New 132-turbine Oaxaca wind farm is largest in Latin America

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May 29, 2019

After years of controversy, another wind farm in the isthmus.

After years of negotiations and $1.2 billion in investment, the Energía Eólica del Sur wind farm has opened in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca.

The new farm is the largest in Latin America, with 132 wind turbines and a total capacity of 396 megawatts. It covers 5,000 hectares in the municipalities of Juchitán and El Espinal.

Built by the Mitsubishi corporation, the wind farm could keep 567,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere every year, the equivalent of taking 300,000 cars out of circulation and planting 12 million trees.

It is the newest of 28 farms in the state, all of which are located in the windy Isthmus of Tehuantepec region, which generates 62% of Mexico’s wind energy.

In an inauguration ceremony, Oaxaca Governor Alejandro Murat said the project will help develop the state and make electricity cheaper.

“We’re sending a message that here in Oaxaca there are conditions to develop the state, conditions for companies like Mitsubishi to make investments,” he said.

The Institutional Revolutionary Party governor thanked President López Obrador for supporting the project and other development projects in Oaxaca, including a new gas pipeline and an improved rail line to connect the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean.

The Energía Eólica del Sur farm was approved in a consultation of nearby indigenous populations between 2014 and 2015, although national and international organizations criticized the consultation, saying it did not comply with international law on indigenous consultations.

One group of indigenous Zapotecs sued Energía Eólica del Sur, arguing that their right to prior consultation under international law had been violated because the consultation took place after construction had already started.

The Supreme Court initially ruled in favor of the Zapotec community, ordering construction to be temporarily suspended. However, the court later allowed the project to go ahead.

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

Women, children arm themselves against the narcos in Guerrero

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MND Staff

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May 29, 2019

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Children take up arms in the form of sticks in Guerrero mountain community.

In an indigenous mountain village in Guerrero, located in the middle of territory disputed by rival drug gangs, security is the responsibility of all – even the women and children have taken up arms.

The residents of Rincón de Chautla are determined to defend their town in the case of an attack by Los Ardillos or their rivals, Los Rojos.

“We’re organizing because we want to defend our town with sticks and stones . . . and guns,” Angélica, a girl aged about 12, told the newspaper Milenio.

Adán, an eight-year-old boy, explained that he was the “commander” of a group of children in training to join the community police force.

In a video published by Milenio, the boy barks orders at his junior comrades as they raise and lower large sticks. One boy wields a rifle although it is unclear whether it is real or fake.

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Despite calls from the state government and the Guerrero Human Rights Commission not to allow children to participate in practices that violate their rights, parents say that the military-style training will continue.

The Nahua village of just over 100 people, located 15 kilometers from Chilapa, has already experienced bloody violence firsthand.

On January 27, members of a self-defense group believed to be connected to the Ardillos crime gang arrived at the entrance of the town and began making threats against residents, according to David Sánchez Luna, a coordinator of the community police network known as CRAC-PF.

“That day there was only a group of 30 community police in the town. There were about 200 sicarios [hitmen] and their boss shouted that they were coming to massacre us. They tried to break the chain at the entrance [to the town] with gunfire but they couldn’t, and that failure allowed us to organize the defense,” he said.

A confrontation ensued during which hundreds of shots were fired but only one Rincón de Chautla community police member was wounded. Two aggressors from the group known as Communities for Peace and Justice (CPJ) were killed.

The same day, another clash in the municipality of Chilapa between Paraíso Tepila community police – who are also affiliated with CRAC-PF – and CPJ left 10 people dead.

“We’re all tired of the deaths caused by Los Rojos and Los Ardillos,” Sánchez Luna said.

“The CRAC-PF arose with the intention of making them see that we don’t want to be subjected to their interests, that we don’t want to be on either of their sides and that we only want them to let us work in the fields,” he added.

The women of Rincón de Chautla are adamant that they won’t be defenseless in the face of another attack.

“They say that they’re going to kill our husbands and come into our houses, where us [women] and our children are. That’s why we’ve decided that we’re going to defend ourselves,” one woman said.

Holding a rifle and with her infant daughter on her back, Adela Virgilio said that “a real mother does anything for her children, for her family.”

She added: “To this day, we haven’t received any support from the municipal, state or federal governments, they’ve abandoned us . . .”

Another gun-toting woman, Sara Flores, staunchly declared: “If we die, we’ll die standing, not on our knees.”

Source: Milenio (sp)

Search commission: 481 more missing in the last 100 days

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MND Staff

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May 29, 2019

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Search commissioner Quintana. — Search commission head Quintana.

The chief of the National Search Commission (CNB) has revealed that an additional 481 people have been reported missing since she took charge of the agency 100 days ago.

Karla Quintana Osuna said that 15 of those people were located alive and the bodies of four others were found in México state and Puebla.

Quintana said the “vast majority” of missing persons who were found alive in recent months are likely to have disappeared “voluntarily.”

She explained that “there are a lot of women and adolescents who leave home escaping from a situation of violence – in other words, they don’t want to be found by the people who are looking for them.”

The CNB chief acknowledged that 337 bodies have been discovered in 222 hidden graves at 81 locations since the new government took office in December.

“Mexico is a country of graves,” Quintana said. “We see it every day. There’s no day when we don’t get information about a new possible [clandestine] grave.”

The official took aim at the previous government’s management of the CNB, stating that there was only a “simulation” that it was operating effectively, and that the National Data Registry of Missing or Disappeared Persons (RNPED) was not updated in a timely manner.

There are more than 40,000 persons listed on the RNPED but humanitarian organizations such as Amnesty International have said in the past that official statistics probably underestimate the real number.

Quintana said that in the three months since she assumed responsibility for the CNB, efforts have been made to make the data registry more robust so that it can be of greater assistance in the search for missing persons.

Beyond listing their names, more specific and detailed information is needed in order to establish better lines of inquiry, she said, adding that the registry is now updated on a daily basis.

Quintana said search efforts have been undertaken in the states of Colima, Guerrero, Nayarit, Sonora, Sinaloa and Tamaulipas.

“We’ve also begun [developing] regional search plans and we’re going to start . . . in the northeast, in the states of Tamaulipas, Nuevo León, Coahuila and Durango,” she said.

The commission was established by the previous federal government in 2017.

However, human rights undersecretary Alejandro Encinas said in February that the agency only spent 6 million pesos last year even though it had a budget of almost 470 million pesos (US $24.5 million).

“That budget was only on paper,” he charged, adding that this year all of the 400 million pesos allocated to the CNB will be used.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Environment secretary blames ‘neoliberal parasites’ for global warming

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Simon Schatzberg

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May 29, 2019

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The new environment secretary: no more neoliberal environmental policies.

“Parasitic and predatory neoliberals” are responsible for global warming, the new environment secretary charged today.

In his first public statement since his appointment on Monday, Víctor Manuel Toledo Manzur promised an end to what he called the neoliberal environmental policies that have been pursued by previous administrations, blaming them for continuing environmental problems in Mexico.

“Human beings are not responsible for global warming, as a superficial environmentalism and uncritical science would like to tell us,” he said. “The responsible are a parasitic and predatory minority, and that minority has a name: neoliberalism.”

The new secretary promised to “take back” the Environment and Natural Resources Secretariat (Semarnat), which he said had been controlled by “merchants from the automotive sector,” and involve citizens in policy making.

One of Toledo’s predecessors, Juan José Guerra Abud, had previously been president of a trade association representing the interests of vehicle manufacturers.

In terms of environmental policy, Toledo presented a clear choice between policies that address ecological problems or ignore them.

“We can defend life, or we can continue destroying it in the name of the market, technology, progress, development, economic growth, etc.,” he said.

Toledo said finding new sources of energy is important because petroleum will start to run out by the year 2050, and global warming will start affecting food production.

He also highlighted the importance of legislation to ban shale fracking and genetically-modified corn and other crops.

Toledo replaced Josefa González-Blanco Ortiz-Mena, who resigned earlier this week after asking that a commercial airline flight be delayed so she could board.

Toledo holds a doctorate in biology from the National Autonomous University of México and is a researcher at UNAM’s Ecology Institute.

Source: Reforma (sp), Milenio (sp), SDP Noticias (sp)

Sabotage of Mazatlán’s water system investigated after lines burst

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Madison Koen

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May 29, 2019

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Municipal workers repair a water line in Mazatlán.

Authorities are investigating the possible sabotage of Mazatlán’s water system after several valves were tampered with, affecting distribution to various parts of the municipality.

The interruption in service was only the latest disruption in service. On the weekend, a rupture in water lines near the airport left the downtown area of Mazatlán without water.

The more recent rupture in the Flores Magón neighborhood shut off the water supply to many neighborhoods in the northern part of the city.

Mayor Luis Guillermo Benítez Torres blamed saboteurs, claiming that the incidents were likely the work of embittered municipal workers who tampered with the water pressure so that the lines would burst.

“These people are criminals. We are investigating [the ruptures] and we are on the verge of discovering who is behind these acts of sabotage. They are wrong in thinking that they are hurting the administration; it is not the mayor, but rather themselves — the people — that they are harming.”

The mayor denounced institutional corruption in the municipal government and warned that his administration was taking concrete steps to prevent resources from being stolen.

“I would rather die trying to denounce these scoundrels than give up.”

The mayor said that to solve the immediate water crisis in the north of the city his government will spend 30 million pesos (US $1.6 million) to build a new water tank with the help of the National Water Commission.

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

4,000 National Guard members will be sent to Michoacán

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César Hernández

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May 29, 2019

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Bound for Michoacán in July. — Bound for Michoacán.

A large contingent of the National Guard will be deployed to Michoacán in response to growing insecurity.

“Starting in July, 4,050 members will be gradually deployed to the different regions of Michoacán, supporting the governor’s initiative and guaranteeing reasonable standards of security and stability as soon as possible,” Security Secretary Alfonso Durazo said.

But he warned that the presence of the Guard will not be enough to reach that goal if state and municipal police are not properly trained and their numbers increased.

“Collaboration is fundamental,” continued Durazo, “and even if the political background of the municipal, state and federal governments is different, no [argument] can be made as an obstacle to respond to the people’s demand for security.”

On Twitter, Governor Silvano Aureoles Conejo thanked Durazo for the “response to the enormous challenge of security.”

“. . . no one should doubt that our state will be a land of peace and security in all of its regions. We are committed to that goal, whatever the cost . . . ”

Source: Milenio (sp)

Hawks on patrol in the Metro to keep the pigeons in check

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Madison Koen

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May 29, 2019

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A longstanding problem in Mexico City’s above-ground Metro stations is being addressed with birds of prey.

City transit authorities are using Harris’s hawks in “biological control measures” to chase away pigeons that have for years proliferated in the above-ground stations of the Metro system.

Authorities said the high acid content of the pigeons’ excrement frequently blocks drainage systems and can rapidly corrode train tracks.

Officials said the use of hawks began last month in some stations where the potential threat of service interruption due to large flocks of pigeons is greatest. The hawks will initially be used throughout regular service hours and into the night to prevent the pigeons from returning after hours.

Transit authorities said Mexico City is not the only major urban hub to implement the technique.

In a second phase of the measure, once the hawks have successfully cleared the stations of loitering pigeons, transit employees will hang a dummy hawk as a scarecrow to further deter any especially stubborn birds that remain.

“We carry out these actions Monday to Friday at different times of the day. It is environmentally friendly since it does not make use of gases or violent means of removing the pigeons. As such, it also avoids any possible risks to public health due to the accumulation of the pigeons’ excrement on the stations’ roofs,” the city said.

Source: Milenio (sp), Excelsior (sp)

Mexican growers predict US tomato shortage in 15 days

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Simon Schatzberg

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May 29, 2019

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Mexico is a big supplier of tomatoes to the US.

The United States will face a shortage of tomatoes starting in 15 days if it does not lift a 17.5% tariff on Mexican tomato imports, according to a growers’ association.

Alfredo Díaz, director of the Mexican Protected Horticulture Association, told Milenio yesterday that Mexican producers are struggling to absorb the cost of the tariffs. He said the tariff has forced some small producers to lower their export volumes, while for the moment most medium and large producers are still exporting at full volume.

“Pretty soon, there will be a shortage in the United States if this goes on,” he said. “In about 15 days, we’ll start to notice supply going down, and that will be reflected in higher prices.”

Two weeks ago, Mexican tomato producers sued the U.S. Department of Commerce in the U.S. Court of International Trade in New York. The lawsuit requests an injunction suspending the tariff and the investigation of Mexican producers for dumping, or selling products below their production costs.

Díaz said the two sides finished making their arguments last Friday and that a ruling could come at any time.

He added that whatever the court rules, Mexican tomato growers are ready to negotiate with U.S. trade officials and growers’ associations.

“We made another offer last week and we are waiting for them to look at it so we can negotiate,” he said. “What they told us is that the U.S. is negotiating with China about other issues right now, so we’re still waiting for them to call us.”

The Department of Commerce imposed tariffs on Mexican tomatoes on May 7 after allowing a six-year-old agreement that suspended anti-dumping investigations to expire. The U.S. withdrawal from the agreement was largely in response to complaints from Florida tomato growers, who say they struggle to compete with Mexican imports.

Mexico’s share of the U.S. tomato market grew from 32% in 1996 to 56% in 2017, while U.S. farmers produced 40% of tomatoes consumed in the country in 2017.

Source: Milenio (sp), The Produce News (en)

Mexico living through security emergency unseen since Revolution: Durazo

By

MND Staff

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May 29, 2019

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Unity is fundamental to combating violent crime, says Security Secretary Durazo.

Mexico is living through a security “emergency” unseen since the Mexican Revolution, the secretary of public security said yesterday.

Speaking at the launch of a regional security plan in Apatzingán, Michoacán, Alfonso Durazo said that a large part of the wave of insecurity plaguing Mexico is the result of the corruption of security forces.

“For many years, violence and crime have been supported by the deviance of officials, who shelter and protect criminal groups and their conduct, and the result has been the most serious crisis of violence that our country has experienced, perhaps since the Mexican Revolution,” he said.

Last year was the most violent year on record, with more than 33,000 homicides, and the murder rate in the first quarter of 2019 was up almost 10% compared to the same period of 2018.

“Insecurity isn’t an issue [that arose] today or yesterday, it’s the result of an accumulation of years that will take time to correct but we’re 100% determined to [find] the solution, without losing a minute,” Durazo said.

The secretary described the situation as an “emergency” and declared that “unity is fundamental” to combat the high levels of violent crime.

No political or ideological pretext can take precedence over the responsibility to guarantee public security and to put an end to impunity, Durazo added.

“The fight against crime is a matter of the state and as such it requires the . . . political will of all,” he said.

The official explained that a gradual deployment of 4,050 members of the National Guard to Michoacán will begin in July to complement the state security strategy and “guarantee as soon as possible reasonable standards of security and stability.”

There has been a spike in violence in the state in recent days including a clash between police and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) in Zamora on Sunday in which four officers were killed, and a confrontation between the CJNG and the Viagras gang in Uruapan last Wednesday that left 10 people dead.

The recent violence “reminds us that criminal groups don’t stop in their attempt to distort the security [situation] and commit criminal acts,” Durazo said.

“For those reasons, we must close ranks with complete determination to combat them, with intelligence and with a capacity for force.”

Source: El Financiero (sp)

Airbnb won’t disappear so its regulation is essential: hotel owners

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MND Staff

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May 28, 2019

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Hotelier Arsuaga wants to see regulations that foster fair competition.

Greater regulation of Airbnb and similar accommodation platforms is needed to ensure a level playing field in the tourism sector, according to the head of a national hotels association.

“We’re conscious that Airbnb is not going to disappear and we know that no country has found the perfect formula to regulate it but we believe that there is a lot to do, in terms of regulation,” said Braulio Arsuaga Losada, president of Hotels for Mexico, an association that represents 20 major hotel chains.

“For the moment, as hoteliers we want to be part of the roundtable discussion; we [the tourism sector] are one of the three largest industries in the country and we generate 9% of GDP,” he added.

Seven Mexican states including Guerrero and Mexico City charge Airbnb hosts booking taxes of 2% to 3% but federal Tourism Secretary Miguel Torruco has proposed the introduction of a nationwide regulatory framework for online hospitality services.

Speaking at a tourism industry event, Arsuaga said that a review of current regulations should extend to all companies that operate in the sector.

“It’s about there being game rules that stimulate investment, innovation and sustainable development. We want regulations that foster fair competition but which also make us competitive,” he said.

Arsuaga, who is also the CEO of the Presidente hotel group, contended that the Mexican tourism industry needs to reinvent itself to better compete in the global market.

“The great challenge for Mexico is to react with speed and intelligence to this revolution; that implies the intensive use of technology to get to know the needs of tourists and to attend to them better,” he said.

“By the same token, we must improve our tourism competitiveness. We’re in 22nd place, according to the World Economic Forum, but we can advance a lot more. That means taking meaningful steps on a lot of things: infrastructure, regulation, human capital and sustainability among other things.”

The industry representative also addressed the government’s decision to disband the Tourism Promotion Council (CPTM).

“We understand the decision of the government and we want to be proactive. There are three tasks that they did at the CPTM and we want to work, with maximum collaboration between the public and private sectors, so that they continue to be done: tourism promotion, public relations and crisis management,” Arsuaga said.

“At present, insecurity and sargassum need a highly-coordinated crisis management effort. It’s about being in constant communication with tourism operators abroad and sending a message to potential tourists; the Mexico brand requires a sustained effort over time.”

Source: El Economista (sp)