‘They haven’t done anything,’ AMLO says of transparency agency

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October 3, 2018

Councilors of the transparency agency, Inai.

President-elect López Obrador once more criticized the federal transparency agency Inai, asserting that it has “done nothing” yet its council members earn high salaries.

In an interview with the newspaper El Financiero, López called Inai — the institute for transparency, access to information and protection of personal data — a “golden bureaucracy” that has failed to yield the expected results.

“There are examples [of high bureaucracy], like the transparency institute. Council members earn like 250,000 pesos every month and what have they done? Nothing,” he said.

According to data made available by the Secretariat of Finance, each of the seven Inai council members earns 3.4 million pesos (over US $182,000) per year, or 286,000 pesos (about $15,200) a month.

“Have they stopped corruption?” he continued. “No, on the contrary, when [Inai] was founded they decided that they would keep under wraps the returns of big taxpayers. Not long ago, that same institute resolved to keep the Odebrecht [corruption] case secret,” López Obrador charged.

Yesterday was not the first time he criticized the agency. In November, he wrote on social media that “the transparency institute, a fancy bureaucracy that costs the public coffers a billion pesos per year, considered [ex-president] Vicente Fox’s multi-million-peso tax refund and the Odebrecht case secret and keeps under wraps the swindle that was the purchase of the Agro Nitrogenados plant.”

(The latter was Pemex’s 2014 purchase of a fertilizer plant for a price since considered too high and, by last year, with nothing to show for it, according to the Federal Auditor’s Office.)

Source: El Financiero (sp)

Residents block Mexico City-Puebla to protest operation against fuel thieves

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MND Staff

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October 3, 2018

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Residents of a town in Puebla blocked the Mexico City-Puebla highway for more than six hours yesterday to protest a federal operation against pipeline fuel theft.

At around 4:00am, navy personnel arrived in Palmarito Tochapan, a community in the municipality of Quecholac, to carry out raids of two properties, one presumably owned by mayor-elect Alejandro Martínez Fuentes.

Martínez took to social media to complain about the operation and to claim that the marines had arrived to “attack the people of Palmarito.”

The town was the scene of two bloody confrontations in May 2017 that left four soldiers and six presumed huachicoleros, or fuel thieves, dead.

An investigation by the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) made public this month found that soldiers and state police arbitrarily executed two people and planted weapons on two bodies during the clashes.

The Quecholac mayor-elect used a live video message on Facebook to urge the local population to respond to the navy operation.

A woman approaches Martínez in the video, claiming she was shot by soldiers and displaying a small wound on her leg.

In an earlier Facebook video, the mayor-elect shows security camera footage in which a loud gunshot is heard.

“Authorities are shooting at people going by, the people shooting are soldiers . . . They’re very aggressive . . .” Martínez said.

Other residents reported that security personnel had used gas bombs in the town and broken windows of several homes.

Residents proceeded to shut down the highway in both directions between approximately 6:00am and 12:30pm, burning tires and holding up signs denouncing navy violence during yesterday’s operation.

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State government General Secretary Diódoro Carrasco Altamirano said that a group of fuel thieves was living in Palmarito and that they were responsible for inciting and participating in the highway blockade.

Contributing to suspicion surrounding the mayor-elect is that his brother, Antonio Martínez Fuentes, also known as El Toñín, is allegedly a criminal leader in the Red Triangle zone of Puebla, a region notorious for pipeline fuel theft.

El Toñín has also been accused of involvement in kidnapping, extortion and homicides in several parts of the state.

State authorities last year seized two properties owned by Antonio Martínez Fuentes as well as 16 vehicles.

His brother, who denies that he or anyone in his family is involved in criminal activity, is scheduled to take office for the Puebla-based PSI party on October 15.

Source: El Universal (sp)

90 cops dismissed, 100 under investigation in Tamaulipas

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César Hernández

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October 3, 2018

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90 cops were dismissed but 149 new ones graduated. — 90 cops were dismissed but 149 new ones joined the force.

Ninety state police officers in Tamaulipas have been let go and 100 more are under investigation for corruption and collaborating with organized crime.

The investigation by the internal affairs office of the Public Security Secretariat is a slow process, explained police chief Augusto Cruz Morales, “because it’s not easy . . . we have to demonstrate the reasons they are being dismissed.”

For officers involved in crimes, the internal process becomes a legal one.

“Some leave right away, and they are terminated. We try to not make mistakes and we avoid harming people,” Cruz said, adding that in cases where wrongdoing cannot be proven, police are simply dismissed in accordance with labor laws.

The names of dismissed officers are then entered into the Plataforma México database, a resource that prevents them being employed in other states.

In his second annual report, Governor Francisco García Cabeza de Vaca said that over the past two years the state police force has grown by 43% to about 3,200 officers.

But the goal of the administration is to grow the force to 7,000 members.

The governor told a graduating class of 149 students of the University of Security and Justice that the goal calls for the officers to be well prepared, well trained and supplied with the instruments necessary to carry out their work.

Ninety-eight of the graduates finished the initial police training program and 51 obtained a degree in police sciences after three years of study.

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

Lawmakers, bureaucrats, reporters locked inside Congress building

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MND Staff

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October 3, 2018

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Workers scale a fence in an attempt to flee their captors. — Workers scale a fence in an attempt to flee their captors in Chilpancingo.

For the second day in a row, lawmakers, bureaucrats and reporters were locked inside the precinct of the state Congress building in Guerrero yesterday by citizens angered by a federal court ruling that confirmed the original result of an election for mayor.

Residents of the municipality of Cochoapa El Grande used chains and padlocks to secure exits and prevent anyone from leaving the Congress premises located in the state capital Chilpancingo.

They claim that the votes they cast for Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate Hermelinda Rivera Francisco in the July 1 election were not counted.

Rivera challenged the result of the election and the Guerrero Electoral Tribunal annulled it, declaring her the winner.

But on September 25, the Federal Electoral Tribunal (TEPJF) overturned that ruling and ratified the victory of Daniel Esteban González, who represented a coalition made up of the National Action Party (PAN), Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) and Citizens’ Movement party (MC).

However, the mayor-elect has been missing since he disappeared on September 2 along with his driver after attending a meeting with a Morena party deputy in the municipality of Tlapa.

The PRI supporters questioned how the election of González could be ratified while his whereabouts are unknown, and managed to convince state lawmakers to agree to discuss the issue. They argue that Rivera should be installed as mayor.

González’s substitute for mayor, Raúl Chávez, declined to take up the position and the town trustee is currently acting as the head of the municipal government.

Cochoapa el Grande, the state’s most impoverished municipality, was one of just two local government areas where a new mayor was not sworn in on September 30.

With exits from the Congress precinct blocked on consecutive days, some lawmakers resorted to scaling the fence to leave but were attacked or threatened by protesters once they reached the other side.

Despite their pleas to the demonstrators, other lawmakers were forced to wait several hours until they were permitted to leave.

Source: Milenio (sp), El Financiero (sp), Bajo Palabra (sp), La Silla Rota (sp)

9 more magical towns planned although some think there are too many

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MND Staff

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October 3, 2018

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A visit to Pátzcuaro is on the agenda for magical towns conference.

Nine new magical towns will be named later this month, increasing the total number of destinations with the designation to 120.

Future tourism secretary Miguel Torruco Marqués said the current federal government will announce which towns will join the Pueblos Mágicos program at the National Magical Towns Fair, which will be held in Morelia, Michoacán, from October 11 to 14.

The program, launched in 2001, recognizes towns that have special features that are attractive to visitors and is designed to increase tourism.

But Torruco believes the number of towns that have been designated as magical is excessive and said that once the incoming government takes office, the Secretariat of Tourism (Sectur) will conduct a review of the program to establish whether the pueblos mágicos are complying with the rules and obligations.

He contended that the magical towns strategy has become politicized and that authorities have prioritized the funding of certain newly-designated towns and forgotten about other destinations that have been part of the program longer.

The president of the Mexican Travel Agency Association, Jorge Hernández Delgado, said last year that decisions about which destinations receive the “magical towns” designation come down to negotiations between state governors and federal authorities and money is the main motivator.

More than 100,000 people are expected to attend next week’s national fair in the Michoacán state capital, where an economic spillover of more than 220 million pesos (US $11.7 million) has been predicted.

Michoacán Tourism Secretary Claudia Chávez López told the news agency Notimex that “each magical town will showcase its artisanal, gastronomic, cultural and historical offerings” at the fair.

Chávez added that because the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has designated technology as an industry focus in 2018, 15 tech companies will be showing off their tourism-oriented innovations in Morelia.

A cooking contest with 32 participating chefs will also be held, the secretary said, while representatives of each of the 111 magical towns will take a tour of the nearby town of Pátzcuaro, which this year is celebrating 16 years since it became a pueblo mágico.

Source: Milenio (sp), Notimex (sp)

Cuernavaca mayor-elect’s home target of attack

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César Hernández

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October 3, 2018

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Cuernavaca's mayor-elect: gunshots at his home.

The mayor-elect of Cuernavaca, Morelos, fears for his life after his home was attacked yesterday by unknown gunmen.

Villalobos said he heard a burst of six gunshots at about 1:40am. After inspecting the gate to his house, he found three bullet holes.

He later told a press conference that the C5 state security force has a surveillance camera installed “a mere seven meters” from his gate, and that he would be filing a formal complaint.

Villalobos said he will also seek protection from the navy.

“I fear for my life but I’m not going to panic, I have no enemies, I don’t owe anyone, I am not a defrauder, the people know me, this is what I’m going through, [someone] is trying to intimidate me.”

Villalobos believes a third party trying to create a confrontation between him and Governor Cuautémoc Blanco Bravo might have been behind the attack.

Blanco, who was mayor of Cuernavaca until he sought the governor’s office, was sworn Monday, has shown his disagreement over Villalobos occupying the mayor’s seat, calling him a “gate-crasher.”

Villalobos was actually an alternate to José Luis Gómez Borbolla whose candidacy was invalidated by election authorities after the parties that put his name forward had a change of heart.

Villalobos went on to win the election as part of the Morena party coalition that swept into power July 1.

Despite their history, Villalobos asserted that he has no problem with the governor.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Information hurtful to self-esteem now banned in Veracruz

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MND Staff

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October 3, 2018

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“Confused” Veracruz lawmakers have passed legislation to prevent the online dissemination of information that be harmful to “reputation and self-esteem.”

But the governor says he’ll veto it.

The state approved an amendment to the criminal code that has been dubbed the “anti-meme law” but is officially called the cyberbullying law.

The law states that anyone found guilty of using “any means of digital communication” to “disseminate harmful and malicious information about another person . . . that harms their reputation and self-esteem” will be liable to go to jail for up to two years in addition to completing 100 days of community service.

Forty of the 50 deputies in Congress supported the law.

Congress sources said the original intention of the legislation was to stop people from publishing images or videos of a sexual nature on the internet to take revenge on an ex-partner.

However, at the last minute the intent of the law was widened to include all forms of online bullying and abuse.

Following the vote, outgoing Veracruz Governor Miguel Ángel Yunes Linares said he would “veto the anti-meme law,” declaring it was unconstitutional because it violates the right to freedom of expression of Veracruz residents.

“This government . . . has acted and will act in favor of promoting the free expression of ideas of the citizens and always against censorship,” Yunes said.

Once he receives the decree mandating the new law, Yunes said, he will return it to Congress annotated with his observations for their due study, analysis and debate.

Cinthya Amaranta Lobato Calderón, a newly-elected deputy for the Morena party, said lawmakers had been confused about the proposed legislation and that many “believed they were voting to ratify the federal law against cyberattacks,” adding that they weren’t given sufficient time to analyze it.

Source: e-consulta (sp), Milenio (sp)

Aeroméxico, pilots reach agreement, avert strike

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MND Staff

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October 3, 2018

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A strike planned for today by Aeroméxico pilots has been avoided after their union reached an agreement with the airline for improved pay and conditions.

It is the second time this week that a scheduled work stoppage has been averted after the Association of Airline Pilots (ASPA) agreed to a request from federal Labor Secretary Roberto Campa to defer action planned for Monday.

Pilots at the center of the dispute — so-called “B Contract” pilots who started working for Aeroméxico after 2010 — told a press conference that ASPA accepted on their behalf the 5.15% salary increase offered by the airline and an agreement was made to review salaries again next year.

A wholesale review of the B contract, which sets salaries and benefits 40% lower than those received by pilots who commenced employment before 2010, was scheduled for 2020.

“The [union] assembly took the more institutional, more structured route. We decided not to go on strike,” said ASPA secretary general Rafael Díaz Covarrubias.

Aeroméxico employs 1,100 pilots, of whom around 52% are on A contracts and 48% have B contracts.

ASPA agreed to the inferior pay and conditions for “B Contract” pilots in 2010 when the global financial crisis was still affecting the airline industry but has argued that the economic situation of the sector in 2018 is completely different and that the wage and benefits disparity should end.

Díaz said while the inequity remains, the dispute will drag on.

“The pilots are still upset but they have chosen to take the peaceful route and not strike. We don’t want to impact the airline or passengers,” he said.

Aeroméxico representative Miguel Carballo said that 45 contract clauses had been reviewed and that the company will continue to work to “reduce the gap and arrive at the same conditions for all pilots.”

Labor Secretary Campa later offered a brief statement to the media in which he said that the government was happy that strike action was avoided.

“These have been days of great pressure for passengers who didn’t know if they were going to travel, for the authorities that have been involved and it’s been an enormous pressure for these two organizations: the company and the union, who have worked very hard, each in defense of their interests and their rights . . .” he said.

Aeroméxico said in a statement that the airline’s operations would proceed as normal today, adding that “it is proud of its pilots and all of its employees, with whom it will continue to work to strengthen their development.”

Source: El Financiero (sp)

New mayor wants to rename municipality that is home to Cancún

By

César Hernández

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October 2, 2018

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The new mayor of Benito Juárez, Quintana Roo.

When people talk about the Quintana Roo municipality of Benito Juárez you need to know your geography to be aware that it is home to a city with a much more famous name — Cancún.

But if the new mayor has her way, that might soon change.

María Elena Hermelinda Lezama Espinoza was sworn in as mayor of Benito Juárez on Sunday, and one of her first actions in office was to announce the municipality’s new name.

“I will present an initiative that will allow us, the people of Cancún, to take advantage of the value earned by the great brand of Cancún, known around the world and used by all of us,” she said.

A member of the Morena party, the strongest political force in the country, Lezama explained that there are many municipalities across Mexico that “honorably” carry the name Benito Juárez.

By changing the municipality’s name to simply Cancún, its citizens can take advantage of all the benefits related to the brand.

Besides focusing on international branding, the new mayor explained that hers would be an administration based on four main elements: security, accountability, social justice and ecology.

Lezama also announced that she would build a new women’s hospital and create the Municipal Institute for Mobility.

Security is to be a priority, with special attention on “reconstructing the social fabric from the foundations up.” The new municipal government will also move to dignify police with “zero tolerance for corruption.”

Her government will be austere, effective and efficient and will do more with fewer resources.

Source: El Economista (sp)

Federal, state forces take control of Michoacán municipality

By

MND Staff

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October 2, 2018

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Michoacán state police and federal forces are patrolling Zamora.

Police and the military have once again taken over policing duties from a municipal force suspected of having links to organized crime.

Last Tuesday, officers from the municipal police of Acapulco, Guerrero, were disarmed and ordered off the job and this week their counterparts in Zamora, Michoacán, suffered the same fate.

The decision was taken during a meeting in Zamora of the Michoacán Coordination Group, which is responsible for coordinating security efforts by the armed forces and federal and state police.

Governor Silvano Aureoles Conejo told those present that “we will not allow Zamora to be an alcove of criminal groups.”

He also assured Zamora Mayor Martín Samaguey, who dismissed 600 officers, that the municipality would be fully supported until peace is restored for all residents.

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Police were also let go this week in Lázaro Cárdenas, where local authorities dismissed 400. However, there was no word on whether federal and state security forces would provide security in that municipality.

Before traveling to Zamora, located about 170 kilometers northwest of the state capital Morelia, Aureoles revealed that the Zamora police chief was suspected of having links to the Caballeros Templarios criminal organization, known in English as the Knights Templar Cartel.

The police chief, whose name was not revealed, is accused of being an associate of Servando Gómez Martínez, a former Caballeros Templarios leader who was arrested in February 2015.

According to the state Secretariat of Public Security, Zamora is currently going through its worst-ever crisis of violence and insecurity.

Statistics from the National Public Security System (SNSP) show that Zamora is one of the 10 most violent municipalities in the country, in terms of per-capita homicide rates.

Over the past two years, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), considered Mexico’s most powerful and dangerous criminal organization, has taken control of the municipality, according to a report published today by the newspaper El Financiero.

The newspaper reported yesterday that one issue for the both Zamora and Lázaro Cárdenas is that local authorities are tied to the Morena party while the state is governed by a Democratic Revolution Party administration.

The two have their differences.

Source: El Financiero (sp)