Fishermen’s leader: ‘repression and persecution’ continue

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March 30, 2019

Burning boats in Thursday's clash in San Felipe.

The navy’s aggression towards fishermen in San Felipe, Baja California, this week represents a continuation of the “policy of repression and persecution” initiated by the former federal government against the fishing sector, according to a fishermen’s leader.

Sunshine Rodríguez made the accusation following a clash Thursday in which a suspected illegal totoaba fisherman was shot by marines – accidentally, according to a statement from the navy.

Local media reported that two other people were wounded in the confrontation.

“It was a confrontation between fishermen and the navy derived from four years of harassment by the government of [Enrique] Peña Nieto, which planted a bomb that has detonated in the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador,” Rodríguez said.

Fishermen in San Felipe, a town on the upper Gulf of California around 200 kilometers south of Mexicali, are accused of contributing to the near extinction of the vaquita marina porpoise by continuing to use gillnets to catch totoaba, whose swim bladder is a delicacy in China.

Totoaba Poachers Ram Mexican Navy Vehicle

Watch this video on YouTube

Drone footage taken by the Sea Shepherd environmental group captured Thursday’s incident.

The vaquita population has plummeted to just 10, scientists estimate, largely due to deaths caused by entanglement in the nets.

In recent years, the navy and Federal Police have carried out operations aimed at stamping out the illegal use of gillnets, while environmental organizations such as the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society carry out patrols to detect and remove the nets from the upper Gulf of California, the only place in the world vaquitas live.

Fishermen argue that the total ban on gillnets implemented by the Peña Nieto government has denied them the opportunity to make an honest living, and on-the-water clashes with authorities have recently increased.

Since it took office in December, the López Obrador administration hasn’t paid compensation to fishermen in the area as part of a scheme introduced after the gillnet ban was introduced in 2015. Environment Secretary Josefa González Blanco said last week that no further payments will be made.

Rodríguez said the current government pledged to treat fishermen more fairly but contended that nothing has changed.

Rodríguez also denies that he and other San Felipe fishermen are involved in an illegal totoaba trafficking racket.

Rodríguez: 'I'll knock your teeth out.' — Rodríguez: ‘I’ll knock your teeth out.’

Among those who have leveled that accusation at the fishermen’s leader is journalist Carlos Loret de Mola, who has reported on illegal totoaba fishing in the upper Gulf of California.

Loret de Mola reiterated the claim on his radio program this week and revealed that he has received death threats in response to his reporting about the so-called totoaba cartel.

“According to intelligence gathered by authorities, social organizations and media, Sunshine Rodríguez heads an organization that is dedicated to supplying totoaba swim bladders to the cartel. In other words, his smokescreen is that he is a fishermen’s leader but . . . it’s like narcos saying ‘I’m a farmer.’ Threats have been reaching me systematically every time I do a report about this issue and lately even without reporting on it. They’re direct threats, using their name and surname – they don’t hide,” he said.

Hours later, Rodríguez published a video on his Facebook account in which he challenged Loret de Mola to provide evidence to back up his claims and rejected that he was behind the death threats.

However, he threatened to physically attack the journalist should he ever see him.

“. . . I’m not going to look for you, I don’t have the time or the need [but] karma will put you in front of me one day and believe me, I’m going to knock your teeth out,” Rodríguez said.

“I’m going to knock them out, Carlos, for being a loud-mouth and an asshole. It’s one thing for the authorities to accuse me and another for you to criminalize me . . .”

Source: El Universal (sp), SDP Noticias (sp)

Backhoe bank heist foiled in Yautepec, Morelos

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Madison Koen

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March 30, 2019

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Thieves had got as far as putting a chain around the vault when police arrived.

Would-be bank robbers literally broke the bank in an unsuccessful heist in Yautepec, Morelos, early yesterday morning.

Police apprehended one suspect after responding to the break-in, which the unlucky thieves managed by using a stolen backhoe.

According to the state attorney general, police received a report at 3:55am that armed civilians had broken into a construction materials and equipment store and stolen a backhoe.

Authorities began a search for the stolen equipment with the help of video surveillance cameras, while other members of the police force closed off the municipality’s exits.

At 4:30, an alarm alerted authorities to a break-in at a bank in a strip mall in Oaxtepec. A man who attempted to flee the scene as police arrived was taken into custody and turned over to the public prosecutor’s office. The suspect’s accomplices managed to elude authorities.

Upon entering the bank to investigate further, police discovered that the robbers had used a backhoe — the same unit reported stolen earlier that morning — to demolish the back wall of the building. The thieves had then attempted to pull the vault out of the wreckage using a chain hitched to the backhoe.

Police also recovered a pickup truck from the scene that had been reported stolen a month earlier.

Source: Diario de Morelos (sp), El Universal (sp)

World’s most expensive taco is back, this time in Quintana Roo

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March 30, 2019

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Although it might seem that every day is Taco Day in Mexico, Sunday, March 31 is the real deal and to celebrate, a restaurant in the Riviera Maya will offer what it bills as the world’s most expensive taco.

It can be purchased for US $25,000.

Chef Juan Licerio concedes that people are a little surprised by the price when they can buy a taco in the street for 10 pesos — but it’s worth it, he said, ‘for the tenderness, the technique and the harmony” of his creation.

It also has some costly ingredients: kobe beef, black truffle brie cheese, beluga caviar, white truffles and lobster all wrapped up in what would be a plain corn tortilla were it not for the 24-carat, edible gold leaf mixed in with the corn dough.

It won’t be the first time Licerio has prepared such a deluxe and dear delicacy.

Chef Licerio, right, and his team with high-end tacos in 2017.

For at least the last two years he made $25,000 tacos in Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, where he was chef at the Grand Vela Resort.

Now he has relocated to the El Dorado Royal hotel on the Riviera Maya, where the fancy tacos will be for sale tomorrow — but only to registered guests.

Source: Notimex (sp)

Volkswagen enthusiasts gather this weekend in Nayarit

By

César Hernández

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March 30, 2019

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Volkswagen bugs at last year's Guayafest.

Beetles from across the country and elsewhere have been crawling their way up to Rincón de Guayabitos, Nayarit, for the traditional Guayafest, an event organized around the iconic, two-door, rear-engine Volkswagen car.

Organized by the Tepic-based TPC Bugs Club, Guayafest will be celebrating its 20th edition this weekend, attracting over 350 Volkswagens, including vochos and combis, as the bugs and the VW vans are commonly known in Mexico.

Festivities begin today at 5:00pm with a two-hour parade that runs through Los Ayala and La Peñita de Jaltemba. Participants will be accompanied by a security detail from the Compostela and state traffic police.

Back in Guayabitos, participants will be feted in the town’s main square with plenty of beer, tacos and live music.

Tomorrow at 8:00am proud Volkswagen owners will sign up for the competition in 35 categories, from classic vehicles dating back to 1949 to the latest models.

[wpgmza id=”174″]

Two hours later the cars will be on display for judges to assess and the public — around 1,000 attendees are expected — to admire. At 3:00pm, awards will be given to the first three places in the original, modified and custom categories.

Billed as a family-friendly event, there will be food, drink and entertainment, and an area were spare VW parts and accessories will be on sale.

There will be more music and other activities throughout the day tomorrow. Admission is free.

Rincón de Guayabitos — a town that consists of little more than a 2.5-kilometer stretch of golden sand and two parallel streets — is located just over one hour north of Puerto Vallarta.

Source: NTV (sp), Banderas News (en)

Banana exports up 7.9% last year, breaking a record

By

César Hernández

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March 30, 2019

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Mexico’s banana exports broke a record last year after shipments rose 7.9% over 2017, according to the federal Secretariat of Economy.

Close to 570,000 tonnes of bananas worth US $259 million were exported, mostly to the United States which purchased $193 million worth.

Japan was next at $13 million followed by the Netherlands at $11 million, and Russia, South Korea and Ukraine at $5 million each.

Banana producers in Mexico have the benefit of being able to harvest their produce year round and technological resources in refrigeration and transportation mean that no market is too distant to enjoy the product fresh, said a report by Opportimes.

The chief producers have consolidated their commercialization process, setting up warehouses in the Iztapalapa wholesale market in Mexico City. It is estimated that 80% of the banana production from the main producer states is sold and shipped from that distribution hub.

Mexico was the world’s 15th biggest banana exporter in 2017 with 2% of the total. Ecuador was No. 1 with exports totalling $3 billion.

Source: Opportimes (sp)

AMLO accused of being ‘submissive, timid’ before Trump’s border threats

By

MND Staff

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March 30, 2019

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Hands are raised in agreement with a policy of prudence in Mexico's dealings with the US during AMLO's 'public consultation' in Veracruz.

President López Obrador has been accused of being “submissive, timid and cowardly” in the face of United States President Donald Trump’s latest threats towards Mexico, but lawmakers from the president’s own party defended his non-confrontational approach to diplomatic relations.

Trump took to Twitter yesterday to threaten to close the southern border next week “if Mexico doesn’t immediately stop all illegal immigration coming into the United States.”

He also wrote that “Mexico has for many years made a fortune off of the U.S.” – presumably referring to Mexico’s trade surplus with the United States – “but they just take our money and talk.”

The latest aggressive tweets continue a long tradition of Trump using Mexico as his punching bag.

As he has done on several occasions since taking office in December, López Obrador yesterday refused to be baited by Trump’s threats.

“We want to have a good relationship with the United States, we’re not going to argue,” the president said.

Later in the day, López Obrador asked supporters at an event in Veracruz whether he should reply to Trump every time that he refers to Mexico.

“No,” the crowd shouted back at him. “Is it true that we should have good relations with the government of President Donald Trump?”

“Yes,” they responded, to which López Obrador quipped, “look at the people, the people are wise.”

He then asked people to put up their hands if they believed that the government “should act with prudence” in its relationship with the Trump administration.

The majority of attendees duly raised their hands, drawing a smile and applause from López Obrador who remarked, “that’s my people.”

National Action Party leader Cortés criticized the government for a 'cowardly' stance against Donald Trump. — National Action Party leader Cortés criticized the government for a ‘cowardly’ response to Donald Trump.

The approach of the president – and that of his government more widely – to dealing with Trump and the United States government was criticized by the national president of the opposition National Action Party (PAN) at an event yesterday in San Luis Potosí.

“The submissive, timid and cowardly attitude that the government has had with respect to Donald Trump and his position against Mexico concerns us. We ask the federal government [to show] bravery, strength and dignity to defend Mexicans. We can’t have the government simply responding with silence,” Marko Cortés said.

There has been “a shameful silence” in response to Trump’s threats to close the United States border, Cortés charged, although Foreign Affairs Secretary Marcelo Ebrard did address those threats in a Twitter post yesterday morning.

“Mexico does not act on the basis of threats. We are a great neighbor,” Ebrard wrote.

“Ask the million and a half Americans who have chosen our country as their home, the largest community of Americans outside the United States. For them we are also the best neighbor they could have,” he continued.

Senate president Ricardo Monreal said he will ask lawmakers from all political parties in the upper house to come together to sign a parliamentary note that will be sent to the United States Congress to denounce Trump’s insults and threats towards Mexico.

“We’re going to make use of our parliamentary diplomacy . . . We’re not going to tolerate harmful and insulting attitudes towards Mexico,” he said.

However, the Morena party senator predicted that the U.S. president will only harden his attitude and language about Mexico as part of a strategy to win support in the lead-up to the 2020 election.

Trump will seek to get out of his “muddle” of domestic problems by accusing Mexico of doing nothing to help stem immigration to the United States and “vociferating against global migration,” Monreal said.

“We must understand that he’s worried about votes because a lot of people have withdrawn their support for him due to his xenophobic, racist and intolerant attitudes,” he added.

The senator asserted that López Obrador has acted prudently in the relationship with Trump and the United States government.

“Obviously he won’t confront the United States with a scornful or forceful attitude but rather one of respect . . .” Monreal said.

“However, President Trump mustn’t confuse prudence with weakness,” he added.

Héctor Vasconcelos, another ruling party senator and former ambassador to Denmark, also defended López Obrador’s decision to not respond to Trump’s “broadsides” against Mexico.

“Imagine if the president of Mexico entered into this dynamic of [making] statements that are increasingly violent, that could even become slanderous. That would be to move towards a situation that would jeopardize the bilateral relationship. The president of Mexico cannot enter into a competition to see who makes more violent statements,” he said.

“. . . We can’t let ourselves get hooked and respond to broadsides with more broadsides,” Vasconcelos added.

Like Monreal, the senator contended that Trump’s latest outburst was politically motivated.

“Unfortunately, this issue of the migrant caravans is entwined with the agenda and electoral calendar in the United States,” Vasconcelos said.

“There are elections there next year. De facto campaigns have already begun and that has further clouded a complicated issue. The statements and threats of President Trump have more to do with satisfying his electoral base with a view to next year’s elections than anything else.”

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

Teacher evaluations not important, says AMLO, as debate continues

By

MND Staff

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March 29, 2019

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Teachers during a protest last month at the National Palace in Mexico City.

Evaluating teachers is not a priority for the federal government, President López Obrador said today as debate over the new education reform continues.

The president pledged that the government will strengthen Mexico’s public teacher training colleges and therefore evaluation won’t be vital, although the government doesn’t intend to do away with it completely.

“. . . Evaluation isn’t essential for us because if the teacher training colleges are strengthened, teachers are going to leave well-prepared to carry out their educational work . . .” López Obrador said.

Compulsory evaluations introduced by the previous federal government as part of its 2013 education reform were condemned by the CNTE teachers’ union, which has held countless protests to demonstrate its opposition.

Education Secretary Esteban Moctezuma reiterated today that teacher evaluation as provided for in new legislation will not be used punitively to determine whether a teacher keeps his or her job as was the case under the administration led by former president Enrique Peña Nieto.

The CNTE union nevertheless remains unhappy with the composition of the new education reform and has continued to place pressure on the federal government to change it by blocking access to the lower house of Congress this week.

The blockade was lifted early this morning but union members warned that they would return next week if their demands are not met.

CNTE member Gonzalo Martínez Villagrán told a press conference yesterday that the union wants the complete abrogation of the 2013 education reform, freedom for political prisoners and immediate reinstatement of teachers who were dismissed after failing evaluations.

In the new education legislation prepared by the government, around 80% of the education laws introduced by the Peña Nieto government remain.

Opposition lawmakers said yesterday that they will withdraw their support for the new education reform if López Obrador and the government give in to the demands of the CNTE.

“. . . We will not accept moving backwards just to please a small group that is seeking to pressure and blackmail [the government] in search of privileges,” said René Juárez, leader of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in the lower house of Congress.

“The president should talk to the discontented teachers to reach positive agreements, not to give them everything they ask for,” he added.

Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) lower house leader Verónica Juárez Piña said “the agreement will be at risk if they make changes to what has already been approved without consulting and without the consensus of all parties.”

Juan Carlos Romero Hicks of the National Action Party (PAN) said “if there are changes in central issues, like evaluation and the control of [teaching] positions, we obviously won’t support the reform.”

The coalition led by López Obrador’s Morena party has a majority in both houses of Congress.

However, as the 2013 education reform required changes to the constitution, the president needs the support of two-thirds of Congress in order to repeal it and pass his government’s plan.

Most of the union opposition to the education reforms comes from the state of Oaxaca, where most of its membership is based. The Section 22 local has a long history of often-violent protest and its quarrels with different governments over the years have been more about political differences than education.

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

Chapowear coming soon: ex-drug lord signs over rights to his name

By

Madison Koen

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March 29, 2019

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A new clothing and accessories line carrying the brand of former Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, complete with the convicted ex-drug lord’s name and signature on every article, is slated to hit shelves this summer.

The crime boss was found guilty of drug trafficking charges after a trial in a New York federal court last month.

This week, Guzmán received special permission from the Metropolitan Correctional Center to sign the intellectual property rights to his name and signature over to a company headed by his wife, Emma Coronel.

El Chapo Guzmán: JGL LLC became an official entity today.

Coronel, a former beauty queen, told the news network CNN that the project will be dedicated to securing the future of the couple’s seven-year-old twin daughters.

Alejandrina Guzmán and her El Chapo 701 label.

“I’m very excited to start this project, which was based on ideas and concepts that my husband and I had years ago.”

Guzmán attorney Mariel Colon Miro said the ex-drug lord will not have any role in the company.

“It’s not his project; it’s Emma’s project.”

Another of El Chapo’s lawyers, Michael Lambert, agreed, stressing that Guzmán will not see any of the company’s profits.

“He wanted to be able to set something up — a legitimate enterprise — for the benefit of his wife and his two daughters.”

U.S. authorities have said they will attempt to confiscate billions of dollars that they believe Guzmán’s organization earned as proceeds from drug trafficking, but former federal prosecutor Duncan Levin doubted they would be successful.

“A lot of the assets are in the name of other people. It’s hard to find them, and once you find them, it’s hard to get the buy-in of the Mexican government.”

Levin said the U.S. government could use the new company to seize some of Guzmán’s assets for attempting to make money off his crimes and infamy.

Colon said the enterprise intends to collaborate with fashion designers but Guzmán’s wife will be heavily involved in all aspects of the company, including design.

Design work for many of the products, including baseball caps, T-shirts, denim jackets, sweatshirts and phone cases, is already in progress.

But Coronel is not the only member of the family who has seen the marketing potential of the El Chapo brand. Alejandrina Guzmán, supposedly a daughter, has launched El Chapo 701, whose website advertises myriad products though none appears to be available for purchase yet.

Source: Milenio (sp), CNN (en)

Construction begins, and the first challenge is erecting the scaffolding

By

Bodie Kellogg

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March 29, 2019

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As I sit at my desk attempting to bang out this week’s column, the noise of rotohammers combined with the off-key songs of several laborers fill our crumbling house with a discordance only experienced during a Mexican construction project.

After waiting an anxiety-fueled 22 months for our house deal to close, we finally began our renovation project 10 days ago.

We started with the demolition of several interior walls and the removal of most of the plaster on an exterior wall. Our work crew consisted of three laborers with two rotohammers, one 12-pound sledge hammer, two small hand sledges, a few chisels, two square-bladed shovels and 100 used, woven polyethylene feed bags for the rubble.

The Captured Tourist Woman had never experienced the complete and utter destruction wrought by hard-working Mexicans with power tools and sledge hammers; she was very impressed.

The first staging of scaffold, on an outside wall, was erected before all else. All three assured me they were capable of erecting multiple frames of scaffolding to create a safe working platform. I pointed them to a stack of frames, braces and planks and showed them where to start.

Since the ground below the scaffold setup was level and solid, I felt the assembly would be a simple test of their skills or lack thereof. As I left them to their devices, I envisioned Larry, Moe and Curly faced with a similar task. I was not disappointed by my canny premonition when I reappeared 10 minutes later.

I then worked with the three of them for 20 minutes and we successfully erected the scaffold across the back wall of the house. Sometime after lunch, when they had stripped off the bad plaster at the west end, we needed to move the western-most section of scaffold to the eastern end to access the wall at that end.

However, that scaffold section needed to have the legs extended because the ground dropped off four feet to the sidewalk. I pointed to a couple of six-foot wooden posts and explained the process of attaching leg extensions.

All three were smiling and nodding while assuring me with a repeated chant of “No hay problema.” Again, I left them to accomplish this seemingly simple task on their own.

When I returned a bit later, they had laid the 4×4 posts on two stacks of bricks which resembled something illustrated by Dr. Seuss; all higgledy-piggledy and wiggledy-figgledy. I stopped them before they attempted to stand a scaffold frame on their shaky construction.

I placed one of the posts alongside and parallel with a scaffold leg and explained how the post would be lashed on with multiple wraps of high quality Mexican bailing wire. They all grasped the concept quickly, or at least the part about the use of the wire seemed familiar.

As I watched, they all jabbered their rapid-fire Spanish, heavily laced with local slang, and formulated a plan. Two of the workers each grabbed a side of a scaffold frame and held it up vertically and elevated it to the approximate position it would assume once the posts were added. The third worker then picked up a post and held it against one leg of the scaffold with his shoulder, and then attempted to wrap up the assembly with the wire.

In retrospect, I should have stopped them when the two had picked up the scaffold frame, but my morbid curiosity held me back. By the time I put up my hand, and said alto, the two workers clutching the frame were having a very hard time keeping it in the air.

We found a nice level piece of ground and laid the frame down. I then directed them to lay a post next to each leg, take a rough measurement of the amount of extension required to level out the assembly over the uneven ground. With two workers holding the post tight to the frame, the third wrapped the wire and tightened it with the standard Mexican tie wire hook used for rebar. They found this simple feat of true Mexican engineering quite impressive.

The 45 minutes I had spent observing their antics gave me an accurate gauge of their construction experience, which was minimal at best.

The only thing I ask of any worker is to show up on time and work to the best of their ability. I found that questioning a worker will not reveal their true capabilities or skill level. After all, every albañil (mason) claims to be a tilesetter and every electrician claims to have in-depth knowledge of electrical systems.

And of course, with laborers being at the bottom of the construction hierarchy, their self-proclaimed expertise can be anywhere from digging holes to brain surgery.

To some, my method of testing the three laborers may be perceived as being cruel and unusual, but it quickly cuts to the chase of who can do what.

The next installment of this series will examine several pressing questions. Can old albañiles be taught new tricks? Will the use of modern tools and methods be instantly embraced, or fiercely rejected?

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.

3 injured in confrontation between fishermen, navy over illegal fishing

By

MND Staff

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March 29, 2019

0

Smoke in San Felipe after clash between fishermen and the navy.

Three people were injured in a confrontation yesterday between the navy and suspected illegal totoaba fishermen in San Felipe, Baja California.

The Secretariat of the Navy (Semar) said in a statement that a man was accidentally shot yesterday morning as he tried to escape in a vehicle that was towing a boat that had allegedly attacked a vessel operated by an environmental organization.

Occupants of the first boat recovered illegal fishing nets that had been removed from the vaquita porpoise reserve in the upper Gulf of California by Sea Shepherd Conservation Society activists and then returned to San Felipe, said the navy.

There, they boarded a pickup truck and attempted to flee navy personnel but collided with a navy vehicle. One person was shot in the confrontation that ensued, Semar said.

According to local media, the wounded man was 37-year-old Enrique García Sandez. He was taken to a local clinic but later transferred to a hospital in Mexicali with serious injuries.

The news website El Imparcial reported that a 65-year-old woman and a 17-year-old were also injured in the confrontation. The latter, Ricardo Zúñiga, was treated at a Mexicali hospital.

Rosa María Zaragoza González was in the street during the clash and grazed by a stray bullet . She was treated for the injury at a San Felipe clinic.

After the confrontation, Semar said, a group of people protested violently in front of navy facilities. A vehicle and two small boats were set on fire and navy facilities were attacked with Molotov cocktails and other objects.

Yesterday’s confrontation occurred a week after the federal government announced that it will strengthen the fight against illegal fishing and use buoys to mark the reserve of the vaquita porpoise as part of a new strategy to protect the highly-endangered mammal from extinction.

Although their use is prohibited, fishermen have continued to use gillnets to catch totoaba, whose swim bladder is a delicacy in China and commands high prices.

The vaquita marina, the world’s smallest porpoise, often become entangled in the nets and die.

Scientists estimate that only 10 vaquitas likely remain in the upper Gulf of California, the only place in the world the species lives.

Source: El Imparcial (sp)

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