Liverpool to sell dolls made by artisans in Querétaro

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August 10, 2018

Artisan dolls, available soon at Liverpool.

The Liverpool department store chain is going to sell artisanal rag dolls made by the indigenous people of Amealco, Querétaro.

The store has agreed to carry the products following months of negotiations that started in December, when customers complained that Liverpool stores were selling cheap knock-off dolls of Chinese manufacture.

Querétaro Sustainable Development Secretary Marco Prete Tercero announced that the sale of the dolls, known locally as pachas and throughout Mexico as Muñecas Marías, will start in September, without specifying the stores that will carry them.

Residents of Amealco have traditionally created their dolls by hand, spending anywhere from two to seven days to complete each one. They sell for up to 500 pesos (just over US $25).

The state has also decided to further protect the Amealco dolls by declaring them cultural intangible heritage, a declaration that will take place at a ceremony on August 15 in the Constitución Plaza of Amealco.

“It’s good that [government] agencies gave us their support, because we don’t want other states to come and pirate [the dolls] and steal from us,” said one of the artisans.

Secretary Prete added that the state is still negotiating the sale of the rag dolls on Amazon’s Mexico website, observing that the process is complex, because the online retailer’s system requires standardized product measurements and characteristics.

Source: Milenio (sp)

President agrees to López Obrador’s proposals for security secretariat, prosecutors

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MND Staff

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August 10, 2018

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López Obrador, left and Peña Nieto met for a second time yesterday.

President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador said yesterday that President Enrique Peña Nieto agreed to initiate his proposals to create a federal public security secretariat and to have an attorney general and anti-corruption and electoral prosecutors in place when he takes office on December 1.

Speaking to the media following a two-hour meeting with Peña Nieto at the National Palace, López Obrador said the president would send the initiatives to the new federal Congress, which will first sit on September 1.

“From the beginning of the government we want to have the Secretariat of Public Security and the federal Attorney General’s office with the two complementary prosecutors’ offices [in place] . . . We reached an agreement that we’re going to work together so that in these two cases we can have results soon, so that we don’t waste time,” he said.

López Obrador added that Peña Nieto hadn’t asked for anything in exchange, declaring “he is behaving very well and we acknowledge his goodwill.”

The political veteran also said he told Peña Nieto that he plans to incorporate the institution charged with protecting the president of Mexico — the Estado Mayor Presidencial — into the Secretariat of Defense.

That proposal will also be sent to Congress for consideration.

The president-elect reiterated that he will forgo secret service-style protection and instead have a security detail made up of 10 women and 10 men who will accompany him unarmed on a national tour scheduled to start on September 16.

“They are 20 professionals; lawyers, doctors, engineers, men and women. They are surely going to take a course, some training, but not for the handling of weapons but so that there is minimal protection . . . There is this concern [about my security] but the police, soldiers, marines and citizens are going to look after me,” he said.

Questioned about the release from house arrest of former teachers’ union boss Elba Esther Gordillo earlier this week, López Obrador rejected any suggestion that it was related to his official designation as president-elect.

“It was a decision of the judicial power . . . I no longer want to speak about those things,” he said.

The two leaders also agreed that members of the current cabinet would meet with the nominees for cabinet positions in the incoming government on August 20, while López Obrador put to bed speculation that his former presidential rival. José Antonio Meade. could be offered a position in his government.

“He [Meade] is not planning to work in the government, that is not his intention,” he said.

López Obrador, who won the July presidential 1 election in a landslide, also explained that his decentralization plan to move several federal secretariats from Mexico City to regional cities wouldn’t be carried out in the space of a year nor would it be enforced by decree.

For his part, Peña Nieto wrote on Twitter after the meeting that he had reiterated the federal government’s “willingness to support and collaborate [with López Obrador] for an efficient and effective transition for the benefit of Mexico.”

Source: El Universal (sp)

Winemakers gather for annual competition in Querétaro

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Tony Richards

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August 10, 2018

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Vinaltura is one of the Querétaro winemakers that the Concours Mondial will visit.

Mexican wine and tequila are being showcased this week in the city of Querétaro at the second annual Mexico Selection of the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles.

Thirty-five judges from Mexico and around the world will taste 500 entries from Mexican wine and tequila makers during the three-day event, which began August 9.

The event also features workshops on topics such as the history and characteristics of winemaking in Mexico and the difficulties facing wine producers in the state of Querétaro.

Vineyard and winery tours are also on the agenda, with visits planned to Paso de Serra, Vinícola Vinaltura and Finca Sala Vivé to sample wines and get to know the state’s winemaking projects.

The Concours Mondial de Bruxelles is an international wine competition held in a different country every year. This week’s event in Mexico is a regional one that his held annually in a different winemaking region.

According to the Concours Mondial, Querétaro’s wine industry is growing at the rate of 70 to 100 hectares of new vineyards a year, with an average of two to three new wineries opening in the same period.

Like many other winemaking regions of the world, the state’s winemakers are using tourism to promote their wines.

Mexico News Daily

Auditor accuses ex-governor Duarte of embezzling 6 billion pesos

By

MND Staff

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August 10, 2018

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The Interpol Red Notice for César Duarte.

The Chihuahua Auditor’s Office (ASE) has filed criminal complaints against former governor César Duarte and 42 officials who served during his administration for the embezzlement of 6 billion pesos (US $317 million).

The irregularities relate to the state’s public accounts for the 2016 fiscal year, and were first detected by the Chihuahua Congress and referred to the ASE for review.

The Auditor’s Office said the complaints, filed with the state Attorney General’s office, are the result of an exhaustive technical investigation which detected the possible crimes of diversion of resources, bribery and embezzlement, among others.

The auditor’s report said that various officials in Duarte’s government “failed to comply with the principles of legality, honesty, loyalty, impartiality and efficiency, which they should observe in carrying out their employment.”

Auditor Jesús Raymundo Mata said the 6 billion pesos disappeared between January and October 2016, when Duarte’s six-year term concluded.

The former Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) governor is a fugitive from justice and believed to be living in the United States.

Current Governor Javier Corral has accused the federal government of protecting his predecessor from corruption charges by dragging its feet on attempts to extradite him to Mexico.

Earlier this year, the Chihuahua government staged a protest march to Mexico City, whose aim, in part, was to pressure the federal government to expedite the process to bring Duarte home to face justice.

But not even an Interpol Red Notice, first issued a year and a half ago, has succeeded in securing his arrest.

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

Bug strikes UK tourists in Quintana Roo

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César Hernández

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August 10, 2018

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British tourists have been falling ill in Cancún and other destinations in Quintana Roo.

As if huge mounds of sargassum seaweed on Quintana Roo’s beaches were not enough, Moctezuma is taking his revenge on British tourists in Cancún and the Riviera Maya, where nearly 50 have fallen ill.

According to a report by the Daily Express newspaper, a number of British tourists have been struck by a crippling bug that has resulted in sickness and diarrhoea, prompting warnings from that country’s health authorities.

The newspaper said that as many as 48 tourists have been affected by the illness, caused by the cyclospora bug, which comes from food contaminated with human feces.

Lawyer Nick Harris, who represents victims of past and current outbreaks, said: “The current number of victims is just the tip of the iceberg and this is now obviously out of control again but should have been avoided.

“People should have been warned before traveling so that they could make an informed choice. This is beyond belief.”

He has urged travelers to ask for a cyclospora test, otherwise there is a risk that “someone will die before the problem is treated seriously.”

Richard Elson of Public Health England said, “We strongly urge people to maintain a high standard of food, water and personal hygiene when traveling to the Riviera Maya coast in Mexico and to be aware of the risk of infection from a food and water bug, cyclospora.”

Health records show 78 British travelers were affected by the bug last year, while 443 fell ill the year before.

Source: Daily Express (en)

38 bodies have been found in hidden graves in Guadalajara

By

MND Staff

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August 10, 2018

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Bodies are recovered from a hidden grave at an abandoned house in Guadalajara.

Authorities have found 38 bodies in six hidden graves in the metropolitan area of Guadalajara, Jalisco, since June 6, all of them in abandoned houses.

Officials from the Jalisco Institute of Forensic Science recovered the bodies of nine men and one woman this week from a property in the Villa Fontana Acua housing estate in Tlajomulco, a municipality located to the south of the state capital.

Ten bodies were also recovered last weekend from a clandestine grave in a house in the Santa Elena de la Cruz neighborhood, near Guadalajara’s historic center.

According to state Attorney General Raúl Sánchez Jiménez, the involvement of members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) has been confirmed in both cases and two people are currently under investigation.

With regard to the Tlajomulco case, Sánchez said that as in other cases in the municipality, criminals used an abandoned house to dispose of the bodies.

“[The houses] don’t have basic services, there is no water or electricity, the doors are falling down, the windows are covered with newspaper, cardboard or blankets . . . They’re properties that maybe the owners couldn’t pay for or they didn’t like the area anymore and they abandon them. These people [criminals] arrive and take possession of them,” he said.

The latest discovery follows the recovery of seven bodies last month that were buried in the backyards of four abandoned homes on the same street in the municipality’s Lomas del Mirador neighborhood.

More bodies were also found last month in two abandoned homes in the Chulavista housing estate in Tlajomulco, on a property in the municipality of El Salto and in a makeshift grave in the neighborhood of La Mezquitera in Tlaquepaque.

The Attorney General’s office and the Tlajomulco municipal government are now seeking to develop a strategy in conjunction with the National Workers’ Housing Fund (Infonavit) to combat the abandonment of homes and to avoid organized crime taking possession and using them to sell drugs, commit murders and dispose of bodies.

There are currently 15,000 abandoned houses in Tlajomulco, according to municipal data.

An increase in violent crime in Jalisco this year has included the kidnapping and murder of three film students in March, the disappearance of three Italian men in January and an attack on the former attorney general in May.

The Jalisco New Generation Cartel is suspected of being involved in all three cases.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Nearly two tonnes of powder believed to be cocaine seized in Guerrero

By

Tony Richards

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August 10, 2018

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Marines guard packages of white powder seized yesterday from a boat in Guerrero.

Federal forces arrested an Ecuadorian citizen and seized nearly two tonnes of what appeared to be cocaine in southern Guerrero yesterday.

An armed forces aircraft first spotted a small vessel with a suspicious cargo about 160 kilometers southeast of Acapulco.

The Eduardoño-made boat with two big outboard motors was forced to the shore by four navy vessels and three aircraft. At least nine people jumped off and fled when the boat hit the beach at Punta Maldonado in the municipality of Cuajinicuilapa but only one was arrested.

On board were 75 packages of white powder weighing 1,860 kilograms.

Authorities are searching for the other occupants of the vessel.

Source: Quadratín (sp)

Decomisa la Marina casi 2 toneladas de cocaína en costas de Guerrero

Watch this video on YouTube

Kidnap victim freed in Michoacán after 10-million-peso ransom demand

By

César Hernández

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August 10, 2018

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Yesterday's rescue of kidnap victim Joel Argueta.

A Michoacán businessman kidnapped on July 27 was rescued by a team of police and marines yesterday.

The kidnappers had demanded a ransom of 10 million pesos (US $530,000) for Contepec gas station owner Joel Argueta Pizaña, who is also municipal leader of the Morena party.

The state’s anti-kidnapping agency, Federal Police and marines followed the kidnappers’ trail after Argueta’s family made a first ransom payment of 280,000 pesos (almost $15,000) and filed a formal complaint.

Investigators discovered that Argueta was being held on a ranch in the eastern, mountainous region of the state near the México state border.

The kidnappers opened fire on authorities as they approached the ranch but the firefight was short. Two men were arrested and the kidnap victim freed and transferred to a hospital to be treated for malnutrition.

The two men who were holding Argueta are believed to be part of the gang, Los Viagra.

Argueta was the second kidnapping victim to be rescued this week. A seven-year-old girl who was abducted from Uruapan on July 30 was found safe Tuesday in Morelia.

Her captors demanded a ransom of 1.5 million pesos (about US $79,500) but they were tracked down by state officials who tapped five telephone lines to determine their location.

There have been 17 reported kidnappings so far this year in Michoacán. There were 26 cases last year and 25 the year before.

Source: El Universal (sp)

80 market stands destroyed or damaged in Querétaro fire

By

Tony Richards

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August 10, 2018

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Aerial view of the Querétaro market during this morning's fire.

Fire damaged at least 30% of the Tepetate market in the city of Querétaro this morning.

Civil Protection personnel, volunteer firefighters and soldiers of the Mexican army brought the fire under control, but not until it had destroyed more than 25 market stands and damaged at least 50 others.

According to some vendors, heavy rains caused a short circuit in the market’s electrical system, igniting a fire in the clothing area at about 4:30.

The fire was brought under control by about 7:30 and clean-up work has now begun. There were no casualties.

Located in the city’s historic center, the market is one of the oldest in Querétaro and houses about 270 vendors.

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

Entertainment, shopping center to open in Metepec in the fall

By

MND Staff

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August 9, 2018

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An illustration of Town Square Metepec, to open in November.

A 6-billion-peso (US $321-million), 90,000-square-meter shopping and lifestyle complex featuring a family entertainment center bearing the National Geographic insignia will open in November in Metepec, México state.

Developed by Thor Urbana, one of Mexico’s leading real estate investment and development companies, Town Square Metepec will feature a variety of stores, multiple restaurants and a range of entertainment options.

Thor partnered with the international family entertainment and media company iP2Entertainment to bring National Geographic Ultimate Explorer (NGUX) into the project.

“We’re very proud of being the first location of the new National Geographic Ultimate Explorer center in Mexico,” Thor Urbana co-CEO Jimmy Arakanji said in a statement.

Across floor space exceeding 2,000 square meters, the NGUX center will offer “amazing” experiences to visitors such as traveling into space or to the depths of the oceans, the company said, adding that it will inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers, astronauts, biologist and oceanographers.

“. . . We’re betting strongly on the local market and we know that Mexicans will continue to look for different recreational places to have unique experiences,” Arakanji said.

“Without a doubt, this will widen our entertainment offerings and it changes the way cities are planned and the way that we build real estate projects in our country.”

Construction of the center, around 10 kilometers southeast of the state capital Toluca, began 26 months ago and has generated 2,800 jobs.

Enrique Morán, Thor’s marketing and public relations director, said the company expects 1.5 million people to visit the new complex annually.

Town Square Metepec was designed by Boston-based architectural firm Elkus Manfredi, which has also designed a number of well-known shopping centers in the United States including Americana at Brand in Glendale, California, The Grove in Los Angeles and CityPlace in Palm Beach, Florida.

Source: El Sol de Toluca (sp)