NAFTA down to the wire: Canada’s role will be determined by Sunday

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September 29, 2018

A vehicle burns yesterday in Guanajuato, set on fire by fleeing gangsters.

A clash between Federal Police and suspected cartel members in Guanajuato yesterday left 10 people dead and five others injured, authorities reported.

The nearly two-hour-long confrontation took place in Jerécuaro, a municipality in the south of the state that borders both Michoacán and Querétaro.

The state government said the dead are believed to be members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), considered Mexico’s most powerful and dangerous criminal organization.

A Federal Police officer and a paramedic are among the five people who were wounded.

According to information from the state’s security cabinet, personnel of an elite division of the Federal Police were conducting a patrol in several vehicles in the community of Purísima del Zapote when they were shot at by armed men in a pickup truck.

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The police pursued the vehicle for several kilometers before arriving at a point where, according to authorities, around 40 armed men wearing vests and other clothing emblazoned with the CJNG initials were waiting inside several vehicles.

The suspected cartel members shot at police who deployed a strategy that forced them to retreat towards a ravine as the gunfire continued.

At the same time, military police were involved in another confrontation, the newspaper El Universal reported.

Another group of Federal Police officers was later attacked, reportedly in retaliation for the previous clashes, as was a state police unit.

The unidentified suspects then set a pickup truck and a trailer on fire on the highway to Querétaro, reportedly to hinder the pursuit of fleeing cartel members.

Federal Police commissioner Manelich Castilla Craviotto later attended the scene of the confrontation along with other officers.

Police seized seven pickup trucks, of which four had been reported stolen, as well as seven firearms, improvised explosive devices and a makeshift grenade launcher.

Guanajuato was the most violent state in Mexico in the first eight months of 2018, according to sheer homicide numbers, with 1,671 victims. A large percentage of the deaths are believed to be linked to the crime of petroleum theft.

The CJNG is involved in a turf war in the state with the crime gang known as Santa Rosa de Lima over the illicit fuel trade and to control extortion and kidnapping rackets, El Universal said.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Spanish hotel group to open first stage of US $750-million investment

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September 28, 2018

Illustration of the new Costa Mujeres resort.

Spanish hotelier Palladium Hotel Group will open the first stage of a new US $750-million all-inclusive mega resort located in Costa Mujeres to the north of the city of Cancún on November 1.

The resort will have 1,500 hotel rooms in two luxury properties, the adults-only TRS Coral and the family-friendly Grand Palladium.

The construction of the first stage of Palladium’s ambitious project entailed the investment of $280 million, the firm’s chief sales and marketing officer told a press conference.

“Mexico continues to be an important and strategic destination for us,” said Sergio Zertuche Valdés, explaining that the chain’s Mexico footprint represents 44% of its presence in the Caribbean and 25% of its 13,000 available rooms worldwide.

He said Mexico is also a preferred destination for international tourists, especially those from the United States and Canada. This is coupled with the advantages presented by Mexican hospitality, kindness and quality of service.

Costa Mujeres is located some 30 kilometers from the Cancún international airport, in a zone that Zertuche asserted is just beginning its growth spurt.

Once finished, Palladium’s new resort will have five hotels and a total of 3,500 rooms. Following the November opening of the first two hotels, the firm plans to open two more Grand Palladium properties and another TRS.

Source: Sipse (sp)

Energy companies reassured during closed-door meeting with AMLO

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September 28, 2018

President-elect López Obrador yesterday assured private energy executives that their contracts will not be canceled if they meet existing terms, the head of Mexico’s largest oil producers’ association said.

López Obrador, who has been a vocal critic of private investment in the oil sector, met with gas and oil executives in a closed-door meeting in Mexico City and reportedly struck a diplomatic tone.

“The president-elect told us on various occasions that they will respect contracts so long as we obviously comply with all of the contracts’ commitments,” said Alberto de la Fuente, president of the AMEXHI producers’ group.

“We left feeling at ease that our contracts will be honored,” added de la Fuente, who is also the CEO of Royal Dutch Shell in Mexico.

The president-elect, who will take office on December 1, has said previously that all contracts awarded to private and foreign companies will be reviewed for corruption although incoming finance secretary Carlos Urzúa said in July that if no irregularities are detected, the contracts will be honored.

López Obrador didn’t offer comments to reporters after the meeting but prospective energy secretary Rocio Nahle confirmed that the incoming government will honor contracts already signed.

“We will respect the rule of law and the agreements that have been made with the outgoing government,” she said, adding that the incoming administration would also help companies deal with regulatory delays.

“We made a commitment that we will talk to the regulators, or more to the point that we will review the regulators because there is a constant complaint that they take too much time,” Nahle said.

Later yesterday, López Obrador told a press conference that he didn’t use the meeting as a platform to criticize the 2014 energy reform that allowed private and foreign companies to enter the oil sector formerly monopolized by the state, nor did he blame it for declining levels of oil production.

“It’s not about blaming anybody or saying what a failure the energy reform is. We’re not going to generate that controversy, that debate. It’s about looking forward and rescuing, strengthening the petroleum industry . . .” he said.

López Obrador did, however, present the executives with documents showing that oil production has declined by 44.8% since 2004.

“I’ll give you a fact: when the energy reform was about to be approved they said that for that year they were going to be producing 3 million barrels a day and that prediction failed because 1.8 million barrels a day are being extracted,” he told reporters outside his transition headquarters.

“In other words, 1.2 million [barrels] less than what was estimated, that’s why we have to hurry up and stop the decline, invest in exploration and drilling of wells in order to have enough production of crude and to be able to carry out the refining program to produce gasoline in Mexico and not buy it abroad . . .” López Obrador added.

“That issue was brought up with the business people and a call was made for all of us to work together to strengthen the energy sector.”

Nahle added that the incoming government still plans to review all contracts before any further oil auctions go ahead.

The president of the National Hydrocarbons Commission said earlier this month that there are no plans to suspend oil auctions scheduled for February, providing an early sign that López Obrador is retreating from plans to wind back the 2014 energy reform.

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

Quintana Roo attorney general resigns; new public security chief named

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September 28, 2018

The attorney general of Quintana Roo resigned yesterday a day after the state’s secretary of public security also quit his post.

The resignation of the former, Miguel Ángel Pech, had been expected since his last appearance in state Congress when he said the Attorney General’s office (FGE) was incapable of confronting organized crime and investigating homicides.

Violent crime has plagued parts of Quintana Roo in recent years, especially the state’s largest tourism destination, Cancún.

The newspaper Reforma revealed in August that in a private meeting with state lawmakers, Pech said the FGE lacked qualified police, specialized equipment and resources to tackle crime in the state.

“Every prosecutor has to attend to up to 800 cases. We have 60 positions available for state police but there are no trained personnel to occupy the positions,” Pech said, according to sources who spoke to Reforma.

Even if those positions were filled, the state still wouldn’t have enough police, he reportedly added. “It’s a complex situation.”

Quintana Roo Governor Carlos Joaquín González has named Gustavo Salas Salgado as interim attorney general until a permanent replacement is found.

It’s been a busy week for Joaquín, who confirmed Wednesday that public security secretary Rodolfo del Ángel Campos had resigned.

In his place, the governor appointed Alberto Capella Ibarra, a former police chief of Tijuana and until September 14, security commissioner in the state of Morelos.

Joaquín praised the work of del Ángel, stating that after receiving a “dismantled and demoralized police force” from former governor Roberto Borge, he is leaving his successor a “trustworthy” force with better-paid and better-equipped officers.

Capella, nicknamed “el rambo tijuanense” (Rambo from Tijuana) has been a controversial figure, with critics questioning the security strategies he has adopted and pointing out that when he was in charge of security in Tijuana, homicide rates went up.

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

‘It was all a big show:’ Acapulco mayor sees little purpose in disarming police

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September 28, 2018

The mayor of Acapulco has called the federal takeover of policing duties in the resort city a publicity stunt, echoing the words of a local business leader.

Evodio Velázquez Aguirre told broadcaster Milenio Televisión that the navy-led operation was carried out to execute arrest warrants against two municipal police commanders sought on homicide charges dating back to 2009, which he said he was unaware of.

He declared that executing the warrants was the sole motive for the operation but federal and state authorities seized the opportunity to disarm the entire municipal force and review all its weapons.

“It’s been a big show for the media, of intervention, and we have been supporting and coordinating at all times with the federal and state authorities,” Velázquez said.

He said he was unaware why the two commanders had not been dismissed by his predecessors.

The Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) mayor, whose three-year term ends today, said that governing Acapulco has been difficult, “mainly on security issues,” but defended his record in office.

“. . . I received a broken police force that at that time [2015] was coming out of a work stoppage and wasn’t patrolling the streets,” Velázquez said.

“The municipal police that I hand over today . . . of 1,300 officers, 85% are accredited . . . they passed their confidence tests and their state exams . . . We’ve reduced intentional homicides by 20% and we’ve come out of the 10 cities in Mexico with the highest rates of violence, according to [statistics institute] Inegi. They are hard facts,” he added.

The mayor also said that tourist security protocols adopted in Acapulco have been replicated in other resort cities including Los Cabos, Baja California, and Mazatlán, Sinaloa, and that cruise ship arrivals in the port city have increased from eight per year when he took office to 80.

Meanwhile, the city’s police chief, Max Sedano, who was also detained during Tuesday’s operation, announced yesterday that he had resigned.

He said he had been pressured into making the decision by Guerrero Attorney General Jorge Zuriel de los Santos Barilla and ministerial police chief Esteban Maldonado Palacios.

Sedano also said his office was turned upside down during the disarmament operation and that his gun, two credit cards and a bottle of perfume, among other items, were stolen.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Ex-PRI official accused of corruption released from jail

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September 28, 2018

A former federal lawmaker and high-ranking official of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) was released from prison today after a judge rejected an appeal that challenged his acquittal on corruption charges.

Alejandro Gutiérrez, who served as assistant secretary general of the party’s National Executive Committee between 2015 and 2016 and has also served in both houses of Congress, was placed in preventative custody nine months, accused of embezzlement.

He is alleged to have operated an embezzlement scheme that diverted 250 million pesos (US $13.4 million) to the administration of former Chihuahua governor César Duarte.

The funds were allegedly used to fund PRI candidates in the 2016 state elections.

But the federal Attorney General’s office (PGR) withdrew the charges against Gutiérrez last month, stating it didn’t have sufficient evidence.

A federal judge subsequently ruled that Gutiérrez had no case to answer to.

The government of Chihuahua, now led by National Action Party (PAN) Governor Javier Corral, challenged Gutiérrez’s absolution but Judge Isabel Porras Odriozola ruled that the appeal was inadmissible.

Gutiérrez’s defense said in a statement that the judge determined that the Chihuahua government’s legal counsel is not legally entitled to file such a challenge.

“This ruling confirms that any legal recourse filed by the Chihuahua government will not be successful and consequently once exonerated, [Gutiérrez] must be immediately released,” lawyer Antonio Collado Mocelo wrote.

“This means that the federal judicial power once again confirmed that there was not enough evidence to prove the alleged guilt of Alejandro Gutiérrez.”

Gutiérrez’s release at 4:00am today was confirmed to the newspaper Reforma by Chihuahua Attorney General César Augusto Peniche, who was highly critical of the process and the rulings that allowed it.

“It’s confirmation that federal justice is selective and favors political power. It’s one page more in the history of political corruption that has the country mired in violence and inequality,” he said.

Gutiérrez still faces embezzlement charges in Chihuahua for 1.7 million pesos (US $90,900). He must wear an ankle monitor and is prohibited from leaving the state, Peniche said.

The Chihuahua government has repeatedly clashed with federal authorities over its investigation into corruption during César Duarte’s governorship.

In January, Corral accused the federal government of withholding funds promised to the state in retaliation for its investigation and he had also warned that it would seek to protect Gutiérrez and other former PRI officials from prosecution.

The failure of federal authorities to extradite César Duarte from the United States to face corruption charges has also been a source of tension between the Chihuahua and Mexican governments.

Source: Reforma (sp)

Agreement negotiated after protests against uncompleted public projects

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September 28, 2018

Two days of protests in the indigenous town of Capácuaro, Michoacán, in which more than a dozen vehicles were hijacked and some set on fire, concluded this morning.

Citizens of the town in the municipality of Uruapan took to the streets on Wednesday to demand that municipal authorities complete various public works projects.

Protesters blocked traffic on the Uruapan-Paracho highway and set fire to two cars and a semi-truck.

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Protests continued yesterday with the hijacking of 12 more vehicles and the occupation of the town’s main square. Late yesterday afternoon, government representatives met with the protesters to negotiate.

Talks between citizens and municipal and state officials concluded early this morning with an agreement that the protesters’ demands would be met. Among them were finishing a sports center, providing security, obtaining a garbage truck and concluding street paving work.

In exchange, the latter released the dozen hijacked vehicles they had been holding.

Source: Cambio de Michoacán (sp), Mi Morelia (sp)

Colima Congress fines former governor 515 million pesos

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September 28, 2018

Another ex-governor has been sanctioned by a state Congress after presenting false information regarding borrowed funds that were used to pay for operating expenses.

Mario Anguiano Moreno, governor of Colima from 2009 to 2015, was fined 515.2 million pesos (US $27.5 million) and banned from holding public office for 14 years.

The Institutional Revolutionary Party governor acquired debts of 515 million pesos to pay various operating costs, which is prohibited under the constitution. Money can only be borrowed by states and municipalities to invest in public infrastructure.

Congress also imposed sanctions on Anguiano’s interior secretary and finance secretary, who will be unable to hold public office for five and four years respectively.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Agent of prosecutor’s office dies in lynching incident in Hidalgo

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September 28, 2018