Soccer fan seriously hurt during pre-game fight in Nuevo León

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September 24, 2018

Soccer fans brawl yesterday in Nuevo León.

A soccer fan is in hospital in serious but stable condition after being stabbed and attacked with stones in a violent confrontation before a match in Monterrey, Nuevo Léon, yesterday.

The young man, a supporter of the C.F. Tigres of the Nuevo León Autonomous University, suffered a seven-centimeter wound to his right side and head trauma in the brawl ahead of the Clásico Regio, a local tournament, against C.F. Monterrey.

Nuevo León Attorney General Gustavo Adolfo Guerrero said today that authorities have identified several people who participated in the clash, adding that warrants for their arrest are now being sought.

Those involved could face charges of assault causing serious injuries and receive prison sentences of up to four years in accordance with state laws governing violence at sporting events.

Guerrero added that the conduct of state police is also being investigated in the light of video evidence showing they were in the vicinity of the location where the clash occurred — several kilometers from the University Stadium — but did not intervene to stop it.

The two clubs involved in yesterday’s match, which ended in a 0-0 draw, today issued a joint statement to say that they had started meetings early this morning “with the objective of finding solutions and compromises to confront the problem that damages our support and our society.”

Both clubs, the statement added, “declare their intention to cooperate with state authorities, fans, media and the [Mexican football] league in the quest to eradicate violence from soccer.”

According to the newspaper El Economista, there are three to four violent incidents every month outside soccer stadiums in Mexico in the lead-up to first and second division matches.

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

Five dead, nine missing after heavy rains in Michoacán

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César Hernández

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September 24, 2018

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Heavy rains that struck Sinaloa, Sonora and Chihuahua last week moved into western Michoacán yesterday, killing five and causing flooding in two neighborhoods.

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The Cutio River and the Parástico reservoir overflowed their banks about 5:00pm yesterday, creating a river of mud and water that flooded 20 homes in the municipality of Peribán.

The floodwaters also swept away vehicles in the neighborhoods of Tirinditas and Río Negro.

Authorities said nine people are missing.

The municipal auditorium was opened as a shelter for those affected by the flash flood and the military enacted its DN-III disaster and victim relief program.

Searchers continue to look for the missing along an eight-kilometer stretch of the Cutio today.

Peribán is located 171 kilometers to the west of the capital of Michoacán, Morelia.

Source: Milenio (sp), El Sol de México (sp)

Un auto es arrastrado por la fuerza del agua en Peribán de Ramos, Michoacán tras la tromba de este domingo. pic.twitter.com/IyJeDdqfF5

— El Heraldo de México (@elheraldo_mx) September 24, 2018

Chona Challenge brings some humor to Sinaloa emergency

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Tony Richards

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September 24, 2018

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The Chona Challenge is a dance routine normally performed next to a moving passenger vehicle (or even a plane) that was big in Mexico during the summer.

Yesterday, it made a comeback in Sinaloa, where a young man made do with a boat.

An emergency has been declared in 11 municipalities in the state due to severe flooding and many people have resorted to using boats to navigate flooded streets.

And so was born the Chona Challenge Sinaloa style.

The young man hopped out of a small boat and did the dance in waist-deep water, urged on by his friends aboard the vessel, putting a brave face on a situation in which up to 300,000 homes have been affected by flooding.

The army said today it has deployed 1,596 personnel to both Sinaloa and Sonora. In the latter state the number of flood victims has been estimated at 170,000.

Farmers too may be among the victims. They are waiting for floodwaters to drop before they can estimate the damage to some 20,000 hectares of crops.

Transportation officials say 870 kilometers of roads have been damaged in Sinaloa, including the highway between Los Mochis, Sinaloa, and Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, where potholes are being repaired on a 70-kilometer stretch.

The heavy rains fell last week during tropical storm 19-E.

Source: Milenio (sp), Excélsior (sp), Reforma (sp)

Chona challenge estilo Sinaloa pic.twitter.com/dsJzA2fMDE

— Shawty (@bb_shawty) September 23, 2018

Investment promotional agency ProMéxico looks set to get the axe

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MND Staff

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September 24, 2018

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ProMéxico has been active in the promotion in China of products such as avocados. — ProMéxico has been active in China, promoting products such as avocados.

International trade and investment agency ProMéxico could be axed by the incoming federal government as part of its austerity push.

All 46 offices of the organization, located in international financial centers including New York, London and Tokyo, are on the chopping block with president-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s transition team taking the view that they generate significant expenses yet do nothing that can’t be achieved through traditional diplomacy.

Under the new government, which will be sworn in on December 1, Mexico’s ambassadors and consuls will be in charge of trade and investment promotion in key business capitals around the world, where trade representatives already work in the country’s diplomatic missions.

At least 10 ProMéxico offices are located within Mexican embassies and a further 10 are in consulates, while the remainder operate out of their own separate premises.

According to the newspaper Milenio, the incoming administration is close to defining the strategy it will adopt to attract new foreign investment including guidelines that will be given to Mexico’s diplomatic representatives.

ProMéxico functions as a trust fund of the federal government and is a subdivision of the Secretariat of Economy (SE).

It was created by decree in 2007 by then-president Felipe Calderón with the aim of coordinating and implementing actions to promote foreign trade and attract foreign direct investment (FDI). It was also intended to provide advice about the benefits in international trade treaties and help Mexican companies export to and establish themselves in foreign markets.

ProMéxico has supported the automotive, aerospace, chemical, food, electronics and metallurgy sectors among other industries.

One example of its work is the promotion of Mexican avocados in China, where sales of the product have skyrocketed this year.

During current President Enrique Peña Nieto’s administration, 40% of US $193 billion of FDI that has come into Mexico is thanks to the work of ProMéxico, according to Economy Secretary Ildefonso Guajardo.

Between 2007 and 2017, the agency attracted 1,126 projects backed by foreign investment, creating 411,000 jobs, including 300,000 over the past six years, SE data shows.

Guajardo said there is not a single developed or OECD member country in the world that doesn’t have a trade and foreign investment agency.

But for the incoming administration, which has already announced a range of austerity measures and appears intent on living within its means, the costs of running ProMéxico are seen as an unnecessary burden.

The agency was allocated a budget of almost 1.1 billion pesos (US $58.3 million) this year of which over 48.2 million pesos (US $2.55 million) went to paying just 20 high-level officials, all of whom received salaries higher than the 108,000 pesos (US $5,725) per month López Obrador has said he will take home as president.

The agency’s chief, Paulo Carreño King, is paid over 277,000 pesos (US $14,700) per month, or two and a half times the president-elect’s proposed salary, which will also serve as a limit for high-ranking officials and lawmakers.

The other ProMéxico offices set to close under the new government’s plan are located in Beijing, Dubai, Shanghai, Madrid and Moscow as well as the most important capitals of South America and the Caribbean and 15 cities in the United States, including Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami and San Francisco.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Energy regulator proposes new entity to develop gas production

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MND Staff

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September 22, 2018

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More natural gas is flowing south from the US.

Mexico’s energy regulator has recommended the creation of a new state-owned entity to focus exclusively on gas production.

The National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH) said in a technical document made public Thursday that the move would help to recover Mexico’s natural gas production.

CNH chief Héctor Moreira said the new upstream company would take control of all non-associated gas areas that are currently managed by the state oil company Pemex.

Speaking at a release event for the technical document, he said gas gathering infrastructure and gas processing facilities would also be controlled by the new entity.

“The oil and gas businesses are very different. If Pemex is told it has to focus on profitability, it is going to invest its resources on higher-profit oil projects rather than gas areas,” Moreira said.

However, a new company dedicated solely to gas would only be judged on its capacity to produce natural gas.

“It must be a different company with a different culture than Pemex. We are going to preserve the state component but with two companies,” Moreira said.

The CNH chief cited the success BP has had after creating a gas-only subsidiary as an example for the Mexican government to follow, but neither he nor the technical document spoke about how the new entity would be funded.

However, the CNH has in recent months advocated for Pemex to create and list subsidiaries in equity markets in order to raise capital from private investors.

Such a move would follow in the footsteps of major state-owned oil companies such as China’s CNOOC and Brazil’s Petrobras.

The position president-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador will take on the CNH recommendation remains to be seen.

He has opposed privatization in the energy sector and said that all contracts awarded by the current government to foreign and private companies for oil and gas exploration will be subject to review.

However, future finance secretary Carlos Urzúa said that if no irregularities are detected, the contracts will be honored. The incoming administration has also recognized that the private sector must play an important role in growing the economy.

Javier Jiménez Espriú, López Obrador’s nominee for secretary of communications and transportation, said last month that he will seek a 20-peso contribution from the private sector for every peso that the new government allocates to new infrastructure projects.

Mexico’s gas production has decreased drastically over the past decade from 6.5 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in 2009 to 3.9 Bcf/d this year.

The lower production is related to a cut in Pemex’s investment budget for gas projects, financial information company S & P Global said.

This year, Pemex’s board of directors only approved an investment budget of US $9.1 million for the company’s Burgos unit —Mexico’s largest non-associated gas-producing asset — compared to US $1.2 billion in 2009.

The decrease in domestic output has significantly increased Mexico’s reliance on United States gas, with imports averaging 5.1 Bcf/d this year.

“We are in a paradox where we are an importing nation when we have the potential to be a major gas producer,” Moreira said.

“By having a gas-focused state company, Mexico could better evaluate and develop its gas reserves and potential resources,” he added.

Under an optimal scenario including the implementation of structural changes to boost gas production, investment of US $32.2 billion annually will be needed to produce 16.2 Bcf/d by 2030, which would allow Mexico to be self-sufficient, Moreira said.

Source: S & P Global (en)

Border communities serve as bridges between two nations: San Antonio mayor

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MND Staff

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September 22, 2018

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Former Mexican ambassador Sarukhan, left, and Tony Wayne, ex-US ambassador to Mexico. san antonio express news

Mayors of Mexican and United States border cities agree that saving NAFTA is crucial to maintaining cross-border trade and economic development in the border region.

The mayors have been meeting in San Antonio, Texas, for the U.S.-Mexico Border Mayors Association’s seventh binational summit, which concludes today.

Efforts to save NAFTA have dominated the discussions, according to a report published by San Antonio news website The Rivard Report, although other issues such as immigration have also been on the agenda.

Mexico and the United States announced they had reached a separate agreement on August 27 that could exclude Canada. Now, three weeks later, whether NAFTA will remain a trilateral agreement remains uncertain.

While trade negotiations have been contentious, San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said that border communities represent the most positive aspects of the relationship between Mexico and the United States, particularly on trade.

“Not only do they dot the map as important points of prosperity and opportunity, but they serve as bridges between our two nations,” he said.

“Our binational communities thrive on our dynamic cross-border opportunities centered on commerce, culture, and personal connections.”

Tijuana Mayor Juan Manuel Gastelum echoed that sentiment.

“We do have a history of success in working together,” he said. “The United States is [Mexico’s] main trading partner, with 80% of our exports and 50% of our imports.”

Gastelum also agreed with San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s view that it makes sense for both Mexico and the United States to cooperate on developing mutually beneficial policies in the areas of trade, immigration and environment.

“As [Faulconer] said, we share the land, the water, the air, the culture,” he said. “Thousands of people cross the border every day, making millions of dollars in trade.”

Gastelum and Faulconer, who are the co-chairs of the mayors’ association, signed two resolutions to support international trade and border infrastructure programs.

“By working together, this group of mayors plays a critical role in building bridges between our two countries and showing how collaboration can lead to economic prosperity for the border region,” Faulconer said.

Arturo Sarukhan, a former Mexican ambassador to the United States, said that mayors and other community leaders on both sides of the border have the opportunity to help redefine the Mexico-U.S. relationship.

Mexico-U.S. relations have suffered since United States President Donald Trump took office due to tensions created by his proposed border wall and hardline rhetoric towards Mexico on other issues such as trade, immigration and binational crime.

“It’s being driven not by a disagreement on substance of policy or the mechanics of the relationship, it’s being driven by one man – one man, one narrative, and one decision that originates as a personal beef with Mexico,” Sarukhan told mayors.

But he added that thanks to positive interactions between border communities, the two countries are becoming more, not less, connected and intertwined.

“Our economies, our cultures, our gastronomies – these are two countries that are converging . . . This convergence is our great strength and resilience. That is what we need to continue to build.”

Source: The Rivard Report (en), Fox 5 (en)

Mexican cliff divers are high in rankings after first day of championship

By

Tony Richards

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September 22, 2018

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A diver leaves one of the two platforms in Polignano a Mare.

Mexican divers are once again showing their prowess by scoring high marks on the first day of the final event of the 2018 Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series in Polignano a Mare, Italy.

Jonathan Paredes, who is reigning champion in the men’s competition, is in first place today with 165 points, five ahead of second-place Michal Navratil of the Czech Republic.

In the women’s event, Adriana Jiménez of Mexico is in second place with 144 points, 31 points behind first-place Rhiannan Iffland of Australia. Jiménez finished in third place in 2017.

Gold medals will be awarded based on points scored in all seven diving events in the men’s division, and five in the women’s.

Paredes is in third place in the overall standings, while Jiménez is in first place. The series kicked off in June in Texas.

There are 23 divers participating in this weekend’s event at Polignano a Mare, known both as the home of European cliff diving and for its unique take-off point.

Divers enter the platforms through the living room of a private home. The platforms are mounted on a rooftop terrace, 27 and 21 meters above the Adriatic Sea in southern Italy.

Red Bull describes Paredes, 29, as the most graceful athlete in the air and one of the most technically proficient divers. The 33-year-old Jiménez is a passionate dancer and also one of the world’s best cliff divers.

Mexico News Daily

New iPhone sells out in a few hours at Apple store in Mexico City

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César Hernández

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September 22, 2018

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Despite its hefty price, the most expensive of Apple’s new iPhones sold out in just a few hours after it went on sale yesterday at the Apple store in Santa Fe, Mexico City.

The 512-GB iPhone XS Max retails for 35,499 pesos (just over US $1,880) but the price didn’t stop 100 people from snapping them up and cleaning out the store’s stock.

Among the buyers was Antonio Hueto Gómez, who traveled from the southern Veracruz town of Saltabarranca to be the first in line at the store on Thursday for presales. The phones were available for pickup yesterday morning.

Hueto bought the 256 GB model of the XS Max to use in his work as a photographer, but he’s a big Apple fan. “All my devices are Apple. The only thing I’m missing is the apple tattooed on my forehead!”

The new phones are the XS Max, the XS and the XR, ranging in price from 18,499 to 35,499 pesos (US $980 to $1,880). Only the first two are currently available; the XR is to be released in late October.

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

Money laundering investigated after Pemex employee assassinated

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MND Staff

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September 22, 2018

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The vehicle in which a Pemex engineer was assassinated on Thursday. — The vehicle in which a Pemex engineer was assassinated on Thursday in Guanajuato.

Money laundering at the state oil company Pemex is being investigated in connection with the murder Thursday of a company engineer in Salamanca, Guanajuato, officials with knowledge of the case told the newspaper Milenio.

The Guanajuato Attorney General’s office is pursuing that line of investigation due to the position the homicide victim held at the Antonio M. Amor refinery in Salamanca, Milenio said.

Gabriel Alejandro Aguilar Mancera worked in the refinery’s department of public works and acquisitions, a position from which he allegedly could have facilitated the laundering of illicitly-gained funds from organized crime groups through the awarding of Pemex contracts.

Aguilar was attacked at 8:00am Thursday by a group of armed men in a pickup truck as he drove his eight-year-old son to school.

In addition to collecting spent bullet casings found at the crime scene in the neighborhood of El Vergel, authorities also recovered evidence allegedly linking the slain official to organized crime, Milenio said.

Aguilar’s son was not shot but received treatment for injuries caused by glass splinters. He is reported to be in stable condition.

The murder is the second of a Pemex employee this year after the oil company’s former chief of security in Salamanca, Tadeo Lineol Alfonzo Rojas, was shot and killed in January. He was also taking his children to school when he was attacked.

In May, the newspaper Reforma reported that Pemex personnel at the Salamanca refinery were under investigation by federal authorities for fuel theft, but the Interior Secretariat said later the same month that the practice had been interrupted.

Guanajuato was Mexico’s most violent state in the first eight months of the year in terms of homicide numbers, with 1,671 victims.

A significant number of the deaths in the state are believed to be related to pipeline petroleum theft and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), considered Mexico’s most dangerous and powerful criminal organization, is reportedly involved in a turf war in Guanajuato with the crime gang known as Santa Rosa de Lima.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Chiapas journalist assassinated; threats had been made two years ago

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César Hernández

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September 22, 2018

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A Chiapas journalist yesterday became the 13th reporter to be assassinated this year in Mexico.

Mario Leonel Gómez Sánchez, 40, was leaving his home in the municipality of Yajalón early yesterday afternoon when two men on a motorcycle approached him and opened fire.

He was taken to a nearby hospital but died soon after.

Gómez had worked at the newspaper El Heraldo de Chiapas for the last eight years, covering politics, justice and social causes in the Lacandon jungle region, and this year had covered the state and federal elections held July 1.

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Local social organizations said Gómez had filed a formal complaint of threats against him in 2016 after he published a story on corruption. Protective measures were provided to him but were later withdrawn.

The state attorney general said Gómez’s family has requested a round-the-clock police presence at their home.

It said in a statement that it was “conscious of the importance of free journalism,” pledging to bring those responsible to justice.

El Heraldo de Chiapas later published an editorial signed by all of its staff, condemning the aggression against their colleague and demanding that authorities punish his assassination.

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