Thieves attack tourists traveling by bus in Chiapas

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December 28, 2018

A bus carrying tourists from Puebla was attacked by thieves yesterday in Chiapas.

Police said the bus was traveling on the Ocosingo-Palenque highway when six balaclava-clad individuals carrying firearms forced it to stop.

Four of them boarded the bus and began shattering windows and threatening the passengers with their guns.

They took their phones, cameras and cash and fled the scene.

The tourists reported the theft upon their arrival in San Cristóbal de las Casas.

They had planned to spend three days traveling around the state but changed their mind after the incident, cutting their trip short and heading back home.

The highway is known for such attacks. Tour companies began traveling in convoys during Holy Week last year after 25 German tourists and their guides were robbed.

Source: Reforma (sp)

Morena lawmakers move to ban double semi-trailers

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MND Staff

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December 28, 2018

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One trailer too many, says Morena deputy.

Double semi-trailers could become a thing of the past on the roads of Mexico if lawmakers from President López Obrador’s Morena party get their way.

Francisco Javier Borrego Adame, a deputy from Coahuila, presented a draft decree to the lower house of Congress yesterday that seeks to ban double semis on the basis that they place the lives of other motorists at risk.

Outlawing the extra-heavy vehicles requires an amendment to article 50 of the Federal Law on Roads, Bridges and Motor Transportation.

The draft legislation has been sent to the communications and transport committee of the Chamber of Deputies, which Borrego heads.

The lawmaker said that under the law as it currently stands, double semi-trailers that are longer than those in other countries and carry heavier loads are allowed to travel on the nation’s roads.

“Double semi-trailers up to 32.5 meters in length . . . carrying almost 75.5 tonnes are allowed. That’s why when braking [is required], the driver can’t stop in time,” he said.

“Compared to the standards of other countries, it’s too much. For example, Canada sets a 50-tonne load limit for a vehicle of a maximum length of 25 meters while in Germany, Belgium, Spain, Finland, Italy and Switzerland it’s 43 tonnes in units that don’t exceed 20 meters in length,” Borrego added.

He also said that the loads carried by double semis in Mexico often exceed the weight allowed by law, not only increasing the risk of accidents but also placing greater strain on roads and the vehicle’s engine, which in turn generates more pollution.

Borrego said that it was regrettable that for 10 years lawmakers in both houses of Congress have attempted to ban double-semi trailers without actually doing so.

In 2016, the Center for Legislative Studies on Ground Transportation, a civil organization, took legal action to try to limit semi tractors to towing only one trailer, claiming that double trailers are a “time bomb.”

Last year, 26 people were killed in a fiery head-on collision in Guerrero between a bus and a double semi-trailer after which there were renewed calls to ban the extra-heavy trucks.

Around 45,000 double semi-trailers are estimated to be in operation on Mexico’s roads, a figure which represents 10% of all tractor-trailers.

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

Trump threatens to close border over wall funding, ‘go back to pre-NAFTA’

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MND Staff

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December 28, 2018

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Closing the border would stop 50,000 vehicles a day from entering the US at the San Ysidro crossing alone.

United States President Donald Trump threatened today to close the border with Mexico if the U.S. Congress doesn’t approve billions of dollars in funding to build his long-promised wall.

“We will be forced to close the Southern Border entirely if the Obstructionist Democrats do not give us the money to finish the Wall & also change the ridiculous immigration laws that our Country is saddled with . . .” Trump wrote on Twitter.

The threat comes amid a partial government shutdown in the United States which has now entered its seventh day.

Trump wants US $5 billion to build the wall he has promised since he was seeking the Republican Party nomination to contest the 2016 presidential election.

In the second and third posts in a string of early-morning tweets, the U.S. president framed his border closure threat within the context of NAFTA, the 25-year-old trade agreement between the United States, Mexico and Canada which was updated this year following a drawn-out and contentious negotiation.

“The United States looses soooo much money on Trade with Mexico under NAFTA, over 75 billion Dollars a year (not including Drug Money which would be many times that amount), that I would consider closing the Southern Border a ‘profit-making operation,’” Trump wrote.

“We build a Wall or close the Southern Border. Bring our car industry back into the United States where it belongs. Go back to pre-NAFTA, before so many of our companies and jobs were so foolishly sent to Mexico. Either we build (finish) the Wall or we close the Border . . .” he continued.

In a fourth tweet, Trump said the United States government would cut off aid to the three Central American countries whose citizens have made up the vast majority of members of the migrant caravans that have traveled through Mexico to the U.S. border in recent months.

“Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador are doing nothing for the United States but taking our money. Word is that a new Caravan is forming in Honduras and they are doing nothing about it. We will be cutting off all aid to these 3 countries — taking advantage of U.S. for years!” he wrote.

Trump has railed frequently against the migrant caravans, portraying their arrival at the United States southern border as an “invasion.”

When a group of around 500 migrants rushed the border between Tijuana and San Diego on November 25, United States border agents fired tear gas and rubber bullets at them and the San Ysidro border crossing was closed for almost six hours.

Trump warned the day after the incident that the border could be shut permanently.

In spite of the contentious migration issue and their position on opposite sides of the political spectrum, the relationship between President López Obrador and Trump has been mostly cordial.

The two leaders spoke by telephone earlier this month to discuss migration and job creation in Mexico and Central America and less than a week later the governments of Mexico and the United States announced they had reached an agreement to work together on a development plan to curb migration.

At his early-morning press conference today, López Obrador refused to be drawn on Trump’s latest tweets regarding the border wall, stating “we have not offered an opinion on this issue because it’s an internal matter of the United States government and we prefer to abstain.”

He added that the Mexican government “seeks to always maintain a good relationship with the United States government,” explaining that “we don’t want to be imprudent.”

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

Snowballing pension costs will be an economic challenge for new government

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MND Staff

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December 28, 2018

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Bigger pension checks on the way. — Bigger pension checks are on the way.

The new federal government will face snowballing pension costs throughout its six-year term, economic forecasts show.

According to projections by the Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP), the payment of pensions will cost the government 3.4% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2018.

But in 2019, that figure will grow to 3.5% of GDP and in subsequent years it will continue to go up, forecasts contained in an SHCP document show.

In 2024, President López Obrador’s last year in office, the government will be forking out 4.3% of GDP in pensions, a 0.9% increase on the forecast for this year.

The projections are based on actuarial studies and trends observed in recent years.

In the SHCP document, the government acknowledges that longer life expectancies coupled with a lower fertility rate provide it with an economic challenge.

“For some decades, the adult population in Mexico of pensionable age has been growing at a faster rate than the younger population. This demographic transition presents a challenge for the sustainability of public finances because spending on pensions and health will increase with the growth of the older population,” the document says.

“It’s estimated that in 2019 the population in Mexico of pensionable age will be 9.5 million, while in 2040 it’s predicted that it will double to reach 19.5 million.”

Next year, the government is expected to pay out more than 877.4 billion pesos (US $44.6 billion) in pensions, 6.4% more than this year. The projected expenditure is almost three times higher than the total budget allocated to public education in 2019.

Three of every four pesos the government spends in the area will go to retirees who are covered by the IMSS and ISSTE social security schemes.

Government spending on the universal old-age pension system, which is funded separately, will increase by a much greater amount – 148% – to 101.5 billion pesos (US $5.1 billion) next year, data in the 2019 budget shows.

Just under 41 billion pesos (US $2.1 billion) was allocated to the program in 2018 but the López Obrador administration intends to more than double pension payments.

Adults aged 68 or over, regardless of wealth, will be entitled to receive a monthly pension of 1,274 pesos (US $65). Indigenous people will qualify from age 65.

“This amount represents a significant increase (more than 100%) with respect to what the previous 65 and over [universal] system offered . . .” the Secretariat of Welfare said.

Gerardo López, a pensions expert at the Panamerican University, told the newspaper El Economista that while the intention of the universal pension program is good, there is a lack of clarity about how it will function.

“One of the most important issues is the operating rules . . . who is going to have the right [to claim a pension] and how is it going to be verified. The operating rules haven’t been announced . . .” he said.

López was also critical of the plan to include people who already receive a pension from another source such as IMSS or ISSTE in the universal pension scheme.

“. . . It’s unfair to give an additional prize to someone who already has a pension. In that area, I think the rules should be more precise,” he said.

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

China busts totoaba smuggling ring, seizes swim bladders worth US $26 million

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César Hernández

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December 27, 2018

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The totoaba's swim bladder is popular in Asia.

The Chinese government has moved to stop the smuggling of illegal totoaba swim bladders from Mexico.

Chinese Customs announced on Christmas Day that an operation to bring down smuggling rings had led to the arrest of 16 individuals representing one of the main swim bladder trafficking gangs. Chinese authorities confiscated 444.3 kilograms of bladders worth an estimated US $26 million.

Though the investigation is still ongoing, preliminary results show the syndicate would purchase the bladders in Mexico and transport them to China in suitcases.

“For many years China was not aware of the illegal trade in totoaba bladders,” said Peter Knights, CEO of the non-governmental organization WildAid. “But when alerted, they stopped open trade and now they are taking down smuggling rings. Let’s hope their decisive action can help the remaining vaquita porpoises that are literally on the brink of extinction.”

The totoaba is a fish endemic to the upper Gulf of California and has been considered critically endangered since 1996. The totoaba shares the same habitat with the vaquita. Decades of destructive fishing practices and the rampant use of illegal gillnets to poach the totoaba have decimated the vaquita population, with now fewer than 20 individuals estimated to remain.

Earlier this month, an international group of scientists asked the Mexican government to issue a ban on possessing gillnets in the upper Gulf of California, a stronger measure than those introduced until now to save the vaquita porpoise.

Mexico News Daily

Soldiers, marines to watch over petroleum facilities in new security scheme

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MND Staff

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December 27, 2018

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Cabinet secretaries listen as the president announces his petroleum security strategy.

The federal government will deploy 4,000 soldiers and marines to guard the nation’s oil refineries and petroleum storage facilities to combat fuel theft, President López Obrador announced today.

All told, 57 facilities will be protected by the military: six refineries, 39 storage terminals and 12 pumping stations.

The use of the army and navy is part of the government’s wider plan to combat petroleum theft.

López Obrador said that state oil company Pemex lost 60 billion pesos (US $3 billion) due to fuel theft last year, a figure double the amount cited by the company’s former CEO, and charged that the theft couldn’t have occurred without the complicity of members of the previous government.

“The aim of the plan is to avoid [fuel] theft . . . [The amount] stolen each year equates to 60% of what’s going to be allocated to old-age pensions. It’s 60 times more than the amount we’re going to use next year to create 100 public universities. We can’t allow this, we have to put an end to this corruption . . .” López Obrador said.

At the same press conference, acting Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero said that three officials at Pemex who were allegedly complicit in the theft of petroleum have been dismissed and will face criminal charges.

Just hours after López Obrador’s announcement, soldiers assumed responsibility for the security of the Pemex refinery in Salamanca, Guanajuato.

“We arrived in the state of Guanajuato last night and today they sent us here,” an army sergeant told the newspaper Milenio.

Personnel at the refinery have previously come under investigation for involvement in fuel theft.

López Obrador told reporters that 15 government departments are involved in the implementation of the new anti-fuel theft strategy.

He called on Pemex employees to help stamp out corruption, on gas station owners to not sell stolen fuel and on citizens to not buy it.

The president said there was no evidence that former Pemex directors had participated in the theft of petroleum but charged that they were aware that it was occurring within the company.

Combatting fuel theft is one of the biggest security challenges faced by the new federal government.

The incidence of illegal taps on state-owned petroleum pipelines increased sharply throughout the six-year term of the last government and there is evidence that Mexico’s notorious drug cartels have moved in on the lucrative racket.

In the first 10 months of 2018, the number of taps detected increased by 45% compared to the same period last year, according to the latest Pemex report on the crime.

López Obrador said that fuel was also stolen from 600 tankers per day last year and the same number this year.

Gangs of fuel thieves known as huachicoleros are believed to behind the alarmingly high levels of violence in some states including Guanajuato, which has been transformed from a relatively peaceful state to one of the most violent in the country this year.

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

New detector identifies stolen vehicles on Mexico City-Cuernavaca highway

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César Hernández

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December 27, 2018

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Auto theft will reach a record-breaking 94,000 cases in Mexico this year but after two years of what has been perceived as lax enforcement, new efforts are being undertaken in Morelos to curb the crime.

A new operation by the Federal Police and the army has installed a mobile detection unit on the Mexico City-Cuernavaca highway. The vehicle is equipped with a license plate scanner to identify stolen vehicles, allowing security forces to respond immediately.

The detector’s mobility will prevent lawbreakers from evading the scanner because they won’t know where it will be located.

The unit will be moved to different locations around the state of Morelos.

According to the Association of Mexican Insurance Companies (AMIS), auto theft this year will be up 4.4% over last year’s 90,187 cases. The value of the stolen vehicles at the end of November was 14 billion pesos, or US $713 million.

The figure will likely be rather more because December is historically one of the worst months for auto theft.

AMIS general manager Recaredo Arias Jiménez told the newspaper Publímetro that he believes the spike in theft was the result of a relaxation in efforts to combat insecurity during the last two years of President Enrique Peña Nieto’s administration.

Source: Publímetro (sp)

Three Pemex officials who controlled pipelines arrested for petroleum theft

By

MND Staff

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December 27, 2018

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Three Pemex officials who were allegedly complicit in the theft of petroleum have been dismissed and will face criminal charges, the acting attorney general said today.

“The federal Attorney General’s office (PGR) has initiated criminal proceedings against three individuals whose names we cannot release so as not to create a problem with due process,” Alejandro Gertz Manero said.

Speaking at President López Obrador’s morning press conference, Gertz explained that new Pemex management were aware that some company employees were complicit with criminals in pipeline petroleum theft and moved promptly to combat the problem.

“They immediately got to work in Pemex Logistics . . . and established that . . . those who managed the control of the pipelines were allowing the theft to take place,” he said.

New Pemex CEO Octavio Romero said the officials had been removed from their positions on December 20 and offered a graph that showed the quantity of stolen fuel had subsequently decreased from 43,000 barrels on December 21 to 19,000 barrels on Christmas Day.

López Obrador offered further details about the means with which authorities detected the complicity of the officials.

“There is a system . . . [that provides information about] the pressure of the pipelines and during the whole day they didn’t shut off the valves, which is what they should have done . . . There was a great loss of fuel in one section of pipeline,” he said.

“In another incident, a carrier who went in and out of a refinery was arrested. There is other evidence we can’t announce because the investigations are under way,” López Obrador added.

The president called on Pemex employees to help stamp out corruption, charging that there is a “large-scale fuel theft and distribution scheme” operating within the state oil company.

“It’s fuel theft but from above . . . There is a theory that of all theft, only 20% is through the tapping of pipelines – which is a kind of front [for what’s really happening] – that most [fuel theft] is related to a plan that operates with the complicity of authorities and with a distribution network. So, there are huachicoleros [fuel thieves] at the bottom and huachicoleros at the top,” López Obrador said.

Pemex’s most recent report on fuel theft showed that illegal taps on pipelines increased by 45% in the first 10 months of 2018.

Former Pemex CEO Carlos Treviño said in October that the crime was expected to cost the state oil company 35 billion pesos (US $1.75 billion) this year.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Merry Christmas from Sinaloa Cartel’s ex-security chief

By

César Hernández

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December 27, 2018

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Christmas gifts with card signed by a jailed cartel boss.

Some residents of Sinaloa had a happy Christmas thanks — evidently — to the Sinaloa Cartel.

Dozens of trucks turned up last week in several rural towns in the municipalities of Salvador Alvarado and Mocorito and delivered holiday gift baskets.

Wrapped in clear plastic, the baskets came with a card bearing a short message: “Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year from your friend Cholo Iván.”

A similar distribution of gifts took place three months ago in the town of Ranchito, Angostura.

Victims of the Tropical Storm 19E received food supplies, mattresses, stoves and other appliances bearing a logo consisting of a black baseball cap with the initials JGL written in gold.

The donation of the disaster relief supplies has been attributed to the former chief of the Sinaloa Cartel, Joaquín Guzmán Loera, also known as “El Chapo.”

“El Cholo Iván” is Orso Iván Gastélum Cruz, identified as the Sinaloa Cartel’s former chief lieutenant and security boss. He was arrested with Guzmán in January 2016 and has been behind bars since.

But it appears his influence still reaches far on his former turf in Sinaloa.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Snow closes highway between Sonora, Chihuahua

By

MND Staff

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December 27, 2018

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Heavy snowfall closed the highway between Janos, Chihuahua, and Agua Prieta, Sonora, for more than three hours yesterday.

Sonora Civil Protection services (UEPC) said that Federal Police and Agua Prieta municipal police closed federal Highway 2 at Puerto San Luis at 5:30pm.

The highway reopened to traffic at 8:40pm, the UEPC said in a Twitter post, and urged motorists to drive with caution due to the slippery conditions and limited visibility.

The fourth winter storm of the season delivered snow and sleet to several parts of Sonora and Chihuahua yesterday, including the cities of Cananea and Nuevo Casas Grandes.

The National Water Commission (Conagua) said there is a possibility of more snow today in mountainous areas of the two states.

Temperatures below -5 C are forecast for mountainous areas of both as well as Baja California and Durango.

Below freezing temperatures are also forecast today for several other states in northern, western and central Mexico.

With a new cold front arriving on Friday, Civil Protection services have issued warnings for 46 Sonora municipalities due to the likelihood of already low temperatures dropping further.

Source: El Universal (sp)