Overfishing has put five species at risk yet they continue to be caught: NGO

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June 12, 2019

At least five marine species are at risk due to overfishing in Mexican waters, a non-governmental organization has warned.

After conducting an audit of the fishing industry in Mexico, the ocean conservation organization Oceana said that red snapper, grouper, bluefin tuna, sharks and octopus are all endangered due to overexploitation.

The NGO said the failure to update the National Fishing Charter (CNP), a document that details which species are at risk, has allowed the endangered species to continue to be caught in large quantities when their fishing should have been restricted.

The National Fisheries Institute (Inapesca) has updated the CNP only six times since the year 2000 when it should have been updated annually, Oceana said.

The charter sets regulations for 735 different marine species in 83 different fisheries, of which fishing in 66 – or 80% of the total – is currently subject to restrictions.

However, Oceana said that overfishing in those fisheries continues to occur.

Esteban García-Peña, the organization’s Mexico director, said that in addition to Inapesca’s shortcomings, the National Aquaculture and Fisheries Commission (Conapesca) has granted permits for the fishing of grouper, bluefin tuna and red snapper during the closed season for those species.

Oceana said it is the responsibility of Inapesca to notify Conapesca about the overexploitation but noted there is a lack of communication and collaboration between the two agencies.

Another factor contributing to overfishing is the significant increase in the number of fishing boats.

Between 2011 and 2018, statistics show, 2,670 new vessels began operations even as fish stocks were in decline.

The Secretariat of Agriculture (Sader) said in a statement this week that it had detected irregularities in the granting of new fishing permits by Conapesca in the years before the new government took office last December.

Between 2007 and 2018 – a period encompassing the terms of the last two federal governments – the number of fishing licenses granted increased exponentially when they should have been restricted.

Sader said that “presumed acts of corruption” in Conapesca have been referred to the relevant authorities.

Around 295,000 people are directly engaged in fishing in Mexico and the sector generates revenue in excess of 38 billion pesos (US $2 billion) a year.

But Oceana warned that the livelihoods of those employed in the industry are threatened by the “scant availability of species to fish.”

The NGO said it is crucial for the government to implement “strategies and actions for the protection and restoration” of overexploited fisheries.

Oceana director García-Peña contended that “fishing blindly, as we say is occurring in the fishing sector in this country, puts food security at stake.”

Source: Animal Político (sp), El Financiero (sp)

Santa Lucía airport ruling also orders abandoned project be left intact

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MND Staff

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June 12, 2019

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Plans to flood the site face a challenge.

A federal court yesterday issued a new provisional suspension order against the new Santa Lucía airport that also instructs federal authorities not to make any changes to the site of the abandoned Mexico City airport project.

The court order came in response to injunction requests filed by the #NoMásDerroches (No More Waste) collective, made up of civil society organizations, law firms and more than 100 citizens.

The Mexico City-based administrative court ordered construction at the Santa Lucía project to stop until the federal government proves that it has all necessary air safety permits.

The government has already been served with federal court orders instructing it to cease construction until it proves that it has all necessary environmental permits to build the US $4.1-billion airport.

The directive to leave the abandoned Texcoco airport intact came just one day after the project chief of an ecological park planned for the site said the foundations of the X-shaped terminal and part of a runway will be left under water as the result of the restoration of a drained lake.

The #NoMásDerroches collective has filed 147 separate injunction requests that could hold up or threaten construction of the new airport at the Santa Lucía Air Force Base in México state.

The collective’s goal is a review of the legality of the cancelation of the new Mexico City International Airport and to ensure that the Santa Lucía project has all the necessary permits.

After the group had its first legal victory earlier this month, President López Obrador said the government will respect the decision of the judge.

Communications and Transportation Secretary Javier Jiménez Espriú said that work at the airport can’t stop because it hasn’t even started.

He also said the government “completely agrees” that construction cannot begin until the relevant permits have been issued.

Source: El Universal (sp)

This mega thrift market said to be the biggest street market in Latin America

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Andy Hume

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June 12, 2019

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Bumper boys ready to make a deal. They say you could find a piece of the Titanic at SanFe.

Ropa de paca – clothing in bundles, huge plastic bales dumped out on to folding tables or tarps spread out on the ground for visitors to dig through.

Massive piles of mostly T-shirts that run for blocks through the tarp-covered streets of the Tianguis de la San Felipe de Jesús.

Almost all the clothes appear to be from the United States and arrive by the truckload, sold to the vendors in the hundreds of kilos.

Take a tour of the churches, baseball fields and community centers of Pittsburgh or Orlando, the T-shirts discarded memories of “The Hall Family Reunion” or “Christian Meetup 2013” at 30 pesos a pop.

“Barato! Barato!” the vendors holler: dresses and blouses for 50 pesos, pants for 40 or an armful of T-shirts for a couple of hundred.

You might just be buying back the one that was stolen off your car, but where else can you find used mirrors?

There are estimated to be 40,000 vendors at “SanFe” every Sunday and hundreds of thousands of visitors. There aren’t any reliable international statistics, but this tianguis is said to be the largest street market in Latin America, and if that’s the case, it’s hard to imagine anything in the U.S. or Canada actually being larger.

The saying goes, “In SanFe you can find everything from a pin to a piece of the Titanic.” And that may very well be true, but it could take a number of visits, as you’re not likely to cover the entire seven kilometers of tent rows in a single day.

The San Felipe street market runs through four Mexico City colonias – San Felipe de Jesús, Esmeralda, Providencia and 25 de Julio – right on the edge of Nezahualcóyotl and Ecatepec in the state of Mexico, with the main passage along Villa de Ayala from Estado de Zacatecas to Avenida Gran Canal, where it splinters off on to side streets.

What began decades ago as locals selling odds and ends among rural cornfields and lagoons, along what was once a major river – the Gran Canal, has turned into a massive marketplace of car parts, used clothing, housewares, refrigerators, furniture and antiques.

As small rural towns became huge arms of the city, SanFe made a name for itself as a place to buy used tools. As the tianguis overtook the streets, the municipality tried to move the sellers indoors in the 60s, building the Mercado 25 de Julio to specialize in tools and hardware.

While some sellers joined in for the indoor sales, many remained on the streets and the street market just kept growing into the monstrosity it has become today.

Bales of used clothes ripe for the picking at SanFe.

Knock-off shoes, counterfeit concert T-shirts that were overproduced, genuine human hair and kilometers of rusty bolts and wrenches – you can find it all at SanFe. Some vendors are hyper-specialized down to car rearview mirrors or used bike tires, and the origin of much of the product is not necessarily on the up and up, but there’s an impressive amount to see.

And, well, a piece of the Titanic could certainly be considered “found” rather than “stolen.”

• Tianguis de la San Felipe de Jesús runs every Sunday from 8:00am to 6:00pm along Avenida Villa de Ayala from Calle Estado de Zacatecas in Colonia Providencia to Avenida Gran Canal in Colonia San Felipe de Jesús, then north to Mercado 25 de Julio.

This is the 14th in a series on the bazaars, flea markets and markets of Mexico City:

Zoom in and note the colored tents running along the streets.

In Mexico City, kidnapping goes up, resources to fight it go down

By

MND Staff

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June 12, 2019

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The number of kidnapping cases in Mexico City surged 271% in the first four months of 2019, while public security funding for the capital’s 16 boroughs has been slashed.

There were 26 abduction cases between January and April, according to the National Public Security System, compared to just seven in the same period last year.

If it continues at the same rate, the year will end with 78 kidnapping cases in the capital, which would be the highest number since 2009.

The surge recorded so far this year far exceeds the nationwide increase of 28% and coincides with a reduction in federal funding for security.

Mexico City’s 16 boroughs were allocated 176.5 million pesos (US $9.2 million) this year via the federal government’s security enhancement program known as Fortaseg, a reduction of 53% compared to the 378.1 million pesos they received in 2018.

Sprawling Iztapalapa in the east of the city, central Cuauhtémoc and Gustavo A. Madero in the north suffered the biggest budget cuts, and 17 of the 26 kidnappings in the first four months of the year – 65% or two out of every three – occurred in those boroughs.

Isabel Miranda de Wallace, president of the non-governmental organization Alto al Secuestro (Stop the Kidnappings), believes that the budget cuts – part of President López Obrador’s wider austerity measures – have made existing policing deficiencies even worse.

In January, she wrote to Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum to warn her about the risks posed by funding cuts to the police’s anti-kidnapping unit.

De Wallace said that Mexico City police are not only operating with scant resources but with poor quality equipment, adding that they don’t have the technology needed to effectively combat and investigate kidnapping.

Police in the capital have come under fire this month for their response to a kidnapping case in which 22-year-old student Norberto Ronquillo was killed.

The victim’s family claim that in the 72 hours after he was abducted, police failed to properly investigate the case. Officers also allegedly failed to correctly secure the crime site and are under investigation for possible collusion with the perpetrators.

The National Citizens’ Observatory (ONC), an independent organization that monitors security conditions, said the case is an “example of how bad decisions end lives.”

The organization also noted that the federal government has cut the budget of the National Anti-Kidnapping Coordination by 30% and failed to officially appoint someone to head it.

It is clear that combating this crime “is not a priority for the new administration,” the ONC said.

The Ronquillo case has reopened old wounds for Alejandro Martí, whose 14-year-old son was kidnapped and murdered in Mexico City in 2008. He blamed the crime on “brutal impunity” and systemic flaws that deter immediate action or reaction by authorities.

He wrote on Twitter: “Mexico is bleeding as never before in history” and “the terror continues in spite of everything.”

Martí became an advocate for legal reforms after his son’s death and founded México SOS, a foundation dedicated to end the crisis of insecurity.

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

Fashion designer accused of plagiarizing indigenous designs

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Madison Koen

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June 12, 2019

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Design described as originating in Saltillo, Coahuila. carolina herrera

Another major international fashion designer is in hot water in Mexico over cultural appropriation, having been accused by the federal government of plagiarizing indigenous Mexican designs for its latest catalogue.

In a letter published in the Spanish newspaper El País, Culture Secretary Alejandra Frausto asserted that several articles of clothing featured in Carolina Herrera’s Resort 2020 collection copied liberally and without due recognition from designs used in indigenous textiles from several regions of Mexico.

“Some of the designs used in the collection form part of the world view of indigenous peoples of specific regions in Mexico.”

In her letter, Frausto pointed to specific examples, citing two dresses that use a design typical of the famous serapes and ponchos made and worn by indigenous people in Saltillo, Coahuila, a dress with a distinctive floral pattern employed by indigenous women in Oaxaca’s Isthmus of Tehuantepec and another dress with a pattern identical to embroidery work used by an indigenous community in Hidalgo.

“This pattern comes from the community of Tenango de Doria in Hidalgo. Contained in these patterns is the very history of the community, and each element has special personal, familial and communal significance.”

A brief introduction in the Carolina Herrera catalogue claims the collection was inspired in “a sunrise in Tulum, the light of Lima, a stroll through Mexico City . . . and the colors of Cartagena.” Vogue magazine called the new collection “young, fresh and true to the brand’s roots.”

But Frausto was not convinced and in her letter demanded a public explanation from Venezuelan-born Herrera and the design firm’s creative director, Wes Gordon.

She wants to know what led the collection to use patterns with clearly documented indigenous origins and indicate whether they intend to compensate the indigenous communities and original designers with funds generated from the collection’s sale.

“This is about an ethical principal . . .” Frausto wrote, requiring the attention of the United Nations panel for sustainable development.

This is not the first time that major designers and clothing lines have found themselves at the center of controversy for copying indigenous Mexican designs. Zara, Mango, Isabel Marant, Louis Vuitton, Michael Kors and Etoile have all been criticized in the past.

Oaxaca musician-turned senator Susana Harp told El País that the Mexican government is currently working onlegislation that would grant intellectual property protections to the cultural knowledge and identity of afro-Mexican and indigenous groups.

The senator, who heads up the Culture Commission in Congress, said the law would allow indigenous communities to prohibit fashion designers from using their designs.

“These communities are asking for respect, they’re not [necessarily] asking for money. They want designers to come to them and ask for their permission.”

Harp said that not all designers copy indigenous designs indiscriminately without asking permission, highlighting French luxury furniture designer Roche Bobois, which pays royalties to huichol communities for every piece of furniture sold that incorporates their distinctive indigenous designs, and Mexico City designer Carla Fernández, who clearly acknowledges the origin of each piece of her collection.

Source: El Economista (sp), Expansión (sp), El País (sp)

Sargassum analysis reveals high levels of arsenic, heavy metals

By

MND Staff

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June 12, 2019

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Better think twice before cooking up a pot of sargassum stew.

Scientists in Mexico and the United States have detected high levels of arsenic and heavy metals in sargassum that washed up on Quintana Roo beaches.

Rosa Elisa Rodríguez Martínez, a researcher at UNAM’s reef systems unit in Puerto Morelos, said the “serious levels” of arsenic and heavy metals such as cadmium represent a risk to both human and animal health.

She said that arsenic levels 60% higher than those permitted in human and animal food products were detected in the sargassum samples taken from beaches in Puerto Morelos and Playa del Carmen in the north of the state and Othón P. Blanco in the south.

Rodríguez said heavy metal levels as high as 120 parts per million were detected in some of the samples.

She explained that the scientists who carried out the tests sought the assistance of nutrition experts to determine whether the seaweed could still be used as fodder for livestock or compost.

Rodríguez added that more meticulous sargassum testing, including samples collected from beaches in other parts of the state, needs to be completed to establish just how toxic the seaweed is.

She recommended that anyone considering preparing meals with the macroalgae hold off until further test results are released.

The samples were analyzed at laboratories of the National Autonomous University (UNAM) and the Ecology Research Center in Miami, Florida.

Scientists have previously warned that sulfuric acid and arsenic from sargassum could seep into Quintana Roo’s freshwater sources and pose a risk to human health.

Massive quantities of sargassum have been predicted for Mexico’s Caribbean coastline this year, which could cause a significant decline in tourist numbers.

Most of the macroalgae collected from beaches is disposed of but entrepreneurs are increasingly using sargassum in a range of commercial products including food and beverages, paper, cosmetics, shoes and construction materials.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Who cares what’s inside other people’s pants or under their skirts?

By

Sarah DeVries

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June 12, 2019

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Male students in Mexico City don skirts in an annual demonstration against social prejudice. — Male students in Mexico City don skirts in an annual demonstration against social prejudice over clothing.

If you want to insult a woman, call her a whore. If you want to insult a man, call him a woman.

There’s been much talk (and abundant memes) about the school dress code in Mexico City that was recently revamped to allow for more variety in the school uniforms despite students’ genders.

Not only will girls be able to wear pants instead of skirts, but boys will officially be allowed to wear skirts if they choose.

To hear people talk, you’d think the president himself had decreed that no male may step out of his house without full makeup and heels.

The announcement seemed tailor-made to upset the growing religious right of Mexico, what with its talk of equality and sensitivity, and the buzzword (or is it a buzzphrase?) ideología de género (gender ideology) has been making the rounds on social media, presented as something as ridiculous as it is despicable.

Gender is the primary way that we classify people. Are you or a boy, or are you a girl? There’s probably no bigger determinant of how we behave toward someone (or how we expect them to behave) than that. When there are those who don’t convincingly perform the assigned gender of their biological sex — especially when men don’t conform — people seem to have a real problem with it.

The question of whether or not gender non-conformity is more a psychological or a sociological phenomenon is constantly being debated, with those with stricter views insisting that it’s a psychological disorder. To them, anyone who goes along with their delusion is stupid at best, and crazy themselves at worst.

To those so passionately concerned about what’s in other people’s pants, under their skirts or in their brains, I would say: “People, chill.”

Unless you are personally interested in a romantic relationship with that person, I hardly see why it should matter. By now it’s clear that one cannot be “turned gay” any more than someone can be forced to be straight (and believe me, plenty of people have tried), and I’m pretty sure the same applies to gender expression, or non-expression for that matter.

But the idea persists that children’s sexuality is malleable and that they are under constant threat of being convinced to not conform.

Let’s pretend that the “gender non-conformity warriors” (which is a phrase that I just made up) succeeded in their imagined quest to get all the children of the world to be 100% okay with expressing themselves as whatever gender, combination of genders or absence of gender they wished.

What calamity would await? None, that’s what. This is literally about the opposite of forcing people to be a certain way. If citizens, because of their religious beliefs, are not okay with it, that’s quite literally their problem, as no religion has the right to oblige society at large to follow their moral guidelines. The danger of letting people express themselves as they wish is simply null.

I’m a sociologist, but I feel behind the times when it comes to gender identity.

I won’t lie: I don’t feel I understand all the variants or how the desire for something different comes about completely, the same way I didn’t understand my best friend’s desperation to have a baby when I myself had had a very “Meh, I could take it or leave it” attitude toward motherhood before my own pregnancy.

But not understanding doesn’t mean that respect isn’t owed, as one’s gender identity on its own literally hurts no one; it certainly doesn’t hurt children (for the largest group of people who consistently abuse children sexually, both by percentage and sheer number, look no further than self-identified straight men; many can be found in positions of power in the church).

The fact that girls were only allowed to wear skirted uniforms well into the 21st century is, to me, the only real scandal here. As a child I sat in wonder hearing my mother’s stories about how she was not allowed to wear pants as a child, and in horror as she described the constant sexual abuse she suffered.

It’s not that I think wearing skirts causes sexual abuse — obviously sexual abusers cause sexual abuse — but I feel fairly certain that there is a correlation between rigidly policed gender norms and the kind of “boys will be boys” mentality that allows for real abuse to be dismissed as “just joking/playing/flirting,” etc.

If boys want to wear skirts, let them. After a few scary experiences with strange men and their very unwelcome hands reaching up my own skirt on the street, I’ll pass on them for myself, and am grateful that my child won’t be obliged to take that particular risk of abuse either, no matter what school she happens to go to.

Freedom to express ourselves in ways that make us feel fully actualized and fulfilled is a right. Just like people were able to get over their disgust at biracial marriage and women in the voting booth, they’ll get over this.

Sarah DeVries writes from her home in Xalapa, Veracruz.

Citizens take over Guerrero town, take officials hostage, loot police station

By

Simon Schatzberg

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June 12, 2019

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Armed with sticks, citizens attack municipal offices.

Twelve local police and municipal employees remain hostages of residents of a Guerrero town who went on the rampage Monday to demand the delivery of promised services.

Some 600 people from Pueblo Hidalgo occupied municipal offices in San Luis Acatlán, demanding the municipal government follow through with promises to spend 13 million pesos (US $677,000) on infrastructure and social services.

They arrived in San Luis Monday afternoon, armed with sticks and demanding a meeting with Mayor Agustín Ricardo Morales. When they were told the mayor was not present, the group attacked government buildings, took police officers and other government employees hostage and seriously injured one local official, who was rushed to a hospital in Acapulco.

The unhappy citizens went on to loot the police station, taking as many as 19 firearms and 135 rounds of ammunition, four police cars and other items. The hostages are being held in Pueblo Hidalgo.

Víctor Figueroa, one of the group’s leaders, told the digital news service Sin Embargo that Mayor Morales had broken a promise he had made in March to spend 10 million pesos on infrastructure improvements and to distribute 3 million pesos to town councils in the municipality.

Angry citizens make off with a police vehicle.

In an interview with the newspaper El Sur, Morales said he had been forced to sign the aforementioned agreement when the same group kidnapped him for two days in March.

The agreement, he said, “isn’t valid, because it was signed under pressure.”

“Of course, we’re going to ask that the law be applied,” he said. “Such barbarism can’t go unpunished, especially the attacks on workers and public servants.”

Morales also accused the protesters of being supporters of an opposition candidate who lost the 2018 mayoral election.

“They’re upset because their candidate, Adahir Hernández from the Citizens’ Movement, didn’t win, and they still haven’t gotten over it,” he said.

The mayor says that he has been open to dialogue with the protesters, but the law prevents him from meeting their demand to be given money in cash.

[wpgmza id=”209″]

In an interview with El Universal, protester Samuel Laureano Linares denied that they were demanding money in cash.

Rather, Linares said, the group is demanding to be allowed to participate in and supervise infrastructure projects. He added that for many years local officials have stolen parts of the municipal budget and built low-quality infrastructure.

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

6 dead, 21 injured after semi loses brakes in Morelos

By

Simon Schatzberg

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June 12, 2019

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The semi burns after this morning's accident in Morelos.

A semi-truck lost its brakes and collided with more than a dozen vehicles on the Mexico City-Cuautla highway on Wednesday morning, killing at least six people and injuring 21.

According to Federal Police, the truck lost its brakes around 8:30 this morning near Tetelcingo. When the driver realized that his brakes weren’t working, he attempted to alert other drivers by flashing his lights, but lost control of the truck and crashed into 15 other vehicles on the highway before hitting a building and coming to a halt.

Emergency services arrived at the scene from the municipalities of Ayala, Yecapixtla and Cuautla and transported 17 people to nearby hospitals. A pregnant woman in critical condition was flown by helicopter to the Cuernavaca General Hospital, while firefighters spent an hour putting out the fire in the runaway truck.

The driver of the semi, which was carrying a load of rebar, was able to escape his vehicle before it caught fire. He was placed under arrest at the scene.

Morelos Public Works Secretary Fidel Giménez Valdez told reporters that the government will expropriate a property near the highway to build a runaway truck ramp to prevent future accidents of this kind.

“The state government is going to expropriate the land to build the ramp,” he said. “The Communications and Transportation Secretariat will provide the resources and carry out the project.”

Giménez added that an emergency escape ramp has been needed in the area for the past 30 years, but the project has been delayed by a local landowner who is demanding 10 times the market price for a property with highway frontage.

Police reopened circulation on the Mexico City-Cuautla highway at 11:00am.

Source: El Financiero (sp), El Sol de México (sp) Criterio Hidalgo (sp)

Huge investment needed to stop Mexico City sinking: expert

By

Simon Schatzberg

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June 12, 2019

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Mexico City is sinking — The city is sinking, but not consistently.

The sinking of Mexico City has reached the point that the historic center is at a lower level than the deepest part of Lake Texcoco, according to a hydraulic engineer who participated in a seminar on Mexico City’s water supply.

“Lake Texcoco was the lowest point in the Valley of México, and now the zócalo is below the level of the lake,” said Fernando González Villarreal, a researcher at the Engineering Institute of the National Autonomous University.

González said the sinking, which has been a constant since the mid-19^th century, is caused by the exploitation of the aquifers under Mexico City. The aquifers are replenished with water at an average rate of 25 cubic meters per second, about half the rate at which water is extracted from them.

“The problem is that the sinking isn’t even, and in some places there are different levels of sinking,” he said. “That means broken pipes, buildings leaning to the side, and it makes repairs and maintenance very expensive.”

In some areas, the city is sinking as much as 40 centimeters a year — up to as much as 10 meters over the course of the last century.

González thinks that some kind of drastic action — likely costing as much as 20 billion pesos (US $1 billion) a year for the next 15 years — needs to be taken to address the issue. Such action could include finding alternative sources of water, artificially replenishing aquifers or rebuilding the city’s waterworks, parts of which are as much as 100 years old.

“It’s in very bad shape, and we need to do a lot of work to reduce all the leaks,“ he said. “We also need, in my opinion, to recharge the aquifers artificially.”

Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said her administration takes the water problem seriously, and that more resources are being directed towards improving hydraulic infrastructure.

“An issue as important as the issue of water, we shouldn’t see it as a conflict, but rather as an opportunity for collaboration,” she said. “And this is a message of collaboration: we may have differences on some issues, but here, we are in a community, working together to help Mexico City move forward.”

Source: El Universal (sp), 20 Minutos (sp), 24 Horas (sp), Infobae (sp)