Roma star Aparicio is ambassador of Oaxaca’s Guelaguetza this year

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May 20, 2019

Yalitza Aparicio invites the world to Oaxaca's Guelaguetza.

The government of Oaxaca has appointed Roma star Yalitza Aparicio as the festival’s ambassador to the world.

“We are very proud and thankful to Yalitza for accepting this invitation . . .” said Governor Alejandro Murat, “she loves Oaxaca immensely.”

Aparicio’s involvement in the festival was announced with a short clip in which she dons her traditional Mixtec huipil — a loose-fitting tunic — and invites the world to join her for the celebration.

As a traditional song plays in the background, the actress narrates the scenes: “My land, my people, vibrant with colors. Music, dance and tradition. A magical world full of joy.”

The Guelaguetza is a festival in which the indigenous peoples of Oaxaca come together and showcase their heritage and traditions in the form of intricate traditional garments, dances, music and food.

The word itself is of Zapotec origin, and has been interpreted to mean the “reciprocal exchanges of gifts and services.”

This exchange has broadened to include a large number of national and international tourists that are drawn to the capital of the state every year, all eager to witness what has been described as the largest ethnic festival in Latin America.

If the festival was to have a face, none other would be more appropriate than that of Aparicio, who went from being a schoolteacher in her hometown of Tlaxiaco to a representative not only of her Mixtec culture but of all indigenous women of Mexico after starring in the film Roma.

The governor also announced new tourist routes based on recent exposure that the state, its traditions and people have had on the silver screen. They will include one based on Pixar’s Coco and another focused on Aparicio and her home town.

Called The Yalitza Route, the tourism promotion campaign will also highlight prominent Tlaxiaco natives Lila Downs, singer and recording artist, and painter Rufino Tamayo.

The Guelaguetza, also called Lunes del Cerro (Mondays on the Hill), will take place this year on July 22 and 29, with countess cultural activities scheduled to take place during the intervening week in the city of Oaxaca and across the state.

Source: El Financiero (sp)

Union won’t allow ‘ideal’ teachers hired on merit to enter classrooms

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Simon Schatzberg

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May 20, 2019

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Chiapas teachers hired by the Public Education Secretariat (SEP) have been fighting for two years with the CNTE teachers’ union, which is preventing them from taking their posts.

The teachers completed the education and evaluation requirements to teach and were designated “ideal” by the SEP. But now they say that dissident teachers affiliated with the CNTE have prevented them from entering the schools, sometimes even physically removing them.

The CNTE is opposed to an education reform passed in 2013 that required teachers to be evaluated on hiring or during their tenure.

In 2017, a group of teachers and education advocacy group Mexicanos Primero requested injunctions against the CNTE and the government of Chiapas for having made illegal agreements since 2013.

One of the teachers, Mónica Pérez, was chosen by federal education authorities to become principal of a middle school in Pueblo Nuevo Solistahuacán over two years ago.

But for two years she hasn’t been able to start work because a member of the CNTE is in her position.

“We haven’t been able to take our positions because the CNTE here in Chiapas has been interfering with those of us who got our jobs the legal way,” she told Reforma. “We are being prevented from taking our jobs in every school in Chiapas.”

Another teacher, Vicente Asaad Vera, was promoted to be a coordinator of biology education in six public middle schools after 35 years as a teacher. But he says that for two years the CNTE has been preventing him from doing his job, which involves making sure the teachers in the six schools follow the biology curriculum.

“We took the tests, we were ideal candidates, we were at the top of the list, we got the jobs, but we’ve been waiting for the government to enforce the law,” he told Reforma. “While the CNTE was mobilizing, we were improving ourselves, but now we’re being pushed out, disparaged and ignored.”

The situation is not likely to change since a new education reform has replaced that of 2013. It discontinues the evaluation of teachers.

Source: Reforma (sp)

13 states are sources of fentanyl, which is shipped through Tijuana to US

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MND Staff

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May 20, 2019

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Police found fentanyl hidden inside jars of cream when they searched a courier service in Tijuana last fall.

Mexican cartels ship fentanyl-laced drugs to the United States from 13 states, according to the federal government.

In a confidential report seen by the newspaper El Universal, the Criminal Investigation Agency (AIC) said that drug trafficking organizations send heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine laced with the synthetic opioid to Tijuana from Mexico City, México state, Puebla, Michoacán, Jalisco, Querétaro, Morelos, Nayarit, Sinaloa, Durango, Baja California, Baja California Sur and Sonora.

Courier companies, private vehicles, buses, trucks and planes are used to get the illicit substances to the northern border city, from where they are smuggled across the border into California.

According to the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and the Sinaloa Cartel are the main criminal groups that ship fentanyl into the country.

“Mexican traffickers order fentanyl from China, adulterate it, and smuggle it into the United States themselves, meaning an unknown amount of seized Mexican parcels containing fentanyl are ultimately of Chinese origin,” the DEA said in a 2018 report.

The AIC said that fentanyl precursors arrive in Mexico at the ports of Manzanillo, Colima, and Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán, from China, Hong Kong and Singapore.

The drug is then produced at clandestine labs in different parts of the country.

Such labs have been detected and raided in Baja California, Sinaloa, Sonora and Mexico City in recent months.

Police found 20,000 fentanyl pills at a lab in Mexicali last September and arrested two suspects, including a Russian man, the Associated Press reported.

Security specialist Ricardo Márquez Blas warned that Mexico is on track to become the largest producer of fentanyl in the world, predicting that the shipment of precursors to the country will only rise.

As a result, cartels will not only export more fentanyl to the United States but also begin to sell the drug domestically, especially in northern states, he said.

“. . . The cartels are also going to offer it to consumers in the country, if they’re not already doing so,” Márquez said.

Between 2007 and 2018, Federal Police seized more than 123 tonnes of fentanyl but according to a recent report by InSight Crime, a foundation dedicated to the study of organized crime in Latin America, “Mexico’s government does not see fentanyl as an important issue yet and has not devoted significant resources toward finding the principal drivers of the trade inside its borders.”

Fentanyl is 50 times more powerful than heroin, meaning that it can be lethal to users even in very small doses. In 2016, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that the drug killed more than 20,000 Americans.

The rise in demand for the drug in the United States has been blamed for plummeting opium gum prices in Mexico.

After carrying out field work in the states of Guerrero and Nayarit, the Network of Researchers in International Affairs (Noria) said that prices paid to opium poppy farmers for the gum – the raw material for heroin – had fallen from 20,000 pesos (US $1,050) per kilo in 2017 to between 6,000 and 8,000 pesos (US $315-$420) last year.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Crime gangs watched over Reynosa with 62 hidden cameras

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Simon Schatzberg

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May 20, 2019

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Cameras installed by the bad guys are removed in Reynosa.

In Reynosa, Tamaulipas, the good guys watch the bad guys — and vice versa.

Tamaulipas State Police removed 62 hidden surveillance cameras from highways around the city of Reynosa over the weekend, and not for the first time.

The cameras, presumably placed by criminal groups, were disguised as payphones, electricity meters and streetlights. Some of them were located on access roads for international crossings to the United States and highways that connect Reynosa to Monterrey.

Unnamed sources told El Universal that investigations by the Tamaulipas state intelligence alerted authorities to the cameras. Anonymous tips to the C4 federal security control center also helped police find them.

Equipped to transmit images remotely, the cameras were used by criminal groups to monitor the authorities as they conducted raids, patrols and stakeouts around Reynosa.

State authorities are investigating who is responsible for placing the cameras, and looking for any they might have missed.

Criminal gangs in Reynosa are also known to destroy cameras placed by the authorities. In 2014, the Reynosa city government announced the installation of 472 surveillance cameras around the city. But a year later, the gangs had destroyed 100 of them, of which the government was only able to reinstall 40%.

On at least two occasions in 2015, authorities removed cameras installed by crime gangs.

Source: El Universal (sp), Milenio (sp), ABC Noticias (sp), Vox Populi Noticias (sp)

Confiscated crime gang assets will be given to Mexico’s poorest municipalities

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MND Staff

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May 20, 2019

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The president meets with residents of Balancán.

Money raised by selling off assets seized from organized crime will be given to Mexico’s poorest municipalities, President López Obrador said yesterday.

“We’re going to begin by giving [the money] we obtain from the sale of luxury cars to the poorest municipality in the country” the president said at an event in Balancán, Tabasco.

One such auction will be held next Sunday at the former presidential residence, Los Pinos, in Mexico City.

Prestige cars seized from criminal gangs as well as two SUVs given to the government by the King of Jordan will go under the hammer, López Obrador said. “All the cars will be sold,” he declared.

The auction is expected to generate around 30 million pesos (US $1.6 million) in revenue.

Santos Reyes Yucuñá, Mexico's poorest municipality. — Santos Reyes Yucuñá, Mexico’s poorest municipality.

López Obrador didn’t specify which municipality is the poorest in the country but according to social development agency Coneval, it is Santos Reyes Yucuná in Oaxaca.

However, Mayor Alberto Adelfo Martínez said he hasn’t received any notification from the federal government that the funds will be forthcoming.

“We’ve only been hearing about the issue in the news,” he said. “But I’m very happy that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is taking the municipality into account because we need the resources.”

Martínez said the money will be used to build dams and healthcare centers and pave roads.

López Obrador also pledged yesterday that proceeds from an auction of seized properties will go to the repair of the Arroyo el Triunfo road in Balancán, a municipality about 200 kilometers east of the state capital Villahermosa.

“. . . I’m not going to forget about . . . my land,” the Tabasco native declared.

Referring to the south and southeast of Mexico, López Obrador said that “despite there being a lot of natural resources, riches, land, water, forests, jungles, petroleum, gas [and] good and hard-working people . . . this is the most abandoned and poorest region of Mexico.”

The government has made infrastructure projects in the region – such as the Maya Train and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec trade corridor – priorities, arguing that they will act as triggers of social and economic development.

To manage the sale of seized assets and distribute the money raised to municipal governments, the president said he will create by decree a new federal agency to be known as the Institute for Returning to the People What Was Stolen.

“There have been confiscations of jewelry, ranches, homes, dollars, we don’t know where it’s all going to end. Now everything that’s confiscated, whether it’s from common criminals or white-collar ones . . . will be returned to the people,” López Obrador said.

The president quipped that the cartels and corrupt politicians from whom assets are seized will be recognized on plaques placed next to infrastructure projects that are funded with their ill-gotten gains.

“Little plaques will be put in place saying: ‘[money for] this [project] was obtained from such and such cartel [or] from . . . the corrupt politician so-and-so.’”

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

Cartel leaders captured in Guanajuato, Morelos

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César Hernández

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May 20, 2019

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Suspected cartel leader arrested in Celaya and the cash, jewelry and vehicles that were seized.

State and federal officials in Guanajuato and Morelos dealt a blow to two criminal organizations on the weekend with the arrest of two leaders.

The first took place yesterday in Celaya, where officials apprehended a man identified as José Francisco N., described only as a “leader of an important cartel in the country” but identified in one report as belonging to the Gulf Cartel.

A search of the home in which the suspect was caught yielded several luxury vehicles, 300,000 pesos (US $15,700) in cash, assault rifles, hand guns and jewelry.

In Morelos, meanwhile, agents from the federal Attorney General’s Office apprehended a man identified as Manuel N., believed to be a leader of the violent Los Rojos criminal organization.

He was arrested without the use of force in Zacatepec on charges of organized crime and kidnapping.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Four killed when train strikes car in Mexicali

By

Madison Koen

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May 20, 2019

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The car that was struck by a train in Mexicali. — The car that was struck at a level crossing on the weekend.

An accident involving a freight train and a car on Saturday night in Mexicali, Baja California, killed all four occupants of the vehicle — three adults and a 5-year-old child.

Witnesses said the driver of the vehicle, Kimberly Barajas Meza, crossed the railroad tracks into the path of the oncoming train. One report said the driver was trying to cross before the train arrived.

The vehicle burst into flames with the occupants trapped inside.

Firefighters arrived on the scene in time to extinguish the fire but too late to rescue anyone. Two of the victims, Barajas, 22, and María Marlene Rubio Molina, 25, were state police officers.

The other two were Paola Marcela Rodríguez Vázquez, 25, and her 5-year-old son.

The state Attorney General’s Office said preliminary inquiries point to carelessness on the part the driver.

Source: El Imparcial (sp)

Mexico City announces 20-million-peso fund to aid top athletes

By

Madison Koen

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May 20, 2019

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The new pool in Milpa Alta, Mexico City.

Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum has announced the creation of a trust to support high performing athletes and foster community sports.

Speaking at the inauguration of the second and final stage of a semi-Olympic swimming pool in Milpa Alta, Sheinbaum said the city government will contribute 10 million pesos, which will be matched by the private sector for a total of 20 million (US $1 million).

She said the fund will provide money for top athletes from Mexico City to travel all-expenses-paid to international sporting events and competitions.

The trust will also provide for Mexico City’s new Community Olympics, which are set to begin in June and take place over the course of four months, in which residents of all ages can participate in distinct sporting activities.

“The Olympic Committee finally gave us permission to use the name, and so 7-year-olds and up will be able to participate in all the different sports. Now we’re just finalizing the details so we can announce where the training will be held.”

The mayor said the funds will also support the “Ponte Pila” (Get Started) program, which will provide grants for 2,000 sports promoters around Mexico City to encourage activities.

Milpa Alta Mayor Octavio Rivero said the borough’s new sports facility in which the swimming pool is located has required an investment of 37.4 million pesos (US $1.96 million). The borough will provide an additional 1.2 million pesos for annual maintenance.

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

After Tabasco wins a break on electricity tariffs, other states want one too

By

MND Staff

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May 20, 2019

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The Chicoasén hydroelectric plant in Chiapas.

Now that the southern state of Tabasco has been given a break on electricity bills, others are lining up to demand equal treatment.

The governor of Tabasco announced last week that the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) had agreed to cancel 11 billion pesos in debt owed by more than half a million people, and that a preferential power rate would be introduced in the state on June 1.

Now, three other states – Guerrero, Chiapas and Veracruz – want lower power rates too.

Chilpancingo Mayor Antonio Gaspar Beltrán warned that Guerrero mayors could initiate protests against the federal government if it doesn’t listen to their concerns about high electricity prices and introduce cheaper rates. The mayors demand equal treatment, he said.

While it has forgiven debt in Tabasco, the CFE has cut off power to water systems in both Chilpancingo and Acapulco when they have failed to pay their bills. The CFE “has been very harsh with us,” Gaspar declared.

If lower electricity rates aren’t introduced in Guerrero, the mayor said, residents could join the civil resistance movement and refuse to pay their bills as occurred in Tabasco and some other states for more than two decades.

“[If in] Tabasco they had the astuteness to rebel [against the CFE] and to not allow electricity cuts. I believe that we can do it in Guerrero,” he said.

“On several occasions, I’ve said not to provoke us because the residents of Guerrero know how to defend ourselves,” Gaspar added.

In Veracruz, the private sector called on lawmakers to join forces in the fight to win lower tariffs.

Cheaper prices are necessary because the state’s hot weather increases demand for electricity, they argued.

José Antonio Mendoza García, president of the Veracruz branch of the National Chamber of Commerce (Canaco), said that both deputies and senators in the Gulf coast state need to take up the cause and put pressure on federal authorities.

Daniel Martín Lois, Veracruz president of the restaurant industry association Canirac, and Manuel Urreta Ortega, state president of the Business Coordinating Council (CCE), both argued that Veracruz deserves lower power rates because it is a significant energy producer.

Meanwhile, Chiapas Governor Rutilio Escandón Cadenas said that his administration is lobbying the federal government to have preferential power rates introduced in the state’s 34 poorest municipalities.

State legislators say there should be lower tariffs because Chiapas too is a major energy producer, generating 40% of Mexico’s electrical energy.

Tabasco Governor Adán Augusto López Hernández announced last Tuesday that his government reached an agreement with the CFE for a “clean slate” to apply from June 1.

From that date, electricity customers in the 17 municipalities of the Gulf coast state will be charged “the lowest rate in the national electrical system,” he said.

However, some Tabasco residents maintain that their resistance has not ended and say they will not pay future electricity bills.

In response, President López Obrador, a chief instigator of the civil resistance movement against the CFE in the mid-1990s, called on residents of Tabasco to be “good citizens” and pay their electricity bills.

The CFE is “a company of the people and it needs resources to continue providing service,” he said.

Source: El Sol de México (sp)

Job creation numbers lowest in six years; April was down 65%

By

Simon Schatzberg

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May 20, 2019

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Job creation numbers have been declining.

Job creation numbers in April — at 30,419 — were down a whopping 65% compared to last year, according to the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS).

The institute noted that figure was affected by Holy Week falling in April this year, meaning there were fewer work days during the month.

However, a general slowdown in job creation has been recorded during the first four months of the year. From January until April, 299,562 jobs were created, 34.2% fewer than in the same period last year. It is the lowest number since 2013.

According to José Luis de la Cruz, director of the Institute for Industrial Development and Economic Growth (IDICE), the job numbers reflect a wider economic deceleration. At least seven states, mostly in southern Mexico, showed job losses or growth of less than 1% in April.

The decline in job creation could also be influenced by the Youth Building the Future program, which gives apprenticeships to young people between the ages of 18 and 29. Around 550,000 beneficiaries are working under the program, of which about 20% are in Chiapas.

More than half of the apprentices in Youth Building the Future are enrolled in IMSS, but they do not receive social security and the apprenticeships are not counted as new jobs.

“It’s evident that the south of the country still faces economic problems and doesn’t have sufficient investment to create the jobs they need,” said Dr. María Fonseca, professor of business at the Monterrey Technological Institute. “In places like Mexico City, the low job creation is a reflection of cuts in the public sector.”

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