Border issues, steel and tomatoes on the agenda at Mexico-US CEO conference

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April 13, 2019

Business leaders Salazar, left, and Donohue, right, flank López Obrador. — Business leaders Salazar, left, and Donohue, right, flank López Obrador in Mérida yesterday.

Border issues, metal tariffs and the tomato trade were all on the agenda at a meeting between Mexican and United States business leaders in Mérida, Yucatán, yesterday.

The United States-Mexico CEO Dialogue, a biannual event organized by Mexico’s Business Coordinating Council (CCE) and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (USCC), was also attended by government officials from both countries, including President López Obrador.

Both business groups called on United States President Donald Trump to stop his threats to close the border, where recent delays caused by a redeployment of U.S. border agents cost Mexican exporters an estimated US $800 million a day.

A complete closure of the border would have a devastating impact on trade between the two countries, which is worth about half a trillion dollars a year.

USCC president and CEO Tom Donohue told a press conference that the United States should exempt both Mexico and Canada from steel and aluminum tariffs imposed by Trump last year before the U.S. Congress ratifies the new North American trade deal reached in November.

He described the relationship with Mexico as a top priority, adding “that is why we are the first out of the gate to warn against the disastrous consequences of closing the U.S.-Mexican border.”

López Obrador, who was seated next to the business leader, applauded warmly.

The lower house of Mexico’s Congress this week approved a landmark labor reform package, legislation that is considered crucial for the ratification of the new North American trade agreement in the United States.

In turn, Mexico and Canada want the U.S. to drop the metal tariffs imposed on national security grounds last June before their respective legislatures move to ratify the new trade pact, which will replace the 25-year-old NAFTA.

Another issue that is hindering the process to ratify the new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) is migration.

In addition to threatening to close the border, Trump said on April 4 that his administration could also impose tariffs on Mexican auto imports in one year if Mexico doesn’t do more to stop northward flows of migrants.

Mexican and US politicians and business leaders at the conference in Mérida.

Despite Trump’s threats, CCE president Carlos Salazar said at yesterday’s press conference that he hoped that the United States government understood the importance of keeping the border open.

He also repeated a Mexican government line that trade and migration are separate issues and one shouldn’t be allowed to affect the other.

“. . . Let’s not confuse migration problems with trade problems and industry problems,” Salazar said.

López Obrador, who since taking office has been careful not to publicly criticize the United States government, continued that approach yesterday, only thanking Trump for “being open to deal with our commercial, migratory and security matters with respect.”

Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard told reporters that a Texan businessman presented a proposal yesterday which called for both Mexico and the United States to invest in infrastructure at the border “to facilitate an orderly exchange both of people and goods.”

He also said that Mexican and United States officials reached an agreement to not allow migration to affect trade and to put an end to delays at the border that have stranded thousands of trucks for up to 20 hours.

“. . . We’re going to try to normalize the situation at the border. What the [United States] administration tells us is that [the reassignment of border agents] is not a political decision, they’re not seeking to harm Mexico but rather they suddenly had too many Central Americans [to deal with],” Ebrard said.

The highest ranking United States official who traveled to Mérida, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, didn’t address the media yesterday but at a dinner Thursday night he thanked Mexico for helping to confront the migration “crisis.”

On the sidelines of the event, Ross met with Economy Secretary Graciela Márquez, who urged the United States to end the metal tariffs.

She also asked Ross to push forward talks aimed at reaching a deal in a dispute between Mexican and United States tomato producers.

Ross’ department said in February that the United States intended to withdraw from a six-year-old trade agreement with Mexico on tomatoes, a move that clears the way for new tariffs to be imposed.

The two secretaries agreed that the U.S. Department of Commerce would continue to seek a new deal that would be beneficial to tomato farmers in both countries.

Márquez and Ross also discussed Mexico’s new plan to protect the vaquita marina porpoise in the upper Gulf of California and agreed to develop a working agenda for future meetings.

Source: Reuters (sp), El Economista (sp), El Financiero (sp)

Guanajuato pueblos lose some of their magic due to security crisis

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MND Staff

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April 12, 2019

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Yuriria, Guanajuato, magical—and violent.

Two Pueblos Mágicos in Guanajuato are fighting to keep the magic alive amid a precarious security situation in the state.

The magical towns of Yuriria and Jalpa de Cánovas (in the municipality of Purísima del Rincón) have both suffered from violence recently and their respective mayors agree that the situation is alarming.

But Salomón Carmona and Marco Antonio Padilla Gómez are fighting back by taking action to guarantee the safety of residents and visitors.

Carmona described the security situation in Yuriria as a “disaster,” telling the newspaper Milenio that armed men recently entered a hospital in the municipality to “finish off” a man they had presumably attacked earlier.

“. . . The scourge of society is that crime is not just in this municipality and not just in Guanajuato, it’s in the entire republic,” he said.

“We’re doing our part to attend to citizens. We’d gone almost two months without a problem on that level,” Carmona added, referring to the hospital shooting.

Yuriria was the second most violent Pueblo Mágico in Guanajuato last year, recording 74 homicides. Only Salvatierra was more violent, with 93 murders.

In Purísima del Rincón, where there were 15 homicides in 2018, Padilla said that police are carrying out additional operations to combat organized crime groups.

“. . . Before they only did one or two [operations] a week, now we’ve increased them, especially on weekends when the [security] situation is worse,” he said.

The seven magical towns in Guanajuato are key tourist attractions in the state and authorities hope that visitor numbers will be strong during Holy Week, which begins on Sunday.

Federal, state and municipal authorities are contributing to a statewide security operation that began yesterday.

Guanajuato used to be considered one of the safest states in Mexico but violence has soared in recent years and in 2018 it recorded the highest number of homicides in the country.

Much of the violence is believed to be linked to pipeline petroleum theft and a related turf war between the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).

Source: Milenio (sp)

Lower house approves labor reform package crucial to new trade accord

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MND Staff

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April 12, 2019

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Labor Party legislators, who voted against the law, demonstrate their opposition to outsourcing.

The lower house of Congress approved a landmark labor reform package yesterday, legislation that is considered crucial for the ratification of the new North American trade agreement in the United States.

A majority of deputies endorsed changes to five different laws including the Federal Work Law.

The reform eliminates conciliation and arbitration boards, replacing them with federal tribunals and a new body called the Federal Center for Labor Registry and Conciliation.

It also democratizes unions by giving workers the right to elect their leaders in free and secret ballots, and unions will be empowered to bargain more effectively on behalf of their members.

The reform also has provisions to protect workers’ human rights and gender equality and stamp out discrimination in the workplace.

“The reform is very clear,” said Mario Delgado, leader of the ruling Morena party in the Chamber of Deputies.

“The authorities must ensure that union leadership is overhauled and that every four years workers vote on their collective bargaining contracts.”

The lawmaker said that Mexico now has the opportunity to put an end to charrismo sindical, a term used to describe union corruption.

The labor reform will be sent to the Senate for debate and a vote. Its approval of the reform is expected later this month.

President López Obrador recently called on the Congress to approve the reform so that Mexico’s labor laws are consistent with provisions set out in the United States-Mexico-Canada agreement (USMCA), which leaders of the respective countries signed in November.

“It’s in our interest to have this treaty and for there not to be any excuse to reopen the negotiation,” he said yesterday.

While Morena party lawmakers in the lower house took the president’s advice, deputies from its coalition partner, the Labor Party (PT), unanimously voted against the reform.

“ . . . If we agree with what this reform sets out . . . why vote against it? Because we think it’s inadequate, we believe that a labor reform that doesn’t include the elimination of outsourcing . . . isn’t a reform that is up to the standard of the fourth transformation,” said PT deputy Gerardo Fernández Noroña, using the term used by the president to describe the change his government will bring to Mexico.

National Action Party (PAN) Deputy Arturo Espadas said the reform had been rushed through and wondered whether lawmakers were “obeying the president of a neighboring country.”

In order for the USMCA to be ratified in the United States, the Democratic Party, which has a majority in the House of Representatives, has said that enforcement of labor provisions in the USMCA is key.

On April 2, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the United States Congress wouldn’t ratify the agreement until its Mexican counterpart approved the labor reform.

An annex of the USMCA, which will replace the 25-year-old NAFTA, explicitly requires Mexican workers to vote on union decisions and their contracts.

Union elections have commonly been rigged in Mexico and workers have sometimes been coerced to vote against their will.

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

Aztec gods of construction are smiling on the writer as building begins

By

Bodie Kellogg

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April 12, 2019

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Rubble goes down the chute in the demolition stage of the renovation.

We have been in the process of renovating our recently acquired pile of bricks for three weeks as of this writing. All of our truly disruptive demolition has taken place over the past three weeks and real construction has begun.

Of the three original laborers, two remain and have been joined by two more. Their capacity for pure destruction is admirable. So far, we have removed three, dump truck loads of rubble and have another two to go.

I utilized tarps and duct tape to erect curtains between the demolition and the still livable portion of the house. This technique is capable of eliminating 95% of the dust generated by concrete saws and rotohammers. However, even with the best of dust prevention measures, the 5% that finds its way into the living space is substantial.

After work the other day, I went to the refrigerator to retrieve a cold beer. When I pulled it out, something did not look quite right. Upon closer inspection, I realized it was the only thing I had seen all day that did not possess a layer of fine dust.

Fortunately, The Captured Tourist Woman fled to Australia after the first week of major demolition and will return when her fine counsel will be required for the installation of the finishes.

Concrete block wall such as this is not standard practice.

By the second week, it was time to start building new interior concrete block walls. The albañil (mason) showed up on Monday morning ready to lay block.

Concrete block has been around for over 100 years and has been used in Mexico for the last 50-plus years. In this area of Mexico, the block is used as a brick replacement and simply serves as infill between reinforced concrete castillos (columns) and dalas (beams).

In other parts of the world, concrete block is used as the manufacturer intended, as a CMU or concrete masonry unit. With a typical CMU the block cavities are filled with reinforcing steel and concrete and the wall becomes a structural component capable of carrying the load of a multi-story building.

On my first morning briefing with our new albañil I explained the process of building a CMU with just a bit of trepidation. My experience with several other albañiles had shown me that many tradespeople will only perform work in the same manner as their father or grandfather or uncle, or whomever they learned from.

I know there are trade schools throughout Mexico, but I have only come across one of the graduates in the last 12 years.

When the albañil said he had no problem putting the concrete and steel in the block cavities, I put my hands in the air, and exclaimed, “Halleluiah.” The ancient Aztec gods of construction have certainly smiled down upon me.

Note the scaffold extensions: creative Mexican ingenuity at work.

I knew that later I would need to make a sacrificial offering to properly demonstrate my gratitude. The yappy chihuahua next door would fit nicely on the stone altar.

My albañil is 32 years old and learned his trade from his father, but had spent a lot time laying block the Mexican way. He was more than willing to place steel and concrete inside the blocks, and expressed his opinion that it had always seemed to be the proper way to use concrete blocks.

After hearing this, I knew I needed to find a second chihuahua.

By the third week of the project, his father became our second albañil and we began the process of replastering the north wall of the house. When I wheeled out the air compressor and the stucco sprayer, they were ready to take their skills into the 21^st century.

I had purposely started on the north wall of the house because it is the least visible of the exterior walls. Since I am mixing color in the last coat of plaster, the north wall gave me a large canvas to hone the new procedures.

Just so there is not any confusion about cementitious coatings, I need to interject a brief explanation. In the countries north of the border, stucco is the cementitious coating applied to the exterior of buildings, while plaster is the proper term for the same type of coating, but on the interior walls.

In other words, stucco and plaster are the very same thing. But since I am in Mexico, I will call it plaster, no matter how or where it’s placed.

Our two albañiles are working with one peón and have mastered the spray and then trowel method of plastering.

When I asked the younger albañil his opinion after the first day with the sprayer, he thought for a minute and then responded, with a big smile. “A toda madre,” which I am told is Spanish for “It’s really swell!”

In my next installment of this continuing saga, we will explore the wonderful and wacky world of residential electrical systems in Mexico.

The writer describes himself as a very middle-aged man who lives full-time in Mazatlán with a captured tourist woman and the ghost of a half wild dog. He can be reached at buscardero@yahoo.com.

Oaxaca Congress is latest to ban plastic straws, bags and Styrofoam

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César Hernández

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April 12, 2019

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State by state, Mexico is steadily implementing bans on disposable plastic objects.

The most recent state to do so is Oaxaca after the state Congress voted yesterday to ban single-use plastic, including plastic shopping bags, straws and Styrofoam objects.

The law gives establishments in the 570 municipalities of the southeastern state one year to get rid of disposable plastics in their inventory.

Municipal administrations have been given a six-month deadline to incorporate penalties in local laws to punish violations of the ban.

The move against single-use plastic in the state started in 2010, when the municipality of San Bartolo Coyotepec officially banned the use of plastic shopping bags.

In October, Oaxaca city banned the use of Styrofoam products.

The state of Veracruz led the new trend in banning plastic with a law last year that called for a reduction in the use of straws and other disposable plastic products.

Straws are also banned in Mexico’s Pueblos Mágicos, or magical towns.

The city of Monterrey, Nuevo León, has ruled that starting next year the use of straws will be banned, and a new law is in the making that will also ban plastic shopping bags.

Tijuana, Baja California, and Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, have implemented a similar ban on plastic bags, with the latter including straws in its regulations.

Guerrero has also banned those products, along with disposable plastic cutlery and Styrofoam products.

Several municipalities in México state have implemented similar regulations.

At least 16 states — Aguascalientes, Baja California, Baja California Sur, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Guerrero, México, Michoacán, Nuevo León, Oaxaca, Sinaloa, Tamaulipas, Tlaxcala, Veracruz and Yucatán — have in some shape or form started to phase out the use of single-use plastic.

Source: Milenio (sp), Dinero en Imagen (sp)

Guerrero farmers detain soldiers to protest against destroying poppies

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MND Staff

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April 12, 2019

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A farmer and a soldier parley in Guerrero.

Residents of a town in Guerrero detained 40 soldiers this week to demand that they halt operations to destroy opium poppies.

On Wednesday, residents of Campo Morado, a community in the municipality of Heliodoro Castillo, set up a roadblock to prevent the soldiers — presumably deployed to destroy poppy plants — from leaving the upper Sierra region.

Farmers called on the federal and state governments to provide assistance so that local farmers are not forced to cultivate poppies to survive.

The soldiers were allowed to leave the upper Sierra region yesterday.

State security spokesman Roberto Alvarez Heredia denied that the soldiers were actually detained, explaining that residents simply “took advantage of their presence to let them know their concerns.”

The Guerrero government said yesterday that officials from several departments and military personnel had met with representatives from several communities in Heliodoro Castillo.

Preliminary agreements were signed requiring the state to provide support to the communities, as well as machinery to to carry out roadwork.

Another meeting has been scheduled for April 25 in the state capital, Chilpancingo.

The farmers claim that the state government promised last November that drug crops would not be destroyed and that alternative means of support would be provided. Neither promise was kept, they say.

Prices for Mexican opium gum plummeted by as much as 80% last year due to the rise in demand for the synthetic opioid fentanyl among United States drug users, according to an independent study.

The price slump has devastated many communities in Guerrero, which have long depended on opium income.

Source: Milenio (sp)

If you want to study, get a haircut, Chihuahua school tells students

By

César Hernández

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April 12, 2019

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Protesting students in Chihuahua. The sign reads, 'You don't study with your hair.'

Can the length of a student’s hair have an impact on academic progress? For male preparatory school students in Chihuahua the answer is yes: they are not allowed in school if their hair is longer than two centimeters or if it is cut in what the principal’s office described as “modern styles.”

A crackdown yesterday on offending students attending at least one campus of the state-run Colegio de Bachilleres de Chihuahua (Cobach) sparked protests by students, who accused the principal’s office of violating their right to learn.

About 50 students mounted a demonstration outside the school.

State lawmaker Deyanira Ozaeta issued a statement asserting that no school’s rules should be “above the rights enshrined in the constitution,” and that denying the students entry was unacceptable and discriminatory.

The school says students — and parents — are aware of the rules and must sign off on them to be accepted by the school, which has the option to bar access if they do not comply.

The rules require that students tuck in their shirts, wear a belt, black shoes with socks and — for boys — wear their hair short.

The purpose of the rules “is to promote order, responsibility and respect among the youths,” and abiding by them “contributes to and guarantees a structure of appropriate relationships and behavior that promote the community’s development following a culture of legality.”

The school offers free haircuts to any student who wants one.

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

Teachers discuss civics in Mexico City, vandalize in Acapulco

By

Madison Koen

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April 12, 2019

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Guerrero teachers burn furniture and documents in Acapulco. — Teachers burn furniture and documents in Guerrero.

While members of the CNTE teachers’ union met yesterday with federal education officials to discuss civics classes in public schools, teachers from another union were vandalizing government offices in Acapulco.

The Guerrero teachers ransacked the offices as part of continuing demands for the repeal of the 2013 education reforms.

According to Education Secretary Esteban Moctezuma, the seventh meeting between federal authorities and CNTE leaders yesterday in Mexico City was the first time that the two parties have discussed potential changes to curriculum, such as civics, physical education and environmental science classes, with any substance.

Also substantial was the violent attack on the state’s finance department offices by teachers belonging to the CETEG, a Guerrero-based teachers’ union.

Hooded teachers armed with sticks stormed the offices, demanding that employees exit the building before proceeding to break glass in windows and doors, spray-paint the walls and burn chairs and government documents on the sidewalk outside.

The teachers also blocked the Miguel Alemán boulevard for two hours using four public buses before moving on to commandeer a toll booth on the Cuernavaca-Acapulco highway for another two hours.

In contrast, Moctezuma expressed satisfaction with the CNTE meetings, saying they helped clarify doubts about the curriculum laid out in the education reform.

“We believe that the [CNTE leadership] is truly interested in bettering many things in public education, and we want to cooperate so that anyone who has anything to say about public education in Mexico has a space to do so.”

Upon leaving the meeting yesterday, a legal advisor to the government told reporters that federal authorities “are very close” to an agreement with the teachers, who have been demanding the complete abrogation of the previous government’s education reforms.

Reaching agreements with the CNTE has been an objective for many previous governments — federal and state — but no accord has ever completely satisfied the union, renowned for its annual strikes and blockades.

Source: El Financiero (sp)

General with broad experience fighting narcos to head National Guard

By

MND Staff

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April 12, 2019

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Rodríguez speaks at a press conference yesterday after being announced as the head of the new National Guard.

An army general with extensive experience fighting and studying Mexico’s notorious drug cartels will be the commander of the National Guard, President López Obrador announced.

Luis Rodríguez Bucio, an expert in anti-narco strategy and intelligence, is currently in the process of retiring from the army but will begin his new post immediately.

The new security force was declared constitutional last month following the approval of the federal Congress and all 32 states. It will initially be made up of 60,000 members, including military police from the army and navy and Federal Police officers.

Rodríguez, a Michoacán native, has more than four decades of military experience since becoming a cadet in 1973.

In January 1989 he was transferred to the Estado Presidencial Mayor – the institution formerly charged with protecting the president of Mexico – and served as a deputy chief with responsibility for the planning and execution of logistics at events attended by then-president Carlos Salinas de Gortari.

In the early 1990s, Rodríguez rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel and served as deputy chief of an operation to eradicate marijuana and opium poppy plants in the Golden Triangle, a region made up of parts of the states of Sinaloa, Chihuahua and Durango.

Within army ranks, Rodríguez is considered to be the most experienced general in active service because of his expertise in military intelligence and counter-insurgency tactics, and extensive participation in public security tasks.

During his career, the 62-year-old has served as a commander of battalions deployed to operations in Temamatla, México state; Cancún, Quintana Roo; and Monterrey, Nuevo León.

Rodríguez was chief of military intelligence between 2004 and 2010 and between 2011 and 2013 he coordinated anti-narco operations in Nuevo León, Tamaulipas and San Luis Potosí.

The general also been the director of the military’s research and development center and until recently headed up the Council of Delegates of the Inter-American Defense Board in Washington D.C.

In addition to his on-the-ground experience fighting drug cartels, Rodríguez has also studied them extensively.

Senior National Guard officials, from left, are Núñez, García and Trujillo. — Members of the National Guard coordinating body are, from left, are Núñez, García and Trujillo.

In 2003, he completed a master’s thesis entitled “Capacity of armed groups that have emerged in the country and their effect on national security” and in 2016 the general finished a PhD thesis called “The strategy to combat drug trafficking of president Felipe Calderón Hinojosa.”

Rodríguez has also completed military training courses in Germany.

At his morning press conference yesterday, López Obrador also announced other appointments to leadership positions in the National Guard.

Xicoténcatl de Azolohua Núñez Márquez, an army general, Patricia Rosalinda Trujillo Mariel, a Federal Police commissioner, and Gabriel García Chávez, a retired navy admiral, will head up the security force’s operational coordinating body.

Public Security Secretary Alfonso Durazo said “they will be in charge of the fundamental leadership duties of the National Guard” although they will be under the civilian authority of his department.

The military appointments triggered criticism yesterday from the president of the National Human Rights Commission.

Luis Raúl González Pérez said the commander of the force should ideally be someone with experience in civilian security forces.

And if the National Guard is to have leaders with a military background, they should have at least left their positions before being appointed to roles in the new security force, he added.

Rodríguez’s retirement from the army is expected to be formalized in August.

Non-governmental organizations rejected the current government’s plan to create the force, contending that it will only perpetuate the unsuccessful militarization model implemented by Felipe Calderón in 2006.

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

Manzanillo customs personnel to be dismissed for corruption

By

Madison Koen

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April 12, 2019

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President López Obrador has announced that all customs personnel in Manzanillo, Colima, will be relieved of their posts in light of corruption.

“All of those officials are going to go away. We have very bad reports on customs in Manzanillo, and we’re going to wipe it totally clean,” the president told reporters in response to a question about Captain Héctor Mora Gómez, chief of customs in Manzanillo.

Several news outlets reported last week that Mora had not included several businesses he owns in his declaration of assets.

Investigations by the federal Attorney General’s Office and the United States Drug Enforcement Administration have linked him to money laundering, drug trafficking since the 1980s and possible ties to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

Addressing reporters, López Obrador said that a fresh slate for customs in Manzanillo was just the beginning of a nationwide plan to purge corrupt officials from customs offices around Mexico.

“The days of profiting and scheming in customs are over, and in the case of Manzanillo, we’re going to completely clean it out.”

The president said a high-level commission had visited Manzanillo to investigate and discovered institutionalized corruption. He added that Manzanillo was far from being the only customs office guilty of questionable practices.

He called on corrupt officials to resign rather than to risk future scandals.

“Because if they cling to [their posts] thinking that they’re going to sneak by, they’re not going to get away with it, and taking care to follow procedure with dignity, sometimes they are going to be exposed and thrust into the spotlight. It’s not worth it — the days of corruption and impunity are over.”

Despite the investigations into Mora’s activities, the transportation secretary confirmed a week ago that he would remain in charge of Manzanillo customs. In January, López Obrador confirmed Mora’s posting, describing him as an honest person.

Source: Reforma (sp), La Silla Rota (sp)