López Obrador announces 10 billion pesos to repair unfinished hospitals

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August 1, 2018

Abandoned hospital in Veracruz is one of 12 left unfinished by former governor Javier Duarte.

The new government’s investment in health care infrastructure will begin with a 10-billion-peso (US $537.5-million) investment in repairs to more than 50 hospitals left unfinished by previous administrations.

Located in the poorest regions of the country, the hospitals will be managed by the Health Secretariat and IMSS, the Mexican Social Security Institute.

“Millions of pesos were spent building these hospitals that were never finished,” Andrés Manuel López Obrador said outside his transition headquarters in Mexico City.

Once up and running, the facilities will make preventive medical care a priority and will be fully supplied with medications.

“Health care policies are going to change, there’s going to be good health care now,” said the president-elect.

“All of this will be part of of the state welfare policy . . . there are countries in Europe in which the right to health is guaranteed,” he remarked.

López Obrador also addressed corruption in the health sector, explaining that putting a stop to irregularities in the purchase of medications could “release a lot of funds.”

Part of his plan to thwart corrupt practices is to centralize the purchase of medications. The process will be overseen by citizen observers and a United Nations transparency agency.

“That’s why I am confident that we will make ends meet with our budget,” he said.

Source: Crónica (sp)

Residents lynch suspected extortionist in Morelos

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César Hernández

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August 1, 2018

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A lynch mob in Tetela del Volcán, Morelos, hanged a Colombian citizen yesterday based on rumors of his alleged involvement with a gang of extortionists.

Residents of Tlacotepec in the neighboring municipality of Zacualpan de Amilpas accused Ricardo Alonso Lozano Rivas and two companions of collecting extortion payments from local store owners.

Lozano fled town but his pursuers caught up with him in Tetela del Volcán. His companions escaped but Lozano was not so fortunate.

He was beaten and dragged to the town’s zócalo where he was tied to a flagpole and later hanged, said the state Attorney General.

Participants in the lynching prevented state police from intervening and stopped reporters from recording the incident.

The mob also burned the vehicle in which Lozano had been traveling.

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Two signs were placed on Lozano’s body with a message directed at Governor Graco Ramírez.

“Graco, these are the results of your government,” and “This is what’s going to happen to all extortionists.” The message was signed by the “United peoples of Morelos.”

Four people claiming to be Lozano’s relatives attempted to retrieve the body, explaining that he was not an extortionist but a money-lender, but they were deterred from doing so by the mob.

The body was recovered later by state police.

Increased violence in the region has triggered the formation of self-defense forces in several municipalities, where residents have complained of inaction by the state.

Said one resident of Tetela and a participant in the lynching: “The government does nothing. They left us no other way out . . . . The government does not care what happens to us, as long as they are fine . . . We’re fed up,” he said between expletives.

The state Attorney General’s office condemned the lynching and said it was working on dismantling the criminal organizations.

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

Mexico to Trump: homicide numbers fueled by American guns

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MND Staff

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August 1, 2018

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Violence in Mexico is largely fueled by the illegal entry of weapons from the United States, Interior Secretary Alfonso Navarrete Prida said yesterday.

The secretary’s assertion came in response to United States President Donald Trump’s use of new homicide statistics as justification for better border security.

Trump wrote in a tweet yesterday morning that “one of the reasons we need Great Border Security is that Mexico’s murder rate in 2017 increased by 27% to 31, 174 people killed, a record!”

At a later press conference, Navarrete Prida said that “if the United States shielded its border to stop the illegal entry of weapons and illicit money to Mexico, we would immediately see a dramatic fall in intentional homicides.”

He charged that criminal organizations in Mexico acquire the bulk of their weapons from north of the border and that the proceeds of crime they receive from the same source allow them to build up their arsenals.

“I agree that we have to protect the borders and above all, his [Trump’s] border so that neither weapons nor cash come into Mexico,” Navarrete Prida said.

He added that he asked for the United States’ support to stop the illegal flow of weapons into Mexico during a meeting in Washington D.C. Monday with U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.

The interior secretary argued that the United States has to see gun possession as a border security issue rather than through the prism of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, contending that if that doesn’t occur “it’s going to be very difficult for us to be able to contain the phenomenon of rising crime in a coordinated way.”

Navarrete Prida also proposed that United States authorities publicly announce on a weekly basis the measures that they are carrying out to combat binational arms trafficking.

The Interior Secretariat said in a statement that during Monday’s meeting, Navarrete Prida and Nielsen reached five agreements for bilateral cooperation that included the sharing of information aimed at stopping human trafficking and the exploration of ways to promote development in the region and to address the root causes of migration.

In a letter sent to Trump earlier this month, president-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador also proposed that the migration problem be addressed “in a comprehensive manner through a development plan that includes Central American countries.”

Source: El Universal (sp)

US consulate issues security alert for three cities in Sonora

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Tony Richards

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August 1, 2018

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Scene of Sunday morning's shooting in Guaymas.

The United States Consulate General in Hermosillo, Sonora, has issued a security alert for three cities in the state due to heightened criminal activity.

Issued yesterday, the alert refers to the cities of San Carlos, Guaymas and Empalme, warning of “recent violent criminal activity and ongoing police action.”

U.S. government personnel are prohibited from traveling to the three locations and all points south of Hermosillo via federal highway No. 15 in Sonora.

The consulate said the alert would be evaluated in 10 days’ time.

U.S. citizens are advised to avoid the area, monitor local media for updates and be aware of their surroundings.

Four people have been assassinated recently in the region and at least seven people are reported missing. On Sunday morning armed civilians opened fire with assault rifles on houses and vehicles in the San Vicente neighborhood of Guaymas.

No one was hurt but 11 vehicles were damaged.

Mexico News Daily

‘I feel blessed and grateful to God:’ passengers relate story of plane crash

By

MND Staff

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August 1, 2018

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It was a terrifying experience but a lucky escape for passengers on board Aeroméxico flight 2431 yesterday when it crashed shortly after taking off from the Guadalupe Victoria Airport in Durango.

There were no fatalities among the 99 passengers and four crew on board the plane, which was bound for Mexico City, but officials said 85 people were injured and today 21 people remain hospitalized including the pilot and a two-year-old girl. Durango Governor José Rosas Aispuro said they are in a serious but stable condition.

Yaquelín Flores, a Mexican national who lives in Colombia and was traveling with her daughter, told reporters yesterday that it had been raining heavily prior to takeoff.

“The plane accelerated to take off and it got off the ground but we went into a very strong storm and it fell. Then we hit [the ground and] the plane slid forward. I remembered the protocol of putting my chest over my knees and my daughter did as well,” she said.

Flores said fire broke out immediately after the plane came to a stop. She turned around and saw a hole in the fuselage near one of the wings.

“We undid our seatbelts and I told my daughter that we had to go out there and we jumped. There were children leaving the plane and crying . . . We managed to get out through the hole but there were flames. I was afraid of being burned but we jumped without thinking or taking anything with us,” she said.

“I feel blessed and grateful to God.”

Another passenger who was traveling in first class said after the plane hit the ground it slid for a long distance before coming to a halt.

He said that he and other passengers in first class were able to leave the aircraft quickly but others took longer, adding that three or four minutes after the plane hit the ground it began to “explode.”

Another woman on board assured reporters that the plane had taken off and was briefly airborne before crashing.

“Yes, we took off but there was a lot of rain,” she said, adding that she believed the pilot had tried to slow down the plane after it made impact with the ground.

Inside the cabin, she said, “it was chaos because people were in shock and didn’t know what to do.” Luggage was strewn across the aisle, making it even more difficult to exit as the cabin was engulfed in flames and filled with smoke.

Ramin Parsa told the BBC that “shortly after the plane took off, I knew something was wrong.”

He said the plane hit the ground and “started bouncing, shaking and sliding” before hitting trees and coming to a stop in a ditch.

“All the lights went off and then there was smoke inside the cabin, people were panicking and screaming,” Parsa said, adding it was “a miracle of God we survived.”

Rómulo Campuzano, a National Action Party (PAN) politician, said he had been “very lucky because I was able to get out by the main door” using a torn-off door as a ramp to safety.

“I walked away from the plane, turning around to see if the other passengers were getting out, too. It started raining very hard and I think that helped put out the flames,” he said.

Some other passengers claimed the plane had been hit by lightning.

Once outside the aircraft, passengers walked to the perimeter of the airport to seek medical assistance and local media reported that wire cutters were used to cut a mesh fence to allow them to get out.

Flores said paramedics took about 20 minutes to arrive and explained that she lost all her personal belongings including her passport in the crash.

Source: Reforma (sp), Milenio (sp), El Universal (sp), BBC (en)

Video of the flight’s takeoff shot by passenger Ramiro Parsa

2 people remain in serious condition after Durango airplane crash

By

Tony Richards

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August 1, 2018

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Rescue workers help passengers after yesterday's plane crash.

Two people remain in serious condition following the crash of Aeroméxico flight AM2431 shortly after it took off yesterday afternoon from the Guadalupe Victoria airport in Durango.

The pilot of the aircraft and a two-year-old girl are in serious but stable condition this morning, said Durango Governor José Rosas Aispuro.

Carlos Galván Meyran, who is being hailed as a hero for his handling of the plane, underwent back surgery last night while the young girl is being treated for burns to 25% of her body.

Eight-five of the 103 people on board the plane were injured, but as of this morning 64 of those had been released from hospital.

The governor said that according to an assessment of the accident by the airport’s control tower, a sudden gust of wind struck the plane as it was taking off during a hailstorm. One wing touched the ground a few hundred yards beyond the end of the runway, knocking the two engines loose.

The plane skidded along the ground, coming to rest in a horizontal position in a field. Passengers and crew were able to get off the plane on escape slides before it caught fire.

Aeroméxico general manager Andrés Conesa said timely action by the flight crew prevented any loss of life among the passengers. He said the 10-year-old Embraer 190 airplane, which was en route to Mexico City, was current with safety requirements and had been serviced in February.

The airline will reimburse injured passengers for all the expenses incurred as a result of the accident and free transportation will be provided to family members, Conesa said.

Source: Milenio (sp), Expansión (sp)

Statistics agency’s figures show 2017 homicides higher than first reported

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MND Staff

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July 31, 2018

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López Obrador speaks to reporters outside his transition headquarters in Mexico City.

There were 2,000 more homicides in 2017 than were originally reported, according to the latest figures compiled by the federal statistics agency, providing new data that United States President Donald Trump was quick to use to push his political agenda.

The National Institute of Statistics (Inegi) reported yesterday there were 31,174 homicides last year, over 2,000 more than the number reported by the Secretariat of the Interior (Segob) in January.

One thing that didn’t change, however, is that last year will go down as the most violent since comparable records were first kept in 1997.

The Associated Press reported that Inegi statistics are considered more thorough because it obtains figures from morgues and public registries whereas Segob only counts homicide investigations rather than the number of victims in each case, meaning that it potentially underestimates the real number of killings.

This morning, Trump cited the numbers as justification for better border security.

Trump wrote in a tweet that “one of the reasons we need Great Border Security is that Mexico’s murder rate in 2017 increased by 27% to 31,174 people killed, a record!”

He added: “The Democrats want Open Borders. I want Maximum Border Security and respect for ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and our great Law Enforcement Professionals!”

The U.S. president also said yesterday that he would have “no problem doing a shutdown” if we don’t get border security “after many, many years of talk within the United States.”

That threat softened today, with White House officials saying that Trump had indicated to staff that he won’t try to shut down the federal government before midterm elections in November in an attempt to win more funding for his border wall.

President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador said today he won’t respond to Trump’s comments on social media.

“We are going to act with prudence . . . We are going to try to look for a friendly relationship. And if the dialogue becomes difficult, the other route will be dialogue and more dialogue, always dialogue. We don’t want to fight.”

The border wall is not on the agenda of his incoming government, he said. “We don’t have that word on our agenda.”

López Obrador has pledged to combat violence and reduce the murder rate by at least 30% during his administration.

To achieve it, Mexico’s next interior secretary, Olga Sánchez Cordero, said López Obrador has given her a “blank check” to explore the possibility of legalizing drugs as well as any other measures that could help restore peace to the country.

Other measures already proposed by the incoming administration are to implement an amnesty law, gradually withdraw the military from public security duties on the nation’s streets and create education and work opportunities for the nation’s disenchanted youth who can be easy targets for organized crime looking for new recruits.

In a letter sent to Trump earlier this month, López Obrador said that said “the most essential purpose” of his government will be to ensure that Mexicans are not forced to migrate because of poverty or violence and proposed a development plan as a means to address the migration problem.

In a return letter, Trump wrote that “we are prepared to further address the economic development and security issues that drive migration from Central America” and said that a strong bilateral relationship “will lead to a much stronger and more prosperous Mexico.”

But playing to his domestic electoral base by disparaging Mexico — especially on Twitter — will likely only serve to further complicate an already strained bilateral relationship, especially considering that López Obrador has pledged that he will demand that Mexico be treated with respect and that “Mexico and its people will not be the piñata of any foreign government.”

Source: Sin Embargo (sp), Associated Press (en), Reporte Indigo (sp)

López Obrador to forgive billions in ‘civil resistance’ debt to CFE

By

MND Staff

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July 31, 2018

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López Obrador, left, and Bartlett, right.

President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador says his government will cancel debts owed to the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) by people in “civil resistance” against the public utility.

“There will be a clean slate,” the leftist political veteran said at an event in Palenque, Chiapas, explaining that those who have opposed “excessive charges” on their power bills by leaving them unpaid “will not pay a single peso.”

The so-called civil resistance movement first began in 1995 in states including López Obrador’s home state of Tabasco as well as Chiapas, Veracruz, México state and Mexico City.

Debts of 43.3 billion pesos (US $2.3 billion) have since accumulated, according to freedom of information data.

López Obrador said that forgiving the “civil resistance” debt was a campaign promise but stressed that the “clean slate” applied from July 1 — the day he won the presidential election in a landslide — rather than December 1, when he will be sworn in as president.

The president-elect also spoke out in defense of Manuel Bartlett, who he has tapped to be the next head of the CFE.

“. . . He [Bartlett] has been defending the national electrical industry for many years, that’s why I decided to propose him to be the director of the Federal Electricity Commission,” López Obrador said.

Others, however, have been highly critical of the appointment of the 82-year-old senator and former governor of Puebla who also served as secretary of the interior and secretary of education in successive Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) administrations in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Bartlett has been an outspoken critic of the 2013 energy reform, charging that it violates basic principles of the constitution because it eliminates the exclusivity of the state to exploit energy resources, lacks defining proposals and subordinates national, economic and political security to the interests of foreign nations.

Analysts from investment bank Barclays Capital said in a report that those views don’t align with the vision of investors and that his appointment as CFE chief could have a negative impact on markets in the longer term.

“We are uncertain what the priorities of Mr. Bartlett as CEO of the CFE will be but we believe that his appointment may not be a good sign for international investors. In addition, for us, his reiterated opinions about the energy reform and the role of the CFE are disappointing signs,” the analysts said.

Bartlett himself said in a radio interview yesterday that those critical of his appointment as the next head of the CFE belong to a minority of people who don’t want him to rescue the state-owned company.

Many of those critics, he said, blame him for electoral fraud committed in the 1988 presidential election.

But he denied any wrongdoing, instead blaming others including Carlos Salinas de Gortari who was declared the winner over Cuauhtémoc Cardenas despite clear evidence that fraud had taken place.

Bartlett said that he is committed to “bringing order” to the CFE, which he charged is currently a “disaster” because of its poor management.

Today, he reiterated that position, saying that he wants the CFE to be “a company that works” rather than a “dying company” that has to buy energy.

He said that his approach to leading the company would not be to wage war against its current management but to find out its current financial situation and work out what needs to be done to turn it into a world class company.

With regard to López Obrador’s civil resistance debt cancelation plan, Bartlett said that its aim was to guarantee the supply of electricity to Mexico’s poorest, adding that “we have to make a great effort to establish rates that can be paid by people who don’t have resources.”

The president-elect last week announced a plan to “rescue” the energy sector, which includes building a new refinery, upgrading the existing ones and eliminating excesses of the petroleum workers’ unions.

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

No fatalities in crash of Aeroméxico Durango-CDMX flight shortly after takeoff

By

Tony Richards

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July 31, 2018

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Officials say 85 people were injured but there were no fatalities in the crash this afternoon of Aeroméxico flight 2431 shortly after it took off from the Guadalupe Victoria airport in Durango.

The Embraer 190 aircraft had 99 passengers and four crew on board and was bound for Mexico City.

It crashed about 10 kilometers from the Durango airport at about 3:20 this afternoon.

Some passengers were reported to have made their way to a nearby highway to seek aid.

Sources at Aeroméxico said weather conditions were poor when the flight took off, with heavy rain and hail.

One report said the pilot attempted but failed to abort the takeoff.

Mexico News Daily

UPDATED: This story was updated with new information at 5:35pm CDT.

Cartel convoy video: a demonstration of force by CJNG?

By

MND Staff

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July 31, 2018

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What appears to be a cartel convoy lined up on a highway in Mexico.

Authorities in Jalisco are investigating a video circulating online that shows a convoy of stationary vehicles surrounded by uniformed and heavily armed men in what appears to be a cartel show of force.

In the video — which was initially shared on social media and via messaging services such as WhatsApp before appearing on news websites — two men, including the suspected cartel member who filmed the footage, make mention of the Jalisco cartel while others appear in shirts emblazoned with the criminal organization’s CJNG (Jalisco New Generation Cartel) initials.

“At the moment, we are verifying the authenticity [of the video] and also [determining] if it is in the state of Jalisco . . .” Interior Secretary Roberto López Lara said.

“The state has the security of all residents of Jalisco under control,” he added.

But the two-minute-long video paints a different picture.

The scores of suspected cartel members — many wearing balaclavas —appear jovial, relaxed and in full control of the highway where the video was filmed.

“We’re just here on patrol,” one masked man says on camera, while the man filming the video derscribes a group of five men “los guapos del cartel” (the handsome men of the cartel).

As the cameraman walks up the stretch of highway, music from two parked cars’ stereos can be heard.

The dissemination of the video yesterday came shortly after federal authorities announced that they had arrested a regional CJNG leader believed responsible for the disappearance of three Italian citizens in January, giving rise to speculation that it was a direct response to the arrest and intended to show off the cartel’s power.

The CJNG first made its presence known in 2009 during former president Felipe Calderón’s administration.

However, during the current administration under President Enrique Peña Nieto the cartel has become one of the most powerful and dangerous criminal organizations in Mexico and controls large swathes of national territory, especially mountainous regions.

This year, members of the cartel founded by Erick “El 85” Valencia and Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes allegedly kidnapped, tortured and killed three Guadalajara film students and attacked state labor secretary Luis Carlos Nájera.

Beyond Jalisco, the CJNG is engaged in turf wars in several states and announced publicly last week that it is going after the “plaza” in the state of Morelos.

Source: Reforma (sp), Sin Embargo (sp)

Watch this video on YouTube