Mexico City suspends six officers linked to sexual assault of teen

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August 14, 2019

Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum has announced the suspension of six police officers in connection with the sexual assault of a minor in the borough of Azcapotzalco.

The suspended officers include those who responded to an emergency call after the assault, and others who were stationed in the area when the incident happened.

In a message posted on social media, Sheinbaum promised there will be no impunity.

“Violence against children and women is unacceptable,” she said. “It’s an attack on our lives and our liberty.”

Sheinbaum said she has met with experts and activists to create a strategy to prevent and respond to violence.

“I understand that the process of reporting crimes and getting justice for women who have been victims of violence is complicated, and that has to change,” she said. “The women and men in my government think that we should protect children and women from violence.”

She noted that Mexico City has female lawyers available at police stations for women who want to report crimes, and 27 centers that offer legal and psychological support for women who have been victims of violence.

“This is just the beginning,” she said. “We are going to consolidate an effective plan that will have concrete results in the short term. That’s why we’re working with experts to create a strategy that will make Mexico City safer for women.”

Over 500 women marched yesterday in protest against what they perceived as lack of progress in the assault, which occurred August 3. The march turned violent when some protesters vandalized the offices of the city’s attorney general.

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

Chapultepec named best park; additional 105 hectares to be open space

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Cody Copeland

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August 14, 2019

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Mexico City’s Chapultepec Park was awarded the gold medal in the World Urban Parks organization’s 2019 International Large Urban Parks Award.

And to celebrate, the city government said it will annex approximately 105 hectares to the fourth section of the park, known in Spanish as the Bosque de Chapultepec.

“It will once again become a space of recovery, environmental and cultural reclamation, as well as for the future of our country and, obviously, for our city,” said Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum.

The fourth section of the park is currently used by the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena), and will be declared by the city government as an open recreational space.

“There isn’t a higher honor I could receive as mayor than to feel the vibrations, love, and affection I feel for something so important to the city as the Bosque de Chapultepec,” she added.

Gracias al @WUParks por otorgar al Bosque de Chapultepec el reconocimiento como mejor parque urbano del mundo 2019. Con Los Pinos y la Cuarta Sección, Chapultepec será todavía más grandioso. pic.twitter.com/rGXe5ScdsK

— Claudia Sheinbaum (@Claudiashein) August 13, 2019

She later went on to say that, in addition to the award, she is excited about the future of the park, “which looks bright, since it includes both city and federal resources, such as the Los Pinos Cultural Complex.”

She explained that the fourth section continues to grow, “and what’s more, it’s very important that an artist as recognized as Gabriel Orozco was chosen as the coordinator of this cultural and environmental restoration, along with a team belonging to the Bosque de Chapultepec.”

The progress of the annexation of the new section of the park will be announced as the work moves forward.

“We will meet every 15 days with the federal Secretariat of Culture, which is also part of this project. Various departments in the city government, and even the president, are keeping an eye on the progress, and we will soon be ready to make a presentation.”

Regarding the recognition, she specified that the park was evaluated alongside urban parks all over the globe. “The natural wealth in the Bosque de Chapultepec represents the natural wealth of central Mexico, of our city, of what it has been and what it can be.”

Source: Milenio (sp)

Local, state police forces are short 100,000 officers, a 29% deficit: AMLO

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MND Staff

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August 14, 2019

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guard — With the National Guard deployed around the country, crime will decline 'very soon.'

State and municipal police forces are short on numbers — 102,726 officers, to be precise, according to President López Obrador.

The president told reporters at his morning press conference yesterday that to meet recommended international standards for police numbers per capita, the forces require a total of 358,592 officers.

However, they currently have only 255,866, or 71% of the recommended number.

The states with the biggest police shortfalls are Veracruz, Zacatecas, Oaxaca and Durango, which only have 33%, 39%, 43% and 46%, respectively, of the number of officers they should have.

Guanajuato, which recorded more homicides in the first half of the year than any other state, has only 55% of the recommended number of officers.

In contrast, Mexico City has 48% more officers than it needs based on its population, while Tabasco and Quintana Roo exceed minimum recommended police numbers by 20% and 9.5% respectively.

López Obrador said the recruitment of more police in states and municipalities where there is a shortfall is urgent.

“There is a fund of 10 billion pesos [US $510 million] that will go to the states and municipalities and we want them to use it to hire more officers, and for the army and navy to assist their training,” he said.

The president reported that since his government took office last December, there have been 877 acts of aggression towards state and municipal police.

In the same eight-month period, 402,089 high-impact crimes – homicides, robberies, vehicle theft, rapes, acts of extortion and kidnappings – were recorded.

Robberies and vehicle theft make up 93% of that number, according to government figures, while there were almost 15,000 intentional homicides, just under 4,000 extortion cases, 691 kidnappings and 7,979 reports of rape.

The National Guard, the centerpiece of the government’s security strategy, is now deployed in 150 regions across the country, said Luis Rodríguez Bucio, commander of the new force.

He said 58,602 National Guard members are on active duty, mainly in the center and south of the country. The army and the navy have provided 56,191 members, while 2,411 Federal Police officers have so far joined the new security force.

Over 9,000 guardsmen are deployed to México state, while there are 3,628 in Michoacán, where violence has spiked this year largely as a result of a turf war between the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Los Viagras crime gang.

More than 3,000 National Guardsmen are deployed to each of Jalisco, Oaxaca and Mexico City.

The government revealed yesterday that 5,818 would-be guardsmen were rejected due to obesity, poor physical condition, health problems or because they have tattoos.

López Obrador pointed out that the army and navy are supporting the National Guard in public security tasks, and expressed confidence that crime and violence will decline “very soon.”

“Every day we’re working to guarantee peace and tranquility in the country . . . We’re doing our part [and] we think that soon, very soon, things are going to change in terms of security, we’re going to pacify the country,” he said.

“. . . The fundamental thing is to deal with the reasons that cause violence, the fundamental thing is prevention, to not abandon the people, for there to be work, to not abandon the young people – that’s key, not turning our backs on young people. They should have the opportunity to study, the opportunity to work, and we can also strengthen a lot of values,” the president added.

López Obrador also addressed the concerns of human rights groups, among others, about the deployment of the National Guard.

“The fear, the legitimate concern of some that with the decision to create the National Guard, human rights were going to be violated – that’s guaranteed not to happen, not just because of the instruction they have to respect human rights but also because there is a mindset in that sense of the Defense Secretariat and the Navy Secretariat.”

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

Turtle egg trade is alive and well in Juchitán, Oaxaca, where officials turn blind eye

By

Cody Copeland

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August 13, 2019

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eggs1 — A reporter is offered a turtle egg in the Juchitán market.

Despite a federal ban on the hunting, sale and consumption of sea turtle eggs and meat, the longstanding practice is still tolerated in Juchitán de Zaragoza, located in Oaxaca’s Isthmus of Tehuantepec region.

Vendors sell the eggs by the bag, either fresh or sun-dried, alongside more customary marine fare like fresh red snapper and bright blue crabs.

The ban, which went into effect in 1990, is strictly enforced elsewhere in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and Oaxaca’s Pacific coast. However, the inhabitants of Juchitán have refused to give up eating turtle eggs, and authorities have come to turn a blind eye to it as long as the commerce stays local.

“Since consumption in Juchitán isn’t large-scale, it’s de facto permitted in town,” said Sara, a local resident who consumes turtle eggs in her home, and preferred not to give her last name. “But outside the city limits, the law is enforced, and if they catch people trafficking turtle eggs, they will arrest them.”

Mexico’s federal penal code imposes a penalty of up to nine years in prison, as well as a fine of up to 300,000 pesos (US $15,300) for the illicit trafficking of sea turtle eggs and/or meat.

**Eggs are served with some Salsa Valentina . . .**

Six of the world’s seven sea turtle species come ashore in Oaxaca to lay their eggs, most notably the olive ridley sea turtle. The beaches at La Escobilla, Barra de la Cruz and Morro Ayuta are some of the world’s most important nesting sites for many turtle species.

The olive ridley and other species were classified as endangered in the 1970s, but commercial fishing for sea turtles and harvesting of their eggs in the mid-20th century drastically reduced their arrivals on the beaches of Oaxaca. In the 1980s, the number of nests on Oaxacan beaches fell to as low as 120,000 per season.

Since the ban, however, conservation efforts have reversed that trend, with as many as 4 million turtles coming to nest in a single season in recent years.

Even though the turtles continue to thrive in spite of the localized consumption in Juchitán, conservationists still denounce the practice.

“Unfortunately, there are still cases of turtle egg consumption here in Oaxaca. It’s part of a very old tradition,” said Marcela Chacón, director of the Mexican Turtle Center in Mazunte, Oaxaca, which works to conserve the turtles’ nesting sites along with the National Protected Areas Commission (Conanp), the environmental protection agency (Profepa), and local communities.

“I don’t agree with the tolerance of it in Juchitán. It’s an environmental crime and the federal government is working to regulate those illicit practices.”

For Juchitán’s fishermen and seafood vendors, however, it is a matter of putting food on the table.

“We don’t earn much selling turtle eggs, just enough to get by,” said one egg vendor in the wholesale seafood market who preferred to remain anonymous.

“I agree that we should conserve sea turtles, but the fishermen have to support their families, so if they bring them to us, who are we to refuse to support them?”

In addition to providing for families, it is also an integral part of the proud culture by which the residents of Juchitán have come to identify themselves.

“The eggs are prepared either boiled or sun-dried, and served on crispy tortillas called totopos,” said the anonymous vendor. “Each has a different flavor, and both are delicious.”

“It bothers us that the government tells us not to buy or sell turtle eggs,” she went on to say.

**A bag of sea turtle eggs at the market in Juchitán.**

Despite their refusal to fully comply with the federal ban, the people of Juchitán have adapted their tastes and culture in order to partially conform to conservation practices, allowing both the turtles and their traditions to survive.

“These days, when the local fishermen see a turtle in the water, they don’t take it. They let it go on its way,” the vendor said.

“They know that the turtles are an endangered species and that they need to be protected, so they don’t fish for them. We only eat the eggs.”

Mexico News Daily

Mexico City march turns violent; over 500 protest police abuse of minor

By

MND Staff

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August 13, 2019

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A protest in which more than 500 women participated to demand that authorities take action against four police officers accused of raping a minor turned violent yesterday in Mexico City.

The protesters first gathered at the central offices of the Mexico City Secretariat of Security (SSC), where they shouted anti-police slogans condemning the rape of a 17-year-old girl in the northern borough of Azcapotzalco.

They also graffitied the office building with phrases including “rapist pigs,” “attack one and you attack all of us” and “you don’t take care of us, you rape us.”

Security Secretary Jesús Orta Martínez left the building escorted by three security guards to try to engage in dialogue with the protesters and to speak to the press.

However, one protester threw a fistful of pink glitter at the police chief, covering part of his jacket and hair, and soon after the guards ushered him back into the building.

Shortly after, the protesters marched to the headquarters of the Mexico City Attorney General’s Office (PGJ), where they shouted more abuse at police and government officials and spray-painted the building’s external walls.

Then the protest turned violent.

One group of women attempted to enter the reception area of the PGJ offices but their path was quickly blocked by security guards who shut and locked the glass doors.

The newspaper El Universal reported that two protesters used hammers and stones to shatter the glass doors after which they and other women entered the building and proceeded to vandalize the reception area.

Several computers were thrown to the floor and furniture was broken. Nobody attempted to prevent the vandalism once the protesters were inside, El Universal said.

Outside the building, another group destroyed a PGJ security camera and placed a pig’s head on a post.

The women demanded that Attorney General Ernestina Godoy meet with them at the entrance to the building to explain the progress of the investigation into the sexual assault but after initially indicating that she was prepared to do so, she changed her mind.

Godoy subsequently wrote on Twitter that in response to the “provocation” at the PGJ offices, the government “won’t fall into the same.”

She also said that authorities would investigate the violent break-in and vandalism.

Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum also labeled the protest an “act of provocation,” asserting that the protesters wanted the government to respond to their violence with aggression of their own.

However, she stressed that the government would not “fall into provocations for any reason.”

The mayor said that authorities will review security camera footage to identify those responsible for the violence and destruction at PGJ headquarters.

**A protester vandalizes offices of the attorney general in Mexico City.**

The protest was triggered by an accusation of sexual assault against four men presumed to be Mexico City police. The teenage girl says the rape took place inside a patrol car in the early morning of August 3.

Sheinbaum said that authorities are doing everything possible to complete the investigation into the rape case and stressed that there will be no impunity.

However, social media users expressed skepticism about Sheinbaum’s commitment.

On Twitter, where the hashtag #NoMeCuidanMeViolan (They Don’t Look After Me, They Rape Me) has been used more than 50,000 times to denounce the four police officers accused of the sexual assault, one person wrote that “Sheinbaum will punish today’s women activists more quickly than the SSC rapists.”

Other social media users expressed similar sentiments.

“The police rape women: nobody says anything. The security secretary threatens journalists: nobody says anything. Women protest, throw glitter at the Police Chief Jesús Orta: it’s a provocation, we will open investigation files!” one Twitter user wrote.

“We endure rape, discrimination, harassment and violence and the guy [Orta] gets upset because they threw glitter at him. Relax, Jesús Orta, glitter doesn’t stain like blood,” another Twitter user said.

“They’re not provocations,” a Facebook user said in a message directed to the mayor.

“It’s being fed up with a system that doesn’t listen to us, doesn’t protect us and doesn’t offer solutions.”

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

Abuse charged in handling of horses that pull Reynosa garbage wagons

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MND Staff

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August 13, 2019

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The torture of horses that pull garbage wagons in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, will officially end on October 1.

Authorities in the border city have decided to outlaw the use of equines to haul rubbish amid claims that many of their owners abuse them – in some cases to such an extent that horses have been seen to drop dead.

This year alone, 20 trash-towing mares, stallions and foals have perished while on the job in Reynosa.

“The horses collapse on public streets suffering from dehydration, malnutrition and disease; some are forced to pull extremely heavy carts, which causes deformities in their legs,” said Eva Soto, president of the Cavall Association, a group dedicated to the rescue of mistreated horses.

“What’s even worse, they get ulcers and perforations on their skin and even deep infected holes that are caused by the constant use of harnesses or because they’re beaten by their owners in a desperate attempt to get them to work beyond what their strength allows,” she said.

“. . . The collection of garbage by [horse-drawn] wagons is a tradition of which we should feel ashamed,” Soto charged.

Finally, after years of inaction and despite opposition from both garbage collectors and some members of the general public, the Reynosa municipal government has said enough is enough.

Local councilor Héctor Eduardo Flores Gómez said that in addition to the mistreatment of horses, the animals’ use for garbage collection is being banned because many of their owners have limited knowledge about waste management and burn the rubbish they collect at clandestine dumps.

He said that the owners of the more than 2,000 horses that are used to haul trash in Reynosa will have the opportunity to continue their trade under the city’s new “motorized” waste collection system.

“We’re not taking away their source of employment, we want them to go from [using] an animal to a motor vehicle. They know that an animal can’t work pulling garbage, walking several kilometers exhausted under the sun. That will be banned – it’s mistreatment – and we’ve seen how some fall down dead from dehydration, hunger and health problems,” Flores said.

“We’re not going to take a single backward step. From October 1, the horses go, the city council is no longer willing to tolerate any excuses . . .”

Any garbage collector who violates the new ordinance will face fines equivalent to five to 10 minimum salaries (about 500 to 1,000 pesos in the northern border region) and detention of up to 36 hours.

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

Filing crime report now takes 45 minutes rather than a day in prosecutor’s office

By

MND Staff

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August 13, 2019

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The implementation of a system in Querétaro in which police file crime reports on tablet computers has drastically reduced waiting times for victims and increased by 40% the number of robberies reported.

State Government Secretary Juan Martín Granados Torres told the newspaper El Universal that since the scheme was put into action in May 2016, robbery victims have been able to file reports in just 40 to 45 minutes with officers who attend the scene of the crime.

The system allows crime victims to avoid having to spend as long as seven hours waiting in a prosecutor’s office, he said.

Police use tablets to file reports of home and business robberies, vehicle theft and muggings, which together account for 50% of all offenses reported in the state.

Granados said it is now more common for robbery victims to a report a crime in Querétaro than in any other Mexican state.

He explained that the software program used to file the reports was developed by young residents of Querétaro and is the only technology of its kind in use in Mexico.

About 2,000 state and municipal police officers are fully trained in the use of the program, Granados said.

Reports filed on tablets are transferred in real time to a database at the Querétaro security coordination center, known as CQ-CIAS.

The official said the innovative reporting system allows authorities to “guarantee the human right of access to justice,” adding that some reports filed on tablets have ultimately resulted in criminal convictions and lengthy jail sentences for the perpetrators.

Granados said that every report is analyzed and investigated by state police, adding that the Querétaro Attorney General’s Office (FGE) is one of the most successful prosecutor’s offices in the country in terms of apprehending criminals and bringing them before the courts.

“. . . About 70% of matters that are taken to judges are the product of an FGE investigation” rather than cases in which the criminal was caught in the process of committing a crime, he said.

The government secretary stressed that crime statistics must be analyzed with the new reporting system in mind. The numbers show that theft reports have risen by 40% over the past three years and that there is an average of 14 crime reports in Querétaro per 100,000 residents, whereas the national average is eight.

But that doesn’t mean that the state has become more dangerous.

“. . . It’s not that there are more crimes but rather there are more reports. Having more reports, police have more information that . . . allows them to achieve better results,” Granados said.

A woman identified only as Eugenia told El Universal that the tablet-based reporting system has made it “very easy” to file a criminal report.

She explained that her mother was a victim of a robbery at her home, but “we weren’t sure if we would report it because we thought we’d waste a whole day making statements at the prosecutor’s office.”

“. . . We decided to call 911 . . . [and] they sent a police car . . . I took about 15 minutes to get to my mother’s house and to my surprise I found that two police were [already] there filing the report. They didn’t take more than 45 minutes . . . They recorded all the details and informed a prosecutor,” Eugenia explained.

“. . . Days later, we went to one of the prosecutor’s offices to elaborate on the report and the truth is we realized that everything we had said, which the police recorded at the time on the tablet, was already in the system. This scheme made things easier for us . . .”

Source: El Universal (sp)

Growing hostility against Mexicans in US, atmosphere of intolerance: Foreign Affairs

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MND Staff

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August 13, 2019

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There is a growing climate of hostility against Mexicans and other minority groups in the United States, the Secretariat of Foreign Affairs (SRE) warns in a new security document.

Mexican consulates in the U.S. have detected “a sharp increase in recent months in the hostile environment against minorities,” the SRE said in a document obtained by the newspaper El Universal that outlines plans to purchase new security equipment for diplomatic missions.

Published this month, the document says that “scheduled attacks, marches that promote xenophobia and fierce debates on United States television have undermined the cosmopolitan environment in that country.”

The publication of the document comes in the aftermath of the August 3 mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, in which a lone gunman killed 22 people including eight Mexican citizens.

According to an affidavit filed by the El Paso Police Department, the 21-year-old suspect told officers that he targeted Mexicans, while in a manifesto published online the alleged shooter said he was carrying out the attack in “response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas.”

The massacre, which the New York Times said was “the deadliest attack to target Latinos in modern American history,” has shaken Latino communities across the United States.

Critics of Donald Trump, including candidates vying for the presidential nomination for the Democratic Party, have accused the United States president of creating racial division in the U.S. and emboldening those who have carried out racially-motivated attacks.

In the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election, Trump infamously labelled some Mexican immigrants as drug dealers, criminals and “rapists.”

More recently, he described the arrival of large migrant caravans at the United States southern border as an “invasion.”

Asked last week whether Trump was a white supremacist, Senator Elizabeth Warren responded without hesitation that he was, while fellow presidential aspirant Beto O’Rourke said the U.S. president wasn’t welcome in El Paso after the deadly attack.

“. . . He’s been calling Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals . . . Connect the dots about what he’s been doing in this country. He’s not tolerating racism, he’s promoting racism. He’s not tolerating violence, he’s inciting racism and violence in this country,” O’Rourke said on August 4.

In light of the identified growth in hostility towards minorities, the SRE said that the safety of its diplomatic personnel in the United States could be at risk, especially considering that the security systems in place at some Mexican missions are obsolete.

Along with Ethiopia, Haiti, India, Lebanon, Nicaragua and Palestine, the SRE classifies the United States as a “hard life” country for Mexican citizens including diplomatic staff posted to the country.

One of the reasons why the foreign ministry makes such a classification is because it deems that there is an atmosphere of “intolerance and manifest discrimination” in the country to which it applies.

Amid an environment in which Mexicans are considered more vulnerable to attacks, the SRE said that the Mexican consulate in San Francisco needs a new video surveillance system.

The cameras it has are obsolete, the SRE said, a situation that leaves the consulate unprotected in an area where “local authorities have reported burglaries, assaults and vandalism.”

The SRE said the consulate in Chicago requires a new safe-deposit box to store the large amounts of cash it receives on a daily basis, while the embassy in Washington D.C. also requires upgrades to its video security system.

The safety of diplomatic personnel as well as Mexican citizens and people of other nationalities who attend Mexican consulates and the countries embassies “must be protected at all costs,” the SRE said.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Government to give Pan American Games athletes 200 million pesos

By

MND Staff

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August 13, 2019

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athletes-grants — José Carlos Villarreal is one of 37 gold medalists who will receive a 40,000-peso grant. He won his medal in the 1,500-meter race.

Mexican athletes who competed at the Pan American Games and their coaches will receive a combined 222 million pesos (US $11.3 million) in direct funding, President López Obrador announced.

López Obrador said that each athlete and coach that attended the regional sporting event in Lima, Peru, will receive a monthly grant of 20,000 pesos (US $1,020) over the next year to allow them to continue training.

In addition, athletes who won medals in the Peruvian capital will receive a one-off lump sum payment of 40,000 pesos for gold, 35,000 pesos for silver and 25,000 pesos for bronze, the president said.

López Obrador said that the proceeds of the sale of the mansion owned by accused drug trafficker Zhenli Ye Gon, which was purchased Sunday by a youth sports foundation for 102 million pesos, will be used for the athletes’ grants.

Another 20 million pesos will come from the sale of other seized assets and a 500-million-peso government sporting fund will provide a further 100 million, he explained.

Mexico finished third on the medal tally at the 2019 Pan American Games, winning a total of 136 medals, including 37 gold.

It was Mexico’s best performance at the event in terms of the number of medals won.

A total of 541 Mexican athletes competed in the games, which concluded in Lima on Sunday.

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

More power outages in Baja California Sur; emergency declared for third time

By

Simon Schatzberg

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August 13, 2019

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Baja California Sur is being hit by blackouts again as the electrical grid struggles to supply the state with electricity.

Neighborhoods in La Paz started to report power outages around 4:00pm on Monday. At the same time, the National Energy Control Center (Cenace) declared that the state’s grid was operating in a state of emergency, which would lead to continued blackouts.

An emergency is declared when an electrical system has an operating reserve of less than 4%.

It was the third time in 15 days that such an emergency declaration has been made.

Governor Carlos Mendoza Davis said the blackouts will continue until the problem is addressed, and asked the federal government to do so with the the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) and the Energy Secretariat.

“This is not going to get better; I worry that we are reaching the limits,” he said. “The solution could be underwater cables, but that’s not an immediate solution. Another solution to the blackouts could be to expand our production of electricity, which isn’t a good solution because we’d be producing very expensive electricity, and burning fuels with high levels of contamination.”

Mendoza said that although an underwater cable would take time to construct, it “would pay for itself.”

He also noted that Baja California Sur is not connected to the CFE’s National Interconnected System.

Source: Milenio (sp), BCS Noticias (sp)