8 arrested in lynching; 24-year-old dead after child snatching accusation

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September 12, 2018

The eight people arrested after Monday's lynching.

Eight people have been arrested in connection with the death of a 24-year-old man Monday night at the hands of a lynch mob in Cuajimalpa, Mexico City, wrongly accused of being a robachicos, or child snatcher.

The city’s Public Security Secretariat said in a statement that it received the report of a citizens’ arrest in the town of San Mateo Tlaltenango at around 9:30pm.

Upon arrival, police found that the alleged child snatcher had been seized by a mob and taken to a church, where he was detained and beaten.

The officers requested backup before attempting to rescue the man, but the mob fought back while continuing to beat the victim inside the church.

Police were eventually able to rescue the victim but he died soon after.

However, he gave police a statement before he died, explaining he was in the town visiting a relative. While he was waiting, he said, a young boy saw him on the street and ran away scared, triggering the child-snatcher accusation.

State police arrested eight people between 20 and 59 years of age for obstructing police and medical personnel and resisting arrest.

Source: El Sol de México (sp)

Lawmakers in lower house cut remuneration by 28% with austerity package

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MND Staff

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September 12, 2018

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The federal Chamber of Deputies: new austerity measures.

Lawmakers from Mexico’s soon-to-be ruling party yesterday presented an austerity bill in the lower house of Congress that will reduce politician and public sector salaries and benefits among other cost-cutting measures.

The Republican Austerity Law is an initiative of the National Regeneration Movement or Morena party, which dominated the July 1 elections and now, with its coalition partners, has a majority in both houses of Congress.

Party leader Andrés Manuel López Obrador will be sworn in as president on December 1.

Mario Delgado, Morena’s leader in the Chamber of Deputies, said the austerity law will reduce the monthly remuneration packages of the 500 lawmakers in the lower house by 28% from 128,230 pesos (US $6,720) to 91,507 pesos (US $4,795).

Under the proposed law, deputies’ base salary will remain the same but they will no longer have major medical, life or severance insurance and they won’t receive contributions to individual savings funds.

The legislation also seeks to reduce government spending by cutting the salaries and benefits of high-ranking officials.

All government officials will be incorporated in the public social security system instead of being covered by private insurance benefits.

Other measures proposed by the austerity bill include:

Introducing a moratorium on the creation of new government jobs to avoid the federal bureaucracy increasing in size.
Restricting the use of bodyguards and other personal security measures to occasions or situations in which they are strictly justified.
Limiting the use of government-owned vehicles to tasks and duties that fulfill a justified public function.
Restricting spending on government publicity.
Establishing limits on the number of overseas trips officials can take and prohibiting first-class travel.
Establishing spending limits for a range of expenses including telephone services, electricity, meals and fuel.
Eliminating pensions for past presidents.

The legislation, which has already been unanimously approved by the political coordination committee, a group made up of the coordinators of each parliamentary party, aims to generate savings of 409 million pesos (US $21.5 million) in the final four-month period of 2018.

López Obrador has already said that he intends to adopt personal austerity measures, which include largely eschewing personal security, traveling on commercial flights and slashing his own salary by 60%.

The president-elect, who won 53% of the vote following a campaign based largely on promises to stamp out corruption, has also pledged to sell the presidential plane and convert the president’s official residence into an arts and culture center.

Source: Reporte Indigo (sp), El Financiero (sp)

1,200 families evacuated after gas leak discovered in city of Puebla

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MND Staff

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September 12, 2018

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Evacuees in Puebla this morning after discovery of gas leak.

At least 1,200 families were evacuated from seven neighborhoods in Puebla this morning after a gas leak was detected on a pipeline operated by the state oil company Pemex.

The affected duct is located on Tlatepango Street in the neighborhood of Villa Frontera, about six kilometers north of the state capital’s historic center.

Residents of that neighborhood as well as Vicente Guerrero, San Pedro, Villas del Marquéz, Villas San Gregorio, Venustiano Carranza and Revolución Mexicana were forced to leave their homes early this morning amid fears that an explosion could occur.

Around 180 patients were also evacuated from a hospital in the area as were workers in the Central de Abasto market.

State education authorities suspended classes in 77 schools in the north of the city.

The leak is believed to be the result of an illegal tap on the pipeline, a common practice of fuel thieves known as huachicoleros. The leak was first detected at 4:30am.

State Civil Protection services said just before 9:00am that Pemex personnel had successfully sealed the leak but added that work is still continuing in the area and that “nobody can yet return to their homes.”

A gas cloud accumulated above the affected area in the north of the city and fears remain that an explosion could occur.

Pemex reported the gas leak via its Twitter account just after 7:00am.

“With the support of municipal firefighters, we are working to control a leak on a gas pipeline north of the city of Puebla, caused by a supposed illegal tap. For security, state Civil Protection has evacuated neighboring areas,” the company said.

In another tweet, Pemex said “as soon as the leak was detected, the operation of the pipeline was completely suspended.”

Theft of liquefied petroleum gas is a growing problem in Mexico.

An industry group estimates that the crime has cost Pemex and private gas suppliers as much as 8 billion pesos (US $415.9 million) in lost revenue this year.

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

40 buildings fell during earthquake due to corruption, organization charges

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MND Staff

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September 11, 2018

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Before and after: there was no paperwork for this apartment building in Coyoacán.

An investigation conducted by an anti-graft group has determined that corruption caused the collapse of more than 40 buildings in Mexico City during the September 19, 2017 earthquake.

The probe completed by Mexicanos Contra la Corrupción y la Impunidad (MCCI, or Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity) called Why did my building fall? concluded that the collapses could be traced back to the negligence of city government authorities whose conduct was founded in corruption.

MCCI investigative journalism director Salvador Camarena outlined the nature of the negligence and corruption at the presentation of the investigation results.

“. . . For years, authorities of the government of the Federal District, later Mexico City, ignored residents who reported buildings that violated land use laws, buildings that went up without permits or buildings that had damage from the 1985 earthquake but were rebuilt to be sold off as apartments or new properties,” he said.

The probe also said that 228 people lost their lives in properties built with low-quality materials or in new buildings that were built on old foundations.

Camarena lamented that no officials who “defrauded the trust of citizens from a public position” had been held accountable in a court for their actions.

He also criticized the fact that it is not possible to easily access information about a building’s history including the construction method used.

“Every one of you is standing in a black hole of disinformation with respect to the safety of the building you live and work in . . .” Camarena said.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Was police rescue of baby staged? Official information suggests it was

By

MND Staff

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September 11, 2018

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The rescue video: real or fake? — Screen shot from the rescue video: real or fake?

The discovery and rescue of an 11-month-old baby girl by Federal Police in San Luis Potosí last week was staged, information released by state authorities suggests.

According to the original report, Federal Police officers were on patrol last Wednesday when they heard an infant crying on a vacant lot next to the Río Verde-San Luis Potosí highway.

There they found Mya Fernanda Parra, who had disappeared a week earlier, on a blanket and wearing only a light dress despite the cold.

A video of the supposed rescue shows three officers finding the infant behind a pile of rocks, wrapping her in a blanket, checking her for injuries and placing her in a police vehicle all while Mya continues to cry.

The footage circulated on social media, where its authenticity was first questioned.

“It’s a setup; it looks like they’re acting; bad performance [and] it’s good that they found her but what bad acting” were among the comments made by social media users.

A statement issued yesterday by the San Luis Potosí Attorney General’s office, which includes remarks made by Attorney General Federico Garza Herrera, supports those views.

“We have sufficient evidence to be able to establish that the girl was found by members of the public . . .” Garza said.

News website Mi Rioverde reported that the infant was found by a motorist who parked his car at the side of the road to attend to a call of nature, when he heard Mya crying. After locating the child he handed her over to Federal Police, who then presumably acted out their own “rescue and discovery.”

However, the attorney general stopped short of accusing the Federal Police of staging the video.

“Whether the Federal Police video is a sham or not, he [Garza] said will be determined by the internal organs of that corporation,” the statement said.

“I don’t want to speculate because our obligation is to clarify the facts, arrest those allegedly responsible and place them in front of a judge so that there’s no impunity and that’s what we’re doing,” Garza said.

The statement also said that evidence found at the site where Mya was located could help authorities establish lines of investigation that could lead them to those responsible for the infant’s kidnapping and her grandmother’s death.

Mya disappeared on August 30 while her grandmother was taking her to a daycare center. The woman was found dead later the same day in El Zapote. She had been wounded in the thorax and the abdomen and had bled to death.

The baby girl was taken to hospital after her discovery where she was given a clean bill of health and reunited with her parents.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Relocating departments one of costliest projects ever: Coparmex

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César Hernández

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September 11, 2018

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Semarnat headquarters in Mexico City. New home: Mérida.

The decentralization of federal government departments by moving them out of Mexico City will be one of the costliest projects ever undertaken in the history of public administration in Mexico, warned a business leader.

Gustavo de Hoyos Walther, president of Coparmex, the Mexican Employers Federation, said the relocation of the departments to various other cities will cost at least 125 billion pesos (US $6.5 billion).

He urged the incoming federal administration to perform a “multidisciplinary rigorous technical analysis open to the public” that assesses the pros and cons of the proposed relocation and leads to “making the decision that’s best for the country.”

“The cost of this operation would be equivalent to the Health Secretariat’s 2018 budget, without tallying in additional and indirect costs . . .” said de Hoyos.

If the relocation proposal becomes a reality, “it would become one of the costlier projects in the history of the country’s public administration, one that will not translate into strategic infrastructure like roads, schools, ports or hospitals, but government office buildings.”

He recalled the relocation of the national statistics institute, Inegi, from Mexico City to Aguascalientes after the September 1985 earthquake, a process that cost close to 2 billion pesos and took nearly four years to complete.

Among the first relocations planned are the Environment Secretariat to Mérida, Yucatán, and Tourism to Chetumal, Quintana Roo. The plan has been criticized by unionized workers at the former and hailed by the real estate industry.

Source: Milenio (sp)

700mn pesos for contracts was converted to cash and disappeared

By

MND Staff

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September 11, 2018

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More than 700 million pesos (US $36.4 million) paid to 76 companies contracted by two government departments while headed by current cabinet secretary Rosario Robles were later transferred in cash to beneficiaries at 10 addresses, according to a report by the newspaper Reforma.

The same newspaper reported in February that the Federal Auditor’s Office (ASF) had detected that the Secretariat of Social Development (Sedesol) and the Secretariat of Agrarian Development and Urban Planning (Sedatu) transferred 1.3 billion pesos in 2014 and 2015 to state government entities which then made payments to bogus companies.

Robles remains at the helm of the latter secretariat. She was secretary of the former from December 2012 to August 2015.

Reforma, which said that it has seen ASF information relating to the two secretariats’ diversion of public money, today reported that the funds embezzled by Sedesol and Sedatu under Robles’ administration actually totaled 1.9 billion pesos (US $98.8 million).

The delivery of 708.2 million pesos in cash obtained via the “looting” of the two secretariats, as Reforma described the diversion of resources, had not been revealed before today.

The money was delivered to the 10 addresses by the armored courier companies Tameme, Cometra and Panamericano between December 2014 and December 2017, Reforma said.

According to records obtained by the ASF, six companies subcontracted by Sedesol and Sedatu, along with nine others, ordered the cash deliveries to be made and deposited the funds to the couriers.

The addresses where the largest quantity of cash was delivered — 493.7 million pesos (US $25.7 million) — was the office of the company Servicios Empresariales Helte, which was supposedly located at Sócrates Street 128-3 in the upscale Mexico City neighborhood of Polanco.

On April 26, 2016, almost 50 million pesos were supposedly delivered to Helte by Tameme after the latter company received cash deposits from two other companies — likely bogus — that had received the funds from public broadcaster Radio y Televisión de Hidalgo, which previously had signed contracts and funding agreements with Sedesol.

However, according to people who currently work in the building, Helte has never been located there and the space that it supposedly occupied is now a psychologist’s office.

Reforma reporters also visited all the other addresses where the cash was supposedly delivered and found that one is an abandoned home, one is a rehabilitation clinic and another is the office of a tax specialist.

In Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, where cash is also alleged to have ended up, Reforma found that a currency exchange appeared to have been the recipient while in Cancún an office of the bus company ADO supposedly accepted a cash delivery.

In Villahermosa, Tabasco, the state’s Intercultural University allegedly took delivery of cash diverted from one or both of the federal secretariats. Three other addresses where the money was supposedly delivered don’t exist, Reforma said.

Robles, who in February denounced the allegations published by Reforma as “false,” said via her Twitter account today that “once again my name is involved in accusations without proof.”

She added: “I reaffirm my commitment to transparency [and] insist that the relevant investigations be reviewed and continued so that any [criminal] responsibility is defined and punished.”

In a second tweet today, Robles posted a video of the president of the Mexican Chamber of Mines (Camimex), Fernando Alanís Ortega, praising her work as secretary of social development at an event she attended in Mexico City.

“In the face of the defamation, I’ll just leave this [the video], one of many testimonies of my work in the public service . . .” she wrote.

Source: Reforma (sp)

Mexico’s obesity numbers are up nearly 4 million in 4 years to 24.3 million

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César Hernández

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September 11, 2018

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A bag full of chicharrón makes a tasty snack.

Close to 4 million adult Mexicans joined the ranks of the obese between 2012 and 2016, a result of food insecurity and undernourishment according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

In 2012, 20.5 million adults were considered obese, a figure that has since risen to 24.3 million.

Of the 150 countries assessed by the FAO, Mexico ranked sixth in terms of the percentage of the population that is considered obese.

However, gains have been made — though not in weight — among children. In 2012, 9% of children under five were obese. By 2016 the figure had dropped to 5.2%.

The figures were published in the agency’s study The State of Food Security & Nutrition around the World, which found that worldwide adult obesity rates are worsening, having risen from 11.7% in 2012 to 13.2% in 2016. This means that in 2017 more than one in eight adults, or more than 672 million people, are obese.

The study explained that food insecurity, defined as unreliable access to food, can contribute to overweight, obesity and undernourishment, and that high rates of three conditions coexist in many countries around the world.

Expensive nutritious, fresh foods, the stress of living with food insecurity and physiological adaptations to food restrictions are all contributing factors that put families at risk of suffering overweight and obesity, said the document.

“When household resources for food become scarce, people choose less expensive foods that are often high in calories and low in nutrients,” it continued.

“Food insecurity is associated with low birthweight in infants . . . a risk factor for child stunting, which in turn is associated with overweight and obesity later in life,” said the document.

The FAO study concluded by stating that access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food must be framed as a human right, with priority given to the most vulnerable, paying special attention to children under five, school-age children, adolescent girls and women.

Source: Vanguardia (sp)

Hundreds show up to support a tiny sandwich shop in downtown Mexico City

By

Susannah Rigg

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September 11, 2018

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Supporters line up for a free torta at Mexico City's Tortas Robles.

“Places like this enrich your time in the historic center,” said Roberto Ramiro as we waited in line to get a free torta from Tortas Robles.

The tortas were being given away as part of a “tortathon” to raise awareness of the eviction of this tiny sandwich shop in downtown Mexico City.

Ramiro told me that he has been coming to this hole-in-the-wall torta place for 20 years. He and his family would come to the city’s downtown area to walk about, enjoy the views and all the vibrancy that the central Alameda promotes and have a torta for lunch.

All in all, it would be an inexpensive but memorable day for the family. Now, Ramiro, 33, brings his son for tortas at the same spot, carrying on the family tradition.

But Tortas Robles faces eviction from its location in the iconic building, Edificio Trevi. Earlier in the year, the Robles family were told that the building in which their shop is housed had been sold to make space for a boutique hotel and co-working offices and they would need to be out by December.

The eviction, due to the gentrification of the area, would essentially mark the end of a 70-year-old business that started when the father of the current owner, Guadalupe Robles, sold tortas from a cart upon those very same streets.

Higher rents and increased levels of gentrification mean it would be almost impossible for them to set up shop anywhere else in the area.

The initiative to raise awareness of the eviction was the brainchild of Yigal Schleifer of the food tour company Culinary Backstreets. “Many of us at Culinary Backstreets are very fond of Tortas Robles, not just because of their sandwiches made with love but also because of the history of the shop and the kind of role it plays as a pillar of the neighborhood,” explained Schliefer.

“We were all dismayed when we heard about its possible eviction. We’ve seen this kind of thing happen in some of the other cities that Culinary Backstreets works in: a neighborhood culinary institution is killed off without any consideration of how that impacts neighborhood life.”

It was his dismay that led Schleifer to communicate with his tour guides on the ground in Mexico City to see what they could do. And so came the idea of a tortathon, where Culinary Backstreets would pay for tortas for everyone for one hour in return for each person posting photos of themselves or the tortas on social media with pre-prepared hashtags.

It was proposed to the Robles family and they agreed. At the same time, Culinary Backstreets collaborated with a local organization that is working on the wider issue of gentrification and saving the building. Together they promoted the event far and wide in the hope that people would show their support for the cause.

Little did these two organizations know that the possibility of helping Tortas Robles would inspire hundreds of people to show up, resulting in a tortathon that lasted from 1:00pm until almost 5. The line of people prepared to wait hours for their torta, take a photo of them eating it and post it on social media in the hope of helping this iconic neighborhood staple went around the block.

“It’s worth waiting,” said Ramiro when questioned about how he felt about the two-hour wait in the sunshine for a sandwich. For him, these kinds of initiatives are positive and are worth making time for. Tortas Robles holds fond memories for him and in addition he believes that the historic center of the city can be tidied up without these places being moved out.

Francisco de Santiago Lázaro, a well known and loved food expert in Mexico City, is Culinary Backstreets’ on-the-ground tour guide. He has been frequenting Tortas Robles since 1981 when it was in a larger location just around the corner from its current spot. For him, the historic center of Mexico City still has a small neighborhood feel and these kinds of affordable food spots play an integral part in keeping that feeling alive.

The tortas remain economical, the most expensive being 38 pesos, and the family’s intention is that everyone can afford to eat there. For de Santiago this is another reason why places like Tortas Robles need to be protected.

“They offer a gastronomic richness, without their first interest being economic,” he said.

It is perhaps not hugely surprising that many journalists arrived at the tortathon since Tortas Robles has always had a link with the national newspaper offices in the area. Back in the heady days of print journalism, journalists needed fast nutritious food that they could scarf down quickly if necessary.

“They could be eating a torta and suddenly hear that the president was nearby,” explained de Santiago. “Then they could just grab their torta to go and run to take a photo of the president or get an interview.”

Many photojournalists through the years have paid their respects to their favorite food joint with photos of celebrities that they gave to the Robles family. One wall of their tiny torta shop is decorated with black and white photos of celebrities like Marylin Monroe and Cantinflas. “It is like a tunnel of history,” de Santiago explained. “Many of those photos were extras that were never printed anywhere, from the photographers’ personal collections.”

As the line of people moved slowly, one by one happy customers appeared with their sandwiches filled with breaded chicken, Oaxaca cheese, sausage or ham. They took photos with signs promoting the cause, using hashtags like #saverobles and #tortaspalabanda posting them across social media.

The atmosphere was one of community. No one complained about waiting too long or about being hungry, they all just seemed glad to be able to support a cause that was important to them. In the end, for most people there, the possible eviction of Tortas Robles is a symbol of the bigger picture of gentrification in a city that is expanding, evolving and modernizing at a fast pace.

The overall consensus seemed to be that modernization doesn’t have to mean the complete removal of these long-running businesses which are part of what makes it special.

UNESCO declared Mexico City’s historic center a cultural heritage site in 1987. The community group working to save the building argues that cultural heritage should not simply include protecting architecture and building facades but the small businesses that also play a huge role in the cultural heritage of a city.

Having finished my torta, I wandered to a nearby perfume shop, Perfume Tacuba 13, which has been selling scents and oils for over 80 years. As I waited my turn to pick my scent from the shelves of old perfume bottles, I chatted with an elderly gentleman. He told me he had been coming to the shop since he was a child.

He said it had barely changed and I could see the memories brought back by the scents and the sights flooding through his mind as we spoke. I was standing in a place full of history, full of memories.

The historic center of Mexico City has walls that whisper the secrets of Mexico’s past, but the tastes, smells and sounds also play a huge role in what makes it so special.

Susannah Rigg is a freelance writer and Mexico specialist based in Mexico City. Her work has been published by BBC Travel, Condé Nast Traveler, CNN Travel and The Independent UK among others. Find out more about Susannah on her website.

Jalisco furniture makers to help supply new Ikea store

By

César Hernández

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September 11, 2018

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The Swedish furniture giant Ikea is saying very little about its plans for Mexico but Jalisco’s economic development secretary filled in a few of the blanks yesterday.

José Palacios Jimémez told the newspaper Informador that there was a three-year-long negotiation process between the company and state authorities and the municipality of Guadalajara.

He said the world’s largest furniture retailer will not only open its first store in Mexico next year, but it will also operate a brand new production facility.

Palacios said Ikea plans to work with Jalisco manufacturers. “That means that a lot of what it will be selling will be made by Jalisco furniture makers.”

He predicted that the state’s furniture manufacturing sector will experience an “unprecedented” boost with the arrival of Ikea. “Jalisco might not be the top furniture manufacturer [in Mexico], but we are in second place . . . .”

The secretary said the retailer chose Guadalajara for its first Mexican venture after considering the region’s competitive advantages, as the municipal and state governments offered a streamlined process to get started.

Palacios stressed that there were no other incentives, either tax or land-related.

He declined to mention investment and employment figures regarding the new store and factory, citing confidentiality agreements.

Ikea expressed interest in coming to Mexico over a year ago and opened an office in Mexico City. Last month, job postings for Mexico appeared on its website but otherwise the company has been keeping its plans secret.

Source: Informador (sp)