Tulum to become Mexico’s first sustainable tourism zone

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September 19, 2018

The municipality of Tulum will become Mexico’s first sustainable tourism development zone (ZDTS) within a month, the Quintana Roo tourism secretary claims.

Marisol Vanegas Pérez said yesterday that President Enrique Peña Nieto will sign a decree to create the zone by October 15 at the latest, less than two months before he leaves office.

Under the designation, the popular tourist destination on the Yucatán Peninsula’s Caribbean coast would implement a range of sustainable tourism schemes with a focus on the green economy, she said.

Vanegas added that Tulum was chosen because it has one of the highest rates of growth in Quintana Roo, but the growth is disorderly and the provision of services has not kept up with the rapid increase in the number of hotels.

Once the presidential decree has been issued, authorities will seek to adopt policies that allow the municipality to grow in a more orderly fashion and resources will be allocated to establish sustainability criteria, she said.

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The town of Tulum, located about 130 kilometers south of Cancún, and surrounding areas have become increasingly popular with both domestic and foreign tourists attracted by turquoise waters, white-sand beaches, archaeological sites and cenotes, or natural sinkholes, among other attractions.

While the area has developed rapidly, not all developers have gotten their way.

The environmental protection agency Profepa halted construction at five resort properties in Tulum’s hotel zone in May, while this week it was revealed that the federal Secretariat of the Environment had blocked the construction of a 520-room resort in the north of the municipality.

The first announcement about the possibility of creating a ZDTS in Tulum came from federal Tourism Secretary Enrique de la Madrid in February.

At the time, de la Madrid said the aim of the designation was to ensure that natural resources are protected, communities’ cultures and values are respected and that people living in tourism destinations benefit from the arrival of visitors through job creation or other means.

Vanegas said that Isla Mujeres, an island off the coast of Cancún, had also been proposed as a possible ZDTS but added that only Tulum would initially get the designation.

Source: El Economista (sp)

Scientists at technical university are eating their cutlery

By

César Hernández

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September 19, 2018

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ipn researchers and cutlery — There's cutlery for dessert.

What to do with disposable cutlery? The thrifty may reuse the utensils while the crafty may use them as children’s art supplies. But a team of scientists from the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN) is eating theirs.

Made out of rice hulls, the edible utensils developed by a research team at the IPN Center for Development of Biotic Products (Ceprobi) are not only a source of nourishment, but contribute to a cleaner environment.

Rice hulls are traditionally used in Mexico as livestock feed due to their short shelf life. Working with this raw material, the researchers first controlled its quick oxidation process in order to be able to experiment longer with it. This led to the development of highly nutritious marzipan and a tortilla chip-like product.

The stabilized rice hull has high levels of essential amino acids, several vitamins, sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, zinc, iron, selenium and mono and polyunsaturated fats.

The development of the edible cutlery was the result of a trial and error process through which the researchers found the ideal texture for the end product. Apart from the rice hulls the utensils contain just water and a few other natural ingredients.

Spoons manufactured with the material have adequate resistance, the researchers found, and perform as expected when in contact with hot meals. Still, they are not yet satisfied and are experimenting with adding natural gum to harden the product.

Source: Milenio (sp)

New malting plant will trigger cultivation of 140,000 hectares of barley

By

César Hernández

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September 19, 2018

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Grupo Modelo's Zacatecas brewery is one of the largest in the world.

Multinational brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev has opened Mexico’s largest malting plant, a US $60-million investment in Calera, Zacatecas.

The facility will not only supply malt to the brewer’s Mexican division, Grupo Modelo, but give a boost to agricultural production in the region in which it is located.

By next year it is expected to support barley production on 140,000 hectares of farm land in the state because it will require more than 200,000 tonnes of barley per year, most of which is expected to be provided by Zacatecas producers.

Grupo Modelo’s sustainability and agribusiness director, José Luis Taylor, explained that annual malt extract yield is expected to grow 135%, from 78,000 to 183,000 tonnes.

As well as benefitting local farmers by buying their barley, the company will introduce new barley varieties and help improve farming techniques.

With “the largest brewing plant in the world and the largest malting plant in Mexico,” Grupo Modelo is reasserting its commitment with Zacatecas to create more jobs and boost the farming sector, Taylor said.

The Calera facility is also shifting toward environmentally friendly production. Taylor explained that the plant’s electrical supply is generated by a wind farm in Puebla.

Grupo Modelo’s beer brands include Corona, Modelo and Pacífico. It is Mexico’s biggest beer maker.

Source: El Financiero (sp)

Fired prosecutor will reopen Odebrecht case as head of intelligence unit

By

MND Staff

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September 19, 2018

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Nieto: handling of Odebrecht case has been 'shameful.'

Mexico’s former electoral crimes prosecutor, fired by the current federal government, has vowed to reopen the corruption investigation involving Brazilian construction company Odebrecht.

Santiago Nieto, who has been chosen to head the Finance Secretariat’s Financial Intelligence Unit, told the news agency Reuters that it was “shameful” how little had been done to investigate bribes that Odebrecht executives said were paid to secure public infrastructure contracts in Mexico.

The federal Attorney General’s office (PGR) dismissed Nieto in October 2017 supposedly for violating its code of conduct, but his removal came just two days after the newspaper Reforma published the ex-official’s revelation that he had received a letter from former Pemex CEO Emilio Lozoya pressuring him to clear his name of corruption allegations.

Lozoya was accused of accepting US $10 million in bribes from Odebrecht in exchange for the awarding of a contract for work on a refinery in Tula, Hidalgo, and later funneling funds to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) to help finance President Enrique Peña Nieto’s 2012 election campaign.

Nieto claimed in March that the investigation into Lozoya was the real reason he was fired and says his dismissal was illegal.

“It’s shameful that Mexico and Venezuela are the only countries in Latin America that haven’t sanctioned anyone,” he said Friday in reference to the Odebrecht case, which has claimed the scalps of high-ranking politicians in countries including Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia and Peru.

“In the case of Odebrecht, and in any other case, the first thing we would have to do is review what there is in the Financial Intelligence Unit related to the case,” he added.

Nieto, rehired by president-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador, will not have access to files and records held by the unit until after López Obrador is sworn in on December 1.

Nieto also spoke more widely this week about government corruption, which he described as “one of the central problems” Mexico has faced over the past six years.

Questioned about accusations of massive embezzlement leveled at Agrarian Development and Urban Planning Secretary Rosario Robles, the former special prosecutor agreed with López Obrador’s recent assessment that she is a scapegoat.

“The term scapegoat [applies] in so far as she is not the only person responsible and the important thing is to find all people responsible in the system of corruption that was developed in the country, looking both to the top and the bottom [of the government hierarchy],” Nieto said.

He added that all cases of government corruption detected by the Federal Auditor’s Office (ASF) have to be investigated, adding that Mexico is ranked 135th out of 180 countries on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (the lower the ranking, the more corrupt a country is considered).

“It’s important to reverse this perception and it can only be done through the fight against corruption and impunity,” Nieto declared.

Official statistics show that the federal government seized just 871 million pesos (US $46.35 million) and US $14.7 million as a result of corruption investigations between September 2017 and June 18, which Nieto called a “terrible” outcome.

López Obrador made combating corruption and ending impunity central to his campaign and has pledged to fight financial crime and tighten money laundering, banking and tax regulations, although he has given few details about how he will achieve it beyond holding himself up as an example to follow.

Once in office, however, he will face a public that is both fed up with the corruption scandals that plagued the current government and expects AMLO, as the president-elect is commonly known, to achieve quick results.

The leftist former mayor of Mexico City led the Morena party to a dominant performance in the July 1 elections, personally securing 53% of the vote in the presidential election, with voters clearly expressing that they were ready for change.

Source: Reforma (sp), Reuters (en)

AMLO announces 1.1 billion pesos for trans-isthmus train project

By

Tony Richards

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September 19, 2018

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isthmus of tehuantepec plans — Big plans were announced for the isthmus in 2015 but little came of them.

Improving train service across Oaxaca’s Isthmus of Tehuantepec has been announced a few times in recent years but nothing much has ever come of them beyond the actual reactivation of the route earlier this year.

Today there was another announcement.

President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador, on a tour of the region today, pledged an investment of 1.1 billion pesos (US $58.55 million) next year in the trans-isthmus train project.

Speaking in Juchitán, where he was met by residents unhappy about the aid provided for earthquake reconstruction, López Obrador said the existing train moves at a turtle’s pace due to the poor condition of the track and curves in the mountains.

The new train will not only be faster but at some point in the future will provide a passenger service as well as freight, he said.

The route, between Salina Cruz, Oaxaca, on the Pacific coast and Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, on the Gulf of Mexico, has frequently been described as a potential rival to the Panama Canal because of the freight it might carry from coast to coast.

Source: El Financiero (sp)

US donation to aid restoration of Puebla monastery’s murals

By

César Hernández

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September 19, 2018

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The Puebla monastery that was damaged in the earthquake one year ago.

The United States Embassy has donated US $200,000 to the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) to help restore a 16th-century monastery in Huaquechula, Puebla.

Construction of the monastery of San Martín de Tours begun in 1531 and was finished in 1580. Built by the Franciscan order, the monastery’s walls are still adorned by remnants of rich murals.

But the building was damaged in the September 19 earthquake last year.

The donation by the U.S. Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation means that INAH will be able to restore a large area of “excellently crafted mural paintings with a great aesthetic, pictorial and historical importance,” said Diego Prieto, the institute’s director.

Restoring the murals began in June and is expected to be completed next year.

Established in the year 2000, the ambassador’s fund has financed the conservation of cultural sites and objects in 120 countries around the world.

Another recent contribution in Mexico was a $500,000 donation for the restoration of a Mayan archaeological site in Palenque, Chiapas.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Military, police executed 2, planted weapons in Puebla confrontation last year

By

MND Staff

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September 19, 2018

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Clip from video footage of the confrontation in Puebla last year.

Soldiers and state police arbitrarily executed two people and planted weapons on two bodies during clashes with suspected fuel thieves in Puebla last year, according to an investigation by the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH).

Two confrontations on May 3, 2017 in Palmarito, a community in the municipality of Quecholac, left four soldiers and six presumed criminals dead as well as a further 26 people wounded. Nine adults and four minors were arrested.

The CNDH also said that military and police mistreated 12 people, including three minors, arbitrarily detained two children and manipulated a corpse.

The investigation revealed “serious violations of human rights, personal liberty and presumption of innocence . . .” the commission’s report said.

It also charged that the federal Attorney General’s office (PGR), the state oil company Pemex, the Puebla Attorney General’s office, the Puebla Secretariat of Public Security and a Puebla state court violated their legal responsibilities in relation to the case.

The PGR, it said, failed to submit copies of its relevant files to the CNDH, which amounts to an “obstruction of the right of access to justice to the detriment of victims, their families and society.”

The CNDH said it was concerned about the “prevailing impunity” of the crime of pipeline theft, stating that those arrested are not referred to the relevant authorities and don’t ultimately face justice.

In addition to outlining its findings, the government-backed but fully independent commission also made a series of recommendations to authorities.

Among those were instructions to the head of the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena) and the governor of Puebla to pay compensation to all victims and to cooperate with investigations into the military and police personnel involved.

The CNDH said the PGR must continue its investigations into the homicides and injuries that occurred on May 3, 2017, and address complaints about irregularities relating to the investigation into the extrajudicial killings of two people.

Pemex should also cooperate with the PGR’s investigations and its facilities shouldn’t be used to hold people who have been arrested, the commission said.

It also called on the governor of Puebla to implement policies to combat pipeline theft in the area known as the Red Triangle, which is notorious for the presence of fuel thieves known as huachicoleros, and to take steps to professionalize the state’s police forces.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Two semi-trailers used to store bodies in Jalisco: fired forensics director

By

MND Staff

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September 19, 2018

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One of two trailers used to store bodies.

There is not just one but two trailers full of unclaimed bodies in Guadalajara, the former head of the Jalisco Institute of Forensic Sciences (IJCF) has revealed.

Jalisco Governor Jorge Sandoval Díaz announced Monday the dismissal of forensics chief Luis Octavio Cotero Bernal for his role in the case of the refrigerated trailer full of bodies. It was shuffled around the Guadalajara metropolitan area last weekend, drawing the ire of residents who complained of fetid odors.

But yesterday, Cotero confirmed the existence of a second trailer that was also used to store corpses due to a lack of space in state-run morgues but unlike the first one it was not removed from IJCF facilities.

“I calculate that there were around 250 [bodies] in the two trailers,” the ex-official told broadcaster Imagén Televisión, although he told the news agency EFE the number could be as high as 300.

Cotero said the first trailer was rented by the Jalisco Attorney General’s office (FGE) in 2013 and that it stored some bodies from 2004 and 2005.

The second was rented three months ago to store more bodies after a surge in deaths due to rising levels of violent crime overwhelmed state morgues.

“They were in a hurry to put a lot [of bodies into the trailer] because the National Human Rights Commission was coming and they were going to hide them in the new trailer,” Cotero said.

Upon dismissing Cotero, Sandoval said that the sanction imposed should be an example for all public servants involved in the custody, transportation and handling of unclaimed corpses, adding that he would not “tolerate dehumanizing treatment or alterations of established procedures.”

But in a radio interview, Cotero denied responsibility both for the decision to acquire the first trailer and for ordering it to leave government facilities and be parked in residential areas of the municipalities of Tlaquepaque and Tlajomulco de Zúñiga.

“Who hired it, who pays the rent, who pays for the maintenance of the motor that cools it, all that is charged to the Attorney General’s office,” he said.

“Even though I had [the bodies] there, by law it’s the Attorney General’s office that has the sole and exclusive power [in the matter]. I don’t have the authority to move them anywhere.”

Source: El Financiero (sp), Animal Político (sp)

Business group’s study gives green light to existing airport project

By

MND Staff

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September 18, 2018

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Airport opponents erected a sign in Teotihuacán on Sunday to voice their opposition. — Airport opponents erected a sign in Teotihuacán on Sunday to express their opposition.

The new Mexico City International Airport (NAICM) project has been given the green light by a study completed by the influential Business Coordinating Council (CCE).

At a press conference today, CCE president Juan Pablo Castañón presented six key recommendations of its analysis:

1. Continue the project at its current site (Texcoco, México state) in order to meet the demand for air travel now and over the next 50 years.

2. Review the cost of materials used in the construction of the project as long as it doesn’t compromise the functionality of the airport.

“We don’t want a sumptuous airport but we do want one that is functional . . .” Castañón said.

3. Review the project’s funding via the securitization of debt.

4. Increase the project’s social impact through development and job creation in surrounding municipalities, all of which are highly-marginalized areas.

“The Texcoco airport’s transformational potential is an opportunity that we must consider,” the CCE chief stated.

5. Don’t suspend the project.

“The cost of suspension [in terms of] time and finances is very high. In addition, the solution to the saturation of the current airport and the benefits for the population would be delayed.”

6. Consider the legal and financial implications of canceling the airport currently under construction, the consequences with creditors and contractors and the resultant reputational risk.

“The NAICM is a project with which all Mexicans win, with a multiplying effect . . . one that will enable new employment opportunities through trade and tourism,” Castañón said.

The CCE president outlined advantages of the new airport such as its projected capacity of up to 135 million passengers a year, which he said was more than double the combined capacity of the current airport and an air force base in México state which president-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador has proposed as an alternative.

Castañón also said the new airport will help airlines cut costs that can be passed on to passengers in the form of cheaper fares.

Javier Jiménez Espriú, López Obrador’s nominee for secretary of communications and transportation, appeared alongside Castañón at today’s conference. He said the incoming government would analyze the CCE study with a view to informing the public about the pros and cons of keeping or scrapping the project.

He also said that the president-elect’s transition team is waiting for a report from the International Civil Aviation Organization about the viability of operating the current airport at the same time as commercial flights leave and take off from the Santa Lucía Air Base.

López Obrador, who will be sworn in as president on December 1, railed against the airport project during the election campaign period and threatened to scrap it, placing him at loggerheads with the private sector.

However, he later softened his stance and said last month that a public consultation, which could take the form of a national survey or referendum, will be held in the late October to decide the fate of the US $13 billion airport project.

Source: El Financiero (sp)

Duarte and his wife built a real estate empire with more than 90 homes

By

MND Staff

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September 18, 2018

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A $7-million mansion in Miami allegedly owned by Karime Macías.

Former Veracruz governor Javier Duarte and his wife Karime Macías built a multi-million-dollar real estate empire made up of more than 90 properties, according to an analysis completed by the newspaper Reforma.

Through the examination of investigations conducted by the federal Attorney General’s office (PGR) and prosecutors in the ex-governor’s home state, Reforma counted more than 40 properties purchased by the couple in Mexico as well as more than 50 additional real estate assets acquired in the United States and Spain.

Duarte is currently in prison awaiting trial on charges of corruption and organized crime after being extradited to Mexico from Guatemala in July 2017, while Macías is reportedly living a life of luxury in London.

From the British capital it is just a short flight to Spain, where according to the Veracruz Attorney General’s office, the couple own apartments in both Madrid and Bilbao.

In the Spanish capital, Duarte and Macías own a 100-square-meter apartment worth more than 5 million euros (US $5.8 million) just meters from the Buen Retiro Park, Reforma said.

However, it’s Florida in the United States where the husband and wife really spent big, purchasing 23 houses, apartments and commercial buildings in Miami alone as well as a further 18 properties in the nearby cities of Homestead, Florida City, Cutler Bay and Coral Gables.

Duarte and Macías’ other U.S. properties, purchased either in their names or those of prestanombres or front men, are located in the exclusive Woodlands residential estate north of Houston, Texas, and in Scottsdale, Arizona. The couple also own five timeshare condominiums in the St. Regis Hotel in New York, Reforma said.

In Mexico, Duarte and Macías reportedly own land, houses and apartments in Cancún, Campeche, Ixtapa, Boca del Río, Valle de Bravo and three affluent neighborhoods of Mexico City.

Twenty-one parcels of land the couple acquired in Campeche are valued at 200,000 pesos (US$10,600) but, according to Reforma, the ex-governor paid 253 million pesos (US $13.45 million) for them through a shell company.

The newspaper said that Duarte’s former “financial mastermind,” José Juan Janeiro Rodríguez, is cooperating with the PGR and in January 2017 supplied the federal department with information detailing bank transfers made by Duarte’s administration that together total 1.39 billion pesos (US $73.9 million at today’s exchange rate).

It also said that Janeiro had promised to provide more evidence in exchange for the cancelation of any arrest warrants issued against him.

In a message accompanying evidence sent to the PGR on a USB flash drive, Janeiro says that as far as he is aware, he was the only person in possession of the information he was supplying.

The information, he said, detailed the origin and destination of some of the public funds allegedly embezzled by Duarte, who was in office from 2010 to 2016 before fleeing the country.

The so-called financial mastermind also said that he was prepared to testify in court if required but added “that can only occur once the arrest warrant or warrants against me have been canceled.”

On February 2, 2017, an arrest warrant against Janeiro on charges of money laundering and organized crime was revoked, Reforma said, but a PGR investigation into tax fraud was not suspended.

Source: Reforma (sp)