Segura: talks just formalize an existing partnership.
A priest from Michoacán has echoed the words of three state governors, declaring that there is no difference between self-defense groups and organized crime.
José Luis Segura Barragán, parish priest in El Rosario, a community in Apatzingán, said that by entering into dialogue with self-defense groups, all the government achieves is to formalize its partnership with criminals.
The priest’s comments came after the Interior Secretariat revealed this week that it had held talks with self-defense groups in Michoacán and Tamaulipas.
Segura, who witnessed the rise of self-defense groups in Michoacán’s Tierra Caliente region, said that in his experience, holding talks with armed gangs is not the solution to ending violence.
“. . . It has always been my position – and it’s not theoretical because I’ve been in complicated situations – that talking to criminal groups is pointless because these groups always have a criminal purpose . . .” he said.
“There are no self-defense forces anymore, those that were left became criminals . . .” Segura added.
“Holding talks with criminal groups would be nothing more than to demonstrate what is already official: the partnership of organized crime with the government.”
A 55-year-old Tamaulipas priest was murdered on Thursday night in Matamoros.
José Martín Guzmán Vega was attacked as he was returning to his church from a shopping trip. After hearing the priest’s cries for help, neighbors found him lying on the floor of the church, bleeding from multiple stab wounds.
He died later in hospital.
Eugenio Lira Rugarcía, bishop of the diocese of Matamoros, confirmed Guzmán’s death.
A motive for the crime was not immediately apparent.
Guzmán is the first Catholic priest to be murdered in Mexico this year. According to the Catholic Multimedia Center, 26 priests have been killed since 2012.
On August 3, Presbyterian minister Aarón Méndez Ruiz, director of the migrant shelter Casa del Migrante AMAR, was kidnapped in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, and has not been seen since.
Undersecretary Peralta and self-defense force founder Mireles shake hands in La Huacana.
On the orders of President López Obrador, talks between the federal government and self-defense forces will cease, Interior Secretary Olga Sánchez told reporters yesterday.
“The president has given us a very clear instruction, he doesn’t want us to continue down this line and we’re going to respect the instruction. The intention was good, the intention was pacification,” Sánchez said.
The interior secretary said on Tuesday that her department had been in talks with armed groups “and they have told us that they do not want to continue” to engage in violence.
Sánchez said officials had met with groups in Guerrero, Tamaulipas and La Huacana, Michoacán, “that have been fighting each other but have now expressed their intention to disarm” and contribute to the pacification of Mexico.
The Interior Secretariat (Segob) quickly clarified that Sánchez was speaking about “authentic self-defense organizations” rather than criminal organizations. “The federal government does not have nor will have dialogue with any organized crime group,” it said on Twitter.
Inauguration of the agro-industrial plant in Michoacán. Which are the bad guys?
A group that Segob undersecretary Ricardo Peralta met with in Tamaulipas allegedly has ties to the Gulf Cartel. Governor Francisco García Cabeza de Vaca said that warrants have been issued for the arrest of some of its members.
Sánchez said yesterday that Peralta thought it was a good idea to go to areas of the country where there are high levels of violence in order to seek an “alternative” path to peace.
The secretary clarified that officials had gone to Tamaulipas and Michoacán but not to Guerrero, although she added that people from that state have approached the government to seek dialogue.
Peralta traveled on Wednesday to La Huacana where, accompanied by former self-defense leader José Manuel Mireles, he laid the symbolic first stone for a new agro-industrial park. In the same municipality last May, so-called self-defense force members detained and disarmed soldiers.
At his press conference on Thursday, López Obrador distanced himself from Peralta’s attendance at the groundbreaking ceremony, explaining that his government doesn’t endorse any projects in which armed self-defense groups are involved.
He directed the undersecretary to “stick to the constitution” while fulfilling his duties as a federal official. The president described self-defense groups as “illegal” and declared that they cannot be allowed to perform law enforcement duties.
Peralta attended the groundbreaking ceremony in La Huacana, López Obrador said, “because they invited him.”
“I do not agree. We talked about this issue in the security cabinet, and I have asked them to obey the mandates of the constitution and the laws,” he said, implying that he gave Peralta and other Segob officials a dressing-down.
Asked whether she had received a rebuke from the president, Sánchez paused before responding that she was only given an “instruction.”
The interior secretary rejected rumors that she was planning to resign, asserting that she is very secure in her position and that López Obrador has “great confidence” in her.
Interior Secretary Sánchez: ‘intentions were good’ but president was not on side.
“. . . I’m more secure than ever. These mischievous adversaries I have are always saying that I’m quitting or that I’m sick. I’m not quitting and I’m not sick . . .” Sánchez said.
The López Obrador government is coming under increasing pressure due to its failure to stem violence since taking office last December. Homicide statistics for the first seven months of the year show that Mexico is on track to record its most violent year in recent history.
The president formally inaugurated the National Guard at the end of June and said yesterday that his government is implementing a “new paradigm” in public security policy that includes attending to the root causes of violence.
The opposition National Action Party said in a statement this week that the president’s policies appear to add up to one big amnesty for criminals.
“The only thing in doubt is whether these [talks] are the first steps in a formal amnesty for drug traffickers, because there has already been a de-facto amnesty since February 1 when the president announced the end of the drug war and government drug seizures fell.”
The Nuevo Laredo hotel where police were attacked.
A commando attacked a hotel in which state police officers were staying in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, early Friday, killing one officer and wounding two others.
State police said Northeast Cartel sicarios attacked the Santa Teresa Hotel with assault rifles and fragmentation grenades.
The aggression took place a few hours after Federal Police officers transferred 19 prisoners considered to be high-ranking members of the Northeast Cartel from municipal jails in Nuevo Laredo.
The cartel, which controls Nuevo Laredo, was formed after a split in the Zetas cartel and is led by Juan Gerardo Treviño Chávez, the brother of former Zetas leader Miguel Ángel Treviño Morales.
The assault on the hotel is the third attack on police in northeastern Mexico this week. On Wednesday, a group of Coahuila state police were ambushed on a highway near Piedras Negras, and were later fired on again as the wounded from the first attack were being taken to hospital.
Runners in last year's event. Costumes are part of the fun.
Thousands of runners will hit the streets of the capital on Sunday to compete in the 37th edition of the Mexico City Marathon.
The starting gun will sound first for wheelchair racers, who will leave the University Olympic Stadium in the south of the city at 6:45am.
Female athletes will embark on the 42-kilometer route to Mexico City’s central square, the zócalo, five minutes later, while male runners will depart at 7:00am.
For the first time, this year’s marathon has been designated as a Gold Label Status event by the International Association of Athletics Federations.
The route will initially see athletes running north on Insurgentes avenue until they reach the World Trade Center after which they will continue through the neighborhoods of Condesa and Roma.
The 2019 Mexico City Marathon route.
Runners will pass by the Chapultepec castle before reaching Polanco, where they will run down swanky Masaryk avenue and past the visually striking Soumaya museum.
On the home stretch, the 30,000 competitors will be able to admire the Angel of Independence monument on Paseo de la Reforma, the Monument to the Revolution and the Palacio de Bellas Artes (Palace of Fine Arts) in Mexico City’s downtown.
Around 200,000 spectators are expected to line the route to cheer on the runners.
Elite athletes participating in Sunday’s marathon will be vying for a 550,000-peso (US $27,700) first prize in both the men’s and women’s events, while each runner-up will pocket 245,000 pesos.
Foreign athletes have dominated the race during the past decade. Runners from Kenya won both the men’s and women’s events last year. The most recent Mexican winner was Karina Pérez, who crossed the finish line first in 2010.
Not all runners, however, take the event seriously. Last year, 36% of runners cheated by not following the correct route.
A runner sports an elaborate costume in last year’s marathon.
The British news magazine The Economist reported that the Mexico City Marathon has caused crowding on the city’s subway system in recent years but not only because several major roads are shut down for the event.
“It is also because cheating marathoners have been known to hop on for a quick detour to the finish line,” the report said.
Runners who cheat are doomed to disqualification because they carry electronic chips that are detected by checkpoints along the route.
However, disqualification doesn’t come until days after the race and therefore can’t stop the masquerading marathoners from getting their medal, snapping a triumphant selfie and basking in the crowd’s adulation.
Those found to have cheated this year will be barred from competing in the 2020 marathon and half-marathon.
For people interested in following the action at home, the marathon will be screened on the Claro Sports, Azteca and Capital 21 television stations.
AMLO, left, said Calderon's outfit was too big. The latter replied that for the president, it's the job that's too big.
Former president Felipe Calderón struck back after current President López Obrador blamed him for Mexico’s crime woes and ridiculed him for an outfit he wore 12 years ago.
López Obrador laid the blame for the country’s widespread violence on Calderón’s administration and invoked an actor from Mexico’s golden age of cinema to make fun of the former president’s declaration of war against crime.
“When he declared war on organized crime, he went to Michoacán, to Apatzingán, and he went dressed as a soldier,” the president said. “He put on a vest that was too big for him, looking like Major Borolas, and there he declared war.”
“Borolas” was the nickname of actor Joaquín García Vargas, whose characteristic style included a broad-shouldered suit jacket with wide lapels.
“Calderón stirred up a hornet’s nest and we inherited all this that we suffer today,” said López Obrador. “He didn’t even have a plan, and instead of attending to the causes, he wanted to solve the problem in a spectacular fashion, using only force.”
“These days there are more than 100 murders per day, almost twice as many at the end of my administration, which began to clean a house infested with venomous animals,” he tweeted. “Today he lets them grow, because he can’t tell the difference between scorpions and bees.”
In response to the mockery, Calderón, a frequent critic of the president, said the government was too big for López Obrador.
“For me, the vest didn’t fit well,” he said, “but for others, it is the job that is too big.”
During Calderón’s 2006-2012 term as president, 102,859 murder investigations were opened, while there have been 17,164 cases opened in the first seven months of this year, according to the National Public Security System (SESNSP).
If the homicides continue at the same pace, there will have been 175,000 cases by the time López Obrador’s term ends.
If you fly above most cities in Mexico, you’ll see a big water tank on the roof of virtually every house. These reservoirs supply undrinkable water to families and are known as tinacos.
To Guadalajara businessman Raúl Mejorada, tinacos are emblematic of serious problems in Mexico’s water distribution systems and for years he has fought to do something about them.
In May came the first breakthrough in Mejorada’s war on tinacos. Representatives of Jalisco and the town of Ciudad Guzmán, located 100 kilometers south of Guadalajara, signed a collaboration agreement with Mexican and Dutch companies to replace the local water distribution system with one that will bring potable water to every tap.
The project will totally revamp its utility networks, using cutting-edge technology to bring each household not only water, but utilities like electricity, telephone, internet, cable TV and gas.
Mejorada hopes the transformation of Ciudad Guzmán will be a showcase for what can be done in every municipality in the country.
In many cases the tinaco is a breeding ground for germs.
At present, the citizens of most of those municipalities must heed the same advice given to tourists visiting the country: “Don’t drink the water!”
At first glance, one might imagine that this water problem results from contamination at the source, but it does not. Mexican law requires all towns to supply drinkable water. And they do.
The problem develops when the perfectly potable water leaves the purification plant. It runs through water lines which inevitably have cracks. These pipes frequently lie next to sewage pipes, which also have cracks.
While water pressure is constant in many countries, it may often drop to zero in Mexico. Whenever the pressure in the sewer pipes is stronger than the pressure in the water pipes, contamination can result.
The fact that the water may, at times, be reduced or off has forced consumers to install tinacos or other types of reservoirs to assure a constant supply of water. Unfortunately, each reservoir is a sort of giant petri dish in which bacteria such as E. coli can happily multiply.
To the rescue come companies that purify this same tap water — removing all the healthy minerals along with the bacteria, of course — and sell it in big bottles or demijohns called garrafones, which they deliver to the door of every single family and business. In spite of the monetary and environmental costs of this delivery system, Mexico is, per capita, the biggest consumer of bottled water in the world.
Raúl Mejorada of MGB Victoria, left, and Idsart Dijkstra of KWR.
According to the Inter-American Development Bank, the average Mexican drank 480 liters of bottled water in 2011, more than four times the amount drunk by a thirsty citizen of the U.S.
Mejorada has been decrying this sad situation for years, but the story gets worse.
Says Mejorada: “Among the leaky municipal water pipes, the individual pumps to bring it up to every rooftop, the tinaco itself and the jury-rigged patchwork of pipes distributing it throughout the house, a full 50% of the water distributed by Mexican towns and cities simply disappears. Every day half our water is wasted; is literally thrown away!”
No wonder World Resources Institute categorizes Mexico as suffering from High Baseline Water Stress, meaning that the nation consumes between 40% and 80% of the water supply available for a year.
“For more than 25 years,” says Mejorada, “we’ve been studying the water-supply problem in Mexico and comparing it to the systems of more developed countries where potable water is delivered under pressure 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
“The Netherlands shines in its efficient, innovative approach to finding sustainable sources of water, storing and distributing it using modules which can increase as the city grows. Each of these systems can supply many consumers — 50,000-80,000 — assuring a constant supply of water under pressure.
Telephone and electrical wires will disappear from the typical Mexican skyline.
The Dutch system is simple, economical and efficient, but what is curious is that it is also economically viable and self-financing.
The system employs high-velocity flexible hoses with tube diameters as small as 40 millimeters for what is called a “self-cleaning network.” These tubes, together with hoses for gas and wiring for electricity, telephone, cable TV and internet, are all laid together using trenchless technology, a new way of tunneling without disruption on the surface.
This makes it possible to install utilities under rivers, canals and other obstacles with little or no damage to the environment. It is said that the resulting system is as earthquake-proof as you can get.
According to Mejorada, “Our program begins very simply. We select the best already-existing infrastructure and we concentrate it in locations where it’s easiest to obtain and distribute water. This immediately results in savings that allow us to implement these central systems in less viable and more complicated places.
“After this comes replacement of present-day water pipes and, in the long run, the eventual elimination of tinacos, reservoirs and individual pumps. This was achieved by Spain in the 1950s.”
A collaboration agreement was signed by the municipality, its water utility (SAPAZA) and Mejorada’s firm MGB Victoria, headquartered in Guadalajara. Dutch firms also participating are Eijkelkamp Soil & Water, Dareius and the KWR Foundation, a unique fusion of Dutch companies and a water research institute.
[wpgmza id=”231″]
In addition, the government of the Netherlands will also invest in the project through technology transfer, technical support and infrastructure.
Mejorada estimates the cost of investment in the Ciudad Guzmán project at about 300 million pesos with a return in less than eight years. He expects the project to be completed in about three years.
“Our aim,” says SAPAZA director Alfonso Delgado Briseño, “is soon to provide clean, safe drinking water at the tap 24 hours a day.”
But more than that, the Mexican and Dutch partners hope to turn Ciudad Guzmán into a compelling example for all of Mexico focusing on the sustainable use of water and energy.
[soliloquy id="87551"]
The writer has lived near Guadalajara, Jalisco, for more than 30 years and is the author of A Guide to West Mexico’s Guachimontones and Surrounding Area and co-author of Outdoors in Western Mexico. More of his writing can be found on his website.
Migrants from Africa and Haiti clashed with security forces in Tapachula, Chiapas, this week while protesting to demand transit visas that would allow them to travel to the northern border.
Hundreds of migrants began a protest on Monday outside the Siglo XXI migration station, where they blocked the entry and exit of buses transporting Central Americans on their way to be deported to their countries of origin.
The newspaper El Universal reported that migrants from Ethiopia, Mali, Cameroon, Somalia, Congo, Mauritania, Guinea and Haiti were among those protesting against the government’s decision to cease granting permits. They would allow them to travel to the border with the United States, where they intend to seek asylum.
Permits currently being issued only allow the migrants to stay in Chiapas, where they say there are no employment opportunities.
The newspaper El Financiero said that under current laws, migrants are entitled to receive a 20-day transit visa to travel to the United States but some have been waiting in Tapachula for more than three months without even being able to apply for one.
On Tuesday night, Federal Police officers and members of the National Guard attempted to break up the protest but were met with resistance. Scuffles ensued and four migrants were arrested and taken inside the detention center.
On Wednesday, there was another attempt to break up the protests during which a pregnant African woman fell to the ground and went into convulsions, reportedly due to sunstroke, fatigue and not having eaten. She was assisted by medical personnel from the migration station but lost the baby later, according to the advocacy group Pueblo Sin Fronteras (People Without Borders).
Director Irineo Mújica Arzate claimed there have been acts of repression and violence against the migrants on the part of federal forces.
His organization said in a statement that security forces have turned Tapachula into a “prison city,” conducting raids to hunt down migrants, and committing acts of abuse.
During Wednesday’s eviction attempt, women and children lay on the ground outside the migration station to prevent two police cars and another vehicle from leaving.
When police tried to forcibly remove them, the women fought back and accused the officers of committing acts of violence.
The National Immigration Institute (INM) acknowledged in a Twitter post that there was some “pushing and pulling” in the confrontations between authorities and migrants but asserted that the former had the latter’s safety in mind.
“. . . They were removed so they weren’t run over,” the INM said.
On Thursday, the protest continued and the migrants once again resisted attempts to move them on. At around midday, one migrant fainted and began to convulse, El Financiero said.
The migrants say they will continue to protest until they are issued the visas they seek.
Tens of thousands of migrants have entered Mexico since late last year and subsequently traveled through the country to seek asylum in the United States.
The majority have fled the Northern Triangle Central American countries of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala but increasing numbers of people from Africa, Caribbean countries such as Haiti and Cuba, and even Asian nations, have arrived in Mexico with the intention of seeking asylum in the United States.
Several large caravans have traveled to the northern border but migrants’ passage through Mexico has become more difficult as the result of an agreement with the United States.
Three new stations will be added to the Maya Train line, the National Tourism Promotion Fund (Fonatur) said Thursday.
To be located in Cancún and Chetumal, Quintana Roo, and El Triunfo, Tabasco, the new stations will bring the line’s total to 18.
The additions will add 24 kilometers to the line, which is now planned to run nearly 1,500 kilometers through five states: Chiapas, Tabasco, Yucatán, Quintana Roo and Campeche.
The new station in Cancún will be located in the city center, providing residents with better access to the line. A station at Cancún’s airport was already planned.
The stations in Chetumal and El Triunfo will provide logistical support to the line.
The results of the project’s first tender were released on August 9 when it was announced that the contract for the train’s basic engineering had been awarded to the consortium comprised of Key Capital, Senermex Engineering and Systems, Daniferro Tools, Geotecnica and Supervisión Técnica.
Environment Secretary Victor Toledo has condemned the murder of biologist Nora López, whose body was found in a hostel in Palenque, Chiapas, on Wednesday.
The Chiapas Attorney General’s Office reported that López had suffered multiple stab wounds.
The environmentalist was working on a scarlet macaw breeding project in the Los Aluxes Park near Palenque.
“Once again the environmental sector is in mourning and joins together with family and friends in grief,” read a post on the Twitter account of the Secretariat of the Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat).
“We pay homage to the women and men of Mexico who, from different fields, resist with dignity and strength the increasingly intense and powerful attacks that destroy the biological and cultural diversity of the country and the planet.”
The environmental and human rights organization Global Witness reported that 14 land and environmental defenders were murdered in Mexico in 2018.
Such numbers put Mexico at No. 6 on the list of most dangerous countries for environmentalists.
The numbers this year look even worse. Last year’s total of 14 was reached in June.
The Association of Zoos, Breeders, and Aquariums (Azcarm) expressed outrage over the incident and demanded justice.
“We are all profoundly sad, outraged, angry and desperate because we don’t see any level of government taking concrete actions to solve the grave problem of insecurity we are suffering all over the country and the terrible, endless wave of violence against women,” it stated in an open letter.
“Today, our close friend Nora is one more victim of those cruel crimes that do not cease in our country due to the terrible impunity we are suffering and the absolute inefficacy of our authorities to fulfill their obligation to protect our lives and guarantee our security,” it added.
