World Justice Project study finds weak rule of law in all 32 states

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October 9, 2018

mexico states rule of law index — The darker the color the worse the ranking.

The rule of law is weak in all 32 Mexican states, according to a new study which determined that Guerrero and Baja California Sur are the most lawless entities in the country.

The Mexican States Rule of Law Index 2018, released today by the World Justice Project (WJP), ranked all states according to their adherence to the rule of law.

The index provides scores for 42 performance indicators grouped into eight factors, which were calculated from a poll responded to by more than 25,000 citizens, questionnaires answered by more than 1,500 experts throughout the country, and third-party sources, the WJP said.

No state obtained a score above 0.5 on a scale of 0 to 1, with 1 indicating the strongest adherence to the law.

Corruption, the lack of clear regulatory measures, violence and impunity were the main factors that contributed to the weak rule of law that is prevalent across the country.

Yucatán fared best on the index, scoring 0.45, followed by Aguascalientes and Zacatecas, both of which achieved scores of 0.44.

At the other end of the scale, Guerrero — where drug gangs control swathes of territory such as the Tierra Caliente region — scored just 0.29 and Baja California Sur got 0.35.

Other states also included in the top 10 with the weakest rule of law were México, Sonora, Puebla and Quintana Roo, all of which scored 0.36, and Morelos, Mexico City, Veracruz and Jalisco, all with 0.37. The national average was 0.39.

“This is like having an immune system that doesn’t work,” said WJP researcher Jorge Morales.

“If you don’t take your vitamins, if you don’t look after the rule of law, which is the immune system, you’re weak. And then infections such as influenza come along, which could be a security crisis or a sudden violent event, you’re not prepared and the flu can turn into pneumonia,” he added.

“A weak rule of law has a negative impact on the lives of citizens,” said Alejandro Ponce, the study’s chief researcher.

“Today, Mexico is in a unique situation to enhance its institutions and ensure that laws are complied with. The WJP is committed to helping strengthen the rule of law in Mexico and will accompany this process through the release of analysis, evaluation and monitoring tools. The Mexican States Rule of Law Index is the first step in this regard,” he explained.

“We hope that this report will be used to set reference points on states’ performance regarding the rule of law, as well as inform and direct reforms, and identify successful local models that can be used to strengthen institutions in other regions of the country.”

Despite the low overall scores, WJP researchers pointed out that some states achieved noteworthy results in certain categories such as Guanajuato, Querétaro and Zacatecas with regard to controlling corruption and Yucatán on order and security.

Below is a summary of the best and worst performing states in the eight categories the study evaluated.

Constraints on government powers

Here the checks and balances in place in each state were assessed.

Some of the factors considered were the strength of the state legislature, whether elections are free and transparent, whether state laws stipulate penalties for corruption committed by government officials and whether there are strong independent actors such as social organizations and local media outlets.

The worst five states in the category were Guerrero, Baja California Sur, Veracruz, Coahuila and México state.

The best five were Nuevo León, Campeche, Aguascalientes, Baja California and Oaxaca.

2. Absence of corruption

Corruption was identified as the single biggest cause of the weak rule of law in Mexico. The national average of 0.35 was the lowest of all the categories evaluated.

Mexico City has the highest levels of corruption in the country, according to the study, possibly because a lot of bureaucratic procedures occur in the capital and bribing officials is relatively common.

The next worst were Guerrero, México state, Quintana Roo and Jalisco.

States with the lowest levels of corruption were Querétaro, Zacatecas, Guanajuato, Aguascalientes and Baja California.

3. Open government

The main factor evaluated in this category was government transparency.

The worst five states were Querétaro, Tlaxcala, Nayarit, Oaxaca and Tamaulipas.

The best five were Mexico City, Guanajuato, Jalisco, México state and Zacatecas.

4. Fundamental rights

The protection of human rights, such as the right to not be discriminated against and freedom of expression, were assessed in this category.

The worst five states were Guerrero, Veracruz, Puebla, Tamaulipas and México state, and the best five were Aguascalientes, Nuevo León, Querétaro, Colima and Chihuahua.

5. Order and security

This was another area that contributed significantly to the overall weak rule of law. The national average in the category was just 0.4 on the WJP index.

A factor in the results was that last year was the most violent year in at least two decades and this year is on track to be even worse.

The worst five states were Guerrero, México state, Morelos, Baja California and Chihuahua.

The best five were Yucatán, with a notable score of 0.77, followed by Coahuila, Durango, Chiapas and Hidalgo, all of which scored above 0.55.

6. Regulatory enforcement

This category examined how regulations are implemented and enforced in areas such as public health and the workplace as well as to protect the environment.

The worst five states were Sonora, Morelos, Nayarit, Tlaxcala and Guerrero.

Baja California, Querétaro, Zacatecas, Campeche and Nuevo León performed best but not one of them exceeded 0.5 on the index.

7. Civil justice

Citizens’ trust in their state’s justice institutions was evaluated in this category. Independence from government and perceived levels of corruption were among the factors assessed.

The worst five states were Guerrero, Nayarit, Veracruz, Puebla and San Luis Potosí.

The best five were Baja California, Zacatecas, Coahuila, Durango and Campeche.

8. Criminal justice

This category was also one of the heaviest weights on the overall weak rule of law, with a national average of just 0.38.

The biggest failure of the criminal justice system was considered to be ineffective criminal investigations which in turn result in high levels of impunity.

According to an investigation conducted by the organization Impunidad Cero (Zero Impunity), the probability of a crime being reported, investigated and solved in Mexico is just 1.14%.

The worst five states were Guerrero, Veracruz, Puebla, Mexico City and Quintana Roo,

The best five were Querétaro, Aguascalientes, Zacatecas, Yucatán and Morelos.

Source: Animal Político (sp)

AMLO’s fracking stance seen as bad news for meeting natural gas needs

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MND Staff

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October 9, 2018

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Fox, left, says yes to fracking. AMLO says no.

President-elect López Obrador’s opposition to hydraulic fracturing is “bad news for gas supply,” a prominent business leader claims.

Speaking at a government event yesterday, the president of the Business Coordinating Council (CCE), Juan Pablo Castañón, said that López Obrador’s stance on the controversial gas and oil extraction technique commonly known as fracking would prevent Mexico from being able to reduce its dependency on natural gas imports.

“It’s bad news for gas supply because we import 80% of the natural gas we use,” he said.

The president-elect reaffirmed his opposition to hydraulic fracturing last week, telling reporters in San Luis Potosí that there will be no fracking in Mexico during the six-year period he is in office.

Castañón, however, is adamant that Mexico has to increase domestic natural gas production and believes that it is possible to do so without harming the environment.

“There may be [gas extraction] technologies that without damaging the environment and by recycling water allow us to comply with our commitments as part of the United Nations’ 2030 agenda for sustainable development in terms of the environment and sustainable energy production,” he said.

Castañón has an ally on the issue in former president Vicente Fox, who last week posted a video to his Twitter account in which he declared that it is false that fracking has a negative impact on the environment.

“López Obrador . . . the information you have on this occasion is not correct . . . In a very short time, Mexico could be the great producer of petroleum and natural gas that it always was,” he said.

Fox claimed that with “the technologies of today” fracking can achieve two things: “generate wealth and protect the environment at the same time.”

However, many others, such as the Mexican Alliance Against Fracking (AMCF), disagree.

Among the biggest concerns about fracking is that it requires the use of enormous quantities of water.

According to the AMCF, hydraulic fracturing of a single well uses between nine and 29 million liters of water.

In addition, more than 1,000 cases have been documented in the United States in which the practice has contaminated water sources, the alliance said.

López Obrador’s opposition to fracking puts contracts already signed for exploration and extraction of natural gas at risk.

One example of a planned project that the incoming government could shut down is the exploitation of a shale gas deposit in Coahuila, for which the state oil company Pemex has signed a US $617-million contract with Texas-based Lewis Energy.

Despite his opposition to fracking, López Obrador, who will be sworn in as president on December 1, has pledged to reduce Mexico’s reliance on foreign countries for its energy needs.

While he has been an outspoken critic of the 2014 energy reform that opened up the sector to foreign and private companies, the president-elect last month assured private energy executives that their contracts will not be canceled if they meet existing terms.

That assurance as well as his plan to build a new oil refinery and upgrade existing ones are aimed more squarely at reducing dependence on foreign petroleum rather than gas.

But Juan Carlos Zepeda, president of the National Hydrocarbons Commission, believes that ensuring Mexico’s gas security is an even more pressing need, declaring in July that reliance on United States imports creates not only a “geopolitical risk” but also an “operational risk” due to the possibility of a natural disaster interrupting supply.

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

Inattention to chain of custody in serial femicide case worries advocacy group

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César Hernández

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October 9, 2018

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The unguarded lot where the murder suspects are believed to have buried victims' remains.

A women’s advocacy organization has criticized authorities in Ecatepec, México state, for their alleged inattention to the chain of custody in the case of the couple who confessed to murdering 20 women.

A vacant lot where the couple allegedly disposed of their victims’ remains is guarded only by bright yellow police tape. The newspaper Milenio visited the site in the Jardines de Morelos neighborhood and found women’s clothes and shoes strewn around the property.

It was evident that no effort had been made to preserve the scene and maintain the chain of custody. It was the same at home of the couple, who were arrested last Thursday.

The president of a women’s rights advocacy organization warned of the “high risk” that the Jardines de Morelos crimes will not be processed as femicides.

“The lack of attention by the authorities to the chain of custody has caused deficiencies in many cases. I am almost certain that [the crimes] will not be prosecuted as femicides, but only as homicides,” said Xóchitl Arzola.

Juan Carlos N., 34 and his wife Patricia N., 38, are being held for the murder of 10 women, although Juan Carlos has confessed to killing at least 20.

One of their neighbors told Milenio that they had filed a formal complaint against the couple over six months ago because of foul-smelling water running from the couple’s property.

Neighbors also thought the couple’s comings and goings were strange. At times they were seen walking with a baby carriage but instead of a baby it carried a sack.

When the two were arrested last week they were pushing a baby carriage in which human remains were found.

Residents fear that the couple belonged to a larger criminal organization because similar events have happened before in other areas of Ecatepec.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Hundreds stranded by flash flood in Mexico City

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César Hernández

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October 9, 2018

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Children wait on the roof of a stranded transit van.

Heavy rain flooded several kilometers of Mexico City’s Periférico beltway, stranding hundreds of commuters and public transit passengers.

The sudden rush of water surprised people traveling on the southbound lanes between Valle Dorado and Santa Mónica in Tlalnepantla, México state, a few minutes before 6:00pm.

Many had just enough time to get out of their vehicles and abandon them as the water rose, while others attempted to drive or push their cars out of the floodwaters.

Passengers aboard a public transit van found themselves trapped as the water rose while the vehicle was traveling through an underpass. All they could do was put the most vulnerable passengers, two children, atop the half-submerged vehicle and wait for the best.

The flash flood lasted about an hour after which the waters recede allowing traffic through once more.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Inadequate refrigeration in Jalisco’s mobile morgues means bodies decompose

By

MND Staff

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October 9, 2018

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One of the Jalisco 'death trailers.' — One of Jalisco's 'trailers of death.'

When authorities in Jalisco left a refrigerated trailer full of corpses in two different neighborhoods of Guadalajara last month, residents were quick to complain about the fetid odors emanating from it.

Now it has been revealed that not only was the refrigeration system inadequate to store the bodies, the solution to overcrowded morgues was an expensive one.

The so-called “trailer of death” or “morgue-on-wheels” was storing 273 bodies, authorities later confirmed, although it was initially reported that there were 157 cadavers inside.

Although the trailer was refrigerated it was not designed to function as a morgue and had not been adapted for the purpose, the newspaper Milenio reported today.

The refrigeration capacity of the trailer was simply overwhelmed by the hundreds of bodies that were crammed inside. Hence the offensive stench.

Days after the gruesome contents of the trailer made headlines in Mexico and around the world, the former director of the Jalisco Institute of Forensic Sciences (IJCF) — who was dismissed for his role in the case — revealed that there were in fact two trailers of unclaimed bodies in Guadalajara.

However, Luis Octavio Cotero Bernal denied responsibility both for the decision to acquire the trailers and for the instruction for one of them to be shuffled around the Guadalajara metropolitan area, declaring that the Jalisco Attorney General’s office (FGE) had the “sole and exclusive power” in the matter.

It has now been revealed that since 2015, the FGE has rented at least four trailers to store bodies at a cost of approximately 20,000 pesos (US $1,050) per trailer per week or over one million pesos (US $53,000) per year.

That means the state government has paid up to four million pesos (US $210,000) annually for the makeshift morgues.

Milenio reported that the trailers were supplied by Logística Montes, a company that is listed on the state government’s transparency portal as a supplier to several government departments.

However, the payments the government made to the company owned by Rafael Montes have never been publicly declared, Milenio said.

That the trailers were incapable of preventing the rapid decomposition of the corpses appears to have been of little concern.

“They [the FGE] never cared about where they were storing bodies,” Cotero said, adding that on more than one occasion he called Jalisco Governor Aristóteles Sandoval to alert him to the situation and to seek assistance to resolve it.

“I told [Sandoval] that there were bodies in a bad state, that many of them had larva coming out of the [body] bags,” Cotero said.

The governor, however, attempted to deflect blame for the affair, stating that it was caused by “erratic action on the part of authorities” and pledging to “make up for this episode by providing an assurance that we will hire the best qualified staff . . . to avoid instances of negligence and indifference.”

For family members of people who have disappeared in Jalisco and continue to search for their missing loved ones, the governor’s “assurance” is cold comfort.

Since Leonel Arámbula disappeared in October last year, his cousin Belén Torres has accompanied the victim’s mother to morgues in Jalisco to check whether his body has appeared.

To date they have had no luck in locating Leonel and Torres fears that her cousin’s body could have been among the hundreds that were stored in one of the trailers hired by the FGE.

“Just imagining that my cousin is there is infuriating . . . He’s a human being and that is not just [treatment]. It makes me angry to think that he’s in a trailer being trampled on because they go in and walk among [the bodies],” she said.

Guadalajara is not the only city in Mexico that has resorted to using trailers to store bodies amid rising rates of violent crime that have inundated morgues with the corpses of victims.

Authorities in Guerrero have purchased 10 refrigerated containers to relieve pressure on morgues in Acapulco, Chilpancingo and Iguala while their counterparts in Veracruz and Tijuana, Baja California have acquired one trailer each.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Subway to open 50 new restaurants next year

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MND Staff

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October 8, 2018

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Sandwich chain Subway will open up to 50 new franchises in 2019, giving it more than 1,000 restaurants nationwide, the company’s Mexico director has announced.

Héctor Huerta said Subway has experienced 6% to 7% annual growth over the past three years, bucking the overall trend in the food market.

There are currently 980 Subway outlets in the country and 10 more are set to open before the end of the year, meaning that the 1,000th Subway will likely open in the first months of 2019.

“Next year we plan to pass 1,000 restaurants. We anticipate we’ll finish the year [2019] with around 45 to 50 new restaurants . . .” Huerta said.

He added that the company also plans to roll out more of its new-look restaurants, known as Subway Fresh Forward.

Speaking in Mexico City at a launch event for the new concept, Huerta said that Mexico has spearheaded Subway’s growth in Latin America thanks to maintained macroeconomic stability.

He told the news agency Notimex that there is room in the Mexican market for the brand to expand to 1,800 restaurants in the coming years, adding that the majority of the ingredients used in Subway products are now locally sourced.

Just two years ago, about 70% of ingredients were imported, mainly from the United States.

“. . . We’ve reduced that dependency through developing local suppliers. That allows us to have a solider and more sustainable business model in the long term, independent of the economic conditions that may arise,” Huerta said.

Subway first opened in Mexico in 1990 and for a decade focused its growth strategy on Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey, but since 2000 the franchise has spread to all corners of the country.

Source: Notimex (sp)

Quintana Roo beaches sargassum-free by year end: authorities

By

MND Staff

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October 8, 2018

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Omar Vázquez and his sargassum-adobe house.

Sargassum amounts are decreasing in Quintana Roo but some of it will remain — as houses.

The quantity of sargassum washing up on the beaches of the state is on the decline but it won’t disappear completely until the end of the year, authorities say.

The smelly brown seaweed has arrived en masse on the state’s Caribbean coastline this year, causing a significant drop in tourism and triggering warnings of a serious environmental disaster.

Quintana Roo Environment Secretary Alfredo Arellano said that 155,000 cubic meters of sargassum were removed from beaches and coastal waters in seven of the state’s municipalities between June and September.

The tourist draws of Cancún, Playa del Carmen, Tulum and Mahahual have all been affected by the seaweed invasion. In response, more than 9,500 residents contributed to the clean-up efforts.

According to the Environment Secretariat (Sema), the amount of seaweed washing up on the state’s beaches will continue to decline throughout this month and by late December it is expected that authorities will be able to officially declare Quintana Roo a sargassum-free zone.

Containment barriers installed off some parts of the coast have helped to stop the seaweed from piling up in a stinky and unsightly mess on the white sand beaches.

But Víctor Manuel Alcérreca Sánchez, general director of the Quintana Roo Science and Technology Council (Coqcyt), believes that more needs to be done to combat the problem.

“We have to strengthen our scientific, technological and innovation capacities to increase competitiveness [in the pursuit of] combating sargassum . . .” he said.

Alcérreca added that state and federal authorities will open a funding application process in the coming weeks to attract new proposals to deal with the seaweed.

One innovative idea that doesn’t stop sargassum from arriving but does provide a use for it once it has been cleared from beaches has already been put into action by a Quintana Roo businessman.

By mixing the seaweed with adobe, Omar Vázquez Sánchez has built a two-bedroom, earthquake and hurricane-resistant home in just 15 days.

Two more sargassum houses were due to be built this month in Leona Vicario, a community in the municipality of Puerto Morelos. Vázquez said that the homes will be given to low-income residents.

He added that a Cancún resident had approached him to ask about the cost of building a home —70,000 pesos (US $3,700) — with a view to funding 40 more sargassum-based abodes.

“The main objective . . . is that people of scarce resources have a home,” Vázquez said.

“. . . We’ve approached private institutions, the state government and non-government organizations, among others, to ask them to donate a home so that families in marginalized areas can benefit.”

Source: El Financiero (sp), Noticieros Televisa (sp), Arch Daily (sp)

An early-morning boat ride through the ancient waterways of Xochimilco

By

Susannah Rigg

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October 8, 2018

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Dawn in Xochimilco, Mexico City. susannah rigg

Arriving at a rather off-the-beaten-track pier in Xochimilco on a fresh Sunday morning before sunrise was an adventure in itself.

I had only been to the canals of Xochimilco in southern Mexico City in the daytime to be greeted by the multicolored boats called trajineras bobbing merrily on the water.

This time I arrived at a pier with just one or two motorized boats beached on the shore. The sky had a kind of pre-dawn hazy lightness and the birds were calling out that the day was beginning.

I was soon greeted by the others who were heading out with me on the calm, early-morning waters of this tranquil area of the canals, waterways that were an extension of Tenochtitlan, the ancient city of the Aztec or Mexica people. So important are these waterways to Mexico’s history that they were declared a UNESCO World Heritage site, along with Mexico City’s historic center, over 30 years ago.

Jumping on a low-key motorboat, I realized that this trip was going to be very different from the other rides I had taken in Xochimilco. There were no micheladas or mariachis on this strip of the canal. Instead, we had a list of birds to identify as we traveled along the water.

Despite being part of one of the biggest urban centers, Xochimilco is a nature lover’s paradise. The area is home to over 15 different types of duck alone.

Our boat created ripples along the otherwise still water, which began to reflect the colors of the sunrise, the trees a silhouette in front of the bright sun making its way into the sky. An elegant wading egret took flight before us, its huge white wings flapping hard before it glided to a stop on a fallen tree trunk. The scene was blissful, magical. A mist rose off the water as the dawn gave way to the day.

Soon café de olla was being passed around to keep the chilly morning air at bay. Its deep cinnamon flavor and sugariness woke up my senses, clearing away my own morning mist and bringing me to life.

I looked out all around me trying to identify the birds on my list. I am no bird specialist and relied on our guide to help me name the many species I was seeing. I was distracted at times, staring at the water with a childlike hope of seeing an axolotl — a type of salamander — in the wild.

It’s a hope I have whenever I am in Xochimilco but these fascinating amphibians, which are native to the area, live in the darkest parts of the waters and are in decline so spotting them is almost impossible.

Traversing the waters, and searching for birdlife, I watched as the surrounding trees gave way to a part of the bank that looked like a pasture. Sure enough, Xochimilco is also home to a cuenca lechera, or dairy farm.

Here, cows roam on the banks next to the water. Later our boat would have to make way for a canal boat full of bulls to pass by. Quite the contrast to making way for a boat full of revelers on the more populated canals.

Not far from the dairy fields, our boat took us down a narrow waterway, passing the infamous Island of the Dolls, and soon enough we were disembarking on to the chinampas. These are manmade fertile raised beds constructed in Mesoamerican times that were used to grow food for the 300,000 inhabitants of Tenochtitlan. I love imagining the canoes gliding along rivers to transport food to the people some 500 years ago.

Nowadays, a big movement is under way to protect and reclaim the chinampas and once again provide food for the people or the now somewhat larger city nearby. Many of the best chefs in Mexico City source the produce for their award-winning restaurants from the chinampas and more and more residents have signed up to receive organic produce boxes from the area.

On the banks, we saw lines of lush and abundant vegetables growing all around, everything from multiple types of tomatoes to different leafy greens. All of the crops are cultivated using a non-chemical fertilizer that they make onsite, using only bioproducts that they can obtain close by.

After exploring the allotments, I would get my wish to see an axolotl. We found a place in the shade and a large water-filled box was opened and we could observe this majestic amphibian with its crown of gills swimming before us.

This axolotl was part of a conservation program. The animals are suffering due to the increased temperatures of the water and a reduction of their habitat due to the intrusion of urban sprawl. However, local organizations are working to regenerate the habitat of the mighty axolotl, which plays an important role in Mexica mythology.

Its habitat is the dark, muddy areas of the water hence the axolotl are associated with Xolotl the god of death and the underworld in Mexica mythology. A natural antibiotic that is found in the skin of the axolotl allows them to stay in the murky depths without being susceptible to illness. They are a truly unique and special creature that could entirely disappear by 2020 if measures aren’t taken to protect them.

Bespoke Mexican tour company Journey Mexico wants to help in these preservation efforts. Their creation of an experience to explore these lesser known banks of Xochimilco, accompanied by scientists and the founder of a local non-profit, will help to raise awareness and funds for axolotl protection and conservation efforts in the area. Part of the fee paid by guests will go straight back to the projects on the ground.

Lillian Aviles, the director of business development for Journey Mexico, learned about the possible extinction of axolotls from her son who was working on a school project, and she wanted to do something.

“Our product team has been working on creating a series of sustainable travel experiences and I proposed this one,” she told Mexico News Daily. Working together with a local NGO and a naturalist guide, they developed a tour that would be informative and fun and have a sustainability focus.

The tour, much like the one I took, will start right before sunrise, allowing visitors to birdwatch and enjoy the tranquility of the waters.

In addition, they will have a chance to sample the fresh ingredients from the ancient chinampas by partaking in a lunch hosted by local chefs from the community. They will not only learn about the rich history of this area but also find out more about conservation efforts while contributing to them in an enjoyable way.

Travel is often criticized as being a contributing factor to environmental issues, but many companies are looking for ways to create sustainable practices.

“We can offer guests unique experiences while protecting the environment, its people and culture,” Aviles said. “It’s all about bringing like-minded people together to support the community and environment while offering a unique and unforgettable experience to our clients.”

And with all this increased focus on the chinampas and the axolotl there is hope that this incredibly important area of Mexico City and this majestic animal will continue to thrive for many more centuries to come.

• To find out more about this and other experiences with Journey Mexico, visit their website.

Susannah Rigg is a freelance writer and Mexico specialist based in Mexico City. Her work has been published by BBC Travel, Condé Nast Traveler, CNN Travel and The Independent UK among others. Find out more about Susannah on her website.

Education conference in Acapulco turns into brawl among teachers

By

MND Staff

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October 8, 2018

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Chairs fly as teachers' tempers flare in Acapulco. — Chairs and water bottles fly as teachers' tempers flare in Acapulco.

An education forum in Acapulco, Guerrero, was canceled yesterday after a brawl broke out among teachers just before it was due to start.

At approximately 10:00am, around 300 teachers belonging to the Guerrero Education Workers’ Union (CETEG) burst into a conference room at the Acapulco convention center and launched into a boisterous protest against educational reforms and the disappearance of 43 students in 2014.

They also threw objects at the forum attendees, many of whom were members of the SNTE teachers’ union.

The latter, the CETEG claims, has not fought to defend public education in Guerrero or recognized the repression the state’s teachers have suffered.

The SNTE teachers retaliated by throwing bottles of water at the CETEG members as they shouted at them to leave.

The confrontation then turned even uglier as teachers from both unions threw chairs at each other.

All told, the ruckus lasted around 10 minutes during which time a lot of the attendees fled the conference room. There were no reports of injuries.

The Guerrero Attorney General’s office has opened an investigation into the incident.

The forum was organized by the transition team of president-elect López Obrador and future education secretary Esteban Moctezuma Barragán was to have led it.

Instead, he appeared on stage only to announce that the forum was canceled and that it would be rescheduled for a later date.

The 2013 educational reform, intended to improve teaching standards and subject teachers to compulsory evaluations, was met with strong opposition, especially from the dissident CNTE union, to which the CETEG belongs.

There have been hundreds of protests against the reform over the past five years.

López Obrador, who will be sworn in on December 1, has pledged to revoke the reform.

“The educational reform will be canceled and replaced by another reform that will take the point of view of teachers and parents into consideration,” he said in August.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Pet lion plays rough, sends owner to hospital with serious injuries

By

César Hernández

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October 8, 2018

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Two of the 'pets' in the Ciudad Juárez home.

Don’t drink and mess with your pets when they happen to be lions and tigers.

That would appear to be the moral of a story yesterday in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, where Erick Noé Romero Meraz, 41, lives with two lions and a tiger.

When he arrived at his home in the Rincones de San Marcos neighborhood, allegedly under the influence of alcohol, he shouted at one of the lions, triggering an attack by the animal.

Romero was admitted to the Juárez general hospital in serious condition with deep gashes in his arms, legs and neck.

When police arrived at Romero’s house, his family assured them they had all necessary permits to have the three animals in their home.

As of yesterday, police were keeping the house under guard.

Source: Sin Embargo (sp)