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Retired military personnel to be named administrators at customs offices

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MND Staff
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Ex-military personnel will help rid customs offices of corruption.
Ex-military will help clean up customs.

The Federal Tax Administration (SAT) has agreed to a proposal for retired military personnel to take up leadership positions at 22 of Mexico’s 44 customs offices in order to help reduce corruption.

The proposal was made by the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena), which said it would “guarantee a reduction in the levels of corruption” at the offices.

Obtained by the newspaper Milenio, the Sedena proposal states that “the corruption problem at customs offices fosters organized crime activities such as the smuggling of arms, drugs, chemical precursors, cash and goods in general.”

Customs officials have also allegedly committed other acts of corruption such as asking for bribes in order not to review luggage, providing informal receipts for tax payments and charging excessive fines for offenses such as not declaring merchandise.

As part of a crackdown on customs corruption, SAT dismissed the administrators of the Manzanillo, Colima, and Mexico City offices in May. A lot of the fentanyl that is shipped to Mexico from Asia enters the country in Manzanillo, according to the federal government.

Under the Sedena scheme, 66 former military chiefs and officials will be employed as customs administrators and the same number will take on deputy administrator roles.

The ex-army members will be deployed to customs offices in Mexicali, Tecate and Tijuana in Baja California; Ciudad Acuña and Piedras Negras in Coahuila; Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua city, Ojinaga and Puerto Palomas in Chihuahua; Nogales and San Luis Rio Colorado in Sonora; Altamira, Ciudad Camargo, Ciudad Miguel Alemán, Ciudad Reynosa, Matamoros and Nuevo Laredo in Tamaulipas; Manzanillo, Colima; Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán; Colombia, Nuevo León; and Veracruz, Veracruz.

Sedena said that former military personnel should be appointed to customs roles based on a range of factors including “adequate performance” in their military careers and the completion of studies in areas such as customs, international business, foreign trade, management, accounting, finance or law.

It’s not the first time that SAT has entered into a customs agreement with Sedena.

The two federal departments struck a deal last year for 1,139 members of the armed forces to provide security at all 44 customs offices.

Source: Milenio (sp) 

Restoration finished on church where Benito Juárez married in 1843

By
Madison Koen
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Templo San Felipe Neri in Oaxaca city
Templo San Felipe Neri in Oaxaca city has been restored after it was damaged in 2017.

The Oaxaca city church in which former president Benito Juárez was married in 1843 has been fully restored, the Secretariat of Culture has announced.

Restoration work at Templo San Felipe Neri was led by experts at the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) after it was damaged by earthquakes in September of 2017.

The San Felipe church is considered a jewel of baroque architecture for its characteristic ceilings and façade, its elaborately carved and gold-laminated altar and its use of green cantera — a volcanic stone unique to the region. It is also the church that bore witness to the marriage of Benito Juárez and then-Oaxaca city socialite Margarita Maza on July 31, 1843.

Restoration first focused on a crack in the wall behind the main altar, filling in the damaged area with liquid injections of lime.

Next, experts filled in cavities left on an elaborately painted section of a niche using a mixture of lime and sand in equal proportions to those used in the original construction, while carefully scraping away the remains of an earlier restoration effort.

The newly-restored church in Oaxaca's historic center.
The newly-restored church in Oaxaca’s historic center.

Finally, workers carefully restored the paint over damaged sections and cleaned dust from the church’s main altar to conclude the project.

Construction of the church began in 1733 and was completed in 1770.

Source: Milenio (sp), La Razón (sp)

Mexico deported 22,000 migrants in June, up 33% over May and a 13-year high

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MND Staff
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Immigration agents detain migrants in Acayucan, Veracruz.
Immigration agents detain migrants in Acayucan, Veracruz.

Deportations hit a 13-year high in June, according to preliminary government statistics showing that 33% more migrants were sent home last month compared to May.

Preliminary data from the National Immigration Institute shows that 21,912 migrants were deported last month compared to 16,507 the month before.

The figure is the highest since March 2006 when the government of Vicente Fox returned 23,529 people to their country of origin.

Arrests of migrants were also up last month to more than 29,000, a 23% increase on May numbers.

The increases came after United States President Donald Trump threatened in May to impose tariffs on all Mexican imports if the country didn’t do more to stop illegal immigration into the U.S.

As part of an agreement reached by the two countries on June 7 that ended the tariff threat, Mexico agreed to send 6,000 National Guard troops to the southern border, and subsequently sent almost 15,000 federal troops to the northern border.

Mexico’s progress in stemming migration will be evaluated 45 days after the deal was signed, and if the United States decides that the desired results are not being achieved, the government will “take all necessary steps” to implement a safe third country agreement, according to a supplementary agreement to the June 7 pact.

In December, the new government’s first month in office, just 6,373 foreigners were deported while in January more than 10,000 humanitarian visas were issued to migrants.

However, amid increasing pressure from the United States to stop the flow of migrants from Central America, the government started implementing stricter immigration policies that have hardened further in recent weeks.

All told, 82,132 people were deported in the first half of this year, 22,000 more than in the same period last year even though President López Obrador pledged to adopt a kinder approach in dealing with migrants.

Most of those deported are from the Northern Triangle Central American countries of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.

However, increasing numbers of migrants from Africa and Caribbean countries such as Cuba and Haiti have entered Mexico in recent months, and 81 Haitians were deported on Saturday.

Mexico’s stricter enforcement against undocumented migrants will force migrants to “take more risks to avoid authorities,” according to Claudia Masferrer, a migration expert at the College of Mexico.

Migrants could be tempted to use human traffickers or seek to take more dangerous, more remote routes to the border with the United States.

Despite the increase in the number of deportations and detentions last month, Masferrer said it is “difficult to know if the statistics are going to keep the United States happy.”

However, for the Mexican government, the signs are promising.

Trump said Monday that Mexico is doing a “great job” after which López Obrador remarked that he was glad that the U.S. president “recognizes that we’re making an effort to live up to our commitment to apply our laws and, without violating human rights, reduce the flow of migrants.”

Kevin McAleenan, acting head of the United States Department of Homeland Security, said Friday that the arrests of migrants at the southern U.S. border was expected to drop by 25% in June after more than 144,000 illegal border-crossers – a 13-year high – were detained in May.

Source: El País (sp) 

Flash flood kills eight tourists on excursion in Coahuila; 2 missing

By
Madison Koen
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The area where the flash flood occurred, killing eight.
The area where the flash flood occurred, killing eight.

Search and rescue teams have recovered the bodies of eight tourists who were killed by a flash flood as they explored the Lima canyon in Parras, Coahuila, on Tuesday.

State Civil Protection chief Francisco Martínez Ávalos said that strong rains Tuesday afternoon provoked a sudden flood in an area that seconds previously would have been dry. It swept away and drowned the tourists who were traveling in a van and an ATV.

The state Attorney General’s Office said searchers had recovered the bodies of a 65-year-old man, a woman and four young boys and girls aged 14 to 19 after they were discovered yesterday by a teenager riding his horse through the canyon and another man.

Later that evening, search and rescue crews discovered two more bodies, a 14-year-old girl and an 18-year-old boy.

The bodies of all of the victims are awaiting autopsies to determine the official cause of death. It is unknown what relationship might have existed between the victims, though information provided by local residents suggested that they might have been part of an excursion led by the older man.

The ATV that was being used by the visitors to the Lima canyon.
The ATV that was being used by the visitors to the Lima canyon.

Searchers continue to look for another potential victim, a 16-year-old girl, with the help of a helicopter provided by the state government.

Source: Reforma (sp), El Imparcial (sp), Vanguardia (sp)

Over 250 Mayan communities could be relocated around train stations

By
Simon Schatzberg
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Wildlife bridges will protect fauna on the Maya Train route.
Wildlife bridges will protect fauna on the Maya Train route.

Federal tourism officials are looking into relocating more than 250 Mayan communities that are located near the 15 stations on the Maya Train line, according to a document obtained by the newspaper Milenio.

The 28-page document outlines a plan by the National Tourism Promotion Fund (Fonatur) to move the communities into 15 “prefabricated villages” around the stations, which would be home to as many as 50,000 people each.

The project would include the construction of housing, businesses and parks for the new communities, which would generate income by providing services to visitors, who could number as many as three million per year.

The document includes a graphic of a prototype for a planned community around the Maya Train station in Palenque, Chiapas, which would be the first station to be built. The plan includes an inner ring centered around the train station and the municipal palace, which includes businesses and a bus terminal. Farther away are parks, houses, duplexes and apartments.

Fonatur director Rogelio Jiménez Pons had previously estimated that the Maya Train will trigger investment of 150 billion pesos (US $7.9 billion) in commercial and residential real estate investment around the 15 stations.

Those stations are located in the states of Quintana Roo, Yucatán, Campeche, Chiapas and Tabasco.

Other details revealed by Fonatur include the construction of wildlife bridges to protect fauna on the 1,400-kilometer route and that the train will travel at a maximum speed of 145 km/h when carrying passengers, and 125 km/h when carrying freight.

Jiménez said today that indigenous communities will be consulted about the train in three months’ time at the latest. He told a press conference that consultation will begin once basic engineering and environmental impact studies have been completed.

The total cost of the project, which will be split between government and private investment, could be as high as 150 billion pesos.

Source: Milenio (sp), Obras (sp)

AMLO claims ulterior motive behind Federal Police protest against National Guard

By
MND Staff
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Protesting police address reporters.
Protesting police address reporters.

President López Obrador claimed yesterday there was a “dark hand” behind the protests by Federal Police officers against their incorporation into the National Guard, insinuating that they are being orchestrated by opponents of the government with the sole purpose of damaging his administration.

In a video posted to social media, the president said “there is no reason” for the protests, adding “it’s not a just cause, no Federal Police officer is being dismissed.”

“. . . It’s important for everyone to know the information, especially all those who act in good faith: there is a dark hand in this issue,” López Obrador said.

However, the president pledged that his government won’t “repress” the protesting police, asserting “we’re not the same” as previous administrations and that “the matter will be resolved because no injustice is being committed.”

Hundreds of Federal Police officers protested yesterday against plans to absorb them into the newly formed National Guard, arguing that their salaries will be cut and they will lose benefits.

They also claimed that if they refuse to join the new force, they will lose their jobs. Police are continuing to protest in Mexico City today and have maintained road blockades that were set up in different parts of the capital yesterday.

Despite the officers’ claims, the president has stressed that the process of transferring from one security force to the other is “voluntary” and that those who join the National Guard will have “the same salaries” and “the same benefits.”

In his video message, López Obrador said that 10,000 Federal Police officers have passed an entrance test and are being incorporated into the Guard.

Other agents won’t join the new security force because they didn’t pass the test, they don’t want to be evaluated by military personnel, they’re not in good physical condition or they have poor behavior records, he said.

“But they’re going to continue working in the Federal Police,” López Obrador added. “No one will be dismissed, no one will be forced to go into another [security] force.”

At his morning press conference today, the president said that cases of corruption have been detected in the Federal Police and reiterated his claim that there is no reason for the officers’ protests.

López Obrador explained that he made his “dark hand” claim “because those who are leading the protests don’t work at the Federal Police – they belong to organizations of another kind.”

Later this morning, officers rejected the president’s corruption and “dark hand” claims, asserting that no one outside the security force is involved in their protests.

However, at an 11:00am press conference, Security Secretary Alfonso Durazo elaborated on López Obrador’s assertion, claiming that there are people “linked to interest groups” behind the protests.

He said that Ignacio Benavente Torres, president of a human rights group who spent time in prison for kidnapping, is one of the protest leaders, and that the police officers asked former president Felipe Calderón to represent them.

“It’s not a coincidence that one of the representatives of the Federal Police asked ex-president Felipe Calderón to be their union representative,” Durazo said, adding that “critics of the government” are taking advantage of the officers’ protests to try to damage the López Obrador administration.

“We can’t fall into the little game of those who are trying to provoke us and say that we are the ones who abandoned the Federal Police,” he said.

However, the security secretary also said the Federal Police will be disbanded within 18 months and that its officers will enter the National Guard or, if they prefer, a range of other organizations such as the National Immigration Institute, Civil Protection services, customs or the National Anti-Kidnapping Commission.

Source: El Universal (sp), Notimex (sp), El Financiero (sp), Milenio (sp), Radio Fórmula (sp), Publimetro (sp) 

UNESCO declares vaquita marina habitat World Heritage in danger

By
Simon Schatzberg
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0
The vaquita is a seriously endangered species.
The vaquita is a seriously endangered species.

A group of islands and islets and coastal areas in the Gulf of California recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site have been designated World Heritage in danger because of threats to the nearly extinct vaquita marina.

The UNESCO World Heritage Committee, at its annual meeting in Baku, Azerbaijan, asked Mexico to take action to prevent the extinction of the vaquita and stop the use of gillnets in its habitat. The committee also asked other countries to crack down on illegal trafficking of totoaba swim bladders.

Being included on the list of World Heritage sites in danger is regarded as an opportunity to call international attention to the issue and for a member state to work with UNESCO on a comprehensive conservation strategy, so that the site can eventually be removed from the list.

Mexico has already taken action to protect the vaquita, including the creation of a protected area for the remaining animals and promoting alternative fishing techniques to gillnets, in which the vaquita become bycatch. But critics charge that Mexico has not done enough to enforce a prohibition against fishing within the vaquita habitat.

The population has been declining rapidly, and today there are only an estimated 10 remaining, compared to almost 300 in 2005.

The decline in the vaquita population is mostly the result of illegal fishing of totoaba, a large fish that is also endemic to the Gulf of California. Totoaba are prized for their swim bladders, which are considered a delicacy in Asia.

The Islands and Protected Areas of the Gulf of California covers 244 islands, islets and coastal areas that have a high level of biodiversity, with 891 species of fish and 695 species of plants. The site is also home to 39% of all the marine mammal species in the world.

In March, the government announced new plans to protect the vaquita, which included promoting vaquita-safe fishing nets and marking vaquita habitats with buoys. But some environmentalists say the measures don’t go far enough, and what’s needed are floating barriers to keep fishing boats out of the vaquita habitat.

Mexico News Daily

Indigenous students win berth at Japan robotics competition

By
Simon Schatzberg
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The robotics students who will represent Mexico in Japan.
The robotics students who will represent Mexico in Japan.

A team of two indigenous Nahua students from Guerrero came in first place at a national robotics contest held in Quintana Roo, winning them a berth to represent Mexico in an international competition in Japan next year.

The contest was organized by Conalep, a system of public high schools that offer technical education.

Victor Manuel Bautista Nieves and Próspero Romero Gerardo, both 18-year-old students at the Conalep school in Chilapa, Guerrero, won the contest by designing a robot able to locate and extinguish three randomly-placed candles on a determined field within three minutes.

Professor Luis Ángel Alonso, who worked with the students on the project, told the newspaper Milenio that the team was given only 15 days to complete the project.

“We needed to create a robot that was able to avoid obstacles and put out fires, without leaving determined lines,” he said. “We needed to use line follower sensors, grayscale sensors and flame sensors, as well as motors that do the work of putting out the flames.”

The firefighting robot created by two Guerrero students.
The firefighting robot created by two Guerrero students.

Romero is from the community of Ixcatla, about an hour away from Chilapa. The youngest of eight siblings, he is the first to go to high school. During the week, he stays with his godmother in Chilapa to be closer to the school, where he is studying nursing. On the weekends he goes home to Ixcatla to help his parents with their work on the farm.

Bautista, who lives in Zitlala, is studying electromechanics.

He hopes to pursue a degree in mechatronic engineering, a discipline he says is “focused on automating machines to benefit people, using physics, mechanics, electronics and programming.”

Since he won the contest, Bautista says his commute has taken much longer because people stop him on the street to congratulate him.

“They stop me, they give me a handshake, or sometimes a hug, and they say they want to go to Japan too,” he said.

Source: Milenio (sp)

US drug agency investigates ex-Pemex chief for money laundering

By
MND Staff
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Peña Nieto, Lozoya and Videgaray.
Peña Nieto, Lozoya and Videgaray.

The United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is investigating former Pemex CEO Emilio Lozoya for money laundering, a federal court revealed yesterday.

An administrative court in Mexico City said the DEA sent an official letter to the Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) of the Secretariat of Finance on April 30 to advise that it had initiated a probe into the onetime head of the state oil company, who is currently a fugitive from justice.

Based on the United States’ investigation, the court revoked a provisional suspension order issued on June 20 that allowed Lozoya to access his bank accounts. They had been frozen in late May shortly after a warrant for his arrest was issued in connection with the 2014 sale of a fertilizer plant to Pemex at a highly-inflated price by steelmaker Altos Hornos de México.

The court said the decision to refreeze Lozoya’s accounts was intended to “prevent the commission and/or continuation of the crime of operations with resources of illicit origin.”

The June 20 decision to temporarily unfreeze the accounts was justified on the basis that the UIF had violated the law by blocking access to the accounts because it didn’t have an order from a foreign government or international organization to do so.

Judge Gabriel Regis will decide tomorrow whether a definitive suspension order is granted to allow Lozoya to access his accounts. However, the possibility of that occurring now appears unlikely given the existence of the DEA investigation.

Lozoya managed the state oil company during the presidency of Enrique Peña Nieto, with whom he reportedly maintained a close relationship.

Today, his lawyer said he has filed for a judicial order requiring that Peña Nieto and former finance secretary Luis Videgaray be required to give evidence in the case of the fertilizer plant. Also named in the request are former energy secretary Pedro Joaquín Coldwell, former electricity commission chief Enrique Ochoa Reza and two other officials, Javier Coello Trejo said.

Lozoya has also been accused of receiving US $10 million in bribes from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht in exchange for the awarding of Pemex contracts.

Some of the money was allegedly paid before Lozoya became Pemex CEO and was funneled into Peña Nieto’s 2012 election campaign.

The former official has consistently denied any wrongdoing and his lawyer insisted on June 17 that his client is innocent of all charges against him.

His lawyer said that Lozoya was in Mexico City but claimed that he wouldn’t be arrested because authorities won’t be able to find him.

President López Obrador last week urged the federal Attorney General’s Office to apply itself to the task of arresting the former Pemex boss, declaring “there mustn’t be impunity for anyone.”

Source: Reforma (sp) 

8 reefs discovered off coast of Veracruz

By
Madison Koen
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0
University of Veracruz researcher Ortiz.
University of Veracruz researcher Ortiz.

Researchers from the University of Veracruz and the Boca del Río Institute of Technology, supported by environmentalists and local fishermen, have discovered eight reefs with over 100 previously unknown reef structures off the coast of Veracruz.

University researcher Leonardo Ortiz Lozano said the reefs cover a surface area of 1,100 hectares from the municipality of Tamiahua to the Tecolutla river, and from the municipality of Alvarado to the mouth of the Papaloapan river.

He added that the biggest, dubbed Corazones Reef by its discoverers, is close to five kilometers long and 700 meters wide, making it the longest and northernmost reef in Mexico discovered to date.

The Los Gallos Reef and the Camaronera Reef also stand out for their ecosystems, which contain marine sponges, algae and some invertebrates. The scientist said that of the eight reefs, six are coral while two others are non-coral, which for the most part are not as diverse as other reefs.

“We are talking about reefs that are 18, 30 and 40 meters deep, which means that they are not as diverse as the reefs we are familiar with, such as the Sacrificios Reef and the Isla Verde Reef, all of those. But at the same time, they have a lot of sediment. They have a low diversity of coral and fishing prevents them from having a larger diversity of commercially important fish.”

The discovery of the reefs could also have major implications for the area’s commercial development. Ortiz Lozano explained that since the newly-discovered reefs have not yet been recognized by Mexican authorities, they are not protected and are at risk of being destroyed by oil and gas drilling and related activities in the Gulf of Mexico.

“The southern Texas-Tuxpan pipeline passes right over the most important reef we discovered, which is the Corazones Reef.”

Ximena Ramos Pedrueza, Gulf area director of the environmental organization Cemda, said the organization is pushing for the reefs to be recognized by the Commission for Natural Protected Areas (Conanp) by including them on maps of protected areas, which would grant the reefs some protection from major industry.

Source: Milenio (sp), Al Calor Político.com (sp), La Jornada (sp)

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