López Obrador: ‘Call me messianic, but I’m going to purify the country’

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January 21, 2019

A 2006 cover of Letras Libres magazine featuring 'the tropical messiah.'

Combating corruption is indispensable to purifying public life in Mexico, President López Obrador said yesterday, implying that he was unperturbed by being labeled “messianic” as a result of his crusade against it.

Speaking at a press conference at the National Palace in Mexico City, López Obrador said the previous federal government and the state oil company Pemex were “hijacked” by “bandits, gangs of scoundrels [and] crooks.”

The president reiterated that under his government, there will be zero tolerance for corruption.

“I didn’t fight [to become president] nor did people support me to get here to become a panderer to the corrupt — zero corruption and zero impunity,” López Obrador said.

“To purify the public life of the country we have to root out this ill, even if you don’t like it and you call me messianic. We have to put an end to corruption, we have to put honesty first, as a way of life and a way of government,” he said.

López Obrador told reporters that he had been informed about a contract Pemex signed in 2013 for the purchase of 700 railroad tank cars for 1.4 billion pesos (US $73 million at today’s exchange rate) from the United States company, Ethan Gas Oil.

Pemex paid Ethan Gas Oil 400 million pesos in advance. And despite the fact that the tank cars were never delivered, the latter allegedly didn’t return the deposit.

Ethan Gas Oil told the news magazine Proceso today that it had tried to deliver the first 15 tank cars but Pemex “never wanted to receive” them.

The company also said that its “intention is to collaborate with this government and deliver all the cars” and that 365 million pesos it was paid “is available.”

Yesterday, López Obrador suggested that Pemex had colluded with the U.S. company on the unfulfilled contract, stating that the complaint the state oil company filed against it was so amateurish that “not even a legal intern” would prepare something of such low quality.

The CEO of Pemex at the time of the purchase was Emilio Lozoya Austin, who has been accused of receiving bribes from the Brazilian company Odebrecht in exchange for the awarding of contracts.

López Obrador stressed that the case would continue to be investigated and that any other acts of corruption would also be subjected to criminal probes in accordance with the law.

“If an official says something to me in a meeting . . . about a crime, my response is: ‘act, proceed,’ because if I don’t say that I become an accomplice,” he said.

Historian Enrique Krauze used the word messiah to describe López Obrador in a magazine article in 2006. He referred to him as “the tropical messiah.”

Source: El Universal (sp), El Sol de México (sp), Proceso (sp)

Puebla to be first city to install streetlights that use artificial intelligence

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Madison Koen

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January 21, 2019

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The municipality of Puebla in the state of the same name has called for tenders for the installation of streetlighting and other amenities that employ artificial intelligence.

A local official said the system will be the first of its kind in Mexico.

Councilor Luis González Acosta explained that the new lighting system will use the latest LED technology as well as solar panels to reduce environmental impact. He added that the use of artificial intelligence will emphasize sustainability, user-friendliness and economic development and will reduce the overall cost of the project.

He said the contract is to increase lighting overall in Puebla, as well as provide corrective and preventative maintenance for 115,000 streetlights.

Bidders must belong to a national or international organization with proven experience in artificial intelligence and lighting systems, especially in their application for public safety and transportation.

The winner is expected to implement technologies that improve traffic conditions, such as intelligent traffic lights, and design a system that incorporates facial recognition and firearm detection software, in addition to public wifi and better public parking.

Source: Reforma (sp)

Baja journalist who had been threatened found murdered

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César Hernández

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January 21, 2019

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A 34-year-old Baja California Sur journalist who had complained of threats against him was murdered on the weekend.

Rafael Murúa Manríquez of Santa Rosalía, Mulegé, was last seen Saturday night and a car suspected to be his was found abandoned the following day.

On Sunday night, the state Attorney General’s office (PGJE) said Murúa’s body had been found at the 40-kilometer mark on the Santa Rosalía-San Ignacio road.

There were several knife wounds on the chest and three packages of what was believed to be marijuana was found at the scene.

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In November, Murúa had denounced harassment and threats after writing comments that were critical of the administration of Mulegé Mayor Felipe Prado Bautista.

On November 14 he wrote that he had learned through a municipal official that there was a plan to kill him.

Murúa had been working as a journalist for over a decade, and had recently obtained a concession that allowed him to operate the Radio Kashana community radio station.

Source: El Universal (sp), BCS Noticias (sp)

Government buys 571 tanker trucks; over 6,000 driver applications received

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César Hernández

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January 21, 2019

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What the new tankers are expected to look like.

The federal government has spent US $85 million to purchase 571 new tanker trucks that will soon deliver fuel to states where supplies have been scarce for three weeks or more.

President López Obrador told a press conference that the trucks will be able to transport a total of 116,000 barrels of fuel every day with a single trip, more if the trucks take several trips.

The tankers will be National Defense Secretariat vehicles and bear the title of the army’s disaster relief program, DN-III, painted on the sides along with the slogan “Security in Fuel Supply.” The Pemex logo will appear on the rear.

At the same event, National Defense Secretary Luis Crescencio Sandoval said 120 people have been pre-approved to be hired as drivers.

He said 450 more are in the process of being approved, 253 of whom have passed their exams and should obtain their drivers’ license by tomorrow.

Sandoval explained that 6,199 applications were received of which 1,365 were short-listed to write an exam; 804 passed.

They will be paid 14,500 pesos bimonthly (US $750).

Source: Reforma (sp)

5,000 migrants have registered with Immigration in just four days

By

MND Staff

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January 21, 2019

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Immigration authorities have registered almost 5,000 Central American migrants over the past four days, many of whom entered Mexico at the southern border last week as part of a new caravan.

The National Immigration Institute (INM) registered 4,912 migrants both at the border between Mexico and Guatemala at Ciudad Hidalgo, Chiapas, and in the Tapachula central square, where some of the caravan members have camped out since their arrival.

The migrants are from six countries including Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.

Among those who have formalized their entry to Mexico are 1,007 children and teenagers, and members of previous caravans who remained in southwestern Chiapas rather than continuing to the United States border with other migrants.

Authorities said that 59 have already been issued humanitarian visas, which allow them to work and access health care services for 12 months.

One of the recipients, 27-year-old Honduran Bayron Adan Lara Mejia, said “I feel Mexican now,” adding that he no longer wanted to make the journey to the United States border.

Around 400 migrants who entered Mexico illegally early Friday morning and walked to Tapachula returned to the border crossing to regularize their immigration status, the newspaper Milenio reported.

However, about 1,000 illegal migrants are believed to be in the United States-bound migrant caravan.

Milenio reported that some migrants were persuaded by polleros, or people smugglers, in the Guatemalan border town of Tecún Umán not to go through official immigration channels when entering Mexico.

The smugglers reportedly tell migrants that if they register with Mexican authorities, they will be deported en masse back to their countries of origin.

Around 500 members of the caravan, which left the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula on January 14, reached Oaxaca yesterday on buses provided by the Chiapas government.

The migrants camped out last night in the central square of San Pedro Tapanatepec, a town in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec region.

In contrast to what occurred with past caravans, the migrants were not welcomed into the town by local authorities, church groups and other organizations and were not provided with food, water or medical services.

The latest migrant caravan is the first to enter Mexico since President López Obrador took office on December 1 but thousands arrived as part of several groups in the final two months of Enrique Peña Nieto’s administration.

Many of them remain stranded on Mexico’s northern border, especially in Tijuana, where they face long waits to apply for asylum with United States authorities.

The new government has vowed to treat migrants with respect and López Obrador has suggested that some will be able to find work on projects in the south of the country such as the Maya train.

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

Death of Coahuila girl, 15, attributed to Rapunzel syndrome

By

Madison Koen

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January 21, 2019

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The 15-year-old victim of Rapunzel syndrome. — The 15-year-old victim had ingested more than a kilo of hair.

The death of a 15-year-old girl in Monclova, Coahuila, has been attributed to Rapunzel syndrome, an extremely rare disorder characterized by compulsive hair-eating.

At the time of her death, Katia Jatziri’s stomach contained more than a kilo and a half of her own hair.

The girl’s mother had taken her to a local IMSS clinic but she was later transferred to a hospital due to the seriousness of her condition, but doctors were unable to save her.

Katia’s intestines burst from the blockage caused by the hair as doctors were preparing to take a CAT scan. Due to the fact she weighed just 20 kilograms, they decided they would not be able to operate.

They also noted that the girl was seriously malnourished, anemic and had a very high blood platelet count.

Septic shock was declared the cause of death.

The girl’s mother initially stated that she intended to denounce the clinic’s doctors for negligence but has not done so.

However, the doctors who attended the case indicated they would file a report of possible parental negligence. Due to the volume of hair that was found it is suspected the girl had been swallowing it for at least 10 years.

Sixty per cent of people who suffer from Rapunzel syndrome are 10 to 20-year-old girls. Hair-eating is considered primarily psychological by medical experts and is seen as a way to deal with anxiety, depression and other psychological conditions. Rapunzel syndrome is often accompanied by other eating disorders.

Source: El Universal (sp), La Prensa de Monclova (sp)

Hidalgo explosion: identifying some of the remains could take months

By

MND Staff

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January 21, 2019

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The site of Friday's explosion in Hidalgo.

Identifying the remains of people killed in the petroleum pipeline explosion in Hidalgo on Friday night could take months, according to the state governor.

“The remains we have are unidentifiable . . . In many cases, identification can be done [but] it won’t be in a moment or in a couple of hours. There are cases that will take hours and cases that will take days . . . and even months,” Omar Fayad said yesterday after a meeting with family members of the deceased.

The governor said that the remains of 68 people were found at the scene of the explosion – a field in the municipality of Tlahuelilpan – but only nine of those victims have been identified.

Family members of those believed to be among the deceased have provided 54 genetic samples to assist with the identification process, he added.

Fayad said that “the most difficult cases” could be sent to laboratories in the United States or Innsbruck, Austria, for analysis.

Researchers at the Innsbruck Medical University previously carried out DNA testing on bone fragments recovered from a river near the Cocula garbage dump in Guerrero, where the bodies of 43 students are believed to have been burned in 2014.

The death toll from Friday’s explosion has now risen to 89, Health Secretary Jorge Alcocer said this morning.

When the blast occurred, the victims were filling containers with fuel that was shooting into the air after the pipeline had been illegally tapped.

A large fire spread across the field in the community of San Primitivo, engulfing scores of people in flames.

More than 50 victims, most with severe burns, remain in hospital including three people who were transferred to Texas for treatment.

National Defense Secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval said 25 soldiers arrived at the field when only a small amount of fuel was coming out of the punctured pipeline and that they tried to stop people from approaching it.

However, the soldiers were “overwhelmed by the number of people” and “forced to retreat to one side to avoid a confrontation,” Cresencio said.

Asked yesterday whether the explosion may have been sabotage aimed at testing the government’s resolve with regard to its anti-fuel theft strategy, President López Obrador responded:

“If they are thinking about trying us, if that’s the intention, then once and for all understand that we’re not going to give up . . . I offer an apology to the people if this action causes sacrifices, damages, inconveniences but we have to do it . . . The homeland comes first. Mexico needs to put an end to corruption, it’s not something that’s negotiable.”

Source: Milenio (sp)

UPDATE January 21, 5:34 CT: The death toll has risen to 91, the state reported, and 52 victims are being treated in hospital.

AMLO announces guaranteed prices for five agricultural products

By

MND Staff

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January 19, 2019

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President López Obrador has announced the guaranteed prices the government will pay farmers for five agricultural products.

Speaking at an event in Zacatecas yesterday, López Obrador said that more than two million farmers will benefit from the program and that it will help Mexico to achieve food self-sufficiency.

Farmers will be paid 5,610 pesos (US $293) a tonne for corn up to a limit of 20 tonnes; 14,500 pesos (US $757) a tonne for beans up to a limit of 15 tonnes; 5,790 pesos (US $302) a tonne for wheat up to 100 tonnes; 6,120 pesos (US $320) a tonne for rice up to 120 tonnes; and 8.2 pesos (US $0.43) a liter for milk.

López Obrador pledged to maintain the prices and later increase them but didn’t specify when. He bemoaned the fact that Mexico is forced to import a lot of basic food products.

“Corn is originally from Mexico, this blessed plant has fed people for centuries and now because of irresponsible, corrupt technocrats, Mexico buys more corn abroad than any other country. See where we’ve got to,” López Obrador said.

“With rice, we’re worse. We’re buying 85% of what we consume. With wheat, it’s the same. More than 70% is bought abroad,” the president said.

López Obrador blamed past governments for implementing policies that failed farmers.

“They demonized subsidies, they said ‘why would we support the countryside’ and they left the producers in a state of defenselessness,” he said.

“[That’s] something that foreign governments don’t do, they support their farmers . . . In the United States, the government gives the corn grower, the wheat grower, up to 80% of their production cost as a subsidy, they have [access to] cheap credit, they have a lot of support and here the growers were left to their own fate,” López Obrador said.

Ignacio Ovalle, chief of Mexican Food Security (Segalmex), a new agency created by the government, said farmers will no longer be forced to sell their crops cheaply to unscrupulous purchasers.

Government collection centers will be established where producers will take their crops for sale, he said. The first centers will be in Zacatecas, Durango and Chihuahua and mainly benefit bean farmers.

Agriculture Secretary Víctor Villalobos rejected any suggestion that guaranteeing prices was akin to giving a handout.

“What we intend is to give certainty [to farmers] for their effort, fairly compensate their work and foster well-being,” he said.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Super moon, blood moon eclipse on Sunday night

By

César Hernández

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January 19, 2019

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The blood moon will be visible from Mexico on Sunday night. — The blood moon will be visible from Mexico.

It’s not just a total lunar eclipse that will occur Sunday night but a phenomenon called the Super Blood Wolf Moon.

The last total lunar eclipse for the next two and a half years will be fully visible from Mexico and will last for a few hours.

A supermoon is the term used when the moon appears bigger than usual. Sunday’s full moon will appear somewhat larger than average because it will be near perigee, the closest point to Earth in its elliptical orbit.

At its perigee, the moon can appear slightly larger — 14% — than when it is full near apogee, the farthest point from Earth in its orbit.

The term blood moon comes from the moon’s red hue during an eclipse while a wolf moon is a term popularized by the Farmers’ Almanacs published in the United States, which drew inspiration from indigenous cultures and European tradition to give every full moon a distinctive name.

The penumbral eclipse will begin tomorrow night at 8:37pm, Central Time, followed by the beginning of the partial, or umbral, eclipse at 10:41pm.

The maximum eclipse will occur at 11:12pm. The entire event will conclude at 1:48am, when the penumbral eclipse ends.

The umbra is the good part for the casual observer, as it will be quite obvious when the moon starts entering the umbra, the time when the partial eclipse begins.

No special protection or equipment is needed to view the eclipse, but the use of binoculars and telescopes can enhance the experience.

The Science Museum of the National Autonomous University (UNAM) will organize activities around the lunar eclipse starting tomorrow at 6:00pm.

The next partial lunar eclipse will take place on July 16 and will be visible from South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia, but the next total lunar eclipse will not occur until May 26, 2021.

Source: Infobae (sp)

Senate elects new top prosecutor; fiscal general replaces attorney general

By

MND Staff

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January 19, 2019

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Mexico's new chief prosecutor takes the oath of office.

The Senate has elected an ally of President López Obrador to a nine-year term as Mexico’s new top prosecutor, triggering criticism that the office he heads will not be independent and impartial.

An overwhelming majority of members of the Senate, which is controlled by a coalition led by the president’s Morena party, voted yesterday for veteran lawman Alejandro Gertz Manero to be fiscal general, a new position that replaces the role of attorney general.

Gertz, a former federal secretary of public security who was a security advisor to López Obrador during last year’s presidential campaign, had been serving as acting attorney general since the new government took office on December 1.

He received 91 votes to beat two other candidates proposed by López Obrador.

Speaking in the Senate after he was sworn in, the 79-year-old lawyer and law professor pledged to build a new prosecutor’s office which defends citizens’ rights and leaves behind the practice of concealing evidence.

He said that prosecuting corruption cases that haven’t been properly investigated will be a priority for the new office.

“All of the pending cases are going to be pursued to their legal conclusion . . . There mustn’t be any more concealments or cover-ups,” he said.

Gertz committed himself to heading up a prosecutor’s office – known as the Fiscalía General de la Republica, or FGR – that “makes the truth known and [acts] in good faith, with clarity and above all with the participation of the victims and the offended parties.”

In an appearance before senators earlier this week, he pledged to be transparent and accountable in the role and noted that “in a country where there are 33 million crimes committed a year and 99% go unpunished, we have a lot to do.”

Before yesterday’s vote, Damián Zepeda Vidales, a senator for the opposition National Action Party (PAN), urged senators not to vote for any of the candidates, charging that due to their proximity to the president, whoever was elected would be a “fiscal carnal” – a government-friendly prosecutor.

“It doesn’t offend anyone to say that [the candidates for the role] are members of the legal and political team of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who clearly sees the Fiscalía General as a branch of government,” he said.

But Morena party Senator Julio Menchaca Salazar said that appointment to the fiscal general role was not “a blank check,” arguing that government lawmakers will be the foremost critics of the FGR.

Outside Congress, the president of the Mexican Employers Federation (Coparmex) also contended that Gertz will be a fiscal carnal.

“We hold that it’s necessary to modify the appointment process for the fiscal general because the way it was agreed on . . . doesn’t in any way guarantee the independence of the fiscal general. The autonomy of the prosecutor’s office is not guaranteed, on the contrary it has been created [as an institution that is] flawed from the beginning, [he’s a] fiscal carnal that will always defend the executive,” Gustavo de Hoyos warned.

“The name of the institution has changed but it remains an arm of the executive,” he contended.

De Hoyos said that all three candidates on the short list for the role were “very close to the president,” adding that when there has been a close relationship between presidents and top prosecutors in the past, there have been prosecutions on request, “comical” pardons, cases of impunity for politicians and persecution of candidates over crimes they allegedly committed.

Public policy think tank México Evalúa said in a statement that the appointment of Gertz showed that “priority was given to closeness, and the use of practices that don’t contribute to the transformation of the country that we deserve.”

The fiscal general role was created during the previous government in a bid to strengthen Mexico’s justice system but until now no appointment to the position had been made.

Source: El Universal (sp), Reuters (en)