Critics condemn president for instructions to suspend education reforms

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April 17, 2019

López Obrador has been widely criticized for his memorandum regarding the education reforms. — López Obrador has been widely criticized for a memorandum issued yesterday.

President López Obrador has been widely condemned for instructing three government departments to suspend the education reforms implemented by the previous federal administration.

The president sent a memorandum yesterday to the secretariats of Finance (SHCP), Public Education (SEP) and the Interior (Segob) that directs them to ignore the legislation enacted by former president Enrique Peña Nieto while his own education plan is considered by Congress.

“While the process of dialogue doesn’t reach an agreement . . . authorities of the federal executive power will leave without effect all measures which have resulted from the application of the so-called education reform,” the memorandum said.

The president asserted that the teachers’ payroll will be managed by the finance department to prevent corruption and the education department will manage “teaching positions” to avoid them being bought and sold and reinstate teachers who were dismissed as a result of “punitive evaluations.”

López Obrador also said that Segob will release teachers and social activists who were unjustly imprisoned for opposing the education reforms, which he charged “hasn’t resulted in an improvement in the quality of education” and “has caused an undesirable polarization of society.”

The National Action Party's Romero — The National Action Party’s Romero: president’s action ‘legally untenable.’

Opposition parties, the business sector, legal experts and even a ruling party lawmaker quickly rejected the president’s move, arguing that it is unconstitutional.

Juan Carlos Romero Hicks, leader of the National Action Party (PAN) in the lower house of Congress, described López Obrador’s memorandum as “legally untenable” and signaled that legal action would be taken against it.

“To start, it’s not founded or justified and therefore lacks legal validity. It’s null and void, it’s an attack on the division and separation of powers, and the officials who comply with this instruction, which is illegal, could be subject to liability,” he said.

René Juárez, lower house leader of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), also said the president’s directive threatens the division of powers. He called on the leadership of both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate to issue a declaration against the memorandum.

Citizens’ Movement (MC) lawmakers said that government officials are under no obligation to comply with the instructions because they are unconstitutional and warned that if bureaucrats did follow them, they could face criminal prosecution and even jail time.

Rubén Rocha Moya, a lawmaker for López Obrador’s Morena party and president of the Senate’s education committee, also spoke out against the president’s action, stating that the education reforms cannot be overruled by decree but must rather go through the proper parliamentary process.

Morena party Senator Rocha: reforms cannot be overruled by decree.

Among the business leaders who condemned the president’s memorandum was Gustavo de Hoyos, president of the Mexican Employers Federation (Coparmex), calling it “. . . Illegal abrogation and a systematic violation of the law . . .”

Coparmex said in a statement that it was “regrettable that due to pressures from a section of a teachers’ union, the interest of society as a whole to improve the education system has been left to one side.”

The National Chamber for Industrial Transformation (Canacintra) said the memorandum was “clearly anti-constitutional, anti-democratic and infringes upon the division of powers.”

Canacintra president Enoch Castellanos pointed out that one person cannot be invested with two or more powers or sole legislative power unless the Congress grants “extraordinary authority” to the president.

Retired Supreme Court judge José Ramón Cossío Díaz also said the president’s memorandum lacks legal foundation and that authorities could face prosecution if they follow its instructions.

“The very administrative authorities could incur responsibility at the time of applying them. I therefore believe that with an order of this type, the president places his own colleagues at legal risk.”

Constitutional lawyer Miguel Carbonell described the memorandum as a “mistake” and asserted that it has “no legal foundation,” while the National Parents’ Union described the effective repeal of the reforms as “extremely regrettable,” stating that it places the education of the nation’s children at risk and would return Mexico to the 1970s when the sale of teaching positions was commonplace.

The memorandum also gives more ammunition to critics of the president who argue that he is moving the country towards authoritarianism and concentrating power in the federal executive.

Meanwhile, Section 22 of the CNTE teachers’ union, which has fought ardently for the repeal of the education reforms, said it will continue to protest until the reform disappears from the constitution.

“We won’t believe [it’s gone] until we see it,” said union leader Eloy López Hernández.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Some stations with cheap gas have been closed as long as 2 years

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César Hernández

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April 17, 2019

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closed gas station — There is no cheap gas at this México state station—there's no gas period. It's been closed since 2017.

The credibility of the federal government’s list of fuel prices is in some doubt after it was revealed that several gas stations listed are not even operating.

On Monday, federal Energy Secretary Rocío Nahle García released the list of the highest and lowest prices offered by gas stations during the previous week, but at least five have been closed for over six months.

One station in México state was listed as selling magna fuel for 15.71 pesos per liter.

But it was shut down in 2017 after the National Gendarmerie and state police arrested seven people delivering illegal fuel. Neighbors said it never reopened.

Two gas stations in Puebla, one in the capital and the other in Cuyoaco, were also on the list but the first was closed in January last year, while the second one ceased operations in July when authorities suspected it was selling stolen fuel.

Two other stations listed, in Ciudad Madero, Tamaulipas, and Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, are also closed.

Yesterday, President López Obrador blamed the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) for the imprecise information.

” . . . There may have been problems [updating the list], this will be corrected,” he said, explaining that the fuel prices report will be released every week.

He said in future the information would be cross-referenced with data gathered by the federal consumer protection agency Profeco “in order to be more precise.”

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

Lord of the Column procession one of many Easter events in San Miguel

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April 17, 2019

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A street has been decorated in preparation for the Lord of the Column procession in San Miguel de Allende. — A street decorated in preparation for the Lord of the Column procession in San Miguel de Allende.

Easter is a special time in San Miguel de Allende, with several processions and events to mark the occasion, including the Lord of the Column parade.

The video below, shot two years ago by Canadian video bloggers Eileen Aldis and Marc Whiteway, tells the story of the procession, which begins in the nearby town of Atontonilco.

Mexico News Daily

HOLY WEEK IN SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE MEXICO (SEMANA SANTA)

Watch this video on YouTube

Xcaret to build US $400-mn luxury hotel; City Express also has big plans

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MND Staff

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April 16, 2019

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Tourism company Xcaret and hotel chain City Express have big plans for Mexico: the former will invest US $400 million to build a new hotel and the latter plans to open 40 new properties by 2021.

Francisco Gutiérrez, director of Xcaret’s hotel division, told the newspaper Milenio that the company’s third luxury hotel will be called Xcaret Arte and have approximately 900 rooms.

To be located on land adjacent to the Xcaret theme park south of Playa del Carmen, Quintana, Roo, the hotel is expected to open in 2021, Gutiérrez said.

He explained that Xcaret plans to operate 10 hotels in Mexico.

The US $350-million Hotel Xcaret in Playa del Carmen is already open and the company’s second hotel, a US $85-million all-inclusive resort in Cancún called La Casa de la Playa (The Beach House), will open next year.

“We’re stronger than ever, investing to build high-quality, differentiated products,” Gutiérrez said.

At the Tianguis Turístico tourism fair in Acapulco earlier this month, the business executive said that Xcaret also has plans for the state of Yucatán, including the construction of a theme park and boutique hotels.

Gutiérrez said the company was looking at the area around Valladolid for its projects but declined to indicate when they might start.

Meanwhile, City Express has plans to invest more than US $150 million to build 40 hotels in Mexico during the next two years.

Franchise director Carlos Adams told Milenio that the company’s plans for Mexico are part of a broader Latin America strategy that will also include new hotels in Costa Rica, Colombia and Chile.

He explained that the company’s experience in cities such as Cancún and Puebla showed that it is possible to have more than one of City Express’s five brands in a single city.

“In . . . particular destinations, you have market segments [made up] of different customers,” Gutiérrez said, explaining that two different 125-room hotels can sometimes better cater to guests’ different needs than a single 250-room hotel.

He added that occupancy rates this year have been a little weak but started to improve last month.

City Express has 151 properties in four countries and 30 of Mexico’s 32 states.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Mexico City has 18,000 police officers; it needs 10,000 more

By

Madison Koen

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April 16, 2019

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Mexico City's police are too few in number. — Mexico City's police are too few in number, the mayor says.

Mexico City is 10,000 police officers short of being able to effectively guarantee its citizens’ safety, the mayor said today.

Claudia Sheinbaum said the city’s previous administration claimed to have 26,000 police officers in its service, but the new government found only 18,000.

To compensate for the shortage, the mayor said, 3,500 members of the auxiliary police force are currently in training to be incorporated into the main force. That measure, along with an expected graduating class of 1,500 from the police academy this year, would bring the number up to 23,000 officers by the end of 2019.

In addition, the National Guard, now a reality after it was declared constitutional last month, will also provide support in policing the capital, especially in parts of the city that border or spill over into México state. But those officers will not likely be available till the end of the year.

Sheinbaum said the current force falls far short of being able to guarantee residents’ safety, and that she was prepared to make dramatic budget choices to augment the number of officers.

Improving salaries is seen as a priority.

The mayor cited low police salaries as one of the principal reasons for insecurity in the capital. On average, police make between 9,000 and 9,500 pesos a month (US $470-$500).

“We are facing a grave security situation in the city, and one of the first things that we have to guarantee is police presence. We are coming up with different strategies that will allow us to address the problem.”

Source: Milenio (sp)

Latin American’s biggest artisans’ fair now on in Michoacán

By

César Hernández

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April 16, 2019

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The artisans' competition at the fair now on in Uruapan, Michoacán.

An artisans’ fair that has been dubbed the biggest in Latin America is now under way in Michoacán’s second largest city.

The Uruapan Tianguis Artesanal is hosting nearly 2,000 artisans from the state’s four ethnic groups — the Otomí, Nahua, Mazahua and Purhépecha — whose pottery, weaving, copper, carved wood and musical handicrafts will be displayed and sold until April 28.

More than one million pieces are on display.

Festivities began Friday with a 3 1/2-hour parade in which 63 organizations and 40 bands from 48 communities participated.

More than 50 cultural and artistic events are organized around the fair, including a contest among the artisans.

A total of 1,710 from 58 communities participated with 3,118 unique pieces, 207 of which were awarded a prize. Over one million pesos (US $54,600) was given away to the winners.

There is also a traditional Purhépecha food festival, where 15 women from 15 towns in Uruapan draw from their traditions and prepare meals using the same ingredients and artisanal tools their forebears used.

Source: Mi Morelia (sp)

At 5,000 pesos in 15 minutes, occupying toll plazas can be profitable

By

MND Staff

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April 16, 2019

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Protesters charging motorists a “voluntary fee” at highway toll plazas is a common sight in Mexico and for good reason – the practice can be very profitable.

In less than 15 minutes late last month, early childhood teachers protesting against the elimination of government subsidies for daycare centers collected at least 5,000 pesos (US $263) at the Palo Blanco toll booth on the highway between Chilpancingo and Acapulco in Guerrero, the newspaper Reforma reported.

Their colleagues carried out simultaneous hours-long collections at two other toll plazas on the Autopista del Sol, charging each car 50 pesos (US $2.63) – a small amount that can add up very quickly.

“It’s a [monetary] cooperation that will be used to continue our movement because we often have to travel to Mexico City to participate in protests,” one protester told Reforma.

However, some people doubt that the money collected is used by protesters to further their cause, and there was evidence at last month’s collection in Guerrero to support that view.

“Compañeras [colleagues], we’re all going to get our bit,” a teacher called out as she took another 50-peso contribution from a passing motorist.

A Federal Police officer said he and his colleagues have been unable to do anything to stop the toll plaza takeovers because state authorities advocate dialogue with protesters rather than removal by force.

“The truth is that a lot of organizations have taken over the toll booths to make some money but there are also organizations that don’t ask for a cooperation and allow free passage. They hand out information about their struggle,” he said, adding that whatever amount protesters collect in tolls represents a loss for the federal government.

More evidence that protesters personally profit from their toll collections was presented in the form of a verbal confrontation that almost came to blows at the Palo Blanco toll plaza.

The day before the early childhood teachers’ takeover, students from a physical education college occupied the plaza for three hours and at the end of their “shift,” a heated argument broke out about who would take home the money, Reforma said.

However, a regional leader of CETEG, a Guerrero-based teachers’ union, denied that money collected by protesting teachers goes into their own pockets, stressing that it is used to keep on fighting against injustices.

Taurino Rojas González said that taking over the highway is “very expensive and dangerous” but added that organizations are forced to do it because “the authorities never resolve [their] demands.”

He also said that police have at times used force to remove protesters, recalling that students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College – the same school attended by the 43 students who disappeared in Iguala in 2014 – were shot at on the Autopista del Sol in 2011 and two young men were killed.

Despite the dangers, the occupation of toll plazas continues to be a popular – and lucrative – way to protest.

Protesters including farmers and teachers took over highway toll booths at 13 locations in eight states last Friday to ask for contributions that in some cases, motorists had no choice but to pay.

Source: Reforma (sp)

Woman sought for kidnapping baby from outside hospital

By

Madison Koen

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April 16, 2019

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An amber alert was issued for eight-month-old Nancy.

Police in Mexico City are looking for a young woman who kidnapped a baby on Sunday from outside a hospital in the Doctores neighborhood of Cuauhtémoc.

María Magdalena Sánchez went to visit her sister in the hospital, accompanied by eight-month-old Nancy and her niece and nephew. Upon arrival, she was told by hospital staff that the children could not enter with her.

So Sánchez made a space for the children next to the main hospital entrance using blankets and bits of cardboard, entrusting her baby with Emiliano, 15, and Jenni, 6.

According to the police report, Emiliano said that at about 4:00pm his sister said she needed to go to the bathroom. A woman approached and offered to look after the baby while the two went to the washroom. When Emilio and Jenni returned, the woman and little Nancy were gone.

The Mexico City Attorney General’s Office has issued an amber alert and police have released a sketch of Nancy’s kidnapper based on Emilio’s description of a 25 to 30-year-old woman with white skin, oval face, thin, straight hair and about 1.6 meters tall.

A photo and description of the baby, who has a scar on her left wrist, was also released.

Police ask Mexico City residents with any information relevant to the investigation to call 5200 9000 or 01800 745 2369.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Caravan of 5,000 migrants begins northward march from Tapachula, Chiapas

By

MND Staff

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April 16, 2019

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More than 5,000 migrants left Tapachula, Chiapas, yesterday morning to begin the long journey through Mexico to the United States.

The migrant caravan includes an estimated 3,000 people who crossed the Suchiate river at the Rodolfo Robles international bridge between Tecún Umán, Guatemala, and Ciudad Hidalgo, Chiapas, last Friday.

Many other migrants who have been stranded in southern Chiapas in recent months while waiting to file visa requests with the National Immigration Institute decided to leave Tapachula at the same time, the newspaper El Universal reported.

There are around 7,200 migrants currently in Chiapas, according to the National Human Rights Commission, and another 1,600 are waiting to enter Mexico on the Rodolfo Robles bridge.

More than 3,000 are in Mapastepec, a town about 100 kilometers north of Tapachula, where some have been employed in a temporary government work program.

Among those who left Tapachula at 3:00am yesterday were a large number of minors as well as pregnant women, seniors and members of the LGBT community.

After walking for hours in temperatures as high as 38 C, some caravan members reached the outskirts of Huixtla in the afternoon where police tried to stop them from entering the town.

But a group of about 500 migrants ignored the police and walked into the center of Huixtla to camp in the town’s central square.

Municipal authorities told businesses to close and warned local residents not to leave their houses to avoid any possible confrontations.

In February, Huixtla police prevented another group of migrants from entering the town due to security concerns after two police officers were killed farther south in the state, presumably at the hands of the Mara Salvatrucha gang.

Other migrants stayed at shelters outside Huixtla last night while yet more camped out in Huehuetán, a town around 20 kilometers to the south.

Federal Police stationed at a migration checkpoint in the latter town made no attempt to stop or detain the migrants.

A trans woman identified only as Nancy told the newspaper El Universal that she fled her Central American homeland because of discrimination, a lack of employment and abuse at the hands of gangs.

“I’ve been mistreated a lot because of my gender, I can’t get a job. I want to live in a free country where at least I’m treated better,” she said.

Earlier this year, the federal government issued more than 10,000 humanitarian visas that allow migrants to work in Mexico and access services for up to a year but the initiative has largely been discontinued, forcing new arrivals to run the risk of being deported as they travel towards the northern border.

The Immigration Institute said that 204 Hondurans were flown back to San Pedro Sula Sunday from Minatitlán, Veracruz, because their stay in Mexico was “irregular.”

Most of the deported migrants were families traveling with children, the agency said.

The Human Rights Commission called on federal and Chiapas authorities to guarantee dignified treatment and conditions for migrants and to speed up the processing of visas for people stranded in shelters.

Fleeing poverty and violence in their countries of origin, tens of thousands of migrants have entered Mexico in recent months, many of whom arrived as part of several large caravans that originated in Central America.

Migration continues to be a point of contention between the Mexican and United States governments, and U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to close the border if Mexico doesn’t do more to stem migration and drug flows.

However, Trump said on April 4 that he was giving Mexico a “one-year warning” before he would move to impose tariffs on Mexican auto imports and close the border.

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

Search continues for woman, 68, missing in Baja desert

By

César Hernández

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April 16, 2019

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The San Pedro Mártir Sierra where a 68-year-old San Felipe woman is missing. — The San Pedro Mártir Sierra where Kat Hammontre is missing.

The search continues for a United States citizen missing since last Thursday in the desert near San Felipe, Baja California.

Kat Hammontre, 68, was hiking at the entrance of the Diablo Canyon in the San Pedro Mártir Sierra with friends and her dog Tootsie, but grew tired and stopped to rest near a creek.

She told her friends to continue and that she would catch up later, but that was the last time anyone has seen her or her dog.

It wasn’t until later in the day when Hammontre’s friends returned from their hike and spoke with her husband, Warren Sundquist, that they realized she was missing.

Volunteers and Mexicali Civil Protection personnel, the fire department, the army, the Red Cross and five search and rescue dogs mounted a search that revealed two marijuana plantations but no sign of the missing woman.

It is believed that Hammontre cannot have strayed far from her last known whereabouts — where daytime temperatures have been reaching 32 C — due to poor health.

Yesterday evening, state Civil Protection chief Antonio Rosquillas announced the search was being called off and that the case had been turned over the state Attorney General’s Office (PGJE), which will continue to investigate and attempt to locate the missing woman.

“We suspended the search. We combed the area surrounding the spot where she was last seen . . . a five-kilometer perimeter, and we did not find her,” said Rosquillas yesterday evening.

Sundquist posted on Facebook early this morning that he met yesterday with PGJE officials and that he was to travel with them to the Diablo Canyon area today.

He also said he understood that Civil Protection personnel would continue to search after all.

Source: 4 vientos (sp)

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