Winemakers gather for annual competition in Querétaro

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August 10, 2018

Vinaltura is one of the Querétaro winemakers that the Concours Mondial will visit.

Mexican wine and tequila are being showcased this week in the city of Querétaro at the second annual Mexico Selection of the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles.

Thirty-five judges from Mexico and around the world will taste 500 entries from Mexican wine and tequila makers during the three-day event, which began August 9.

The event also features workshops on topics such as the history and characteristics of winemaking in Mexico and the difficulties facing wine producers in the state of Querétaro.

Vineyard and winery tours are also on the agenda, with visits planned to Paso de Serra, Vinícola Vinaltura and Finca Sala Vivé to sample wines and get to know the state’s winemaking projects.

The Concours Mondial de Bruxelles is an international wine competition held in a different country every year. This week’s event in Mexico is a regional one that his held annually in a different winemaking region.

According to the Concours Mondial, Querétaro’s wine industry is growing at the rate of 70 to 100 hectares of new vineyards a year, with an average of two to three new wineries opening in the same period.

Like many other winemaking regions of the world, the state’s winemakers are using tourism to promote their wines.

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Auditor accuses ex-governor Duarte of embezzling 6 billion pesos

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MND Staff

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August 10, 2018

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The Interpol Red Notice for César Duarte.

The Chihuahua Auditor’s Office (ASE) has filed criminal complaints against former governor César Duarte and 42 officials who served during his administration for the embezzlement of 6 billion pesos (US $317 million).

The irregularities relate to the state’s public accounts for the 2016 fiscal year, and were first detected by the Chihuahua Congress and referred to the ASE for review.

The Auditor’s Office said the complaints, filed with the state Attorney General’s office, are the result of an exhaustive technical investigation which detected the possible crimes of diversion of resources, bribery and embezzlement, among others.

The auditor’s report said that various officials in Duarte’s government “failed to comply with the principles of legality, honesty, loyalty, impartiality and efficiency, which they should observe in carrying out their employment.”

Auditor Jesús Raymundo Mata said the 6 billion pesos disappeared between January and October 2016, when Duarte’s six-year term concluded.

The former Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) governor is a fugitive from justice and believed to be living in the United States.

Current Governor Javier Corral has accused the federal government of protecting his predecessor from corruption charges by dragging its feet on attempts to extradite him to Mexico.

Earlier this year, the Chihuahua government staged a protest march to Mexico City, whose aim, in part, was to pressure the federal government to expedite the process to bring Duarte home to face justice.

But not even an Interpol Red Notice, first issued a year and a half ago, has succeeded in securing his arrest.

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

Bug strikes UK tourists in Quintana Roo

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César Hernández

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August 10, 2018

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British tourists have been falling ill in Cancún and other destinations in Quintana Roo.

As if huge mounds of sargassum seaweed on Quintana Roo’s beaches were not enough, Moctezuma is taking his revenge on British tourists in Cancún and the Riviera Maya, where nearly 50 have fallen ill.

According to a report by the Daily Express newspaper, a number of British tourists have been struck by a crippling bug that has resulted in sickness and diarrhoea, prompting warnings from that country’s health authorities.

The newspaper said that as many as 48 tourists have been affected by the illness, caused by the cyclospora bug, which comes from food contaminated with human feces.

Lawyer Nick Harris, who represents victims of past and current outbreaks, said: “The current number of victims is just the tip of the iceberg and this is now obviously out of control again but should have been avoided.

“People should have been warned before traveling so that they could make an informed choice. This is beyond belief.”

He has urged travelers to ask for a cyclospora test, otherwise there is a risk that “someone will die before the problem is treated seriously.”

Richard Elson of Public Health England said, “We strongly urge people to maintain a high standard of food, water and personal hygiene when traveling to the Riviera Maya coast in Mexico and to be aware of the risk of infection from a food and water bug, cyclospora.”

Health records show 78 British travelers were affected by the bug last year, while 443 fell ill the year before.

Source: Daily Express (en)

38 bodies have been found in hidden graves in Guadalajara

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MND Staff

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August 10, 2018

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Bodies are recovered from a hidden grave at an abandoned house in Guadalajara.

Authorities have found 38 bodies in six hidden graves in the metropolitan area of Guadalajara, Jalisco, since June 6, all of them in abandoned houses.

Officials from the Jalisco Institute of Forensic Science recovered the bodies of nine men and one woman this week from a property in the Villa Fontana Acua housing estate in Tlajomulco, a municipality located to the south of the state capital.

Ten bodies were also recovered last weekend from a clandestine grave in a house in the Santa Elena de la Cruz neighborhood, near Guadalajara’s historic center.

According to state Attorney General Raúl Sánchez Jiménez, the involvement of members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) has been confirmed in both cases and two people are currently under investigation.

With regard to the Tlajomulco case, Sánchez said that as in other cases in the municipality, criminals used an abandoned house to dispose of the bodies.

“[The houses] don’t have basic services, there is no water or electricity, the doors are falling down, the windows are covered with newspaper, cardboard or blankets . . . They’re properties that maybe the owners couldn’t pay for or they didn’t like the area anymore and they abandon them. These people [criminals] arrive and take possession of them,” he said.

The latest discovery follows the recovery of seven bodies last month that were buried in the backyards of four abandoned homes on the same street in the municipality’s Lomas del Mirador neighborhood.

More bodies were also found last month in two abandoned homes in the Chulavista housing estate in Tlajomulco, on a property in the municipality of El Salto and in a makeshift grave in the neighborhood of La Mezquitera in Tlaquepaque.

The Attorney General’s office and the Tlajomulco municipal government are now seeking to develop a strategy in conjunction with the National Workers’ Housing Fund (Infonavit) to combat the abandonment of homes and to avoid organized crime taking possession and using them to sell drugs, commit murders and dispose of bodies.

There are currently 15,000 abandoned houses in Tlajomulco, according to municipal data.

An increase in violent crime in Jalisco this year has included the kidnapping and murder of three film students in March, the disappearance of three Italian men in January and an attack on the former attorney general in May.

The Jalisco New Generation Cartel is suspected of being involved in all three cases.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Nearly two tonnes of powder believed to be cocaine seized in Guerrero

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Tony Richards

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August 10, 2018

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Marines guard packages of white powder seized yesterday from a boat in Guerrero.

Federal forces arrested an Ecuadorian citizen and seized nearly two tonnes of what appeared to be cocaine in southern Guerrero yesterday.

An armed forces aircraft first spotted a small vessel with a suspicious cargo about 160 kilometers southeast of Acapulco.

The Eduardoño-made boat with two big outboard motors was forced to the shore by four navy vessels and three aircraft. At least nine people jumped off and fled when the boat hit the beach at Punta Maldonado in the municipality of Cuajinicuilapa but only one was arrested.

On board were 75 packages of white powder weighing 1,860 kilograms.

Authorities are searching for the other occupants of the vessel.

Source: Quadratín (sp)

Decomisa la Marina casi 2 toneladas de cocaína en costas de Guerrero

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Kidnap victim freed in Michoacán after 10-million-peso ransom demand

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César Hernández

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August 10, 2018

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Yesterday's rescue of kidnap victim Joel Argueta.

A Michoacán businessman kidnapped on July 27 was rescued by a team of police and marines yesterday.

The kidnappers had demanded a ransom of 10 million pesos (US $530,000) for Contepec gas station owner Joel Argueta Pizaña, who is also municipal leader of the Morena party.

The state’s anti-kidnapping agency, Federal Police and marines followed the kidnappers’ trail after Argueta’s family made a first ransom payment of 280,000 pesos (almost $15,000) and filed a formal complaint.

Investigators discovered that Argueta was being held on a ranch in the eastern, mountainous region of the state near the México state border.

The kidnappers opened fire on authorities as they approached the ranch but the firefight was short. Two men were arrested and the kidnap victim freed and transferred to a hospital to be treated for malnutrition.

The two men who were holding Argueta are believed to be part of the gang, Los Viagra.

Argueta was the second kidnapping victim to be rescued this week. A seven-year-old girl who was abducted from Uruapan on July 30 was found safe Tuesday in Morelia.

Her captors demanded a ransom of 1.5 million pesos (about US $79,500) but they were tracked down by state officials who tapped five telephone lines to determine their location.

There have been 17 reported kidnappings so far this year in Michoacán. There were 26 cases last year and 25 the year before.

Source: El Universal (sp)

80 market stands destroyed or damaged in Querétaro fire

By

Tony Richards

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August 10, 2018

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Aerial view of the Querétaro market during this morning's fire.

Fire damaged at least 30% of the Tepetate market in the city of Querétaro this morning.

Civil Protection personnel, volunteer firefighters and soldiers of the Mexican army brought the fire under control, but not until it had destroyed more than 25 market stands and damaged at least 50 others.

According to some vendors, heavy rains caused a short circuit in the market’s electrical system, igniting a fire in the clothing area at about 4:30.

The fire was brought under control by about 7:30 and clean-up work has now begun. There were no casualties.

Located in the city’s historic center, the market is one of the oldest in Querétaro and houses about 270 vendors.

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

Entertainment, shopping center to open in Metepec in the fall

By

MND Staff

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August 9, 2018

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An illustration of Town Square Metepec, to open in November.

A 6-billion-peso (US $321-million), 90,000-square-meter shopping and lifestyle complex featuring a family entertainment center bearing the National Geographic insignia will open in November in Metepec, México state.

Developed by Thor Urbana, one of Mexico’s leading real estate investment and development companies, Town Square Metepec will feature a variety of stores, multiple restaurants and a range of entertainment options.

Thor partnered with the international family entertainment and media company iP2Entertainment to bring National Geographic Ultimate Explorer (NGUX) into the project.

“We’re very proud of being the first location of the new National Geographic Ultimate Explorer center in Mexico,” Thor Urbana co-CEO Jimmy Arakanji said in a statement.

Across floor space exceeding 2,000 square meters, the NGUX center will offer “amazing” experiences to visitors such as traveling into space or to the depths of the oceans, the company said, adding that it will inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers, astronauts, biologist and oceanographers.

“. . . We’re betting strongly on the local market and we know that Mexicans will continue to look for different recreational places to have unique experiences,” Arakanji said.

“Without a doubt, this will widen our entertainment offerings and it changes the way cities are planned and the way that we build real estate projects in our country.”

Construction of the center, around 10 kilometers southeast of the state capital Toluca, began 26 months ago and has generated 2,800 jobs.

Enrique Morán, Thor’s marketing and public relations director, said the company expects 1.5 million people to visit the new complex annually.

Town Square Metepec was designed by Boston-based architectural firm Elkus Manfredi, which has also designed a number of well-known shopping centers in the United States including Americana at Brand in Glendale, California, The Grove in Los Angeles and CityPlace in Palm Beach, Florida.

Source: El Sol de Toluca (sp)

New labor secretary will push to raise minimum wage, doubling it in the north

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MND Staff

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August 9, 2018

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The new government’s nominee for labor and social welfare secretary has pledged that Mexico’s next government will work toward increasing the minimum wage, and even double it in the north of the country.

The current daily minimum wage is 88.36 pesos (US $4.72), seven pesos below the threshold set by the federal government for well-being.

Luisa María Alcalde told broadcaster Radio Fórmula yesterday that she will approach Mexico’s central bank to discuss the issue.

“The idea is to talk with the Bank of México, we have already been speaking with the business sector and with workers’ organizations. What is clear and what I can assure you is that we will push for an increase to the minimum wage, it will double in the north of the country,” she said.

“The idea is that gradually we’re going to rescue the minimum wage so that any woman or man who lives from their work can live with dignity,” Alcalde added.

She said that projects planned for the south and southeast of Mexico — such as the Cancún-Palenque train and the development of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec — will drive economic growth and enable the wage growth to occur.

Alcalde accused the current government of failing to adequately address the wage issue, which in turn has left workers facing wage stagnation.

Another supporter of an increase is a national business organization, establishing yet another piece of common ground with the left-leaning Morena party of incoming president Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

The Mexican Employers’ Federation, or Coparmex, pushed hard in late 2017 for an increase in line with the well-being level set by Coneval, the social development agency, and it is doing so again now.

Coparmex head Gustavo de Hoyos said today he would like to see the wage raised to at least 100 pesos by the end of the year, observing that he had met with Alcalde and found there were commonalities regarding an increase in line with a level established by the United Nations.

He also said it was “one of those subjects in which we concur significantly with the new president” and hoped the agency that sets the wage would meet soon so as to finish the year with a wage possibly as high as 102 or 103 pesos.

Meanwhile, Alcalde also spoke yesterday regarding the plan to move the Secretariat of Labor and Social Welfare to León, Guanajuato, one of several departmental moves planned by López Obrador.

She said there was no hurry nor a set timeline but didn’t rule out the possibility that the department might have shifted there by the start of next year.

Alcalde also said she was aware of the constraints raised earlier in the week by Guanajuato Governor Miguel Márquez, who warned that the state doesn’t have the necessary infrastructure to accommodate the move and resulting influx in population.

She said the incoming administration was aware of the limitations.

“Of course, we understand that there could be certain problems so the idea is that it [the move] is going to be gradual,” she said.

“I don’t think that there will be any problem and we’re going to convince [the governor] that, on the contrary, this is an idea that intends there be development in the whole country, so that not all the secretariats are centralized, which will help make growth more even across the nation’s territory,” Alcalde explained.

The 30-year-old law professor and former federal deputy has published several articles advocating for higher wages in Mexico.

The youngest member of López Obrador’s cabinet, she will be charged with introducing the apprenticeship scheme called “Youths building the future.”

Alcalde said the program will be central to the new government’s plan to provide employment opportunities to the nation’s young people.

López Obrador and his cabinet will be sworn in on December 1.

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

If vaquitas disappear they can be cloned, says environment chief

By

César Hernández

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August 9, 2018

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The strategy to rescue the vaquita porpoise was not a failure, the environment secretary said yesterday, because specialists were able to collect the genetic material necessary to clone the endangered species.

Rafael Pacchiano Alemán said his department is still focusing on removing gillnets in the upper Gulf of California, “an effort that should never end. I hope that we never reach the cloning scenario, but everything is ready if required.”

The gillnets are used by fishermen to catch totoaba, another endangered species whose swim bladders sell for up to US $100,000 in Asia. Totoabas and vaquitas are endemic to the same area, and the illegal fishing of the former has led to the near extinction of the latter.

Pacchiano said the vaquita rescue plan was thwarted by the involvement of international criminal organizations that are involved in smuggling and selling the bladders, making the eradication of gillnets a complex task.

“We have taken up the fight; today we leave the country with close to 30 vaquitas, a number experts say can still recover,” Pacchiano said during a presentation of his secretariat’s achievements in the past year.

“We now have tissue and blood samples, the complete genetic structure, all that is in the San Diego Zoo and it opens the doors to scenarios that were unthinkable before,” the environment secretary said.

However, current cloning techniques have low success rates, even when working with familiar species; cloning a wild species like the vaquita would require a large genetic sample and fertile female specimens kept in captivity, a feat that has proven unsuccessful.

Pacchiano also spoke regarding a recent decision of the United States Court of International Trade, which ordered the U.S. government to impose a ban on Mexican seafood imports caught using gillnets as a measure to protect the endangered porpoise. He said that the Mexican embassy is preparing a response.

“There is not a single product that has been fished using gillnets,” he said.

Mexico’s response will provide information on the fishing techniques that have replaced the use of gillnets in the vaquita’s habitat.

Source: Milenio (sp)