The building where yesterday's explosion occurred.
Seven people were killed early yesterday morning when a fireworks workshop exploded in Tultepec, México state.
Three people died at the scene of the blast at about 1:00am in the La Piedad neighborhood and four more died later of their injuries, said local authorities.
Eight more people, including four minors aged seven, nine, 15 and 16, were being treated in hospitals in neighboring towns of Cuautitlan, Zumpango and Coacalco.
The blast destroyed 12 vehicles and and 23 nearby homes, five of them severely.
Explosions in Tultepec, known for its fireworks industry, are not uncommon but this was the worst since December 2016 when 42 people were killed after an explosion in the local fireworks market.
Mexico City's new airport: corruption discouraged.
The federal government is aiming to safeguard the new Mexico City airport project against corruption by encouraging workers to denounce it.
The Secretariat of Public Administration (SFP) and the Mexico City Airport Group (GACM) — the majority-owned state company developing the project — are fine-tuning a protection guide for whistleblowers that will allow employees to report acts of corruption with the certainty that they will remain anonymous.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is also collaborating on the guide, whose aim is to generate a culture where everyone from senior management down feels empowered to speak up.
The idea for the guide stems from a workshop the OECD gave to SFP and GACM officials last month about whistleblower protection and its content is informed by the same organization’s 2015 report “Effective Delivery of Large Infrastructure Projects: The Case of the New International Airport of Mexico City.”
The OECD report says that internal reports against corruption can act as a deterrent to the practice and could therefore help the project to avoid significant monetary losses.
It also says that experience has demonstrated that those who denounce illegal activity within an organization are often subject to reprisals from management and colleagues, which can include dismissal, demotion and professional marginalization.
With that in mind, the central corruption-fighting recommendation of the OECD report is that all employees should be afforded protection so that they can speak out against the crime free of the fear that they will face retaliation for their actions.
The guide contains regulations, procedures and mechanisms aimed at protecting whistleblowers.
It has already been tested in a pilot project and is now being refined in preparation for implementation.
The US $13-billion airport project has come under fire from leading presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who has charged that it is corrupt, too expensive and not needed. He has pledged to scrap it if he becomes president.
Gerardo Esquivel, a top economic adviser for the third-time candidate, recently told the news agency Bloomberg that if López Obrador wins on July 1, he will insist on a temporary halt to the project in order to review the contracts and decide whether to keep it.
High temperatures will continue in Mexico until August or September due to the weather phenomenon known as La Niña, according to the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN) meteorologist.
Antonio Vázquez Cárdenas explained that continuing hot weather is being caused by a greater than normal impact of La Niña, an ocean-atmosphere phenomenon that cools sea temperatures but can also cause drier and hotter conditions in some regions of the world, including Mexico.
Vázquez said in a statement that the most affected states would be in central and northeastern areas of the country and that temperatures of up to 45 C could be expected in Sonora, Chihuahua, Durango and Zacatecas.
The meteorologist also forecast lower rainfall in the coming months compared to last year. Less rain will mean lower water levels in the nation’s reservoirs until August, Vázquez said.
To combat the forecast heat, the meteorologist said, it was important to stay hydrated because high temperatures can cause the human body to lose 30% more water than usual. He also recommended avoiding direct exposure to the sun between 11:00am and 5:00pm and using sunscreen.
The heat wave triggered emergency declarations in 22 states, caused at least three deaths and even caused traffic lights to melt in two northern states.
Business leader González, left, and leftist politician AMLO: hugs and baseball.
An organization of most of Mexico’s leading business magnates has promised that it will respect and work with whoever wins the July 1 presidential election.
The president of the Mexican Business Council (CMN) made the announcement following separate talks behind closed doors yesterday with the four candidates.
Alejandro Ramírez Magaña, who is also head of the cinema chain Cinépolis, said in a statement that the CMN presented a long-term economic plan to the candidates entitled “Vision 2030.”
The plan encompasses six elements in order to achieve a peaceful and economically successful Mexico: security, lawfulness and justice, prosperity and innovation, equal opportunity, efficient and transparent governments and sustainability that preserves natural resources.
The business leader said CMN members called on the candidates to work with businesses and citizens to unleash Mexico’s potential and create conditions of economic confidence and legal certainty.
“We need a government that facilitates productive activities and guarantees minimum conditions of lawfulness, justice, peace and opportunities to improve Mexicans’ quality of life,” the statement said.
In an interview later with Milenio Television, the president of the Business Coordinating Council (CCE) said CMN members had a firm message in their meeting with Andrés Manuel López Obrador, whose political views are not often shared by business leaders.
Juan Pablo Castañón said they respectfully but firmly expressed their disapproval of discourse that divides Mexicans.
But Castañón also reiterated the private sector’s commitment to collaborate with the winning candidate whoever it is, although he conceded that the leftist’s rhetoric — including pledges to scrap the new Mexico City airport project and review oil contracts — had raised the ire of some businesspeople.
At a press conference in April, Mexico’s richest man and CMN member Carlos Slim told López Obrador he had no reason to interfere in the airport project.
A war of words also erupted between López Obrador and the CMN last month over an alleged plot to prevent the Morena party leader from winning on July 1.
The candidate claimed that five CMN members asked second-place candidate Ricardo Anaya to withdraw a threat to imprison President Enrique Peña Nieto and in exchange they would convince the president to throw the support of the Institutional Revolutionary Party behind the “For Mexico in Front” coalition, whose candidate is Anaya.
The candidate now finds himself with the shoe on the other foot, accused by Anaya’s campaign manager of making a “pact of impunity” with the president himself.
The CMN categorically rejected López Obrador’s claim and was critical of the fact that a presidential candidate “has resorted to personal attacks and unfounded accusations.”
López Obrador later described CMN members as a “greedy minority” that has hijacked the government and charged that “they don’t want to stop stealing.”
Castañón, who attended yesterday’s meetings as a guest, said the differences between the two parties were put on the table but there was no ongoing tension. In fact, there were even hugs.
López Obrador and Claudio X. González, a former CMN president and chairman of Kimberly Clark de México, shared a hug, the latter confirmed, and discussed baseball.
The undertaking to work with the winning candidate, which polls show is very likely to be AMLO, contrasts with the decision of several large businesses to warn their employees against voting for the frontrunner and is perhaps indicative of a realization that he will become president.
The CEO of the food company Herdez, which was reportedly one of those that requested their employees to cast a “reasoned vote,” told the newspaper Milenio on his way out that the meeting with López Obrador had been positive and denied that his company was concerned about the prospect of an AMLO presidency.
“No, there’s never been any fear. Herdez products are made with peace and love,” Héctor Hernández-Pons said, borrowing one of the frontrunner’s favorite catchphrases.
Regardless of who’s in office, Castañón said, the business community’s number-one priority would continue to be Mexico.
“Our conviction is with Mexico. Independently of who wins, we will continue investing in and collaborating with Mexico, seeking more investment, employment and solutions to problems,” he said.
The course followed by the contents of the tailings dam after it burst on Monday.
One body has been recovered from the site of a burst dam at a mine in Urique, Chihuahua, but searchers continue to look for six people who have been missing since Monday.
The dam containing mineral tailings burst Monday morning at the Cieneguita gold and silver mine, sweeping away miners who were working nearby as well as machinery and vehicles. Two workers were rescued minutes after.
About 150 people have been searching the 12-kilometer course of the spilled water, the state Civil Protection office said.
Governor Javier Corral Jurado traveled to the area yesterday and met with relatives of the missing miners. He said the priority was finding the missing workers and protecting the Tubares river at the bottom of the watershed.
Federal environmental officials also arrived yesterday to to inspect for damage. However, mine personnel said the tailings were not dangerous.
Attorney General César Augusto Peniche Espejel said a formal investigation has begun.
The head of an environmental organization claimed that cracks had appeared in the dam four months ago but nothing was done about it. Víctor Ortiz of Fundación Río Conchos said various experts had warned of the cracks but they were discounted as potential risks common at all mining operations.
The two survivors were transferred to hospital in the city of Chihuahua, where their health was reported as stable.
The mine is owned by multinational mining company Río Tinto.
Ensenada murder victims Ray Ball and Jo Anne Butler.
A retired couple from the United States were shot dead early Saturday morning in the beach town of Bahía de los Ángeles in the Baja California municipality of Ensenada.
Ray Edgar Ball, 72, and Jo Anne Butler, 69, of Prescott, Arizona, were killed in what authorities believe was an attempted robbery at their waterfront home south of town.
There are indications that Ball was awoken by strange noises and discovered two men trying to steal his 22-foot boat, which the couple used on their frequent fishing trips.
“This was an attempted robbery,” said local official Octavio López. “The man went to defend his property and was then shot.”
A neighbor was woken by gunshots before hearing what sounded like scraping metal. Looking outside, he saw two men pulling the boat toward the water with a vehicle but the latter buried itself in the sand.
The thieves abandoned the vehicle, fired more gunshots and fled the scene.
The neighbor realized the boat belonged to Ball and went to investigate. He and another neighbor found Ball and Butler lying dead on the floor.
State officials pronounced the couple dead at 2:46am. Butler had sustained two gunshots and Ball nine. Their dog was also killed.
The incident has shocked the community of about 1,000 people, of whom at least 100 are U.S. citizens. “We have no memory of having a shooting here,” said Tom Mitchell, a San Diego resident who has had a home in Bahía de los Angeles for four decades. “This has taken it to a level that no one here has experienced.”
Said López: “This is the first time we’ve had something like this happen.”
Friends and neighbors of the couple said Ball had probably gone to investigate the noise he heard with a bat in hand, but was shot when he opened the back door.
A friend said he was not surprised that Ball would have tried to protect his place and his belongings.
Mitchell described the incident as “so out of character for our community. These guys didn’t hesitate to kill. They basically murdered both of them.”
The couple had been visiting Bahía do los Ángeles for many years, having been captivated by the area. Ball, described as a gifted craftsman, first visited in the 1980s and Ball, a teacher turned artist, arrived for the first time in 2003.
Their murder is the second such incident to target U.S. citizens this year in that part of Ensenada. On January 8, Charles Lewis Crabtree, 75, was bludgeoned to death with a hammer.
Leading presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador has made “a pact of impunity” with President Enrique Peña Nieto, according to the campaign boss of second-place candidate Ricardo Anaya.
Jorge Castañeda, who served as Secretary of Foreign Affairs during Vicente Fox’s presidency, claims that the agreement stipulates that Peña Nieto will not seek to obstruct López Obrador’s path to the presidency by orchestrating or encouraging opposition against him.
In exchange, he says, the Morena party leader has agreed not to seek to prosecute Peña Nieto, whose administration has been plagued by corruption scandals, if he is elected July 1.
Castañeda made the claim in a video posted to his social media accounts on Monday, in an opinion piece for the newspaper ElFinanciero the same day and again in an interview with the newspaper El Universal yesterday.
In a two-minute video on Twitter, the campaign chief said that achieving the pact is a “great” breakthrough for López Obrador “because this way he avoids” what happened to him in the presidential campaigns of 2006 and 2012: everyone ganging up on him.
Castañeda said that in both those campaigns “all the business people, the powers that be, the church and even the North Americans” joined forces to stop López Obrador from becoming president.
He stressed that all organized action against the leftist candidate had occurred within the framework of the law.
In his El Financiero piece, Castañeda wrote that former presidents Fox and Felipe Calderón had organized “a virtual second round” of the election by uniting the opposition to López Obrador behind one candidate.
Castañeda told El Universal that the strategy involved Fox and Calderón encouraging a voto útil, or strategic vote, against López Obrador that benefited the winners of Mexico’s two previous presidential elections, Calderón in 2006 and Peña Nieto in 2012.
But during this campaign Peña Nieto has neither organized opposition against the third-time candidate nor encouraged the electorate to vote for his nearest rival, which Castañeda charged is further evidence of the alleged pact.
“There wouldn’t be anything wrong with Peña Nieto doing it for Anaya, if he wanted to. He didn’t want to, which is within his rights, but Andrés Manuel is the clear beneficiary. Why does Peña Nieto do it [refuse to endorse Anaya]? Out of generosity, out of unanimity, because he’s a man? No! He does it so they don’t throw him in the slammer . . .” he said.
Pressed by El Universal to provide proof of his assertion, Castañeda first questioned why Morena national president Yeidckol Polvensky had sung the praises of former attorney general Raúl Cervantes, who served in Peña Nieto’s administration.
“Why? Just because they’re friends? Cervantes . . . is the one who did nothing about [the] Odebrecht [corruption scandal] . . . the one who . . . spied on journalists and human rights activists via the Pegasus system . . . Why does Yeidckol extol him?”
Castañeda also charged that Polvensky considers the former secretary general of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), Alejandro Gutiérrez, currently in prison awaiting trial on corruption charges, as a political prisoner of Chihuahua Governor Javier Corral, who has clashed with the federal administration.
“There are a lot of elements [but] maybe the most important ones are Andrés Manuel’s statements that we have to support President Peña Nieto until the end of his term. And why do we have to support him? Because they have a pact, it seems totally obvious to me,” he said.
At a rally in Guanajuato last week, López Obrador said the aim of that support for Peña Nieto was to ensure a presidential transition “without shocks” and so that there is not a “parallel power” in the period between the July 1 election and the swearing-in of the new president on December 1.
However, López Obrador rejected that he had made any pact with Peña Nieto.
“I haven’t seen President Peña for six years, since the [2012 election] debate when we were candidates. We don’t make agreements in the dark. What we do is in the public eye, always,” he said.
With less than a month until election day, the candidate known throughout the country as AMLO maintains a commanding lead over his rivals. Spanish newspaper El País predicted this week that he has a 92% probability of winning compared to a 7% chance that Anaya will prevail.
Asked about the current state of Anaya’s campaign, Castañeda said that the For Mexico in Front coalition candidate “is not in the ideal position we would have liked” but felt the distance separating him from López Obrador could still be overcome.
“. . . He’s in a comfortable second place which means that if the famous voto útil comes into play, it will by necessity go to Anaya,” he said.
Smiling candidates Anaya, left, and AMLO. The latter has more reason to be smiling at present.
However, Bloomberg’s most recent poll tracker and the latest survey by the newspaper Reforma both show that AMLO has support of above 50%, suggesting that not even the entirety of the combined votes of Anaya and ruling party candidate José Antonio Meade would be enough to stop the third-time candidate from becoming Mexico’s next president.
But Castañeda stressed that there are a large number of voters who still haven’t made up their minds although he conceded that it was difficult to know exactly how many uncommitted voters there are in the electorate, adding that time is running out.
“. . . It’s a brief period but in a lot of other campaigns things have changed a lot in a month . . . It’s tight, but it’s possible,” he said.
Castañeda said that Anaya has been damaged by allegations that he benefited from a money laundering scheme related to the sale of a warehouse he owned in his home state of Querétaro.
Members of Anaya’s National Action Party-led coalition accused the federal Attorney General’s office (PGR) of conducting a “dirty war” on behalf of the ruling PRI.
“If the government wanted to weaken Anaya, they did it. If what they wanted was to make López Obrador stronger, they also did that. If what they wanted was to make Meade stronger, they didn’t do it, on the contrary, they weakened him, that was a significant factor,” Castañeda said.
A second factor that has held Anaya back, the candidate’s campaign chief said, is that decision making processes within the For Mexico in Front coalition have been “a little slow.”
However, in El Financiero Anaya’s campaign boss suggested that Anaya may still have an ace up his sleeve that could allow him to be the next president.
“What will history say about the pact of immunity AMLO-EPN [Enrique Peña Nieto]?” Castañeda questioned.
“If the electorate doesn’t punish it — and I think it will — the [legal] judgement could be very severe.”
The longstanding dispute over land claimed by the indigenous Wixárika people in Jalisco flared up yesterday when residents of a town in Bolaños took 15 federal, state and municipal officials hostage for nine hours.
The incident took place early yesterday morning after the officials arrived in the Wixárika town of San Sebastián Teponahuaxtlán.
But when they failed to deliver documentation regarding the allocation of funds to a social program intended to help solve the territorial conflict, Wixárika representatives suspended the meeting, according to one report.
Wixárika spokesman Ubaldo Valdez said the government representatives arrived with nothing, after which a Jalisco state cabinet secretary was told they would not be leaving until the matter was resolved.
However, Jalisco Interior Secretary Roberto López played down the incident on Twitter, claiming that the officials were not being held against their will but were meeting with a communal assembly under indigenous laws and customs, known as usos y costumbres.
The meeting was a follow-up to agreements that were reached last month after blockades cut off access to 35 communities and closed schools and health clinics.
At the heart of the issue is more than 10,000 hectares of land that was granted to ranchers more than 100 years ago. But the Wixárika, also known as Huichol, claim it is their ancestral territory.
They have won several court judgments but confrontations with ranchers have hampered restitution of any of the land.
The indigenous community has demanded state and federal authorities to guarantee the restitutions ordered by court rulings and address deficiencies in health, education and security. Representatives say their protests will continue until they recover their lost territory.
A Mexican dancer has won a prestigious international prize considered the Oscar of ballet.
Isaac Hernández, the principal dancer for the English National Ballet, was awarded the Benois de la Danse prize at a ceremony held yesterday in the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, Russia.
The 27-year-old Jalisco native was nominated for the best danseur award for his performances in Don Quijote with the Rome Opera Ballet, in which he worked under the artistic direction of legendary Russian ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov, and La Sylphide, with the English National Ballet.
Hernández is the first Mexican to win the coveted prize.
After the ceremony, the dancer posted a photo of himself holding the award outside the historic theater on his Twitter account with the caption, “Everything is possible!”
President Enrique Peña Nieto congratulated Hernández for his achievement via his own Twitter account.
The recognition further enhances the reputation of the young dancer who last November won the award for best male dancer at the United Kingdom’s National Dance Awards.
According to Hernández’s press office in Mexico, the dancer said that it was an honor and a source of great pride to represent Mexico on the world stage.
“. . . Being the first Mexican in history to win this important prize is proof that everything can be achieved if we persevere with our dreams. I dedicate this achievement to the entire Mexican public who is always with me, to all those people who have been part of my life and my journey and to all those who have supported me, believed in me and motivated me to be better as a person and as a professional,” he said.
The Benois de la Danse prize was founded in 1991 and is named after the Russian artist and ballet stage designer Alexandre Benois.
The award seeks to recognize “the tireless work, professionalism, discipline, virtuosity and passion” of the best dancers in the world, according to the Benois prize website.
Prizes are also awarded for best ballerina, lifetime achievement, choreography, composition and design.
London-based Hernández will return to Mexico in August to present his ballet gala Despertares at the National Auditorium in Mexico City.
Teachers from six states set up camp in front of the building housing the Secretariat of the Interior (Segob) in Mexico City yesterday after a chaotic day in the capital.
From 9:00am yesterday, members of the dissident CNTE union set up roadblocks at various access points to the city, while thousands marched to protest against the 2013 educational reform. Chaotic traffic conditions were reported in various parts of the city.
The teachers are demanding dialogue with the federal government but their ultimate aim is for the reform — which includes compulsory teacher evaluations — to be repealed.
At the toll booth marking the entry point to the Mexico City-Cuernavaca highway, a confrontation between protesters and police left three officers injured.
Teachers threw backpacks, sticks and stones during the clash while the police retaliated with the use of tear gas.
Yesterday’s protests affected more than 12,000 businesses and resulted in the loss of 36 million pesos (US $1.76 million) in revenue, the Mexico City business chamber Canacope said.
The capital’s Public Security Secretariat said that around 3,500 teachers arrived in Mexico City on 47 buses, although the CNTE had anticipated that as many as 12,000 teachers would arrive.
Teachers from Oaxaca, Chiapas, Guerrero, Michoacán, México state and Mexico City arrived at the Segob building at around 4:00pm.
One CNTE member from Guerrero told the newspaper El Universal that in addition to anger at the government over the educational reforms, Mexicans are fed up generally with the current situation in the country.
“That hartazgo [feeling of being fed up] is going to be noticed when it’s time to elect a president,” Salvador López said.
Among the teachers’ demands is the reinstatement of almost 600 teachers who were laid off when they refused to write evaluation tests.
“Carry on teachers, to victory, we will only get ahead with the triumph of our president Andrés Manuel López Obrador . . .” one protest participant said.
Protests continued today in front of the Mexican Stock Exchange building, leading authorities to bolster security at the site.
In addition to the Mexico City protests, CNTE teachers have occupied public locations in Oaxaca and blocked access to that city’s airport and central bus station.
A week-long strike in Oaxaca spread to Guerrero, Michoacán and Chiapas and teachers have vowed that it will continue until the government agrees to restart negotiations.
The federal Secretariat of Public Education (SEP) warned yesterday that it would dock the pay of teachers who missed classes but the protesters have remained defiant and CNTE members have previously shown that they are prepared to be patient.
A 2016 teachers camp set up around La Ciudadela Park in downtown Mexico City remained in place for three months.
