11 hidden graves in Colima yield 19 bodies, and there may be more

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February 6, 2019

Nineteen bodies have been discovered in 11 hidden graves in the high-crime municipality of Tecomán, Colima.

The state attorney general’s office (FGE) announced on Twitter that the bodies were found after police obtained a search warrant for a property in the community of Santa Rosa.

The investigation has been under way for several weeks.

The FGE said the bodies had been transferred to the coroner’s office for autopsies and to begin the process of comparing the victims’ DNA with national banks and registries to determine if any of those found have been reported as missing.

Governor Ignacio Peralta Sánchez said that although the investigation has only discovered 19 bodies so far, the state would not rule out the possibility that there could be many more.

On Monday, federal undersecretary for human rights Alejandro Encinas declared that Mexico is an “enormous hidden grave” during a press conference in which he presented a 400-million-peso (US $21-million) initiative to fund searches for missing persons — at least 40,000 people, according to the government’s own estimate — and to combat forced disappearances.

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According to statistics from the National Public Security System, Colima was one of the most violent states in 2018 with 81 homicides per 100,000 residents.

In March, Tecomán was the most violent municipality in Mexico, with a violence index of 103.83. The national average was 23.4.

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

Button up: cold front No. 35 is on the way, bringing snow to some areas

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César Hernández

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February 6, 2019

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Snow can be expected at higher altitudes in some northern states.

Cold front No. 35 will bring a drop in temperatures in some states and rainfall in others starting today.

The National Meteorological Service (SMN) warned that snow and sleet are expected in the mountains of Sonora, Chihuahua and Durango, with extremely cold weather, rain and the possibility of tornadoes expected in those states and in Baja California, Zacatecas and Coahuila.

The thermometer is expected to drop below -5 C in the mountains of Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua and Durango, while temperatures as low as -5 C can be expected in the mountains of the states of Coahuila, Nuevo León, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosí, Tlaxcala and México.

A slightly more bearable range of temperatures, between 0 and 5 C, has been forecast for mountain regions in the states of Jalisco, Michoacán, Guanajuato, Aguascalientes, Querétaro, Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Hidalgo and Puebla.

Rain and intervals of light showers are forecast in parts of Sonora, Chihuahua, Durango and Sinaloa, while isolated rainfall has been forecast for Baja California, Baja California Sur, Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Chiapas and Quintana Roo.

The rest of the country can expect stable and dry weather due to an anticyclonic circulation in the Gulf of Mexico coupled with gusts of southerly winds of 50 kilometers per hour or more on the coasts of Veracruz and Tamaulipas.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Quintana Roo puts new limits on hours of alcohol sales

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Madison Koen

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February 6, 2019

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New legislation in Quintana Roo limits the hours in which alcoholic beverages can be sold in stores, bars and clubs.

According to the law, which takes effect February 10, the sale of intoxicating drinks in sealed containers in convenience stores and supermarkets will be prohibited after 11:00pm.

Approximately 600 stores in the state paid extra money for permits to sell sealed beverages until 2:00am in 2018 on contracts through September of last year. Local governments decided to offer extended contracts through January until the new legislation went into effect.

Playa del Carmen city treasurer Jorge Manuel Gutiérrez Sánchez told the news service SIPSE that as of February, extended hours past 11:00pm will not be renewed for supermarkets and convenience stores like Oxxo.

Last call for bars and clubs will also be 11:00pm, though establishments located in the downtown areas of Quintana Roo’s main cities and in the hotel districts of Cancún, Playa del Carmen, Isla Mujeres and Tulum have the option paying an additional fee for permission to serve until 3:00am.

Businesses that wish to renew an alcohol license must also comply with new safety measures.

Juan Pablo Aguirre de la Torre, former director of the restaurant industry association Canirac, warned the new law could negatively affect the restaurant industry and complained that owners of establishments that sell alcohol were not consulted about the law’s safety guidelines.

The head of a legislative watchdog group said those guidelines include a measure to revoke an establishment’s alcohol license for up to six years in the event of a violent incident on the premises.

Eduardo Galaviz Ibarra warned that could discourage businesses from reporting violent crimes for fear of losing their license.

“For the sake of safety we must work together in an organized fashion, and not in the improvised way [this law was implemented],” said former Canirac director Aguirre.

Source: El Economista (sp), Noticaribe (sp)

Probe demanded into sale of Pemex fuel that was intended for donation

By

MND Staff

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February 6, 2019

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A police vehicle carries a sign indicating its fuel was donated by Pemex. But not all donated fuel went where it was intended.

Lawmakers are demanding that Pemex explain where fuel and asphalt donations to federal departments, state and municipal governments and social organizations have ended up amid revelations that at least nine gas stations sold gasoline allocated for donation.

The Budget and Public Accounts Committee of the lower house of Congress will ask the state oil company to deliver a report on its donation program during the presidency of Enrique Peña Nieto, claiming that it was carried out without effective oversight and turned into a profitable venture for those involved.

“In reality, it was never well known what the criteria [for the donation program] were. There were officials, even relatives of officials who acted as intermediaries for municipal governments and they were [effectively] agents . . . What should have been donations turned into a business,” said Alfonso Ramírez Cuéllar, the committee’s president.

At least nine gas stations operated by the companies Hidrosina and Tecpex sold gasoline in 2015 that Pemex had donated to federal departments such as the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena) as well as state and municipal governments, an internal investigation at Pemex determined.

Four Mexico City service stations operated by the latter company received 22.6 million liters of gasoline between August 2013 and June 2015 that was destined to be donated to Sedena, the investigation found.

However, according to Pemex’s 2015 investigation report “it’s very probable that the product didn’t get to Sedena” and was sold to the public by the stations instead.

The report, seen by the newspaper Milenio, recommended that donation agreements be reviewed and that checks be carried out to ensure that fuel was arriving at its intended destination.

“. . . If there is no supervision of the allocation [of fuel] and monitoring of the provision of donations, there could be a loss of more than 1.12 billion pesos” in 2015 alone, the report said.

Milenio said the largest shareholders of Hidrosina, Mexico’s largest private petroleum group, are the brothers William, Gabriel and Paul Karam Kaasab, who along with other business people with interests in the company, have links to political figures from various parties.

México state was especially privileged with regard to fuel donations during the previous government’s six-year term, particularly while Emilio Lozoya was CEO of Pemex between December 2012 and February 2016.

Lozoya has also been accused of receiving bribes from Brazilian company Odebrecht and funneling some of the illicit funds to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) to help finance Peña Nieto’s 2012 election campaign.

The former Pemex CEO told Milenio that he didn’t recall any investigation into the alleged diversion of donations during his administration.

“. . . Pemex had a range of programs to donate fuel and asphalt to state governments and also to Sedena but it wasn’t an area that I dealt with . . . ” Lozoya said.

When José Antonio González Anaya took over the leadership of Pemex in 2016, a committee was formed to establish clearer rules for fuel and other donations, Milenio said.

Ramírez Cuéllar, a lawmaker with the ruling Morena party, said that Pemex needs to explain the irregularities detected in the delivery and use of the fuel it donated – and not just at the nine aforementioned gas stations.

He contended that the scheme became a wider vehicle for corruption.

“. . . They have to deliver a report about what was done because this has been a scandal for a very long time. Mayors themselves talked about the amounts they should give for the delivery of fuel, asphalt, oil or material for the paving of highways,” Ramírez said.

“Traditionally there was a section [in Pemex] that supposedly had to do with social assistance, both for civil associations and municipal governments, but in truth it was something that was completely discretional and without control, not just in the delivery of fuel but also material for the paving of streets and highways,” he added.

The deputy said it was imperative to know with certainty the final destination of all the donations and didn’t rule out the possibility that the Federal Auditor’s Office (ASF) would conduct a probe into the case.

Ricardo Monreal, Morena’s leader in the Senate, said the federal Attorney General’s office must “quickly” investigate the “very serious” irregularities detected at the Hidrosina and Tecpex gas stations, adding that he would take up the issue today with new top prosecutor, Alejandro Gertz Manero.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Zihuatanejo shooting kills two, shocks visitors

By

Tony Richards

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February 6, 2019

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The Zihuatanejo street where Monday's shooting took place.

Gunfire in downtown Zihuatanejo, Guerrero, Monday night killed two people, wounded three and shocked tourists who were nearby.

The shots were fired about 10:30pm at Bar Ego, known among locals as a “narco-bar,” located across the street from another bar that is popular with local residents and visitors.

One visitor who happened to be on hand when the shooting took place was a former nurse who treated one of the victims by attending to her injuries and stopping the bleeding. “There was blood everywhere,” the former nurse said later.

She said she urged the victim to take advantage of the ambulance that had arrived at the scene, but the woman refused, apparently afraid that the attackers would go after her. She fled down an alley instead.

Another tourist who witnessed the incident, a former firefighter and first responder from the United States, described it as the most traumatic thing he had ever seen.

The attack comes just a few days after another in which a young man was killed in the densely populated area of Plaza Kyoto, a few blocks away.

The shooting at the Bar Ego, which many residents hope will be closed by authorities, was the fourth in three years.

Mexico News Daily

Mexico’s biggest drug store company to open 300 new outlets

By

César Hernández

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February 5, 2019

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A troupe of Dr. Simis promote Mexico's largest drug store.

The stocky Dr. Simi, mascot of the national drug store franchise Farmacias Similares, is about to appear on many more sidewalks as the company intends to open 300 more stores this year.

Described by the newspaper El Financiero as the largest drug store in Mexico and Latin America, Farmacias Similares finished 2018 with 6,400 stores in Mexico.

” . . . The expansion goal is to add 300 more this year,” said the company’s strategy and product promotion director, Víctor González Herrera.

The plan will add 1,200 jobs to the franchiser’s existing 17,000.

According to the market research firm Euromonitor International, Farmacias Similares has beaten competitors like Farmacias Yza and Farmacias del Ahorro, taking 10.9% of the market, with estimated sales of US $2.9 billion.

The firm recently opened a number of stores in the tunnels of the Mexico City subway system, but their profitability does not compare to that of the more traditional drug stores.

Instead of looking for new venues or business models, González said, Farmacias Similares will focus on launching a wider variety of products, along with its own name brand.

The executive explained that the sale of over-the-counter medications, vitamins and skin care products represent 30% of the firm’s revenue.

González also said that Farmacias Similares intends to analyze sales of CBD — cannabidiol, a compound found in cannabis that has a relaxing effect and helps control anxiety — before deciding whether to offer it to the public.

While the firm has based its business model on the sale of generic drugs, hence its name, González remarked it has never ruled out selling patent medicines. “. . . We never stop analyzing anything,” he said.

Source: El Financiero (sp)

Petition calls for former self-defense force leader to head national guard

By

MND Staff

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February 5, 2019

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A gun-toting Mireles when he headed a self-defense force.

A prominent former self-defense force leader from Michoacán has garnered strong support in Tamaulipas to be the leader of the new national guard.

José Manuel Mireles garnered 100,000 signatures on a petition calling for his nomination as the head of the new security force proposed by the federal government, said Francisco Chavira, a former independent candidate for governor in the northern border state.

Mireles, a medical doctor and co-founder of Michoacán’s paramilitary self-defense groups, attended a rally yesterday in the municipality of Hidalgo, Tamaulipas, where local self-defense group Columna General Pedro J. Méndez also threw its support behind his candidacy.

At the event, the former self-defense leader, who was imprisoned for almost three years on weapons charges that were dropped last year, expressed his support for President López Obrador.

Mireles was also elected as Mexico’s national self-defense force leader via a show of hands by the thousands of attendees at the rally, among whom were members of self-defense groups from other states.

Chavira said the petition’s 100,000 signatures were collected in less than a month and will be presented to the federal government at the beginning of March.

He explained that the backing came from “everywhere” in Tamaulipas, including the cities of Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa, Matamoros, Tampico, Ciudad Victoria and Ciudad Mante.

Chavira told the newspaper Reforma that they are now waiting for Congress to approve the creation of the national guard after which Mireles will be formally nominated for the role of leader.

“There is an official letter being prepared to present his nomination . . .” he said, adding that yesterday’s event attracted more than 20,000 people.

“More than 5,000 people came on horseback. There was a parade with tractors, farmers. It was a march in solidarity and support of the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador,” Chavira said.

The ex-gubernatorial candidate explained that Mireles will undertake a national tour in support of López Obrador and to meet with activists and civil society groups.

The president’s national guard proposal attracted criticism from several non-governmental organizations, which said that it would only perpetuate the unsuccessful militarized security model implemented by former president Felipe Calderón in 2006 and continued by the previous federal government.

Federal Security Secretary Alfonso Durazo announced last month that López Obrador had decided that the national guard should have a civilian command and not a military one as was initially proposed.

The decision followed calls for the new security force not to be under the control of the army, including from within the president’s own party.

Source: Reforma (sp)

Radical teachers put brakes on Michoacán agreement; one blockade remains

By

MND Staff

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February 5, 2019

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Radical teachers in Michoacán have broken ranks with the CNTE union by refusing to lift one of their rail blockades.

Section 18 of the union reached an agreement with state and federal authorities over the weekend that included a renewal of its commitment to remove the blockades, which have stranded hundreds of trains and cost the economy billions of pesos.

The CNTE said in a statement that “the tactical withdrawal agreement involves clearing the railway tracks in order to progress to a second tripartite meeting with the state and federal governments.”

However, teachers who belong to the National Front of Struggle for Socialism (FNLS) and the National Democratic Executive Committee (CEND) of the SNTE union have maintained a rail blockade at Caltzontzin in the municipality of Uruapan and only lifted one at Pátzcuaro last night.

In the former location, the teachers agreed to remove their blockade but threatened instead to barricade the municipal palace complex and shopping centers, among other locations. In the end, they did neither.

Meanwhile, Morena party lawmakers in the Michoacán Congress called on teachers to end their protests and go back to the classroom in order to “make peace with society.”

In a statement, the party’s parliamentary group urged Section 18 of the CNTE union “to participate . . . in dialogue with the will to build agreements that make guaranteeing children’s right to education their priority.”

Michoacán Governor Silvano Aureoles said today that he had ordered the payment of money still owed to teachers.

He also said that he will send a proposal to the state’s Congress to reassign education funding to ensure that there are resources to meet the payroll.

The Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) governor added that the state is ready to resume trilateral talks and find a “real solution” to the conflict.

“This only depends on the CNTE notifying us when we can resume the work of the tripartite committee,” Silvano said in a video posted to his Twitter account.

“[I’m committed to] once and for all resolving the outstanding issues with teachers for the good of the education of our boys and girls and for the good of the development of our state,” he added.

The union said yesterday it had prepared a counter-proposal following the first meeting with authorities and that it will submit it to federal Education Secretary Esteban Moctezuma and the Michoacán governor.

Most schools in Michoacán have now been closed for 22 days.

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

President announces new initiative to combat insecurity in 17 regions

By

Madison Koen

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February 5, 2019

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The government launched a new security operation Monday in Tijuana.

The federal government today decided to implement a new security initiative in light of continuing homicides and violence.

President López Obrador announced that the new security plan would combat crime in 17 different regions.

He introduced the plan during his morning press conference in response to a reporter’s question about what the administration planned to do to protect journalists who reported on crime.

López Obrador told reporters that the new strategy, which began yesterday in Tijuana, will target insecurity in 17 regions that account for 35% of homicides in the country.

He said security is the executive’s top priority now that fuel distribution has begun to stabilize around the country.

“Our plan to combat fuel theft is drawing to a close; distribution has returned to normal and instances of theft have decreased. The situation had us very worried.”

The president added that measures to prevent fuel theft will remain in place even as the administration brings the issue of insecurity into focus. He elaborated that the new security initiative would specifically target corruption.

“We are committed to . . . guaranteeing to you and all citizens that the government will no longer be involved in crime, that there has been a complete and total separation. There will be no cooperation; this is a dividing line, a boundary, and I am dedicated to making sure that no part of the government is caught up in crime.”

The president also encouraged citizens to begin to trust in the state again.

“We will face the existing crime threat and guarantee public security, and if necessary, protection. I hope that this situation is temporary and that we can quickly solve the problem of insecurity and live in peace, but if anyone requires protection from criminal threat, they can count on us.”

President López Obrador said that he would outline the new security initiative in detail in a Wednesday or Thursday press conference.

Source: Reforma (sp)

AMLO accuses past presidents of theft; Calderón demands proof

By

MND Staff

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February 5, 2019

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President López Obrador and past president Felipe Calderón have engaged in a testy tit-for-tat after the former accused the latter of corruption for the second time in as many months.

At his daily press conference yesterday, López Obrador charged – without mentioning his name – that Calderón had acted corruptly by taking up a position on the board of United States energy company Avangrid in 2016, four years after his six-year term concluded.

During Calderón’s administration, the company was awarded contracts to supply energy to the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE).

“A company that sells energy to CFE hired an ex-president as a member of their board of directors. And it wasn’t just the ex-president, those who were in the Secretariat of Energy went to companies to which they had awarded contracts. What do you call that? Coyotaje [crookedness/cronyism], corruption?” López Obrador said.

Later yesterday, Calderón rejected the president’s claim of improper conduct, pointing out that the Federal Law of the Responsibilities of Public Servants stipulates that past officials must abstain from taking up such a position for a period of only one year after they leave their post.

“I’ve never committed an act of corruption with any company. If the president has proof, he should show it and if he doesn’t he’s better off keeping quiet,” he said.

The former president also challenged López Obrador to a public debate.

“I would invite the president of the republic, I would ask that he allows me to speak to him personally and that we discuss these issues . . . in the National Palace or that we have a public debate on television or at one of his morning press conferences . . . to talk about personal wealth and sources of income, both his and mine,” Calderón added.

“. . . I live from my work because I was born and brought up to make a living from honest work and if I work for a company, it’s because I need to work and I do it without breaking the law.”

It’s not the first time that Calderón has rebuked López Obrador after being accused of unethical or criminal conduct.

After the president claimed last month that not just he but also former presidents Vicente Fox and Enrique Peña Nieto were complicit with or knew about fuel theft from the state oil company during their respective administrations, Calderón hit back.

“With complete respect, I don’t accept his slandering of me because as the president says himself ‘it’s better to bequeath honor and poverty than dishonor’ and what I have for my children is a good name and it’s a name [of someone] who governed our beloved Mexico with honesty – making mistakes, of course, but I never stole a centavo and I was never an accomplice to the theft of a single drop of fuel,” he said in a January 15 television interview.

“It’s serious and it’s false. It’s truly slanderous. President López Obrador doesn’t have any evidence at all to make such a reckless accusation, which made by any person is serious, but made from [the pinnacle of] power is extremely serious and abusive,” Calderón charged.

Responding to the former National Action Party (PAN) president’s latest comments, López Obrador today rejected the offer of a debate and even offered an apology to Calderón before asserting again that he had “crossed the line” by accepting employment with a company that had links to his government.

“I’m not going to debate with the ex-president. The only thing I said was former presidents because [Ernesto] Zedillo did it as well . . . I have to raise it because I always say what I think. I’m president and I must be careful with the power invested in me but I don’t think that I should shut up like a mummy,” he said.

On Calderón’s board appointment and Zedillo’s consultancy work with a company that benefited from the privatization of Mexico’s railways, López Obrador declared: “You can’t do that, it’s not a legal matter [but] it should be a legal matter. If it’s not illegal, it’s immoral.”

He added: “These things shouldn’t continue to happen and we shouldn’t keep quiet because cleaning up corruption isn’t just going after those who commit crimes or acts of corruption, it’s also [a matter of] public questioning.”

The leftist president, who has made combating corruption a central crusade of his administration, said that powerful politicians who committed corruption in the past didn’t even lose any respectability or status, declaring that “they devoted themselves to looting but continued being Mr. so-and-so.”

“The thieves were those who stole a cylinder of gas and those above, the white-collar criminals, [were] gentlemen to whom you had to pay homage,” López Obrador said.

Source: Milenio (sp), El Universal (sp), Nación 321 (sp)