14 employers agree to union demands in Tamaulipas

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January 28, 2019

Twenty-four hours after a strike shut down dozens of factories in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, on Friday, 14 employers agreed to union demands for a 20% increase in workers’ salaries and a 32,242-peso bonus (US $1,700).

Some of the remaining maquiladoras, as the factories are known, are expected leave Tamaulipas.

NP Mexico Company, A.F.X Industries, Matamoros Glass and Doors, Core Composites Mexico, CTS Electric, Polytech Netting Industries Mexico, Inteva Mexico and Tidi Mexico were among the companies that ceded to the demands of more than 32,000 workers belonging to the Union of Laborers and Industrial Workers of the Maquiladora Industry (SJOIIM) who went on strike on Friday afternoon.

SJOIIM president Juan Villafuerte Morales told reporters that the bonus will be paid to workers in four parts in February, May, August and November. Villafuerte said the union’s demands are independent of the federal government’s recent doubling of the minimum wage in the region.

Despite negotiations between the union and several companies, the strike is expected to have negative repercussions at a national and international level. Villafuerte said the he expects at least three maquiladoras to leave Tamaulipas.

The state Conciliation and Arbitration Board recused itself from talks between 13 companies that have not reached agreements and union leaders, referring the negotiations to federal authorities.

There are 115 maquiladoras in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, that employ 131,920 workers, according to statistics from the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS).

Source: El Financiero (sp)

Teachers get another 800mn pesos but Michoacán rail blockades continue

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MND Staff

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January 28, 2019

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The federal government will give Michoacán teachers another 800 million pesos today, President López Obrador said this morning, as rail blockades in the state cost the economy an estimated 1 billion pesos a day.

“On Friday, 205 million pesos was delivered and today 800 million pesos is going to the teachers in Michoacán, in other words a billion pesos [US $52.5 million] . . .” López Obrador told reporters at his daily press conference.

Teachers have maintained railroad blockades in Michoacán since January 14 to demand payment of salaries, benefits and bonuses they say they are owed by the state government.

CNTE teachers’ union leaders said last week that they want 5 billion pesos before they will end their blockades and return to the classroom.

While that amount of money appears unlikely to be forthcoming, López Obrador reiterated that the government would not forcibly remove the teachers from the railway tracks, stating that repression wasn’t an option.

“I hope that they [the teachers] take notice that they have already been attended to and they take the decision to free the tracks . . .” López Obrador said.

The president said that CNTE members participating in the protest “have to understand that these are other times,” asserting that “we’re not against the people, nor are we oppressors.”

However, he added that the government wouldn’t allow itself to be blackmailed by the teachers’ union.

López Obrador also said that it was ultimately up to the state government to end the dispute with teachers.

“It’s not the federal government’s responsibility, we can’t deal with something that corresponds to the state [government]. We’re helping by transferring those funds to the state government and I hope things are resolved,” he said.

However, Michoacán Governor Silvano Aureoles believes that the rail blockade is an issue for which the federal government is responsible.

After the Secretary of Communications and Transportation, Javier Jiménez Espriú, took to Twitter yesterday to assert that “the labor conflict between the CNTE and the government of Michoacán is damaging the national economy” and to exhort “the parties to consider the national interest,” Aureoles responded that that the federal government cannot wash its hands of the matter.

“Michoacán is grateful for your ‘exhortation’ but also we remind you that the railway lines fall under federal jurisdiction, in other words, they’re your responsibility as secretary of communications and transportation,” he wrote.

“We ask you to assume [the responsibility] that corresponds to you and for the good of the residents of Michoacán and the economy of the state and nation, to formally intervene to guarantee the immediate clearing of the railway lines,” Aureoles said in a second tweet.

Today, the governor launched legal action against the blockades in the Supreme Court, declaring “it may be that the [federal] government decides not to use public force [to clear the tracks] but a judge can order it.”

Meanwhile, the economic losses from the rail blockades continue to mount.

The Confederation of Industrial Chambers (Concamin) estimates that the blockades are costing around 1 billion pesos a day, a figure with which the spokeswoman for rail operator Ferromex agreed.

Lourdes Aranda said that a total of 200 trains have been halted, explaining that auto parts, gasoline and imported grains are among the products that have been unable to reach their intended destination.

Concamin president Francisco Cervantes said that 8,600 shipping containers have been affected by the blockades.

The steel industry, which reported losses of more than 800 million pesos, is just one of several sectors that have taken an economic hit from the blockades.

In light of the growing financial damage, the president of the Michoacán branch of the Business Coordinating Council (CCE) urged the federal government to change its approach to dealing with the blockades, telling the newspaper Milenio that the current strategy won’t clear Michoacán’s railroads.

“This [strategy] of continuing to talk and if the dialogue ends to keep talking some more [won’t work]. We’re not calling for repression . . . but we are calling for the complete application of the rule of law. It’s an issue that has already exceeded the limit of tolerance, it’s having a very large economic impact that is hitting the whole country,” Agustín Arriaga said.

The CCE leader said it was unacceptable that teachers should stop the economy and that force could be used without violating their rights.

“Remove them, let the dialogue continue [but] they have to remove them, that’s what you have the rule of law for,” Arriaga said.

Some teachers claimed that the losses caused by the blockades are not being incurred by Mexico but by foreign businesses.

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

Frustrated passengers occupy airline ticket counters in Veracruz

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César Hernández

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January 28, 2019

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Eight Viva Aerobus planes were grounded.

A number of passengers of the low-cost airline Viva Aerobus occupied the ticket counters of the Veracruz airport Saturday after flights were cancelled due to an engine problem.

The cancellation of flights between the cities of Veracruz and Monterrey and vice versa was announced on Friday. The airline explained they had been rescheduled for early the following morning.

But come Saturday morning there were no flights, which triggered the anger of passengers. In protest they occupied all the ticket counters at the Veracruz airport, affecting an even larger number of passengers.

Viva Aerobus later informed customers that the flights had been rescheduled once more, and would take off at 4:00pm. The airline explained that a preventative security alert had triggered an unscheduled technical revision of its aircraft based at the Monterrey airport.

The website Transponder 1200, which specializes in aviation news, published a report yesterday saying the security alert affected eight of the airline’s 30 Airbus A320 aircraft. After consulting with the manufacturer the company decided to keep the aircraft on the ground until the problem was resolved.

Close to 500 travelers in Veracruz, Monterrey and Cancún were affected.

On Sunday the Monterrey-based airline chartered two planes to move customers from those three cities, along with those departing that day from Acapulco, Culiacán, Ciudad Juárez and Guadalajara, to their destinations. The chartered flights were expected to continue until early today.

Source: Milenio (sp), Transponder 1200 (sp)

University employee implicated in human trafficking network

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Madison Koen

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January 28, 2019

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The trafficking suspect was employed at this Guerrero university.

Police have uncovered a human trafficking ring in Chilpancingo, Guerrero, that used a university employee’s access to school records to select victims.

Police arrested Lorenzo N., who worked in administration department at the Autonomous University of Guerrero. It is the only arrest in the case so far.

Police learned of the ring after one of its victims escaped on January 18. Identified only as Gloria, the woman managed to escape from the safe house where she had been held. Based on the information she provided, authorities raided the house and freed five other women, three of whom were minors.

Chilpancingo Police chief Edgar Caín Pérez reported that members of the raid discovered sedatives in the safe house along with video recording equipment. The six rescued women testified that their captors had forced them to record pornographic videos and perform sexual acts for customers.

State authorities are currently working to uncover the extent of Lorenzo N.’s role in the human trafficking network and to identify others who were involved. The president of the university encouraged police to fully investigate the former employee: “If the young man was involved in anything illegal, let him be investigated.”

The six women, five of whom are high school students, may not have been the trafficking operation’s only victims.

Police are investigating a possible link between the network and the disappearance of undergraduate student Unali Monserrath Nava Landín, who was studying in the school of public management, where Lorenzo N. was an administrative employee.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Clash between community police, self-defense force kills 10 in Guerrero

By

César Hernández

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January 28, 2019

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Security forces at the scene of yesterday's gunfight in Guerrero.

Ten people died and two more were wounded in a gunfight yesterday between a community police force and a self-defense group in Chilapa, Guerrero.

Paraíso Tepila community police, affiliated with the regional community organization CRAC, clashed with a self-defense group believed to be connected with the Ardillos crime gang.

The confrontation took place when the self-defense group attempted to enter the town.

CRAC spokesman Jesús Plácido Galindo reported that the showdown lasted about three hours.

The state government said when the army and state police arrived at the scene they found a truck with the 10 bodies in it, along with two people with bullet wounds.

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Yesterday’s is the latest and most intense confrontation between both groups in recent weeks.

On December 19, CRAC members reported that the self-defense group had blocked the roads connecting the towns of Rincón de Chautla, Zacapexco, San Jerónimo Palantla and Tepila.

After local residents requested the intervention of the state government, army and state police traveled to the area a week later, only to be repelled by the self-defense group.

After yesterday’s clash, Plácido said the latter has the four towns in a virtual state of siege. He also said that members of a family from Tepila, including three young girls, were kidnapped yesterday. Their whereabouts are unknown.

The spokesman said the kidnapping followed a plea for the intervention of federal authorities. “. . . these are the consequences.”

Source: Reforma (sp)

Mayors threatened by huachicoleros, warned not to interfere in pipeline taps

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MND Staff

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January 28, 2019

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Petroleum thieves to mayors: 'Leave us alone.'

At least 15 mayors have received threats from gangs of fuel thieves, according to a political party official, who is calling on the federal government to cooperate more with state and municipal authorities to combat them.

Ángel Ávila Romero, a member of the national executive of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), told reporters Saturday that fuel thieves, known as huachicoleros, warn mayors “not to interfere” and to “let them work.”

He said that among those who have been threatened is Pedro Porras, mayor of Tezontepec de Aldama, a municipality in Hidalgo that adjoins Tlahuelilpan, where more than 100 people were killed in a petroleum pipeline explosion on January 18.

“Other mayors have approached mainly state authorities [to report the threats] but they don’t get a clear answer,” Ávila said.

The party official charged that the federal government’s strategy to fight fuel theft is not well-coordinated with municipal and state-level authorities.

“The federal government has forgotten that a large part of the preventative strategy against fuel theft has to do with state and municipal coordination and protection of mayors who have been threatened by the fuel theft cartels,” Ávila said.

“. . . It’s a good thing that the army is patrolling the pipelines, but it’s not enough,” he said.

Ávila described the threats as “extremely serious,” adding that “hopefully there’s a response” from the federal government and better coordination of the anti-fuel theft strategy between all three levels of government.

If President López Obrador doesn’t work with mayors his strategy will fail, he said.

Ávila also contended that authorities in states where López Obrador’s Morena party is in power have had “direct access to members of the federal cabinet” to discuss the strategy and the government’s response to the gasoline shortages that affected a large part of the country.

He pointed out that Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum was also afforded a meeting with Pemex CEO Octavio Romero.

However, in states such as Jalisco, Michoacán, Guanajuato and Querétaro, all of which suffered from the shortages, governors haven’t had the same level of access to federal authorities, Ávila claimed.

“. . . What I see is unequal treatment,” he said.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Gas stations use plug-in to distort sales volumes and sell stolen fuel

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MND Staff

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January 28, 2019

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pemex gas station — Plug-in allows stations to fudge their sales volumes.

Scores of gas stations in Mexico allegedly use an illegal software plug-in that allows them to manipulate the sales figures they report to Pemex and tax authorities, and conceal the sale of stolen fuel.

As many as one-third of Mexico’s 12,000 gas stations use a software program called ControlGas, which was created by the company Atio Group in 1997.

Installed on a gas stations’ pumps, the software precisely records the amount of fuel that is purchased and sold, and sends the data to the state oil company and the Federal Tax Administration (SAT) on a daily basis as required by law.

But according to two former unnamed company employees, Atio Group – which is owned by Pablo César Gualdi, a former president of the Mexican Association of Service Station Suppliers (Ampes) – doesn’t just sell ControlGas but also an illegal plug-in known as El Rastrillo (The Razor).

The plug-in allows the pumps’ volume controls to be altered, with gas station owners choosing between options that enable them to report sales that are 5%, 10% or 15% below their real level.

“Basically, it’s a program that’s added to ControlGas to shave off liters and fudge the numbers that are reported to the government,” one employee told the newspaper Milenio.

“This parallel software allows the reports that are sent to Pemex, of purchases, sales and stock, to be altered . . . if you shave off or cut off liters, you can sell stolen fuel,” said the other employee, who was fired for refusing to sell the illegal plug-in.

“I was able to see how the system was used in several gas stations,” he added.

Both former employees have received death threats, Milenio reported. Atio Group management didn’t respond to requests for an interview, the newspaper said.

The illicit scheme hasn’t gone unnoticed by the federal government, which is currently cracking down on fuel theft by deploying the military to protect Pemex infrastructure and closing several major petroleum pipelines.

Santiago Nieto, chief of the Finance Secretariat’s Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF), said recently that 194 gas stations are under investigation for altering their pumps’ volume controls and reporting income and expenditure that don’t add up.

On January 14 he said that many gas stations located near petroleum pipelines sell stolen fuel, explaining that the UIF had detected 10 billion pesos (US $526.5 million) in funds that are linked to the commercialization of stolen fuel and “laundered in the Mexican financial system.”

Source: Milenio (sp)

Petroleum theft cost Pemex 147bn pesos in three years, well over earlier estimates

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MND Staff

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January 26, 2019

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Trucks line up to enter illegal fuel supply depot in Puebla. — A drone captured images of 148 trucks lining up to enter illegal fuel supply depot in Puebla in 2017.

Petroleum theft cost Pemex 147.2 billion pesos (US $7.7 billion) between 2016 and 2018, according to a report by the state oil company, a figure that is far higher than previously thought.

Pemex data and federal intelligence reports show that fuel theft and the financial damage it causes have both risen year over year in the three-year period.

In 2016, fuel thieves known as huachicoleros stole an average of 26,000 barrels of fuel a day, costing the company 30.8 billion pesos (US $1.6 billion at today’s exchange rate). The thieves sold the fuel for an average of 10 pesos a liter, generating profits of 15 billion pesos (US $790 million).

In 2017, daily fuel theft rose to 43,000 barrels, costing Pemex 50.1 billion pesos (US $2.6 billion). The price of fuel on the black market increased to 12 pesos a liter and criminal gangs’ profits doubled to an estimated 30 billion pesos (US $1.6 billion).

Last year, fuel theft spiked to an average of 58,200 barrels a day, reducing Pemex’s revenue by 66.3 billion pesos (US $3.5 billion). The price of stolen petroleum increased to 15 pesos a liter, and thieves’ earnings soared to an estimated 50.6 billion pesos (US $2.7 billion).

Last year’s losses are more than two times higher than a figure cited by former Pemex CEO Carlos Treviño, who said in April 2018 that fuel theft cost the company 30 billion pesos a year.

Experts consulted by the newspaper Milenio said that a chain of corruption had allowed the crime to grow, adding that the enduring demand for stolen fuel and the relative ease with which gasoline can be siphoned off are also factors that have driven its growth.

“The investment needed to extract fuel is less than that . . . to buy drugs,” said Gabriel Regino, a criminologist, lawyer and national security expert.

“Let me explain: in the drug trafficking production chain, there is an international situation that includes production costs in countries such as Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. In addition to processing, production and packaging, then there is the most difficult thing, transportation to the north . . .” he said.

“In contrast, in the case of fuel theft, all that’s needed is information about at what point and at what time a certain liquid, whether it’s diesel, regular or premium [fuel], is going to flow along [the pipelines] . . . a valve that doesn’t cost more than 500 pesos as well as the technical ability to attach it, a hose, containers and that’s it. The investment is minimal compared to the economic benefit obtained,” Regino added.

“It’s a business that’s characterized by its immediacy, they [the thieves] don’t have to wait until the product arrives in another country, [the fuel] is extracted from a pipeline and 10 kilometers from the pipeline it’s already on sale.”

Ernesto Villanueva, an expert on issues related to corruption, said he believed that beyond criminal gangs “there are members of governments who were participants in this crime,” claiming that “without them it couldn’t have been committed.”

Pemex officials have also been accused of involvement in fuel theft and last month the government said that three will face criminal charges.

President López Obrador said on December 27 that “there is a hypothesis that of all the [fuel] thefts, only about 20% is done by illegal pipeline taps,” charging that “the majority is done through a scheme that involves the complicity of authorities and a distribution network.”

Some members of the army have allegedly been complicit in fuel theft as well, including four high-ranking officers who are currently under investigation by federal authorities.

While fuel theft affects the whole country, there are certain states that are considered “focos rojos” or “red flags” because of the high prevalence of the crime.

Hidalgo, where more than 100 people were killed in a pipeline explosion last week, edged out Puebla last year as the state with the highest incidence of pipeline taps, recording a total of 2,121.

Guanajuato, Jalisco and Veracruz rounded out the top five. Across Mexico, there were 14,894 illegal taps detected in 2018, an average of 41 a day.

Earlier this week, López Obrador announced that more than 3.8 billion pesos (US $200 million) in social development aid would be allocated to 91 municipalities in the states considered “focos rojos” as part of a strategy to dissuade participation in fuel theft.

More widely, the government has deployed the military to safeguard Pemex refineries, storage facilities and pipelines to combat fuel theft and also shut down several major pipelines, a move that caused widespread and prolonged gasoline shortages that persist in some states.

Despite the consequences, the government has remained committed to its anti-fuel theft strategy, claiming that it is already yielding impressive results.

The Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF), a division of the Secretariat of Finance (SHCP), is also investigating gas stations that have allegedly purchased and sold stolen fuel.

The agency’s chief, Santiago Nieto, said earlier this month that “a large proportion” of gas stations located near petroleum pipelines sell stolen fuel and that the UIF had detected 10 billion pesos (US $526.5 million) in funds that are linked to the commercialization of stolen fuel and “laundered in the Mexican financial system.”

Source: Milenio (sp)

Teachers refuse to end Michoacán rail blockade, demand 5 billion pesos

By

MND Staff

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January 26, 2019

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Teachers protesting in Michoacán want 5 billion pesos (US $263 million) before they will end their rail blockade and return to the classroom.

At a meeting with state and federal education authorities, leaders of Section 18 of the CNTE teachers’ union said the 1-billion-peso (US $52.6-million) offer made by the federal government was not enough.

That amount, they said, would only cover one month of wages that teachers are owed.

The union leaders argued that the additional 4 billion pesos is needed to pay benefits and bonuses to teachers, stipends to teaching students and retirement bonuses, all of which they say were agreed to with previous federal governments.

“The work stoppage will be maintained . . . We call for [the government’s offer] to be strengthened . . .” the leaders said.

However, neither the federal government nor the Michoacán government appears to have enough funds available in their budgets to give the union the money it is asking for.

Héctor García, head of the administration and finance division of the Secretariat of Public Education (SEP), said the federal government’s offer could only go up to 1.2 billion pesos.

He called on teachers to remove their railroad blockades, pointing out that uninvolved third parties including the manufacturing sector and students are suffering as a result.

The blockades, which started at the beginning of last week, have caused economic losses in the hundreds of millions if not billions of pesos.

Supplies destined for factories in Michoacán and other parts of the country have been stranded in the ports of Lázaro Cárdenas and Manzanillo, while auto makers and other manufacturers have been prevented from getting their products to the ports for export.

Trains transporting gasoline have also been unable to supply parts of the country, such as Jalisco, which are still experiencing fuel shortages.

Michoacán Governor Silvano Aureoles yesterday called on the federal Secretary of the Interior to clear the tracks.

In a statement, the governor said that “under the rule of law, the illegal blockade of transport routes cannot be allowed,” adding that the state’s railroads are not only crucial to the economy of Michoacán but to that of the whole country.

Aureoles said that state authorities are willing to cooperate with the federal government on the operational actions it deems necessary to clear the tracks.

But Interior Secretary Olga Sánchez has ruled out forcibly removing the protesting teachers from the railroads.

Despite the “grave damage” caused by the blockades, “there will be no repression, [the federal government] will not resort to using public force,” she said.

“We are going to negotiate, and when negotiations are over, we will negotiate some more.”

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

Salamanca refinery offline due to technical issues, shortage of chemical

By

Madison Koen

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January 26, 2019

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The oil refinery in Salamanca, Guanajuato.

As several states continue to deal with fuel shortages a key source of gasoline has gone offline due to technical problems and the shortage of a fuel additive.

Production at the Antonio M. Amor refinery in Salamanca, Guanajuato, stopped Wednesday due to problems with the facility’s reformer units and a shortfall of the chemical additive MTBE.

According to sources inside the refinery, most of the site’s reformers are merely recirculating their supply while others are undergoing extensive repairs. Sources also say that lighting has been shut off in some parts of the complex.

The Salamanca refinery produces about 23,600 barrels of gasoline a day, 13% of Mexico’s total production.

Fuel from the refinery supplies the states of Guadalajara, Guanajuato, Durango, Nayarit, Jalisco, Colima and Michoacán, among others.

Sources told reporters that Pemex hopes to resume regular fuel production by February 9.

Source: Reforma (sp)