Quintana Roo hoteliers will shuttle guests to sargassum-free beaches

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July 8, 2019

'Islands' of sargassum in the Caribbean Sea, Mexico-bound. — 'Islands' of sargassum in the Caribbean Sea are Mexico-bound.

Hotel owners in the Riviera Maya of Quintana Roo are planning to transfer guests to properties with sargassum-free beaches so they can enjoy the white sands and turquoise waters for which the region is renowned.

The executive director of the Riviera Maya Hotel Association said the goal of the initiative is to show current and potential visitors that hoteliers are aware of the seaweed problem and are taking steps to ensure that tourists are not adversely affected.

Manuel Paredes Mendoza explained that the idea is feasible because more than 80% of hotels in the region belong to large chains that have several properties on the Quintana Roo coast.

Guests would be returned to their original hotel after the beach has been cleared of sargassum.

Speaking at an industry meeting, Paredes also said that Riviera Maya hotels are now offering guests options to partake in 160 different tourist-oriented activities and excursions that are not centered on the state’s famous beaches.

The Cancún sargassum monitoring network published this map Monday morning.

“We have to see sargassum as an opportunity to continue being competitive,” he said. “This problem isn’t local, it’s affecting 22 Caribbean countries . . .”

Conrad Bergwerf, chairman of the Riviera Maya Hotel Association, revealed that occupancy levels of hotels in the region fell to 13.2 million room nights last year from 13.6 million in 2017.

Sargassum and insecurity were the main reasons behind the downturn, he explained.

Hotel industry representatives urged the navy, which is leading efforts to combat the arrival of sargassum, to take strong action against the seasonal phenomenon.

Hoteliers said in May that government inaction had forced them to act on their own to deal with the tonnes of sargassum washing up on beaches in Quintana Roo.

While beaches in the north of Cancún as well as those on Isla Mujeres and Isla Holbox are currently not affected by large quantities of sargassum, other parts of the state’s coastline are seeing plenty of the macroalgae.

According to a report today by the Cancún sargassum monitoring network, a non-governmental organization, Tulum, Puerto Morelos, Bahía Petempich and the eastern coast of Cozumel are affected by “excessive” levels of the weed.

Playa del Carmen and other beaches between Tulum and Puerto Morelos are seeing “abundant” levels, as are Moon Palace, Cancún and Punta Nizuc.

Farther south in the state, huge quantities of sargassum that invaded the coastline last week are predicted to continue to arrive until July 12.

Source: El Economista (sp)

Fed up with the noise, neighbors lynch man for firing weapon in the air

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Madison Koen

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July 8, 2019

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This popular sport caused a lynching Sunday in Mexico City.

A rowdy neighbor met his fate at the hands of enraged fellow neighbors in the Iztapalapa borough of Mexico City yesterday, where he was beaten to death in retaliation for firing a weapon into the air.

According to a police report, nearly 20 friends and neighbors were at a party in the early hours of Sunday morning when they heard shots fired from inside the same apartment building. Three of the party-goers discovered a neighbor firing a 9-millimeter firearm into the air from inside the building and attempted to dissuade him from continuing.

But the man, who appeared to be drunk, resumed firing a short time later. Now angry, the three men once again confronted their neighbor. The second attempt at dialogue quickly escalated to blows, unleashing the rage of other party-goers who joined in the fray, beating the man and causing traumatic brain injury.

Paramedics were unable to reach the victim because of the brawl that had broken out between the party attendees and the victim’s family. Four police patrols also responded to the incident but were blocked by other residents.

Neighbors described the deceased as a well-known drug dealer in the neighborhood and said he had been released from prison just two months before. They also claimed that the victim’s family has sworn vengeance for his death. In response, police strengthened their presence in the surrounding area.

The Mexico City Attorney General’s Office said that since the homicide occurred within the apartment complex, none of the building’s external cameras captured the crime on video. The identity of the victim’s attackers remains unknown and no arrests have been made.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Farmers loot trucks carrying fertilizer as delivery delays continue

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Simon Schatzberg

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July 8, 2019

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Trucks loaded with fertilizer in Guerrero yesterday.

Guerrero farmers who are still waiting for government-supplied fertilizer intercepted three trucks carrying the product in Chilapa on Sunday and stole it.

Each truck was carrying 36 tonnes of ammonium sulfate fertilizer and was bound for the municipalities of Zitlala and Tlapa de Comonfort.

The farmers, who belong to the Emiliano Zapata Southern Agrarian League (Larsez), stopped the trucks in an attempt to pressure the government to speed up fertilizer distribution, which they say is delayed by more than a month.

Larsez leader Marcial Díaz Dircio Ortega then tried to convince Jovita Barajas García and Artemio Avelino Abarca, two members of the state delegation of the federal Welfare Secretariat who were aboard the trucks, to allow the farmers to take the fertilizer back to their community.

But when the two parties could not reach an agreement, the farmers, who had come from various communities in the municipalities of Chilapa, Ahuacuotzingo and José Joaquín de Herrera, transferred the fertilizer from the semi-trailers and on to several pickup trucks.

Dircio justified the action by saying that the delivery of fertilizer is urgent because the rainy season is about to start, and that President López Obrador had promised to supply it.

This year is the first year that the federal government has been in charge of distributing fertilizer to farmers as part of a program that has existed for 24 years. Over the last month, Guerrero farmers have protested several times over what they say are irregularities in the process, including delays, changes in the list of beneficiaries and reductions in the amount of fertilizer that beneficiaries will receive.

Last week, federal Agriculture Secretary Víctor Villalobos reiterated his promise that farmers in Guerrero will receive their fertilizer by July 15.

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

Juchitán residents divert sewage into lagoon after system malfunction

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MND Staff

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July 8, 2019

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A large lagoon in Juchitán, Oaxaca, has been flooded with sewage after a failing drainage system forced residents of one neighborhood to take matters into their own hands.

Around 35,000 hectares of Laguna Superior have been affected by a deluge of untreated wastewater that is currently being pumped into the lagoon, killing fish and leaving businesses on the shoreline without customers.

Raw sewage began flowing into the lagoon around the middle of last week after residents of the Lorenza Santiago neighborhood modified the drainage system.

Community leader Javier Sánchez Orozco told the news agency EFE that people were forced to act because sewage was seeping out of the drains in their homes.

“We decided to call a meeting because people couldn’t put up with it anymore . . . We decided to open up the drainage [system] and install a six-inch pipe to drain the sewage,” he said.

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Residents are now depositing wastewater into the open drainage system before it is transported directly to the lagoon. A recent lack of rain has caused a normally submerged sandbar to emerge, cutting the lagoon off from the Pacific Ocean and exacerbating the contamination problem.

“We know that we’re harming the lagoon but what can we do,” Sánchez said. “We couldn’t wait any longer. The population grew and the city’s drainage network collapsed.”

Rubén Dario Hernández, director of public works on the Juchitán council, said the city’s drainage has experienced problems since the powerful earthquake in September 2017 that ravaged towns in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec region.

He explained that Juchitán’s only wastewater treatment plant hasn’t been operational for seven years, adding that at least seven other municipalities in the region pump raw sewage into the Los Perros river, which flows into Laguna Superior.

“We’re currently working on a project . . . to repair the wastewater treatment plant and to build two more so that the wastewater that is dumped into the Los Perros river is treated beforehand, but that will take time,” Hernández said.

For residents of Playa Vicente, a community on the shore of the polluted lagoon, a solution to the current problem can’t come soon enough. They are currently suffering from the fetid odors of the sewage, and urging municipal, state and federal authorities to take action to remedy the situation.

Irving Jiménez, a worker in a beachside restaurant, told EFE that the lagoon stench is also keeping customers away.

“. . . There are no sales nor will there be any until they find a solution to this problem . . . The lagoon is going to die; we hope that they [the authorities] turn around and see what is happening in our town.”

Source: EFE (sp)

Schools prepare for textbooks delay, but AMLO insists they will arrive

By

Simon Schatzberg

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July 6, 2019

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Some books are being delivered but well behind last year's schedule.

President López Obrador offered an assurance on Friday that in spite of a delay in the printing, textbooks will be ready by the start of the school year on August 26.

“We still have two months, and we’re making an effort to get the books ready for the start of the new school year,” he said in his morning press conference on Friday. “There’s still time, and the government is efficient, because even though we inherited an arthritic elephant lying on its side, we’ve put it on its feet again, and we’ve been pushing it forward, so it’s very likely that we’ll have the books on time.”

Printing has been delayed by at least two months because of issues during the bidding process, especially for the purchase of paper. Bidding was cancelled four times, and a contract that was awarded to Bio-Pappel was cancelled because the company is owned by Miguel Rincón, a friend of the president.

Direct award contracts with four other paper providers were made in early May, but the process was already behind schedule.

This week, 35.1% of the 176 million textbooks had been delivered to state delegations, while last year at this time, 71% of books had been delivered.

Faced with the possibility that there will be no books on the first day of class, some schools are looking for alternatives. Fernando Trujillo Jiménez, León delegate for the Guanajuato Education Secretariat, said that if there are still no textbooks by August 26 teachers will use a digital guide that contains the official curriculum materials.

Such guides will be easy to design because the content has not changed since the last school year.

Source: Reforma (sp), El Sol de México (sp)

No more billboards, says CDMX mayor after one falls, injuring 4

By

Madison Koen

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July 6, 2019

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The billboard squashed a taxi when it fell during wind and rain Thursday.

A billboard fell from its perch high above the street in Mexico City’s Iztapalapa borough during a storm on Thursday, injuring four people, damaging property and triggering a billboard ban.

After authorities said the 18-meter-high billboard had been placed without the necessary permit, Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said she will move to ban the placement of additional billboards in the capital.

Officials said the advertising company that installed the sign didn’t obtain a permit from the urban development and housing department and ignored a notice in Mexico City’s official journal in December 2015.

Department officials organized 10 meetings with important players in the advertising industry between February and June to urge them to take down billboards installed above sidewalks.

“Although there were promises, not a single billboard owner followed through,” they said.

“We will not permit any more billboards in the city, the mayor said, adding that the city government has initiated 40 proceedings against different billboards around the city. She said her administration will immediately begin legal action to take down all those that do not possess the proper license.

Sheinbaum said in the case of billboards that do have all the necessary approvals but are believed to present a potential risk to people and property, the government will talk with the owners to negotiate substituting other forms of advertising.

Source: Reforma (sp), UNO TV (sp)

Mayor hopes for ‘sensible’ decision in Greenpeace pollution case

By

Simon Schatzberg

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July 6, 2019

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The city was shrouded in smog during an environmental contingency in May.

Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum hopes an injunction suspending the city’s environmental contingency program will be reversed soon, and on Friday called on the judge in the case to be “sensible.”

On Thursday, the judge issued a temporary injunction in response to legal action by Greenpeace requiring that the Environmental Commission of the Megalopolis (CAMe) declare an environmental contingency when the Imeca air quality index, which measures the concentration of pollutants, rises to 101 points.

Under the guidelines set by the CAMe last May, environmental contingencies are declared when the Imeca index rises above 150.

“We can’t have a political-environmental organization defining air pollution policy in the city,” said Sheinbaum. “We have institutions for that, working with experts.”

Sheinbaum attributed the ruling to a “confusion,” and said she expects it will be reversed.

“We worked on the contingency program with the participation of experts and academics, and I think the judge is going to be sensible,” she said. “There’s also confusion, because there’s a difference between an environmental norm and a contingency; the latter is for exceptional situations. I think this will be resolved soon.”

Greenpeace released a statement clarifying that the organization does not seek to end the environmental contingency program but rather to change the criteria for declaring contingencies so it is based on protecting the health of people in the metropolitan area.

“It’s well documented that the index that is currently being used is very permissive,” the statement said. “. . . We’re not asking for the contingencies to be ended, but that the criteria for declaring them be based on protecting the public.”

Once the judge makes a final ruling, the CAMe may need to adjust its criteria for declaring contingencies accordingly.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Best mobile broadband is in the north; city of Chihuahua tops the chart

By

MND Staff

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July 6, 2019

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Chihuahua has Mexico's best mobile broadband.

Looking for very fast mobile broadband in Mexico? Head to the north where Chihuahua city has the fastest download and upload speeds in the country and Monterrey and Mexicali aren’t far behind.

An analysis of mobile broadband speeds in 20 large Mexican cities conducted by wireless coverage mapping specialist OpenSignal shows that mobile internet users in Chihuahua can expect download speeds of 24.9 Mbps and upload speeds of 10.2 Mbps.

Querétaro ranked second for download speeds followed by Monterrey, Mexicali and Guadalajara, all of which recorded velocities above 20 Mbps.

The analysis also found download speeds of 20 Mbps or above in Mérida, Aguascalientes, Cancún and San Luis Potosí.

OpenSignal said that download speeds in all 20 cities were “quite good,” noting that all of them exceeded Mexico’s national download speed average of 14.9 Mbps.

Puebla ranked last on the list with a speed of 15.9 Mbps, behind Veracruz and Mexico City.

For uploads, Guadalajara ranked second behind the Chihuahua capital, with an average speed of 10 Mbps.

OpenSignal said the uploads speeds in both cities were very fast, “not just for Mexico but the world.”

Monterrey was hot on their heels with an average speed of 9.9 Mbps followed by Querétaro, Puebla, Saltillo, Mexicali and Tijuana, where speeds ranged between 8.9 and 9.3 Mbps.

All but one of the 20 cities analyzed had upload speeds above the national average of 7 Mbps.

The odd city out was the capital, where uploads dawdled at just 6.5 Mbps. Mexico City’s high population means that there is a huge number of mobile users vying for capacity on 4G networks, which can cause slower speeds.

Toluca, Ciudad Juárez and San Luis Potosí were the next slowest but upload speeds in all three cities were just under 8 Mbps.

The analysis also measured 4G availability in Mexico’s largest cities, and again it was the north of the country that came out on top.

Between March 1 and May 30, OpenSignal mobile users had 4G connection in Mexicali 91% of the time, making the border city number one for cellular network connectivity.

Ciudad Juárez ranked second followed by Saltillo, Querétaro, Monterrey, Chihuahua and Hermosillo. When mobile users in those cities attempted to connect to the 4G network, they were able to do so between 88% and 89% of the time.

All 20 cities analyzed had greater 4G availability than the national average of 79.8% but Acapulco was only slightly above that figure at 81.6%.

Cancún, Veracruz and San Luis Potosí were the only other cities with availability below 85% while Mexico City just exceeded that mark at 85.1%.

Mexico News Daily

Cancún mega-hotel with 3,000 rooms gets environmental approval

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MND Staff

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July 6, 2019

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Artist's conception of Cancúns new megahotel. — Artist's conception of Cancúns new hotel.

The Secretariat of the Environment has granted approval for the construction of a 10-billion-peso (US $526-million), 3,000-room hotel in Cancún, Quintana Roo.

The Gran Island Hotel will be built in two stages by the developer BVG World on two parcels of land in the second section of the hotel zone in the Caribbean coast resort city.

The first stage includes the construction of 2,000 hotel rooms as well as guest amenities, swimming pools and a parking lot. A further 1,000 rooms and more amenities will be built in the second stage.

The entire project is expected to be completed in a period of three years and three months and will provide employment for as many as 4,650 workers.

The two lots on which the hotel will be built cover more than 223,000 square meters of land on Kukulcán boulevard.

According to the environmental impact statement (EIS), the project complies with all municipal environmental regulations.

The site is located in the Cancún urban area, meaning that it is subject to the local ecological management policy that sets out regulations regarding the sustainable use of natural resources.

The EIS says that the developers “adjusted their environmental policies” to make the project “viable from an environmental point of view.”

The project is near the Nichupté Lagoon Natural Protected Area but the developers say that neither flora nor fauna will be adversely affected by construction of the hotel.

There are no sensitive or fragile ecosystems within the site that could be affected by the removal of vegetation, the EIS said.

The document also indicated that the area where the hotel will be built is already connected to essential services including water supply, the sewage system, electricity and telecommunications.

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

Mayor disguises himself as social services client after citizens complain

By

Simon Schatzberg

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July 6, 2019

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The mayor applies for social security benefit.

When the mayor of Cuauhtémoc, Chihuahua, decided to see first-hand how municipal staff were treating social services clients, he was not impressed.

Employees got a shock when a disabled man who had appeared at the city’s social development offices requesting benefits was actually their boss.

Mayor Carlos Tena said that after receiving several complaints about city employees, he decided to dress up as a disabled man to find out for himself if the allegations were true.

“I was planning it for about two months,” he told Milenio. “I decided to do it because I didn’t know who to believe, the citizens or my co-workers.”

As part of the disguise, he wore dark glasses and put a patch over part of his face. When he arrived at the Municipal Palace in a wheelchair to request a benefit, he said, he was ignored and mistreated by the employees, except for one worker who gave him a snack.

The mayor was disappointed with the staff's treatment. — The mayor was disappointed with the staff’s treatment.

Finally, Tena asked to speak to the mayor. When employees told him that the mayor was not available but that he could wait to speak to a secretary, Tena rose from his wheelchair and revealed his true identity.

After his social experiment, Tena called a meeting to express his disappointment with the treatment he had received.

“I’m upset with the people who are working there and are getting paid a salary, that they treat the citizens poorly,” he said. “I made it very clear to them, I told them that I didn’t want to hear about them mistreating someone again.”

The Morena party mayor earned national attention in March when he was arrested by state police for allegedly interfering in an investigation into car theft.

Source: Milenio (sp), Sin Embargo (sp)