Mexico, Canada must work together to tame ‘beast’ in White House: Fox

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September 4, 2018

Vicente Fox holds a sign bearing a message for Trump regarding the border wall.

Former president Vicente Fox has urged Canada to join Mexico in the trade deal already reached with the United States so the two countries can work together to confront the “wild beast” in the White House.

In an interview on the Canadian radio show The Current punctuated by his trademark blunt language and provocative humor, Fox also described United States President Donald Trump as “the elephant in between” Mexico and Canada and said that Mexico City and Ottawa need to help each other when dealing with him.

“We must stick together, because the challenges are in the East, [they] are in other economies, and we have to remain strong, remain successful, remain competitive, remain productive,” he told host Anna Maria Tremonti.

“Now we know Trump much better than before and he’s not a good dealer,” added the former National Action Party (PAN) president, who held office from 2000 to 2006.

“It’s clear his game. He attacks first, he tries to reduce the capacities of the opponent, and then he takes all the marbles, and like a good kid, he runs away with the marbles.”

Trump announced last Monday that the United States and Mexican had reached a bilateral deal that could exclude Canada and after four days of negotiations failed to yield a trilateral pact, he reiterated that possibility via Twitter Saturday.

“There is no political necessity to keep Canada in the new NAFTA deal. If we don’t make a fair deal after decades of abuse, Canada will be out . . .” he wrote.

Like Trump, Fox also has a predilection for making provocative comments on social media, especially when aimed at the U.S. president.

“Mexico is not going to pay for that fucking wall” and “your mouth is the foulest shithole in the world” are among the goading Twitter posts he has directed at the 45th U.S. president.

But in his Canadian radio interview, Fox charged that “you cannot be provocative when you’re in the public arena, when you’re the president of a nation, when you represent 300 million Americans, when you have the power to destroy with atomic bombs or with an army.”

He added that the “presidency deserves a much better leader, a compassionate leader with a human attitude” and that he hoped that the Democratic Party would win control of the U.S. Congress in November midterm elections so that “this wild beast will be domesticated.”

Turning to the topic of drugs, Fox said that Mexico was caught in the middle in the illegal drug trade, sandwiched between drug producing countries such as Colombia and Bolivia to the south and large drug-consuming markets to the north.

The marijuana legalization advocate, who was in Toronto in his capacity as one of the newest members of the board of Canadian medical cannabis company Khiron Life Sciences Corp, said that Mexico itself is not a big drug-consuming nation.

“The big, the huge consumer markets of drugs are the United States, and secondarily Canada,” he said.

In a separate interview with Bloomberg last week, Fox said that marijuana trade should be included in an updated NAFTA deal.

“We can change criminals for businessmen, we can change underground, illegal non-taxpayers into an industry, a sector of the economy.”

Source: CBC (en)

Farm-to-table restaurants give an earthy feel to luxurious Los Cabos

By

Susannah Rigg

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September 4, 2018

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When many people think of Los Cabos in Baja California Sur what generally comes to mind is glitz, glamour and all-inclusive hotel options accompanied by luxury excursions.

However, away from the opulence of the tourist corridor is a farm-to-table movement that is focused on organic farming and living a little closer to nature.

The movement is based on four tenets: food security, the proximity of food sourced, self-reliance and sustainability. The three major players in the movement in Los Cabos are from Mexico, Canada and the United States, making a North American union of farms just four miles or so from the pretty town of San José del Cabo.

While it’s hard to fathom how this rocky desert landscape that boasts 300 days of sunshine a year and little rain can have well-functioning farmland, the mixture of mineral-rich soil and intelligent irrigation systems has allowed for lush farms to flourish with abundant crops.

The last 10 years have seen these farms grow, develop restaurants, spas, cooking classes and even offer accommodation options that range from luxurious country cottages to eco-treehouses, providing an entirely different Los Cabos experience.

And unlike many so-called farm-to-table restaurants that end up sourcing organic food from rather far away, these restaurants at the tip of the Baja California peninsula sit upon the very farms that produce their food.

Los Tamarindos

Agricultural engineer-cum-chef Enrique Silva moved to Los Cabos from Sonora to work in the tourist industry in the 1990s. Starting his own restaurant in San José del Cabo (the first organic restaurant in the area), he wanted to source good-quality organic ingredients locally.

However, when he couldn’t find the quality he was looking for he used his background in agricultural engineering to start a small farm. Set on 19 acres of land of an old sugar cane hacienda from the late 1800s is Los Tamarindos, a farm-to-table restaurant that has been open for seven years.

The restaurant, which has the rustic feel of a Tuscan countryside eatery, overlooks the lush farm that produces organic produce all year round. The menu is limited to 14 items that change according to the season and to the produce ready to harvest.

All the fruit and vegetables served at the restaurant are grown on the land, as well as the chicken, quail and duck, the eggs and even the honey. Everything else, like seafood, cheeses and red meats, when used, are locally sourced from other nearby farms or ranges. Among their abundant crops they cultivate 30 different types of tomatoes.

The restaurant offers Mexican and Mediterranean-style cooking classes al fresco. There is also a small outdoor bar, which overlooks the farmland and surrounding mountains and serves cocktails infused with organic, farm-grown herbs.

In keeping with the ideas of “clean living” that go hand in hand with the farm-to-table movement, Los Tamarindos is in the process of building a wellness center for retreats or detox vacations that is scheduled to open in late 2019.

• Visit the website

Acre

Acre (pronounced ack-ray) is a lush oasis in Baja California Sur. Set on 25 acres of land, Acre was created by two Canadians, Cameron Watt and Stuart McPherson, who bought the land because of the mango orchard that was there.

Hurricane Odile flattened the original orchard in 2014 but undeterred, the two men started to replant the area and four years later it is lush, green and blooming with native plants. The open-kitchen concept restaurant, now popular with tourists and locals, offers an innovative and constantly changing menu of fresh farm-to-table cuisine created by chef Kevin Luzande.

The imaginative cocktail menu, inspired by the herbs found on the farm, was created by mixologist Dani Tatarin.

Acre also offers lodgings in the form of private eco-treehouses set in the tropical greenery. There is a pool decorated with hand-painted tiles, a movie theater, a small three-hole golf course and a mile-long track to run on when weather permits.

In addition, they have an animal sanctuary complete with a friendly donkey called Burrito, and they work on adopting out puppies born to street dogs. They also have their own apothecary label using active plant and herb ingredients grown on the farm.

In keeping with the sustainability tenet of the farm-to-table movement, when there is an abundance of food that cannot all be used in the restaurant the staff and local residents are offered food boxes so that they can enjoy the freshly grown produce with their families.

Acre’s down-to-earth feel offers an alternative option for those looking to holiday in Los Cabos. Its location just 10 minutes from a swimmable beach means you can have earthy luxury in the mountains and still get to enjoy a dip in the ocean.

• Visit the website

Flora Farms

Flora Farms is probably the most well known of the Los Cabos farm-to-table options since Adam Levine of Maroon 5 got married there in 2014. Gloria Greene, who grew up on a farm in northern California, started Flora Farms with her husband Patrick in 1996 and it has since grown to include a 125-acre ranch in nearby Santa Anita, where they raise animals such pigs, goats, chickens and rabbits.

In 2010 they opened a restaurant on the farm and all the food served in Flora’s Field Kitchen, a picturesque open-air restaurant, is either grown or reared on the farmland rich with heirloom vegetables and organic herbs or on the nearby ranch.

There is also a wood-fire oven that is used to bake all the bread fresh each day. There are onsite cottages that can be rented for laid-back vacations on the organic farm, just a mile from the sea but far away from it all.

With a spa, art classes, cooking classes and farm tours as well as freshly prepared organic meals, it might also be enough to tempt vacationers away from their beachfront hotels for a day in the mountains.

• Visit the 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.

Dogs get their own park in León, Guanajuato

By

César Hernández

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September 4, 2018

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New park for dogs in León, Guanajuato. — New park created especially for dogs.

The country’s largest dog park was dedicated yesterday in León, Guanajuato, providing facilities such as a jogging track, wading pool, green space, an artificial lake, veterinary services and training areas.

Perro Parque is located on 2.5 hectares of land next to the León zoo and was created with a 2.5-million-peso investment (US $129,000) by the zoo and private contributions.

León Mayor Héctor López Santillana said the park is evidence of a society that “doesn’t discriminate.”

“An event like this leads us to recover respect and the integration of society, of our community . . . allowing us to develop in harmony,” said the mayor during the dedication ceremony.

The president of the León Zoological Park council, Francisco Muñoz López, said the goal of the dog park is to “promote contact with nature and respect for all living beings.”

Mexican-American dog behaviorist Cesar Millan was also in attendance, and said the new facility was an example of the way Mexicans open their hearts to animals.

He said he was moved to see the creation of such a park, as his experience growing up in Culiacán, Sinaloa, is one repeated throughout the country: dogs living on rooftops or wandering loose in the streets, “or with lemon necklaces to cure their distemper.”

The dog park will officially open its doors to the canine and human public tomorrow. Admittance is 10 pesos, and the only requirement is that dogs be fully vaccinated.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Number of vehicles in 12 CDMX municipalities has soared 600% since 2000

By

MND Staff

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September 4, 2018

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vehicle numbers mexico city — In green are figures from 2000 and in red those from 2017.

The number of vehicles in 12 densely populated México state municipalities that form part of the greater Mexico City metropolitan area has increased on average by 600% since the year 2000, statistics show.

The surge in numbers far outpaces population growth, according to census results, which show that the number of people living in the same 12 municipalities increased from 7.23 million in 2000 to 8.37 million in 2015, a much more modest increase of 15.5%.

The municipalities where the 600% increase occurred are, in order of population, Ecatepec, Nezahualcóyotl, Naucalpan, Chimalhuacán, Tlalnepantla, Tultitlán, Cuatitlán Izcalli, Atizapán de Zaragoza, Ixtapaluca, Chalco, Coacalco and Huixquilucan.

Data from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi) showed that in 2017 there were 4.6 million cars in those 12 Valley of Mexico municipalities, the most populous in the Mexico City/México state conurbation, compared to just 663,000 in the year 2000.

Added to those in the 16 boroughs of Mexico City proper — where the number of vehicles has increased by a more moderate 100% from 2.5 million in 2000 to 5 million in 2017 — there are at least 9.6 million cars in the immense sprawl of the megalopolis, whose total population is estimated at around 21 million.

It’s no wonder that the TomTom Traffic Index ranks the Mexican capital as the world’s most traffic congested city, one in which motorists can expect to spend an additional 227 hours a year — nine and a half full days — in traffic on top of their regular travel time.

In terms of sheer numbers, the municipality that recorded the biggest increase in vehicles was Ecatepec, where the number went from 147,000 in 2000 to just over one million in 2017, or 600% more.

However, in Chimalhuacán — voted the worst city in Mexico in which to live in a recent survey — the number of cars multiplied by a factor of 17, while in Nezahualcóyotl, located to the immediate east of Mexico City, the number climbed 11-fold from 70,000 at the start of the century to 776,000 in the most recent count.

Ixtapaluca and Huixquilucan also recorded increases of above 1,000%.

There are now more cars in the 12 crowded México state municipalities than in all of the state’s 113 other municipalities combined, Inegi data shows.

Bernardo Baranda, Latin America director at the global nonprofit The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), says the exponential increase in the number of vehicles in greater Mexico City is the result of federal and state government policies that have favored road building over investment in public transit infrastructure.

Another factor has been the construction of large-scale residential developments in outlying metropolitan areas.

“This motorization is the result of a development model from the last century. The use of cars has to be discouraged by promoting public transit and improving [infrastructure] for journeys on foot or by bicycle . . . Traffic congestion brings about high economic and health costs,” he said.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Police arrest two suspected instigators of Puebla lynching

By

César Hernández

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September 4, 2018

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Two men have been arrested on suspicion of being the main instigators of the August 29 lynching of two innocent men in San Vicente Boquerón, Acatlán de Osorio.

One of the two, identified as Manuel N., died a few hours after being detained. An official explained that the man succumbed to cirrhosis of the liver.

The other, Petronilo Raymundo N., was charged yesterday with homicide, property damage and injuring public officials and is being held in preventative custody.

Wednesday’s lynching was recorded on video and posted online by several witnesses, giving authorities the opportunity to identify the two men as the instigators of the lynch mob.

The victims, a 56-year-old man and his 21-year-old nephew, were accused of being child kidnappers. The two were detained by local police but local citizens took them by force , tied them up, doused them with gasoline and set them on fire in front of the police station.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Mayor-elect assassinated in Puebla; criminal links suspected

By

Tony Richards

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September 4, 2018

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Victim's car was covered in a tarp to prevent photos.

The assassination late yesterday of a mayor-elect in the state of Puebla could have been to settle scores, said the state’s Public Security Secretariat.

Félix Aguilar Caballero, who won the July 1 election for mayor of Nopalucan, was traveling on the Nopalucan-Soltepec highway when he was intercepted by two vehicles, whose occupants shot and killed him in the community of Santa María Ixtiyucan.

A state security official said there were suspicions that the Green Party mayor-elect was involved in petroleum theft and train robberies.

After the shooting, paramedics confirmed Aguilar’s death but about 100 people gathered at the scene and initially refused to allow either state or municipal police to approach Aguilar’s vehicle, which they covered with a tarp to prevent photographs being taken of the victim.

The newspaper Página Negra reported last month that six Puebla mayors have been assassinated in the last five years. Although arrests have been made in two of the cases, none of the six has been solved.

Aguilar, 60, was scheduled to take office October 15.

Source: e-consulta (sp)

Luxury vehicle sales up 13% in first seven months

By

César Hernández

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September 4, 2018

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The upward trend in luxury vehicle sales.

Luxury vehicle sales hit a record 48,241 units in the first seven months of the year, up 13.4% over the same period last year.

The Mexican Automotive Dealers Association (AMDA) said buyers of luxury vehicles have high purchasing power and are therefore less vulnerable to macroeconomic shifts and economic uncertainty.

“These clients . . . are less sensitive to changing credit situations and prices,” AMDA official Guillermo Rosales told the newspaper El Financiero.

BMV and Mercedes Benz, whose sales between January and July grew by 20.1% and 10.2%, respectively, when compared to the same period of 2017.

Raúl Peñafiel, managing director of Jaguar/Land Rover Mexico, told a press conference in July that Mexico continues to be one of the most attractive markets for his company.

The upward trend in luxury vehicle sales contrasted with an 8% drop in automotive sales in general in July. Suzuki Mexico marketing director David Hernández Sánchez said poor sales of vehicular fleets had a negative impact.

Source: El Financiero (sp)

‘Builders’ took the money from Oaxaca earthquake victims and ran

By

MND Staff

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September 4, 2018

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Two hundred residents of Juchitán, Oaxaca, who lost their homes in the first of two major September 2017 earthquakes have reported being defrauded of financial aid money by unscrupulous construction companies, local officials say.

In the aftermath of the September 7 and September 19 quakes that devastated parts of central and southern Mexico, the federal government granted 120,000 pesos (US $6,200 at today’s exchange rate) to people whose homes sustained total damage.

Victims received stored-value bank cards loaded with 90,000 pesos to pay for labor and 30,000 pesos in cash to buy construction materials.

In Juchitán, the commercial hub of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec region where houses fell like dominoes in the powerful 8.2-magnitude quake, 200 people who received the government aid handed their cards and money over to construction companies who committed to build them new homes but failed to deliver on their promises.

In other words, the “builders” took the money and ran, without completing any or all of the work they promised.

Meanwhile, their victims are still without adequate housing just shy of the first anniversary of the tragic disaster.

Juchitán Mayor Gloria Sánchez told the newspaper Milenio that municipal authorities have received 200 complaints from duped residents.

“What happened is that a lot of people who were sleeping in the street were driven to despair and in these companies they saw a chance to have a home quickly. They never imagined that these men would disappear with their money. What’s certain is that it’s a very serious problem because if the 200 complaints are confirmed, we’re talking about fraud of around 24 million pesos [US $1.2 million],” she said.

One of the earthquake — and fraud — victims is Juan Castillo, an 85-year-old man whose home collapsed when the quake struck just before midnight on September 7.

Rendered homeless and desperate, Castillo gave all the aid money he received to Federico Irán Cabrera, director of the construction company Hiram Habif, who committed to building him a single-story, two-room home with a bathroom and all finishings included. But all he got was a shoddily-built, half-finished home with a leaky roof.

“He offered us everything, a decent house and that’s why I gave him my card with the 90,000 pesos and 30,000 more in cash but this bad person only took the card and the money and left, he disappeared. I’ve gone to look for him and I call the telephone number he gave us but nothing. It seems that the earth swallowed him up,” Castillo said.

“I worked in construction for a long time, I was a builder but an injury left me all twisted out of shape, that’s why I left that job. Before this tragedy, I said: ‘what am I pushing myself for if I already have a home?’ I never imagined that at the age of 85 I would have to start from zero, or even worse, that I would be chasing after an opportunist,” he added.

Castillo said that he fears that the half-completed home could also collapse in another strong earthquake and is living instead in a small, makeshift wooden home his neighbor helped him build.

“. . . While there’s no solution and they don’t catch up with that man, I’ll stay here,” he said.

According to data from the Secretariat of Agrarian Development and Urban Planning (Sedatu) — the federal department that deposited the aid funds —at least 30 complaints have been filed against Hiram Habif and Grupo Delta, another construction company, but despite being ordered by state authorities to complete the work they committed to, they have failed to do so.

A municipal government official in charge of fraud complaints told Milenio that many residents have also tried to file complaints with a municipal judge but they haven’t been accepted based on the argument that what they are victims of cannot be classified as a criminal offense.

“So where can people go to complain? Who can protect them? Nobody, the authorities themselves say that it’s not a serious crime. So what can we do?” Manuel Vázquez asked.

Complicating the situation, he explained, is that the contracts many quake victims signed with construction companies were not certified by a notary public, meaning they can’t legally prove that they handed over their aid money.

Vázquez said it was reprehensible that companies had defrauded people who lost everything in the earthquake, adding that they should be firmly punished for their actions.

“The people who do this are perverse, taking advantage of the tragedy of these poor people and making a mockery of their needs. It’s astonishing that in the middle of a tragedy, there are people who want to do more harm.”

Source: Milenio (sp)

Tourists struck and killed by train while taking selfie

By

César Hernández

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September 4, 2018

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A locomotive at the Real de Catorce station.

Two women taking a selfie on railway tracks died when they were struck by a train on Sunday in San Luis Potosí.

The two victims, aged 12 and 27, were visiting Real de Catorce from Santa Catarina, Nuevo León, with other members of their family.

While touring the old train station, known as Estación Catorce, they heard the train approaching and decided to step on the tracks to take a self-portrait with their cell phones.

But they under-estimated the train’s speed and despite repeated whistles from the locomotive were struck and killed instantly.

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

6 police gunned down in Guadalajara in one day

By

Tony Richards

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September 4, 2018

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Investigators at the scene of yesterday's shooting in which four police officers died.

Six police officers have been shot and killed in the space of less than 24 hours in the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area.

The first incident took place yesterday morning in the Loma Dorada neighborhood of Tonalá when armed civilians attacked a senior police officer and his three bodyguards. The senior officer, who was third in command of the Guadalajara police, had just left his home when the attack took place.

The police returned the fire and wounded some of the attackers, but all four officers died at the scene and the aggressors escaped.

The mayor-elect of Guadalajara said the attack was in response to “the good job” that Eduardo Plazola had been doing to combat crime.

“He was a commander who was at the head of all the operations in which there had been arrests; he had produced results . . .” said Ismael del Toro.

The police force said the same in a statement. The attack was a result of “important arrests of members of organized crime groups” in recent weeks.

Two more officers were killed late last night in Zapopan while investigating the theft of a vehicle. After a chase, they caught up with the suspects in El Mante. But the latter opened fire, killing one officer at the scene. The second died later in hospital.

Source: Informador (sp), Milenio (sp)