Brakes were fine on semi involved in accident that killed 10

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November 9, 2018

The wreckage after Wednesday's accident.

The brakes on the semi-trailer that slammed into at least 15 cars on the Mexico City-Toluca highway Wednesday and killed 10 people were in working order, an investigation has determined.

The driver, a 41-year-old woman who was uninjured in the crash, told authorities that her brakes failed, causing her to completely lose control of the trailer.

However, Mexico City police chief Raymundo Collins suggested that the driver may have been unable to reach the brakes due to her height.

“These trailers are very big; in order to drive them and get your feet to the pedals you have to be a certain height. It caught my attention that the person [driving], without speaking badly of her, is a woman of short stature,” he said.

Mexico City Attorney General Edmundo Garrido told a press conference yesterday that preliminary results of the investigation into the horrific crash indicate that “the vehicle was being driven at a speed greater than 100 kilometers per hour.”

He explained that experts had reached that conclusion “taking into consideration the trajectory the trailer followed from contact with the first vehicle until it stopped as well as the deformation of the vehicles involved.”

Garrido said the truck’s brakes were found to be working.

Some victims had to be cut out of their crumpled vehicles by rescue crews. In addition to the 10 deaths, 16 people were hospitalized and 25 to 30 people were treated for minor injuries at the scene of the crash.

The trailer was transporting a 24-tonne load at the time of the accident, which is believed to have increased the force of the impact.

Garrido said the driver, a México state resident identified as Ana N., had been working for the the transport company that owned the trailer since July 2013 but had only started as a driver in September 2017.

A blood test to determine if she had consumed alcohol or drugs prior to the accident was negative, he added.

Still, Ana N. could face up to 50 years’ imprisonment for the culpable homicide of 10 people as well as additional terms for inflicting bodily harm and causing material damage.

However, the attorney general said that a compensation agreement could be reached that would allow the driver to avoid jail time.

Transportes Easo said in a statement that it “deeply regrets the death of several people as a consequence of the accident in which one of its vehicles was involved.”

The company also said it will fully cooperate with authorities in their investigation into the incident.

Source: El Universal (sp), La Opinión (sp)

Trump erects new ‘legal wall’ against migrants; caravan rejects UN support

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Tony Richards

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November 9, 2018

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United States President Donald Trump has erected a “legal wall” that will make things more difficult for the thousands of Central American migrants heading for the Mexico-U.S. border, a migrants’ advocate says.

Eunice Rendón of advocacy group Agenda Migrante said a proclamation signed by Trump today, requiring migrants to cross the border legally if they wish to apply for asylum, means they will have to demonstrate “credible fear” that they would suffer violence should they return to their home countries.

They will have to present a good argument, she said, indicating that she and fellow attorney Janet Moreno of the America Immigration Lawyers Association offered legal council to the approximately 5,000 migrants who are currently camping out in a sports stadium in Mexico City.

Meanwhile, as many as 2,000 left this morning to resume their journey north. By mid-afternoon they were beginning to arrive in Querétaro.

Those who remain in the capital had hoped for bus transportation to the northern border courtesy of the United Nations, but their hopes were dashed today.

UN officials declined the request at a two-hour meeting with representatives of the migrant caravan.

The latter responded by warning they would hold the international body responsible for any aggression committed against members of the caravan on their journey north, and asked that its representatives refrain from traveling with them.

They also said they had requested a meeting with president-elect López Obrador but he “roundly refused.”

The caravan plans to leave Mexico City Saturday morning for Querétaro, where they will decide which route to follow to the border, choosing between Tijuana and Nuevo León.

The caravan is the first to have arrived in Mexico via the southern border, which it began crossing October 19.

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

Judge says no to El Chapo’s request for a hug before trial begins

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César Hernández

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November 9, 2018

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A federal judge in the United States has ruled that former drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán cannot enjoy a hug with his wife before his trial begins next week.

U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan wrote that “the court is sympathetic to the request,” citing Guzmán’s “exemplary” conduct and “grace under pressure” during the proceedings so far, but ultimately ruled against it.

“Having conferred extensively with the U.S. Marshals Service about the defendant’s request, the court is constrained to deny it. The marshals have stressed that acceding to the request would be contrary to all the security procedures that have been put in place.”

The judge said the denial was meant to prevent Guzmán from co-ordinating an escape “or directing any attack on individuals who might be cooperating with the government.”

Before Guzmán’s request was filed, his attorney warned that he might have a mental breakdown if he can’t have any physical contact with his spouse, Emma Coronel.

“It can be a brief embrace in open court with the courtroom railing between them. This entire process should not take more than a few seconds,” said Mariel Colón Miró. “The only human contact Mr. Guzmán has had since his extradition has been with the jail personnel when putting on and removing his shackles, and a quick handshake from his attorneys when he goes to court.”

Guzmán has been held in solitary confinement in New York for the last two years.

Guzmán has a reputation for being hard to hold in a jail cell. He has made two bold escapes from maximum-security penitentiaries in Mexico.

The former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel was recaptured in January 2016 and extradited to the United States just over a year later.

Guzmán has pleaded not guilty to 17 counts of drug trafficking, conspiracy, firearms offences and money laundering.

Source: Milenio (sp), New York Daily News (en)

Bank stocks plummet after senators’ surprise move to regulate bank charges

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MND Staff

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November 9, 2018

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Black Thursday architect Senator Monreal.

Yesterday was “black Thursday” on the Mexican stock market when bank stocks plummeted after senators from president-elect López Obrador’s Morena party unexpectedly presented a proposal to curb bank charges.

The Mexican Stock Exchange’s benchmark IPC index fell 5.81% due to the bank losses, its biggest single-day decline since August 2011.

Senator Bertha Alicia Caraveo, who presented the legislative initiative on behalf of Morena upper house coordinator Ricardo Monreal, said that bank charges generated income of more than 108 billion pesos (US $5.3 billion) for Mexican banks last year, 8% more than in 2016.

The proposal to stop banks from charging certain commissions, she explained, seeks a “fairer” relationship between the banking sector and Mexican families.

Shares in Banorte suffered the biggest drop, down 11.9% at the close of trading, while Gentera and Inbursa saw 10.23% and 10.08% wiped off their market value respectively.

The Mexico subsidiary of Spanish bank Santander slumped 8%.

According to Bloomberg, the combined losses of Banorte, Inbursa, Santander, BanBajío, Gentera and Regional totaled more than 85.4 billion pesos (US $4.2 billion).

The FTSE index of Mexico’s new stock exchange BIVA also took a hit yesterday, closing trade down 5.66%.

The Banks of Mexico Association (ABM) said in a statement that it would analyze the content of the Morena proposal in order to identify its reach and determine the impact it would have on its members.

The bill referenced a study by financial consumer protection agency Condusef that said that, on average, 30% of Mexican banks’ revenue comes from commissions.

That percentage, Morena argued in its proposal, is more than banks in other countries earn from those charges.

If approved, the legislation would prohibit banks from charging customers for checking their account balances, withdrawing cash, requesting past statements and issuing replacement cards among other services.

Gabriela Siller, a director at Banco Base, said that the initiative is a sign that the soon-to-be ruling party will promote policies that could have an adverse effect on the private sector.

Several bankers told the news agency Reuters that the proposal caught them by surprise while the move also served to further stir fears about López Obrador’s economic plans.

The private sector is already concerned about the impact that canceling the Mexico City International Airport project will have on the economy.

Prominent business leaders last week slammed the cancellation decision, which came after a public consultation on the future of the project was held.

“All of this is by the book of what every other leftist government has done in Latin America: governing by referendum, then going after the financial conglomerates,” said Santiago Arias, a portfolio manager at Credicorp Capital Asset Management.

“There was a hope that Lopez Obrador would be a little more conscious about how he would approach the private sector,” he told Reuters.

Following the market reaction to the bank charges proposal, Senator Monreal stressed that lawmakers would take business concerns into account.

“We are not going to pass [the law] in an abrupt, fast, hasty way,” he told reporters. “We are going to listen and we will take enough time to be able to listen to all sectors.”

Future finance secretary Carlos Urzúa also sought to calm markets, calling on lawmakers in both houses of Congress to review the financial impact of their proposals.

“While we recognize the aim [of these initiatives] is to try to improve the living conditions of Mexicans, this objective will not necessarily be achieved unless impacts on public finances and stability in the financial sector are taken into account,” he said.

UPDATE November 9, 6:46pm CT:

Bank stocks recovered today after president-elect López Obrador offered an assurance there would be no fiscal reforms during the first three years of the new government.

“We are not going to make any modifications to the legal framework with regard to economic, financial or fiscal matters,” he told a press conference.

Mario Delgado, the head of the soon-to-be-governing Morena party in the lower house, promised there would be no more “surprises” such as yesterday’s proposal.

Source: El Financiero (sp), Reuters (en), El Economista (sp)

Fox sees little austerity in AMLO’s decision to cancel airport project

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MND Staff

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November 9, 2018

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Former president Vicente Fox has hit out at the decision to cancel the new Mexico City International Airport, charging that it is at odds with the incoming government’s austerity push.

In a statement issued yesterday, the ex-National Action Party (PAN) leader said that by scrapping the US $14-billion project, president-elect López Obrador has fulfilled his first campaign promise but asserted that it comes at the expense of the Mexican people.

“The cancellation of the new airport will cause the loss of 120 billion pesos [US $5.9 billion], a conservative estimate, because there will be contractors that will surely go to court to recover their investment,” Fox wrote.

“In addition, there is 60 billion that has already been paid, of which 45 billion is impossible to recover. See how it is useless to boast of austerity, when a public works project is being thrown away,” he continued.

Fox, who governed Mexico from 2000 to 2006, also addressed the decision to eliminate pensions for past presidents, a López Obrador campaign promise that lawmakers decreed by the official federal gazette this week.

Past presidents were entitled to a monthly pension of just over 205,000 pesos (US $10,000) not including other benefits.

“My position is firm and secure: if it is for the good of Mexico, I gladly give up my pension. If it means that my country will have significant growth in its economic resources, I gladly relinquish it,” Fox wrote.

Fox went on to outline a range of expenses to which the new government has committed, including higher pensions for the elderly and disabled and scholarships for students, pointing out that it will also have to pay interest on external debt and allocate money to the states, among other costs.

“If taking away my pension helps significantly to meet these challenges, great! Or if it helps to make a difference to the extreme poverty rate, even better!” the ex-president wrote.

Fox said that “apparently this government-elect is prepared to pull down what is already successful,” adding that it needs to learn the difference between “governing appropriately and viscerally dismantling.”

In closing, Fox declared: “my commitment will never change, with or without pension, it will always be the same. I will continue to work . . . for Mexico and its people.”

López Obrador, who will take office on December 1, has already announced a range of personal austerity measures he intends to adopt as president.

They include largely forgoing personal security, flying on commercial airlines rather than the presidential plane — which he has pledged to sell — and receiving a salary less than half that paid to President Peña Nieto.

Both houses of Congress, controlled since September by the coalition led by López Obrador’s Morena party, have also thrown their support behind austerity measures that include cutting salaries of politicians and other government officials.

López Obrador confirmed last week that the airport would be canceled after a public consultation found 70% support to kill the project and instead build two new runways at the Santa Lucía Air Force Base and upgrade the existing Mexico City airport and that in Toluca.

In contrast to Fox’s claim, the president-elect said this week that the companies that have been building the new airport will not take legal action against the incoming government over the decision to cancel the project.

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

Tax agency uncovers ‘aggressive’ new fraud scheme

By

MND Staff

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November 8, 2018

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The Federal Tax Administration (SAT) has uncovered a new and “aggressive” tax fraud scheme involving more than 13,000 partners and shareholders of 600,000 companies, many of which are bogus.

Unidentified media organizations and professional soccer teams are among the entities that have avoided paying tax of between 1 million and 120 million pesos (US $50,000 to $5.9 million) each.

Samuel Magaña, a high-ranking auditor at the SAT, told a press conference yesterday that the fraudulent scheme is being used to avoid paying income tax (ISR).

The scheme basically consists of companies contracting supposed suppliers that are in fact bogus companies, which in turn subcontract other ghost companies, creating a chain of simulated suppliers that operate without employees, don’t pay taxes and report minimal profits or losses.

“They disguise not paying this withholding [ISR] to the federal treasury through certain tax applications such as clearances and credits: that is, they generate or simulate tax credits, income tax losses or workers’ wage credits that don’t exist in order to kill the entire [tax] retention . . .” Magaña said.

“We have detected these companies’ chains, their partners and shareholders, their legal representatives, their tax residence, telephone numbers, emails . . . and that allows us to conclude that this is a simulated scheme,” he added.

He said that criminal investigations into some of the fraud cases detected are already very advanced and that prison sentences of five to 15 years could be imposed on those found guilty.

As it detects new fraud cases, the tax administration contacts companies to ask them to voluntarily correct their tax situation and thus avoid being investigated for possible criminal activity.

To date, around 400 million pesos (US $19.8 million) in lost tax revenue has been recovered by the SAT including 161 million pesos from a single tax evader, Magaña said.

Among the irregularities the SAT detected in the fraud scheme were the inclusion of dead people on companies’ payrolls along with employees who supposedly worked for up to 27 companies at the same time.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Cancún to adopt single-command policing; officers end strike

By

MND Staff

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November 8, 2018

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Disgruntled police in Cancún boot out the chief on Monday.

Cancún has agreed to cede control of its police force to the Quintana Roo government and join its single-command policing system.

Announcement of the decision today comes just three days after police officers in the resort city went on strike to demand the removal of Cancún’s top cop, whom they accused of mistreating them and having links to organized crime.

The mayor of Benito Juárez, the municipality where Cancún is located, said the police returned to work yesterday after talks were held between authorities and the striking officers.

Mara Lezama explained that the agreement with the Quintana Roo government meant that not only would state authorities be responsible for the security strategy in the Caribbean coast city but also for the training and management of the local force.

In addition, they will be charged with identifying and removing corrupt police from within the force’s ranks.

“We have taken a decision together: from today it will be the state government and in particular the Secretariat of Public Security that is responsible for executing the [policing] strategy so that peace and tranquility is restored to every part and every block [of Cancún],” Lezama said.

“It will also be the responsibility of the state secretariat to inform the municipal government and citizens about the progress, actions and results in these matters,” she added.

Lezama also said that not only will the new mando único, or single command, agreement ensure that municipal and state authorities are on the same page with regard to the security strategy for Cancún but would also allow them to combine human resources and finances.

“My main commitment is to return security and peace to the municipality and today I am committed to doing what is necessary to achieve it. Let it be clear, we are not relinquishing the tasks that correspond to us,” she said.

Lezama, who took office for the leftist Morena party on September 30, said the municipal government will also focus on implementing programs and policies that prevent violence.

Cancún police chief Jesús Pérez Abarca was forced off the job Monday by angry officers who physically pushed him out of the city’s police headquarters.

Lezama said today that the incident was “unacceptable and under no circumstance can it be repeated.”

State Public Security Secretary Alberto Capella attributed the work stoppage to opposition against a move to carry out a “cleansing” of the municipal force to remove corrupt police.

The mayor said the municipal force was made up of a lot of brave officers but that there are also some who are resistant to change and acted illegally to demonstrate it.

“We deeply regret that . . . this group of police brought their daily activities to a halt to argue against a range of dissatisfactions . . .” Lezama said.

Source: Reforma (sp)

AMLO’s fourth transformation is just a new phase of the PRI: Calderón

By

César Hernández

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November 8, 2018

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A former president describes Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s fourth transformation of Mexico as little more than a new face of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.

Felipe Calderón Hinojosa said the phrase “fourth transformation” was “pretentious.”

” . . . It looks more like the fourth transformation of PRI . . . it’s the fourth transformation of a regime that has done a lot of damage to Mexico,” said the ex-president, who escalated the war on drugs, one of the bloodiest chapters in the nation’s history, during his term between 2006 and 2012.

Mexico’s first three transformations were independence from Spain, the 19th-century liberal reform known as La Reforma and the Mexican Revolution.

Calderón made the comments during an interview with broadcaster Grupo Fórmula, at which he confirmed he might seek to create a new political party next year that would act as a counterweight to the new government.

A longtime member of the conservative National Action Party (PAN), his loyalty — and that of many other party members — was shaken by the party’s election campaign alliance with the leftist Democratic Revolution Party. The coalition was engineered by former PAN president Ricardo Anaya, who went on to become its presidential candidate, placing a distant second behind López Obrador.

Calderón said the PAN has been “completely destroyed” and incapable of confronting the new government.

“There are citizens asking the question, ‘What are we going to do now?’ and they have no place to go.” A new political party with a commitment to ethical standards and not just politics is required, he said.

However, he said the party could remedy the situation by choosing veteran politician Manuel Gómez Morín 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.

Calderón also brought up the highly-criticized invitation to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to attend López Obrador’s inauguration on December 1. Calderón observed that Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chávez, was a guest at his own swearing-in ceremony but pointed out that “the current human rights crisis did not exist” in that country at the time.

“At present Maduro is a symbol for authoritarianism. For the sake of democratic consistency he should not be at the inauguration.”

Source: El Financiero (sp)

Lower house adjourned after assassination of deputy’s daughter

By

Tony Richards

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November 8, 2018

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Valeria Medel was shot and killed in a gym in Veracruz.

Lawmakers in the lower house of Congress adjourned early today after the assassination in Veracruz of the daughter of a Morena party deputy.

Proceedings were brought to a halt early this afternoon when Carmen Medel Palma suffered a nervous breakdown after receiving a telephone call notifying her that her 22-year-old daughter had been killed while working out at a gym in Ciudad Mendoza.

According to preliminary police reports, Valeria Medel, a medical student, was shot nine times by a lone gunman. Another woman was also killed in the gunfire.

The Morena party’s Veracruz director did not rule out the possibility that the crime was politically motivated.

A session in the Chamber of Deputies came to a stop when the victim’s mother began crying out, “My daughter! My daughter! Valeria! Valeria!”

The session was declared postponed until next Tuesday after several deputies and medical personnel helped Medel Palma leave the chamber.

Morena Deputy Pablo Gómez observed that his colleague’s daughter was a victim of the state of violence in which Mexicans live.

“Today we face the tragedy in a much more direct way, through a member of this assembly. We are all subject to this crisis of violence and all of us, together as a legislature, must respond. We must bring peace to Mexico, and eradicate violence and violent crime.”

Source: El Universal (sp), e-veracruz (sp), El Sol de México (sp)

Ford closes Guerrero dealership due to insecurity, extortion

By

MND Staff

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November 8, 2018

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The empty Ford dealership in Chilpancingo.

The Ford dealership in Chilpancingo, Guerrero, has closed due to insecurity and extortion, a local business leader said.

Pioquinto Damián Huato, president of the Chilpancingo chapter of the National Chamber of Commerce (Canaco), said that organized crime had been demanding 20,000 pesos (US $1,000) per month in cobro de piso or extortion payments from the dealership’s owners but recently increased the amount.

“. . . They preferred to close and leave Chilpancingo [than keep paying],” Damián explained, although earlier reports said the closure followed a significant decline in sales. But that was blamed on crime levels by employees of the dealership last week.

Damán said violence and insecurity in the Guerrero capital continues to be of great concern and that many other businesses have also been forced to shut.

“At the most, there are [only] 10 big business owners that remain in the capital,” Damián said.

Volvo and Volkswagen dealerships also recently closed in Chilpancingo although the latter apparently didn’t do so due to security concerns.

Damián said the state Congress needs to change the penal code so that those found guilty of extortion face prison sentences of up to 40 years, contending that the proposal of a Guerrero lawmaker from president-elect López Obrador’s Morena party for 16-year jail terms isn’t harsh enough.

The business leader, who since 2013 has been afforded government protection due to death threats against him, said he has lost count of the number of businesses that have closed this year due to insecurity.

“. . . A lot of business people left because they couldn’t endure the cobro de piso [demands] anymore,” Damián said, adding that some businesses were threatened by two or more criminal groups.

“In other words, they paid double and, well, they chose to leave, close for good,” he said.

Source: Reforma (sp)