Oaxaca police begin drone surveillance pilot project

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August 23, 2018

A police officer with one of Oaxaca's new drones.

Security officials in Oaxaca are anticipating a 40% reduction in crime through the deployment of surveillance drones in at least five communities.

Public Security Secretary Raymundo Tuñón said yesterday that surveillance by the unmanned aircraft is intended to halt assaults and kidnapping and identify retail drug traffickers.

They will be used in a pilot project at seven police installations in the city of Oaxaca, two in Tuxtepec and Salina Cruz and one each in Huatulco and Pinotepa Nacional.

The unmanned aerial vehicles will fly over areas where large numbers of people congregate, such as parks, shopping areas, markets and banks.

Tuñón said there is a five to 10-minute response time after the sighting of a crime using a drone. The fifth-generation aircraft are linked to C-4 security command centers.

The state has invested 25,000 pesos (US $1,320) in each one. They can remain airborne for up to an hour and 20 minutes and can operate within a radius of one kilometer.

Source: Milenio (sp)

US travel advisory update applies only to Ciudad Juárez

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Tony Richards

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August 23, 2018

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Body parts were found in plastic bags Tuesday in Cancún.

Further restrictions on Mexican travel by United States government employees have been widely interpreted as a new travel alert for several Mexican states, but they are not.

The U.S. State Department revised its travel advisory for Mexico yesterday by announcing that a July 13 personnel restriction against travel to the downtown area of Ciudad Juárez will continue until further notice because “the higher rates of homicides during daylight hours that prompted that determination have not decreased . . . .”

The Chihuahua border city has seen a drastic spike in homicides.

But nothing else appears to have changed in the Mexico travel advisory.

At least one Mexican newspaper implied that travel warnings for Colima, Sinaloa, Tamaulipas, Michoacán and Guerrero were new, where in fact they have not changed since January. Several U.S. newspapers offered similar reports, some linking the updated advisory to the violent murders this week of eight people in Cancún.

The bodies — three were dismembered and one was beheaded — were discovered during an eight-hour period on Tuesday in various parts of the city, bringing to about 350 the number of assassinations so far this year.

But there has been no change in the United States’ travel advisory for Cancún or Quintana Roo.

The state government said today that incidents that occurred this week are related to actions between organized crime groups and have not involved local citizens or visitors.

The violence is attributed to turf wars between the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and Los Zetas, as well as other regional crime gangs.

Source: ABC (en), Infobae (sp)

6-million-peso sargassum removal boat sits idle in storage in Quintana Roo

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MND Staff

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August 23, 2018

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The sargassum removal vessel in dryland storage.

As large quantities of sargassum inundated Mexico’s Caribbean coast beaches over the past three months, a 6-million-peso government-owned vessel specifically designed to remove the seaweed sat idle in a Quintana Roo marina.

The administration of former Quintana Roo governor Roberto Borge paid 5.96 million pesos (US $315,000 at today’s exchange rate) to the México state-based company Tecno Productos GAB for the sargassum removal boat, of which it took possession in January 2016.

But at that time sargassum wasn’t washing up on the state’s beaches and since then the vessel has remained out of service in dryland storage at Hotel El Cid in Puerto Morelos, the newspaper Milenio reported today.

David Jáuregui, a legal representative for Tecno Productos in the Riviera Maya and director of the company Sargazo Solutions, told Milenio that the vessel was delivered to the previous government in working order and that he didn’t know why the current government hasn’t put it to use.

“We’re the only Mexican company that has the technical and human capacity to manufacture this type of boat. They contracted us, paid us and we delivered,” Jáuregui said.

He explained that the vessel’s buoyancy and maneuverability were tested three years ago, although he added that its “stainless steel bands” or “sargassum harvesters” hadn’t undergone trials at the same time.

However, an inspection of the vessel a month and a half ago confirmed that it was still in working order, Jáuregui said.

Milenio reported that the businessman is making arrangements with the state government for the vessel to undergo testing at sea within the next two weeks.

Tecno Productos will absorb the 150,000-peso (US $8,000) transportation costs to show that the boat is ready to clean the beaches, Milenio said, because claims that it is not in working order are affecting other contracts it has signed with the private sector.

Meanwhile, the president of the federal Senate, Ernesto Cordero, said the Federal Auditor’s Office (ASF) should open an investigation into the whereabouts of 79 million pesos (US $4.2 million at today’s rate) that were allocated to the Borge government to combat an invasion of sargassum in 2015 but disappeared.

Current Quintana Roo lawmakers and government officials say they don’t know what happened to the missing funds, which were part of a larger 150-million-peso federal package.

Borge fled the country at the end of his term but was extradited to Mexico from Panama in January and is currently awaiting trial on corruption charges.

“Like all of the public budget, [resources] have to be used for what they were authorized for. If that’s not the case, it should be investigated, that’s what the ASF is for,” Cordero said.

Luis Sánchez, coordinator for the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) in the Senate, said: “Specialists are saying that the sargassum growth is a consequence of climate change, the temperature of the water and human activity. If we add corruption, we have a disaster for our beaches.”

Alfonso Ramírez Cuéllar, a Morena party lawmaker, said the incoming Andrés Manuel López Obrador-led government will ensure that those responsible for corruption at the state level will be held accountable.

“There will be no clean slate. On the contrary, all the cases where the [federal] government and the PGR [federal Attorney General’s office] have jurisdiction and, above all, those that involve embezzlement from the national finances, will neither be forgiven nor forgotten,” he said.

In response to this year’s sargassum crisis, the federal Natural Disaster Fund (Fonden) allocated 62 million pesos to Quintana Roo for clean-up efforts but the Secretariat of Tourism (Sectur) said it is now assessing the need for more federal funds to be allocated.

The first sargassum barrier was installed last week at Punta Nizuc near Cancún, where it is intended to prevent the seaweed from arriving on shore.

This week, the barriers are being placed in Xcalak in the municipality of Othón P. Blanco to protect the beaches at Mahahual, Ecology and Environment Secretary Alfredo Arellano said yesterday. Two vessels designed to gather sargassum are expected to arrive next week to remove the seaweed from behind the barriers.

His department also said it is hoping to raise 610 million pesos (US $32.3 million) of state, federal and private sector funds which can be placed in a trust for the purchase of equipment, barriers and vessels to combat the sargassum invasion.

The mayor-elect of Solidaridad, one of seven Quintana Roo municipalities with a Caribbean Sea coastline, estimated earlier this month that tourism had dropped by as much as 35% due to sargassum washing up on a 480-kilometer-long stretch of otherwise pristine Caribbean beaches.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Puebla state police take over security in Tehuacán, disarm local cops

By

Tony Richards

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August 23, 2018

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State police watch over disarmed Tehuacán police this morning.

Police in another Puebla municipality have been relieved of their duties while they are investigated for connections with organized crime.

State police and federal armed forces took control of security in Tehuacán in a surprise move during a municipal police shift change early this morning.

At least 200 local police will be investigated due to an increase in criminal activity, Governor Antonio Gali Fayad said.

The state will conduct a review of all police officers to confirm whether the force had been infiltrated by organized crime.

Officers’ identities will be checked to ensure they are on the national list of police officers, their weapons will be inspected to determine whether they have been used in criminal activity and their status checked with regard to evaluation and trust tests.

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Officers will return to duty following the successful completion of the evaluations, said the state’s public security secretary.

One municipal official challenged this morning’s action, accusing the state of violating the municipality’s autonomy. Miguel Ángel Romero Calderón said the state government could have provided support for Tehuacán’s security without putting on a show.

The state has conducted similar actions in three other municipalities — San Martín Texmelucan, Chalchicomula and Amozoc — in recent months. In Texmelucan the inspection turned up more than 100 police offers who were not official registered while in Serdán the review revealed 15 fake officers.

Petroleum theft, train robberies, homicides and extortion are the most common crimes in the municipalities whose police have come under the microscope.

Source: El Sol de Puebla (sp), Municipios Puebla (sp)

Citizens grab mayor and lock him up on suspicion of embezzlement

By

Tony Richards

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August 22, 2018

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Residents of a Oaxaca community rebelled this week and locked up the mayor on suspicion of corruption.

César Augusto Matus remained confined to the municipal jail in San Francisco Ixhuatán today, accused of embezzling 3 million pesos (US $160,000) since 2016.

His accusers, residents of El Morrito, also seized his personal vehicles and called on state officials to conduct an audit.

They claim the mayor hired a contractor friend to carry out public works projects in order to inflate the costs.

But his wife defended him by explaining that the funds allocated for the projects had never been delivered by the state.

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After Matus was seized and jailed yesterday, state officials attempted to mediate a solution. Citizens of El Morrito said they had a contractor lined up to do the work and wanted the state to come up with 1 million pesos to pay for it.

But when government officials explained they needed to confirm whether the contractor was authorized to do the work the citizens’ anger turned to fury. They ended the meeting and returned the mayor to his cell.

Source: Milenio (sp), OaxPress (sp)

Kidnappings declined by 16% in first seven months

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MND Staff

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August 22, 2018

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State of México led the way with kidnappings. — State of México led the way with the most kidnappings in the period.

There is one good piece of news this week in a security situation that has steadily worsened for three years or more.

Kidnappings declined by 16% in the first seven months of 2018 compared to the same period last year, the Interior Secretariat (Segob) reported yesterday.

The federal department said in a statement that authorities opened 735 new files for the crime between January and July, 142 fewer than the 877 files opened between January 1 and July 31 last year.

“The coordinated work between institutions, the exchange of information, the actions surrounding the prevention campaigns and their dissemination, as well as the participation of citizens through the reporting of cases, are factors that have allowed the federal government and the states to maintain the downward trend in the kidnapping rate,” Segob said.

It also reported that preliminary statistics from the National Public Security System (SNSP) showed that state-based prosecutors’ offices opened 83 new cases of presumed kidnappings last month, while the federal Attorney General’s office (PGR) said it had initiated 28 investigations.

The total number of 111 new cases is 5.12% less than the 117 reported in July last year.

Nine states — Aguascalientes, Baja California Sur, Campeche, Chiapas, Coahuila, Durango, Guanajuato, Sonora and Yucatán — had no reports of kidnappings last month, Segob said.

The department also said that a meeting of the eastern region’s specialized anti-kidnapping units (UECS) had taken place in Querétaro, at which a range of objectives were analyzed, including ones related to the training of squad members, criminal investigations, victim recovery and attention to victims and their families.

Five other UECS regional groups will also hold meetings this month in Nuevo León, Sonora, Tabasco, Mexico City and Guerrero, Segob said.

“The government of the republic maintains its commitment to work in a coordinated manner with all states . . . and renews its call to citizens to report this crime with the anti-kidnapping unit of their state or on the number 911 . . .” the statement said.

Despite the decline in kidnappings in the first seven months of the year, the number of cases recorded during the administration of President Enrique Peña Nieto — now more than 7,000 — is the highest ever registered in a six-year presidential term.

Figures released earlier this year showed that Tamaulipas has been the worst affected state since Peña Nieto took office in December 2012, followed by México state, Veracruz, Guerrero and Tabasco.

Segob said in June that there are now 37,435 missing persons in Mexico, 40% more than the number reported in 2014.

In November last year, Peña Nieto promulgated a new law designed to better fund and improve search efforts for the thousands of people reported as missing or forcibly disappeared.

Source: Quadratín (sp) El Universal (sp)

Once omnipotent ruling party was ‘seduced by power,’ says new leader

By

MND Staff

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August 22, 2018

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Mexico’s ruling and once omnipotent Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) allowed itself to be “seduced by power,” its new national leader said yesterday during a scathing critique of the party’s crushing defeat at the July 1 elections.

Speaking after being sworn in as president of the party’s National Executive Committee (CEN) until 2019, former cabinet secretary Claudia Ruiz Massieu said voters had made a clear choice to punish the PRI by rejecting it at the ballot box last month.

“Not only did a new political force win, the balance of power — at all levels of representation and in practically the entire country — was also radically reshaped. The PRI will face a scenario that we have never experienced before: simultaneously being opposition to the [federal] executive and a minority party in the legislative power,” she said.

José Antonio Meade, the party’s candidate for president, won just 16% of the vote to finish third in the main race more than 35 points behind now president-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador, whose party Morena dominated the elections.

President Enrique Peña Nieto’s administration has been plagued by corruption scandals, worsening levels of insecurity and slow economic growth, giving rise to a widespread appetite for change that manifested itself in a massive vote for López Obrador.

An open letter signed by hundreds of PRI members and published last month said that “President Peña and the top-level officials in his government, mainly those who have been in charge of combating insecurity and poverty and those who committed acts of corruption or should have been dedicated to eradicating it, are largely responsible for the electoral result.”

The PRI, which ruled Mexico uninterrupted for 71 years until the year 2000, also lost the nine gubernatorial contests that were held on July 1 and was even swept from power in municipalities where it had never lost before, such as Peña Nieto’s birthplace of Atlacomulco, México state.

“We didn’t know how to defend our party. We forgot our origins when we abandoned the political actions we were based on. We favored pragmatism over our principles. We let ourselves be seduced by power,” Ruiz charged.

“The decisions that belong to the membership of the party were closed off to the leadership. We got too close to the elites and distanced ourselves from the causes of the citizens. We spent more time in our offices than in the streets. We forgot that a [political] party promotes causes,” she continued.

“. . . We drifted away from the social reality, we lacked sensitivity, we allowed others to appropriate our colors, we lost our identity as the people’s party of Mexico.”

Ruiz, who served as secretary of tourism and secretary of foreign affairs at separate times in Peña Nieto’s administration before moving in to the PRI’s administrative apparatus as secretary general, also partially set out a path back to political relevance for the embattled party.

“To renew the PRI, just as important as taking decisions is to not evade responsibility. The duty of the new leadership is to speak bluntly, clearly and truthfully,” she said.

The party’s lawmakers will act as a “counterweight” to the incoming federal government and carefully watch the political decisions that affect the future of Mexico with a critical eye, Ruiz added.

She also said the PRI needs to do more to encourage the appointment of women and young people to leading roles within the party and to ensure that corrupt conduct of members is dealt with before it causes irreparable damage.

“We didn’t raise our voices in time to denounce and punish the corruption that was generated within our own ranks. We allowed the shameless and the abusive to stain the image and damage the reputation of millions of honorable, patriotic and hard-working women and men of the PRI.”

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

Teachers in training reject English in favor of indigenous languages

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César Hernández

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August 22, 2018

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A protest by teacher trainees in Oaxaca almost three years ago. — Oaxaca teacher protests are frequently violent. Here, a protest by teacher trainees almost three years ago.

The school year isn’t three days old and teachers in Oaxaca are going on strike again, this time to protest a requirement that teachers in training must now study English.

The Oaxaca local of the CNTE teachers’ union — whose annual protests have been going on for years — and students in the state’s 11 teacher training colleges say English should not take precedence over teaching native languages.

It claims the latest stage of the new education model prioritizes English and technology.

The federal Public Education Secretariat (SEP) has been implementing the new education model in a staggered manner. Now, for the first time, English is a requirement at the colleges.

“We demand the immediate cancellation of the imposed education reform,” students told a press conference in Oaxaca city, declaring they would put up a fight.

Student Nayeli Juárez told the newspaper El Imparcial that her college would lose its soul by bypassing indigenous languages in favor of English.

The students declared that they were not protesting for the sake of protest, but speaking out after analyzing the consequences of losing subjects such as history and the arts. Excluding them, they said, creates a chasm in the schools’ humanist focus.

As the students were protesting in Oaxaca, a group of Section 22 teachers traveled to Mexico City to take their rejection of the updated curriculum to officials there, where they hoped to meet with the nominee for education secretary in the new government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

They also intended to repeat their longstanding objection to the evaluation of teachers, another element of the reforms.

It is unclear how many Oaxaca teachers are participating in the strike and how many schools will be affected.

López Obrador repeated on Monday his intention to cancel those reforms and substitute them with a new proposal that takes into account the opinions of teachers and parents.

Source: El Imparcial (sp)

Tabasco gas well shut in area where manatees have died

By

César Hernández

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August 22, 2018

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The federal Security, Energy and Environment Agency (ASEA) has shut down a gas well located near an area where at least 30 manatees have been found dead.

After inspecting gas wells and other facilities in the Hormiguero, Cobo, Comején and Usumacinta gas fields, ASEA decided to impose security measures at the Usumacinta No. 12 gas well.

The well is located in the lagoon area of the municipality of Jonuta, where residents of the nearby town of San José have reported gas leaks in Pemex infrastructure.

ASEA said the well was shut down because of “inadequate maintenance” and will remain closed until Pemex conducts the necessary repairs.

The environmental security agency also ordered that Pemex perform a series of tests to verify the integrity of well No. 14 in the Usumacinta field.

Although the Environment Secretariat has admitted it doesn’t know for certain what has caused the deaths of the manatees, it did say last week that it was not through any fault of Pemex.

The Association of Zoos, Breeders and Aquariums (Azcarm) praised the federal government and ASEA for its action. That organization revealed two weeks ago that an independent analysis found evidence of unsafe levels of heavy metals in the habitat of the manatees and in their remains.

Several have been captured and moved to another area to prevent further deaths. Studies are under way on the remains of those found dead to find the cause.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Security secretary nominee favors legalization of pot

By

César Hernández

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August 22, 2018

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Durazo: personally in favor of legalization.

The man proposed to be Mexico’s next public security secretary has admitted he favors the legalization of marijuana.

Alfonso Durazo Montaño express his view in Cuernavaca, Morelos, before attending a forum on drug policy with other members of the new federal administration, representatives and experts from the scientific and academic communities and members of civil organizations.

Durazo told reporters he was in favor of the legalization of marijuana for recreational and medical use, but cautioned that it was his personal belief and he would not attempt to impose it during the talks.

“We will discuss drug and pacification issues and outline a policy that will contribute to the nation’s pacification and reconciliation . . . those proposals that obtain consensus will possibly become public policy,” he said.

“I have my personal position in favor of the legalization of marijuana, but I’m not here to push my proposal forward, the forum will have to decide that,” he said.

Another proposed cabinet secretary has expressed similar views. Olga Sánchez Cordero, prospective interior secretary, has said she too favors the decriminalization of marijuana, and allowing opium poppy cultivation for medical purposes.

Source: El Universal (sp)