Youth storms stage, makes a mockery of López Obrador’s ‘security’

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January 25, 2019

The young man who breached AMLO's security stands with the president on the stage.

A young man made a mockery of President López Obrador’s security arrangements yesterday, storming the stage at an event in Puebla and approaching the president unimpeded.

As López Obrador addressed the crowd gathered in the pueblo mágico of Huauchinango to tout the benefits of the federal government’s social development programs, 19-year-old Eduardo Astudillo González looked on while hatching a plan to get up close and personal with the political veteran.

Separating him from the stage was a meter-high metal barrier but there was no heavy-handed security entourage to protect the president, who once remarked “the people will protect me, he who fights for justice has nothing to fear.”

Instead, just five young men and women, members of López Obrador’s so-called siervos de la nación (servants of the nation) who have been enlisted to help with the distribution of aid, stood guard along with a few members of the informal security detail known as the presidential ayudantía (literally assistants or helpers).

But they were no match for Astudillo.

In a matter of seconds, he jumped over the barrier, pushed past the siervos, brushed aside the ayudantía, scurried up the steps to the stage and then stopped, turning to the crowd and flashing a triumphant grin.

The young man, dressed casually in jeans and a t-shirt, had achieved no mean feat: while getting past “security” presented few challenges, he also managed to divert attention from AMLO, who had been railing against fuel theft, a common crime in Huauchinango.

For a moment, the president fell silent but then, with no lines of defense left to stop the intruder, he said, “Let’s see, come.”

Astudillo walked across the stage, shook López Obrador’s hand, whispered something in his ear and handed him a couple of crumpled pieces of paper – no harm done.

Having completed his audacious mission, Astudillo appeared intent on leaving the stage but the president had other ideas.

“But wait a second, no? Let’s see, wait, isn’t there a chair here [for the young man]?” López Obrador said after which the crowd broke into a chant of presidente, presidente!

And so Astudillo took a place on stage amid local politicians and some of the first beneficiaries of the government’s social programs and remained seated until the end of the proceedings.

López Obrador later said that Astudillo had asked him for help to join the federal government’s apprenticeship program known as “Youths Building the Future.”

“Here in Puebla, all of the young people of Huauchinango, of this region, of the whole state, are going to have work,” he remarked.

López Obrador’s lax security arrangements have been criticized by some who argue that the importance of the position of president demands that he take his personal safety more seriously.

But the 65-year-old leftist, who has made his “common man” persona a central part of his political identity, appears unlikely to change tack any time soon although this week he made one concession: he agreed to travel in a Chevrolet Suburban SUV rather than his Volkswagen Jetta.

“It’s sturdier,” he said.

Source: Milenio (sp), Tiempo (sp)

Nine-story building in Mexico City sinks 70 centimeters

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Madison Koen

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January 24, 2019

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The building that dropped 70 centimeters.

Residents of the Granjas México neighborhood in Mexico City were woken up by a loud bang in the twilight hours of Thursday morning.

But it was just another building sinking in the old lakebed on which the city sits.

Authorities determined that a nine-story building in the Iztacalco borough sank 70 centimeters on its southern side, damaging windows and the sidewalks surrounding the building.

Public safety personnel and firefighters evacuated 40 workers from the building and sealed off the area while Civil Protection personnel inspected the structure for damage. Another inspection was expected to be carried out later in the day.

Five neighboring houses and a factory were also evacuated as a safety measure. The building was undergoing a renovation at the time of its sinking and was being advertised for rent as office space.

The borough’s mayor told reporters that he planned to verify all documents and permits pertaining to the structure to determine the legality of the work being done at the time of the incident.

Armando Quintero added that he was in touch with the building’s owners and that they were cooperating to determine the costs incurred by neighbors in having to evacuate their homes.

Sinking buildings are not uncommon in the capital as some areas are slowly but steadily dropping.

Source: Reporteros Hoy (sp), La Silla Rota (sp), Milenio (sp)

Manatee deaths encouraged student to develop submarine robot

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MND Staff

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January 24, 2019

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The deaths of around 50 manatees in Tabasco last year due to toxic algae served as the catalyst for a Puebla student to develop a submarine robot capable of measuring water contamination levels and sending the data it collects in real time.

Aldo Rodríguez, a computer science student at the Benemérita Autonomous University of Puebla, was shocked when he heard about the manatees that perished in the Bitzales region of the Gulf coast state in July and August 2018.

He decided to put his knowledge into practice by developing a robot that could help to prevent future deaths of manatees and other marine species.

Rodríguez told the National Council for Science and Technology (Conacyt) that his submarine robot prototype has sensors that measure water quality.

The data it collects is sent to a receiving device which then uploads the information to the internet, he explained, adding that sensors also relay information about the robot’s location and the condition of its battery.

Rodríguez said that having information about the quality of water in lakes, rivers and streams could not only help to protect marine life but also prevent illnesses caused by the consumption of contaminated water.

He explained that pH levels of between 6.0 and 7.2 are best for most aquatic creatures and that outside that range most species will die.

Rodríguez said that his invention, which has already won the top prize at two science and technology fairs, could also be used at fish farms to ensure that water quality is maintained.

His submarine robot weighs three kilograms, is capable of reaching depths up to five meters and costs around 20,000 pesos (US $1,050) to make.

Source: Conacyt Prensa (sp)

Travel agencies cancel boycott of Chichén Itzá over admission price hike

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Madison Koen

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January 24, 2019

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Yucatán will upgrade facilities at the attraction.

The Mexican Travel Agency Association (AMAV) in Quintana Roo has canceled a boycott of the Yucatán tourist attraction Chichén Itzá after that state’s governor offered incentives and promised upgrades and improvements.

In December, the state government doubled the entrance fee to the archaeological site (from 242 to 480 pesos) effective February 1, which prompted a boycott by 70 travel agencies representing approximately 70% of traffic to the site.

AMAV president Sergio González Rubiera told reporters that the archaeological site had not yet seen a drastic decrease in tourism because of the boycott. He explained that many tourist packages that include visits to Chichén Itzá along with the rest of the “Mayan World” had already been sold based on the previous admission charge.

He also commented that informal ticket re-sellers took advantage of the boycott, worsening the situation for travel agencies.

González said the AMAV and the state government negotiated an end to the boycott in exchange for incentives for the agencies and a series of measures to improve Chichén Itzá’s facilities in order to justify the elevated entrance fee.

Source: Reportur (sp)

Sale of three Pemex hydrogen plants under investigation

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MND Staff

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January 24, 2019

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A division of Pemex is under investigation by the federal government for corruption over the sale of three hydrogen plants.

Between September 2017 and July 2018, Pemex Industrial Transformation (TRI) sold the hydrogen plants at the refineries in Tula, Hidalgo; Cadereyta, Nuevo León; and Ciudad Madero, Tamaulipas, to the companies Air Liquide México, Gazsur and Linde Gas North America.

Linde Gas paid 35 million euros (US $39.5 million) for the Ciudad Madero plant, according to the company’s financial report for the first quarter of 2018. The prices the other two companies paid have not been revealed.

TRI also directly awarded contracts to the companies for the supply of hydrogen.

Under the terms of the contracts, which are currently under investigation by the Secretariat of Energy (Sener), Pemex buys US $2.9 million worth of hydrogen from the three companies each month.

Just under US $1.5 million goes to Air Liquide México, US $774,000 goes to Linde Gas North America and US $644,000 is paid to Gazsur.

However, the real costs are undoubtedly much higher because under the terms of the contracts, Pemex has to supply the companies with the inputs they need to produce the hydrogen, including natural gas, water, energy and nitrogen.

According to Pemex documents, the purpose of entering into the agreements with the private companies was to guarantee the reliable supply of hydrogen at a low cost and to reduce the number of “unscheduled stoppages” at the refineries.

However, all three refineries have been affected by stoppages since the contracts were signed.

During a visit to the Tula refinery last month, federal Energy Secretary Rocío Nahle said that workers told her that former Pemex officials “sold the plant before they left and now we have to pay the new owners almost US $1 million a month so that they give us hydrogen.”

Former Pemex CEO Carlos Treviño said the sale of the plants was justified because it would reduce costs.

Federal authorities are also investigating another former Pemex CEO, Emilio Lozoya, for bribes he allegedly received from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht in exchange for the awarding of a contract for work at the Tula refinery.

In addition, past and current officials at the state oil company are under the microscope for possible links to fuel theft.

Source: El Universal (sp), Forbes México (sp)

Morena party leader finds PRI lawmakers willing to work for the country

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MND Staff

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January 24, 2019

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Polevnsky says PRI proving easier to work with.

The once omnipotent political party that was unceremoniously tossed out of power at last year’s election has shown greater willingness to work with the government for the good of the country than the conservative National Action Party, according to the national leader of the ruling Morena party.

Yeidckol Polevnsky told reporters in the lower house of Congress yesterday that the government will build alliances with the party that “wants to build for this country.”

Since the new government took office, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which governed Mexico between 2012 and 2018 and has long been synonymous with corruption, has fit that bill, Polevnsky contended.

“I’ve seen a lot of willingness, a lot of interest to work for the people, I’ve found that among the priístas [PRI lawmakers], there is intent to work for the good of the country and the states,” she said.

“It’s about building [alliances] with everyone but if you have some [political parties] that are completely negative, fighting amongst themselves, contradicting us, then you build with [the party] that’s . . . concerned about the country and wants things to be solved,” Polevnsky said.

“PRIMOR [PRI and Morena] sounds a lot better than PRIAN [PRI and PAN],” she quipped.

Morena and the National Action Party (PAN) clashed last year over the result of the election for governor in Puebla.

The latter’s candidate, Martha Erika Alonso, was declared the winner but the former challenged the result, alleging fraud.

Alonso was sworn in as governor on December 14 but 10 days later she was killed in a helicopter accident alongside her husband and former governor of Puebla, Rafael Moreno Valle.

A new election for governor will be held but in the meantime, PRI politician Guillermo Pacheco Pulido will serve as interim governor after being appointed to the role Monday following a vote in the state Congress.

“I’m sure that the acting governor is going to play a good role and avoid things being manipulated. It was unacceptable, it wasn’t feasible that it was someone from the PAN, I mean, we already had a fraud,” Polevnsky said.

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

Purchase of tanker trucks completed; vehicles to begin arriving next week

By

César Hernández

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January 24, 2019

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The fleet of tanker trucks has grown by 671 to address fuel shortages.

The federal government has completed the purchase of 671 tanker trucks intended to bolster fuel distribution capacity.

Given the urgency to address fuel shortages, the usual bidding process was bypassed in the US $92-million purchase, said Raquel Buenrostro Sánchez, senior officer at the Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP).

The purchase, made through tanker truck manufacturers’ associations in Mexico and the United States, will see the first 50 trucks arrive in on February 1. The delivery of the new trucks will continue progressively until March 29.

The trucks will come in four different sizes, with capacity from 30,000 to 60,000 liters. They will be operated by the army but officials from Pemex participated in their selection, defining technical requirements and evaluating offers.

President López Obrador announced the purchase of the vehicles last week, saying they were intended to “take some pressure off” the pipelines used in the distribution of fuel.

Many pipelines were shut down earlier this month in the government’s strategy to combat pipeline taps and fuel theft. Tanker trucks were put into service to deliver fuel but they have been unable to keep up with demand, which resulted in weeks-long fuel shortages in several states.

Source: El Financiero (sp)

Baja legislator’s new Mercedes Benz causes a stir

By

César Hernández

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January 24, 2019

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A Baja California Sur lawmaker saw no harm in posting photos of her new car, a Mercedes-Benz CLA Coupe with a price tag of over half a million pesos (US $26,300), on social media.

But the reaction, mostly critical, soon followed.

While the president of Mexico drives around the country’s capital in a simple Volkswagen Jetta, Deputy Perla Flores Leyva of La Paz is driving a luxury vehicle, ostensibly a gift from her husband, whom she described as a “successful entrepreneur.”

In the photo, the Social Encounter Party politician is at a dealership where her husband is handing over the keys to her new ride.

A few social media users commented that Flores “can do as she pleases with her money.”

But another noted that the government’s stance on austerity was incongruous with the purchase. “. . . That’s what bothers us, the people. Add to that the fact that many streets are pocked with potholes, there are no streetlights, etc. Deputies say they are representing us, what we voted for, and they fail us . . .”

The car’s make gave the incident more notoriety than its price, said the deputy, “and it is less than the cost of other cars bought by other deputies.”

Flores saw no contradiction between her new car and the government’s austerity policies, because state deputies lowered their salaries by 30% after they took office and eliminated perks such as travel allowances and insurance.

“This is not the first time that [my husband] has given me a car. What’s different now is that I am in politics, and I understand,” said Flores.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Mexico sticks with Venezuela’s Maduro as US recognizes his rival

By

MND Staff

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January 24, 2019

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Juan Guaidó, self-declared interim president of Venezuela.

Mexico will continue to recognize Nicolás Maduro as the legitimate president of Venezuela in contrast with the United States and several other countries in the region.

Juan Guaidó, the 35-year-old leader of Venezuela’s opposition-controlled National Assembly, yesterday swore himself in as the new interim president.

“Today, January 23, 2019, I swear to formally assume the powers of the national executive as president in charge of Venezuela,” Guaidó declared in front of thousands of jubilant supporters in Caracas.

United States President Donald Trump promptly issued a statement declaring that he was “officially recognizing the president of the Venezuelan National Assembly, Juan Guaidó, as the interim president of Venezuela.”

Trump said that “the people of Venezuela have courageously spoken out against Maduro and his regime and demanded freedom and the rule of law,” adding, “I will continue to use the full weight of United States economic and diplomatic power to press for the restoration of Venezuelan democracy.”

Canada and most South American countries, including Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Chile, followed suit in recognizing Guaidó.

But Mexico’s government declined to throw its support behind the self-proclaimed president, reiterating that its position towards Venezuela is one of non-intervention.

“In accordance with our constitutional principles of non-intervention [and] self-determination . . . Mexico will not participate in the non-recognition of the government of a country with which it maintains diplomatic relations,” the Secretariat of Foreign Affairs (SRE) said in a statement.

“We fully agree with the call of the United Nations for all actors involved in the conflict in Venezuela to reduce tensions, make their best efforts to avoid an escalation and to reject any type of political violence,” the statement continued.

Government spokesman Jesús Ramírez Cuevas also said that “the Mexican government maintains its position of non-intervention” and would maintain relations with the “legitimately elected” government. “Our call is for dialogue,” he added.

The government’s refusal to join the chorus of condemnation against Maduro triggered criticism from former political heavyweights Vicente Fox, president between 2000 and 2006, and Jorge Castañeda, foreign affairs secretary from 2000 to 2003.

“Today we see the light at the end of the tunnel, we have an interim president in Venezuela that has the support of several countries, beginning with the United States,” Fox told Milenio Televisión.

“As hard as I am on Trump, in this case he’s right in what he’s doing, I congratulate him for having done it. Who’s very wrong is López Obrador. Without representing Mexicans, without democratic convictions . . . he’s been protecting Maduro,” the former president said.

“Mexico must declare itself in line with [the position of] all democrats, all libertarians of the world,” Fox said.

For his part, Castañeda said that “Mexico’s position is pathetic because it doesn’t take into account that Maduro is [an] illegitimate [president] because he was elected in a completely fraudulent election and his government has killed more than 150 people.”

He added: “The government of Mexico should condemn and repudiate [Maduro] in the same way as right-wing and non-right-wing governments are doing all over the world.”

The president of the opposition National Action Party (PAN), Marko Cortés, said on Twitter that the party supported Venezuelans in their “fight against the usurpation of the dictator Nicolás Maduro.”

Questioned about Mexico’s position today, President López Obrador said that Mexico’s non-intervention didn’t amount to taking sides.

“We don’t want a confrontation or dispute, we want a friendly relationship with all the peoples and governments of the world,” he said.

“It’s not that we are in favor of or against [Maduro], we’re for compliance with the constitutional principles, with absolute, unconditional respect for those principles . . . It may be that groups, people, governments don’t like it but that’s what our constitution establishes,” the president added.

Earlier this month, Mexico was the only country in the regional Lima Group that didn’t add its voice to a declaration urging Maduro not to take office for a second term on January 10.

Maduro defied that entreaty and yesterday remained defiant declaring, “I am the only president of Venezuela, we do not want to return to the 20th century of gringo interventions and coups d’état.”

Millions of Venezuelans have fled the country in recent years amid political repression, human rights abuses, skyrocketing inflation and severe food and medicine shortages.

The federal government’s decision not to speak out against Maduro’s government largely isolates Mexico in the region, where only a few countries such as Cuba and Bolivia expressed support for the leftist leader.

Other countries that backed Maduro included China, Russia and Turkey.

Source: Milenio (sp) Reforma (sp), Reuters (en), El Financiero (sp)

El Chapo Guzmán’s sons killed Sinaloa journalist: witness

By

Madison Koen

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January 24, 2019

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Sinaloa journalist Valdez was murdered in May 2017.

A former top lieutenant to Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán testified Wednesday that the ex-Sinaloa Cartel boss’s sons murdered Javier Valdez, a Sinaloa journalist who covered drug trafficking.

Dámaso López Núñez made the accusation under cross-examination by Guzmán’s lawyers. It had previously been thought that López’s son, Dámaso López Serrano, might have been responsible for the reporter’s death.

According to López, Valdez was killed after publishing an interview with López himself in which he revealed cartel infighting, evoking the displeasure of Guzmán’s sons. Valdez’s newspaper, Río Doce, had previously published a story that implicated López in an attack on El Chapo’s sons, which had prompted López to go on record.

When questioned further about his son’s rumored involvement in the journalist’s killing, he rejected the accusation. “Everyone in Culiacán [Sinaloa] knew El Chapo’s sons had threatened Valdez.”

Guzmán has fathered at least 15 children but López did not specify which had murdered Valdez. Four sons are believed to be involved in the family business — Iván, Alfredo, Ovidio and Joaquín. López, who has showed affection for Guzmán throughout his testimony, said that his former boss might not have known that his sons had murdered the reporter.

The witness met Guzmán when he was the director of security at a Jalisco maximum security prison in which the former drug lord was being held. He later quit his and job and went to work for the cartel, where he quickly climbed the ranks.

He was arrested in 2017 and extradited to the United States, where he was sentenced to life in prison for drug trafficking. He is testifying for the prosecution at Guzmán’s trial with the hope of having his sentence reduced.

In other testimony, he said Guzmán’s wife played a key role in planning her husband’s prison escape in 2015. López said he and Emma Coronel, who passed messages to and from Guzmán, worked with the latter’s sons to plan the escape.

They bought a piece of land near the Altiplano prison in México state and dug a 1.5-kilometer tunnel to the prison, through which Guzmán made his getaway.

López’s former boss is now on trial in New York for drug trafficking, conspiracy, money laundering and weapons offenses.

When he took the stand on Tuesday, he looked at Guzmán and bumped his chest with his fist. Asked later by one of Guzmán’s lawyers why he had done it, he said, “Because I love him.”

Source: Milenio (sp), Reuters (en)