trade agreement].”

Responding to the officials’ statements, Business Coordinating Council (CCE) president Carlos Salazar said the private sector hoped for a PND that would benefit all Mexicans, adding that priority must be given to “access to opportunities.”

Yesterday’s forum came two days after López Obrador outlined the government’s achievements in its first 100 days in office and reiterated his commitment to achieve annual economic growth of 4% during his six-year term.

The president asserted that the government’s crackdown on corruption would help to attract investment, and that infrastructure projects such as the Maya Train will help to stimulate growth.

But a range of public and private financial institutions see López Obrador’s 4% growth target as fanciful, forecasting economic expansion of just half that figure or less.

Source: Milenio (sp), Notimex (sp)

Tijuana, Guerrero politicians dispute violent cities study findings

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MND Staff

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March 14, 2019

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Gastélum, left, and Astudillo challenge study findings.

Politicians in Baja California and Guerrero have rejected a study that found that Tijuana and Acapulco were the two most violent cities in the world outside war zones in 2018.

The Citizens’ Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice (CCSPJP), a non-governmental organization, published a study this week that ranked Tijuana as the most violent city in the world as a result of its homicide rate of just over 138 per 100,000 inhabitants. Acapulco ranked second with a rate of 110.5.

Tijuana Mayor Juan Manuel Gastélum acknowledged that there was a high number of homicides in the city last year but claimed that the study used incorrect data and has a clear “political connotation” because municipal and state elections will be held this year.

“It’s a fraudulent study with a political purpose, I can’t see it any other way. I don’t know who could be behind this, we have to review . . . this entity [the CCSPJP],” he said.

Tijuana Public Security Secretary Marco Antonio Sotomayor contended that the study included homicides in Rosarito even though the coastal city is in another municipality.

Both men pointed out that the number of homicides in Tijuana has fallen in 2019.

In response to the mayor’s claim, CCSPJP president José Antonio Ortega told the newspaper El Sol de Tijuana that the study has no political purpose other than to encourage authorities to implement policies that improve public security.

“We do this [study] with complete methodological rigor precisely so that authorities, the media and the population pay attention to the murderous violence . . . and establish different policies in order to get out of this horrific ranking of the 50 most violent cities in the world,” he said.

In Guerrero, Governor Héctor Astudillo rejected Acapulco’s second-place ranking.

“I reject it because the indicators we have from the National Public Security System tell us that we’re in fourth place [for homicides] per 100,000 inhabitants and sixth place for the [sheer] number of homicides,” he said.

The governor conceded that violence in the faded Pacific coast resort city is an ongoing problem that “requires attention” but charged that authorities are working every day to combat insecurity and that crime rates are already falling.

“I don’t accept that Acapulco is the second most violent city,” Astudillo reiterated.

Acapulco Mayor Adela Román Ocampo expressed a similar sentiment, charging that the CCSPJP didn’t take into account the “hard facts” that show that violence in the port city is going down.

“I categorically reject it [the ranking] because we went down to fourth and sixth place for intentional homicides . . .”

Source: Milenio (sp), Frontera.Info (sp), El Sol de Tijuana (sp) Digital Guerrero (sp)

Oaxaca state police chief has been held hostage for 3 days

By

Madison Koen

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March 14, 2019

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Juquila residents gather to protest inaction over highway blockade.

Oaxaca state police chief José Sánchez Saldierna has now been held hostage for three days by residents of a community in the midst of a territorial dispute.

The police chief arrived in Santa Catarina Juquila on Monday to mediate a conflict between residents of Juquila and the neighboring town of Santiago Yaitepec.

But frustrated residents instead took Sánchez and another man hostage, relieving them of their cell phones and locking them up inside municipal headquarters. Citizens also erected barricades to prevent state authorities from rescuing the two captives.

The conflict flared on February 3 when residents of Yaitepec blocked roads leading to Juquila, preventing access to that town’s popular religious shrine, the Virgin of Juquila.

Many Juquila businesses were forced to close due to a lack of supplies and the lack of tourists, who number close to two million every year. Those visitors and the money they bring — some 12 million pesos a year (US $620,000) — are at the heart of the conflict, according to one version of the story.

The municipality of Yaitepec claims ownership of 500 hectares of land within Juquila, including the location of El Pedimento, the shrine to the virgin.

Three days ago, more than 100 Juquila residents gathered to demand that authorities take down the blockades.

In light of the hostage situation, a federal judge authorized Oaxaca authorities to intervene.

Governor Alejandro Murat Hinojosa rejected using state forces to end the blockade and requested assistance instead from federal authorities.

The state Human Rights Comission issued warnings to state and local authorities, urging them to act quickly to take down the blockades to prevent the situation from escalating further.

Officials from the two communities signed a peace pact in the presence of the governor March 1, but it failed to end the conflict.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Guerrero turtle deaths natural phenomenon: biologist

By

Madison Koen

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March 14, 2019

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Officials check out a dead turtle on a Guerrero beach.

More than 110 sea turtles have been found dead on beaches in Guerrero so far this month, causing widespread alarm. But a marine biologist says it’s a natural phenomenon.

Manuel Salvador Gómez Galeana, a member of the Guerrero Sea Turtle Protection and Investigation Board, explained that the recent wave of deaths of the endangered species was caused principally by microorganisms that live in cold ocean currents.

The marine biologist said that salpa, a zooplankton, sometimes carry high levels of toxins which, when they come in contact with the turtles, paralyze and kill them.

This is not the first time large numbers of sea turtles have washed up dead on the beaches of Guerrero. In 2009 between 500 and 600 dead turtles were found and a similar number perished in the same way in 2016.

Gómez predicted that because of the way climate change affects ocean currents, this year could see a much higher number of sea turtle deaths.

The biologist added that illegal fishing techniques, especially using nets in which turtles get trapped, have also been responsible for many deaths.

Gómez said there was no way to defend the turtles against the phenomenon, but urged authorities to set up a surveillance and rescue operation for paralyzed sea turtles.

“We should be very aware of ocean currents in the high seas in order to detect turtles adrift in the ocean so that we can then organize a rescue . . . .”

The marine biologist said that authorities currently lack an appropriate strategy for handling the dead turtles, often arriving on a beach only to take pictures and conduct a body count. He added that some officials bury them on the beach, but others leave them there to be eaten by vultures.

So far, dead sea turtles have been found in Coyuca de Benítez, San Jerónimo, Tecpan de Galeana, Acapulco and the Costa Chica region in Guerrero.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Company says IMSS sales increase due to new personnel, new strategy

By

MND Staff

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March 13, 2019

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Marzam says sales increase due to strategy rather than connections.

Pharmaceutical distribution company Marzam has rejected the suggestion that its sales to the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) increased significantly between 2015 and 2018 because its owner’s father was on the IMSS board.

Reports published earlier this week said that Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity (MCCI), an anti-graft group, had obtained documents that show that Marzam received contracts in that period for more than 526 million pesos (US $27 million) – an amount more than five times greater than its sales to IMSS between 2002 and 2014.

Luis Doporto Alejandre, son of IMSS board member Héctor Doporto Ramírez, purchased Marzam in 2015.

In a statement, the company said that since October 2015 it has operated under a new administration that “has worked to increase competitiveness and profitability” by employing new personnel and pursuing a new sales strategy.

“This strategy has resulted in an increase in government sales . . . but also to private customers,” Marzam said, adding that 96% of all company income comes from the latter.

It acknowledged that its sales to IMSS have increased and described the government department as an “important customer, but just one more in our current portfolio.”

Marzam added: “We strongly reject any statement that implies that our sales results derive from factors other than the strenuous efforts and dedication of our sales team and all our personnel.”

Marzam’s parent company – Dutch firm Moench Coöperatief – said in a separate statement that its shareholders, including Luis Doporto Alejandre, are not involved in Marzam’s day-to-day operations.

“Marzam’s management team has distinguished itself for its high standards of corporate governance and its effectiveness in identifying new business opportunities, ensuring strict compliance with all legal obligations,” it said.

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