2 billion pesos later, the trains are still not running in Michoacán

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February 7, 2019

Teachers' blockade in Uruapan, one of two that remain in Michoacán.

Two rail blockades remain in place in Michoacán even though the state and federal governments have released more than 2 billion pesos in funding to pay salaries and bonuses in response to teachers’ demands.

Teachers who belong to the National Front of Struggle for Socialism (FNLS) and the National Democratic Executive Committee (CEND) are blocking tracks in Pátzcuaro and Uruapan after lifting their blockade in the former municipality for less than 24 hours earlier this week.

The CNTE union removed blockades in five other Michoacán locations last week after the state government paid teachers more than 1.2 billion pesos (US $62.9 million) in salaries for the second half of January.

The blockades, first erected on January 14 to protest against unpaid salaries and benefits, have cost the economy billions of pesos.

In December, the federal government transferred 1 billion pesos (US $52.4 million) to its state counterpart to cover teachers’ salaries for that month as well as the first part of their annual bonus and last month, it sent another billion pesos for January wages and the second bonus installment.

Yesterday, Michoacán Education Secretary Alberto Frutis Solís said that a further 95 million pesos has been made available to cover a payment known as Compensación Única Nacional (Single National Compensation) and that 80 million pesos will go to paying stipends to teaching students.

All told, the funds add up to 2.17 billion pesos (US $113.9 million).

Nevertheless, two groups of just under 40 radical teachers each refuse to fall into line with the CNTE union, whose Section 18 leaders reached a preliminary agreement with federal and state authorities that included a commitment to lift the blockades.

In Pátzcuaro, the teachers removed their blockade on Monday night but on Tuesday they returned to the railway tracks while in Caltzontzin, a community in Uruapan, they haven’t moved at all.

Section 18 members accuse the FNLA and CEND teachers of holding up further negotiations with state and federal authorities. Most schools in Michoacán remain closed.

In the 24 days since the blockades began, around 10,000 shipping containers have been stranded and more than 300 trains have been halted.

The Nuevo León industry association Caintra warned that the ongoing blockades are placing jobs at risk in several states including Michoacán, Colima, Guanajuato, México state, Mexico City, Sonora, Sinaloa and Baja California.

The association’s president, Juan Ignacio Garza Herrera, told a press conference that Mexico has lost 30% of its port capacity due to the inability of trains to move cargo from Lázaro Cárdenas and Manzanillo. Three million tonnes of freight have been stranded, he said.

Garza claimed that around 50,000 double semi-trailers are needed to transport such a quantity of cargo.

With the blockades estimated to be costing the economy more than 1 billion pesos a day, accumulated losses are now in the range of 25 to 30 billion pesos (US $1.3 to $1.6 billion).

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

17-year-old enters postgraduate program at Harvard University

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Madison Koen

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February 7, 2019

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A student who became the world’s youngest psychologist at the age of 13 is now off to Harvard University, the first Mexican minor to be admitted to a postgraduate program and also the youngest in 100 years.

At the age of 10, Dafne Almazán Anaya, now 17, began an undergraduate degree in psychology at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM), where she graduated after three years of study.

At Harvard, Almazán will study for a master’s degree in mathematics for teaching.

“My plan is to design and work with models for teaching mathematics to gifted children, which is one of the focuses of the degree,” the young genius revealed in a statement.

She added that she plans to graduate from the Harvard program in one year, which at 18 would see her join the ranks of a select handful of others in the history of the prestigious institution.

Almazán has been a speaker at several national and international professional conferences, including the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children and the American Education Research Association.

She has two professional certificates from Harvard centering on gifted education. In 2016 Almazán was named one of Forbes 50 Most Powerful Women in Mexico, and last year she received Mexico City’s Youth Award.

She was also part of the first generation of the CEDAT intellectual potential program, one of Latin America’s most important centers for the identification of gifted children.

Almazán is fluent in four languages and in her free time has practiced ballet, gymnastics, ice skating, taekwondo and oil painting.

Source: El Financiero (sp)

Pemex workers file new evidence against longtime union leader Romero

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MND Staff

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February 7, 2019

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A group of state oil company employees has presented new evidence to federal authorities to support a 2016 criminal complaint against Pemex workers’ union leader Carlos Romero Deschamps.

Members of the group known as Active Petroleum Workers Movement in Evolution for a New Mexico yesterday submitted nine pieces of evidence to the organized crime investigation unit (SEIDO) of the federal Attorney General’s office (FGR) to substantiate accusations of organized crime, money laundering, tax evasion and fraud and illicit enrichment to the tune of US $150 million.

The group hopes that the new evidence will prompt the federal government to dust off existing files against Romero and initiate criminal proceedings against him.

“Today we went to the organized crime investigation unit of the FGR to provide some momentum for the complaint filed in October 2016 and to follow up on the investigations [already] carried out,” said Arturo Flores Contreras, the group’s leader.

He claims that Romero and his prestanombres, or front men, have sold 126 convenience stores, 26 factories and 60,000 hectares of ranch land that belonged to the Pemex workers’ union (STPRM).

“We’ve been dispossessed of all the wealth that . . . our fathers and grandfathers built up. That’s why we’re working to recover it,” Flores said.

“This leader, who’s been at the head of our union for 25 years, is being investigated in several ways. We . . . have a robust file against that person and 36 [union] general secretaries, family members and prestanombres,” he added.

Flores told reporters that the previous Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) government led by Enrique Peña Nieto deliberately delayed the case against Romero, who has been at the helm of the STPRM since 1993 and also served as a senator for the PRI between 2012 and 2018.

“The investigations were carried out slowly and negligently . . . which allowed the union leader to evade justice and remain unpunished. That’s why we’ve come to follow up on the investigations and to give impetus to the [criminal] complaint . . .” Flores said.

He added that the more than 300 workers who support the complaint against Romero have faith that the new government will bring him to justice.

“The petroleum workers have full confidence in the anti-corruption policy that the López Obrador government is promoting as an institutional commitment,” Flores said.

“We believe that there is sufficient evidence for him [Romero] to stand trial. And we’re certain that the actions of this new administration will . . . effectively combat corruption in Mexico and punish those responsible.”

Romero has been implicated in various scandals while head of the STPRM including the so-called Pemexgate case in which the union was found to have diverted 500 million pesos to the 2000 presidential campaign of PRI candidate Francisco Labastida.

He has also been criticized for his ostentatious lifestyle, including giving a limited-edition Ferrari to his son and picking up the tab for the lavish wedding of his daughter.

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

Communal landowners want Quintana Roo archaeological site opened

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MND Staff

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February 6, 2019

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The Ichkabal archaeological site in Quintana Roo.

Communal landowners in Quintana Roo will make a direct appeal to President López Obrador to open an archeological site in the south of the state.

Luis Chimal Balam, head of the Bacalar ejido, or community land, said the landowners haven’t been able to reach an agreement with either the state government or the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) to have Ichkabal opened to the public.

The request to the president will be made during his scheduled visit to state capital Chetumal on February 24, he said.

In addition to asking for his intervention to open the Mayan site, the landowners, or ejidatarios, will also ask López Obrador and the federal government to stop the expropriation of their land.

Chimal Balam said that INAH has proposed paying 400,000 pesos (US $21,000) for each of the 121 hectares covered by Ichkabal and the surrounding area that needs to be developed to access the site.

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But the 165 ejidatarios have collectively decided that they don’t want to give up ownership of the land. Instead, they wish to be partners in the development of the archaeological site and direct beneficiaries of the tourism it attracts.

However, the former head of INAH in Quintana Roo ruled out that possibility in December.

“Current INAH regulations do not provide for any scheme of association such as the one ejidatarios are asking for . . . legally it’s not viable,” Adriana Velázquez Morlet said.

The Quintana Roo government has said that the recovery of Ichkabal could attract investment in hotels and real estate to the tune of US $1 billion over the next 15 years.

Located around 60 kilometers west of Laguna de Bacalar, Ichkabal is one of the most important Mayan cities of the pre-classical era. Some of its structures are taller than the pyramids at Chichén Itzá in Yucatán.

The state secretary of tourism believes that the opening of Ichkabal will be a major economic, social and tourism boost for the entire southern region of Quintana Roo.

Source: El Economista (sp)

Jalisco money woes: cancer budget slashed; no money to finish hospital

By

Madison Koen

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February 6, 2019

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The Jalisco Cancer Institute had its budget cut this year.

Jalisco is struggling to treat cancer patients due to insufficient funding.

Not only has the Jalisco Cancer Institute seen its 2019 budget cut by 42%, the new Jalisco Cancer Hospital is only about 40% complete and the funds needed to finish it are not available.

Health Secretary Fernando Petersen Aranguren told reporters last month he didn’t know if the state would be able to obtain the funding necessary to continue the project, let alone furnish the new facility.

“No, right now there are no earmarked funds — neither state nor federal. We are investigating the project’s history to find out what happened . . . .”

Compounding the problem, the Jalisco Cancer Institute saw its budget slashed from 105 million pesos (US $5.5 million) to 61 million. The budget had been increased in 2018 to meet the hospital’s needs, but this year it is the same as the average allocation of previous years.

The hospital treated over 67,000 patients in 2018 and treats cancer cases from all over the state. To make matters worse it owes nearly 200 million pesos (US $10.5 million) to suppliers.

The new hospital would have 100 beds, while the institute only has 45. Because of the high demand and limited resources, the hospital has had to begin charging patients.

Aranguren explained that testicular, prostate, breast, cervical and colon cancers, along with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, are all covered by social security. However, since last year patients suffering from other forms of the disease, such as lung cancer, have had to pay for consultations and undergo a socioeconomic study to determine their ability to pay and how much they are charged.

“Unfortunately the institute no longer has the financial means of continuing to treat patients with other forms of cancer, and we have had to start asking them for payment.”

According to the World Health Organization, lung and skin cancer, both of which are not covered, are the most common types of the disease.

Source: Reforma (sp), UDGTV (sp)

Secretary faults bureaucrat for omitting penthouse on assets declaration

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MND Staff

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February 6, 2019

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The federal interior secretary today blamed a high-ranking bureaucrat and the department he heads for failing to include a penthouse she owns in Houston, Texas, on her personal assets declaration.

Speaking at the presidential press conference this morning, Olga Sánchez Cordero said that on January 30 she asked Fernando Martínez, head of the Public Administration Secretariat (SFP) department responsible for compiling such declarations, to publish all her assets.

Sánchez said that she has since asked the SFP department to explain why it omitted the property from her declaration.

The newspaper Reforma brought the omission to light earlier today in a report that said the 270-square-meter penthouse, owned by the former Supreme Court judge and her husband, is on the 22nd floor of a luxury building in an exclusive residential area of Houston and valued at more than US $583,000.

According to the public deed, Sánchez and her husband purchased the property on December 28, 2009, Reforma said.

The interior secretary said the newspaper should ask the SFP why it didn’t include the penthouse on her assets declaration, reiterating “I gave the instruction for it to be published.”

Sánchez also criticized the Reforma journalist who wrote the story for failing to ask for her version of events.

The publication last week of Sánchez’s other assets, which include a “rustic plot of land” valued at 90,000 pesos (US $4,700) and a 2.7-million-peso (US $141,000) apartment, came after President López Obrador issued an ultimatum declaring that “he who doesn’t make [their declaration] public, cannot work in the government.”

López Obrador, who took office on December 1, has pledged to lead a transparent government as part of his crusade to combat corruption.

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

More workers go on strike in Tamaulipas; experts warn of more job action

By

MND Staff

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February 6, 2019

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Employees at Avant were among those who walked off the job yesterday.

Yet more workers have walked off the job in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, to demand better pay and conditions, while experts warn that strike action will spread to other parts of the country.

Employees of supermarket chains S-Mart, Chedraui and Walmart were among workers at more than 27 businesses in the northern border city who went on strike yesterday.

Their demands are similar to those made by workers at 48 Matamoros factories who have started job action during the past two weeks.

Last month, more than 30,000 workers at 45 factories stopped work to demand a 20% pay raise and an annual bonus of 32,000 pesos (US $1,700). Now, the spreading job action has been dubbed Movimiento 20/30 for the fact that more workers want the same increase and bonus.

The demands, presented by the Union of Laborers and Industrial Workers of the Maquiladora Industry (SJOIIM), were met by most companies, spurring employees of dairy distributor Liderlac, water purification company Blanquita and Arca Continental, a large Coca-Cola bottler, to take job action as well.

Two labor market experts agree that workers in other states will follow suit to demand higher pay and better conditions.

Luis Aguirre Lang, president of the National Council of the Maquiladora Industry (Index Nacional), said that “these kinds of situations are going to happen with greater frequency.”

He contended that power struggles between different unions that represent workers at the same factories will be the main cause of future strike action. In the middle of their fight, Aguirre added, they’ll take the companies “as hostages.”

The business leader reiterated that the Matamoros workers’ demands for higher pay, which he said were triggered by the doubling of the minimum salary in the northern border region, will cause companies to leave the northern border city and the country.

Aguirre said that some factory workers might have expected their salaries to double even though they earn more than minimum wage.

Meanwhile, Enrique Larios Díaz, president of the College of Labor Law Professors at the National Autonomous University (UNAM), said that workers are “waking up” to their working conditions and, in turn, taking action against the abuses of both their employers and their unions.

He said that salaries in Mexico are the lowest in the western world, arguing that creates a situation that can’t be ignored.

Larios added that the antiquated structures of many trade unions “are cracking” and that Juan Villafuerte, president of the SJOIIM, is representative of those structures, which keep “workers practically enslaved.”

The lawyer and academic also said that union leaders like Villafuerte “live like princes due to workers’ extremely high union dues.”

Larios said that while strikes have always been demonized, they have a valid purpose because they can help to bring balance to the relationship between employers and a work force.

Aguirre, on the other hand, said that strikes only generate a bad image of Mexico and will lead to a loss of investment. He pointed out that the manufacturing sector generates more than three million direct jobs and generates income of more than US $270 billion a year.

Tamaulipas Labor Secretary María Estela Chavira said that as many as 20,000 jobs could be lost in Matamoros if companies leave or cut their work forces because they can’t afford to continue paying the higher wages to which they have committed.

“The forecast is above 5,000 [job losses] and up to 20,000, companies predict [staffing cuts] within six months,” she said.

Chavira said that similar situations could occur in other states if there are conflicts between workers and employers.

With that in mind, Aguirre said that the federal government must establish clear rules with regard to arbitration between employers and employees.

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

New security plan will send 10,200 federal forces to 17 high-crime locations

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February 6, 2019

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Durazo announces details of new security operation before a backdrop of monthly homicide numbers.

The federal government will send 10,200 police and military personnel to 17 high-crime locations in a new security operation that was first announced earlier this week by President López Obrador.

Security Secretary Alfonso Durazo told a press conference today that each of the 17 areas, which have been identified as having the highest number of homicides, will receive 600 personnel.

He said the deployments would be permanent, a fact that makes the new operation distinct.

“That is the difference with this strategy: it is one thing to carry out operations by sending forces from Mexico City to Tijuana and then having them return . . . and a very different one to have a permanent force responsible in a permanent manner for problems of insecurity,” Durazo said.

He also indicated it was a de-facto initiation of the proposed new national guard, which is awaiting congressional approval.

Instead of high-caliber firearms, the security forces will carry only those approved by security protocols.

The program began on Monday when forces were sent to strengthen security efforts in Tijuana, Baja California.

The other 16 locations are Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua; Acapulco and Chilpancingo, Guerrero; Atlacomulco and Ecatepec, México state; Benito Juárez (Cancún), Quintana Roo; Guadalajara, Jalisco; Salamanca, Uriangato, Irapuato and Celaya, Guanajuato; Culiacán, Sinaloa; Manzanillo, Colima; Monterrey, Nuevo León; and Nuevo Laredo and Reynosa, Tamaulipas.

Homicide numbers last year were the highest ever recorded at 33,341, up 15% over 2017.

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

Marines find half a tonne of cocaine aboard boats traveling off Oaxaca

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February 6, 2019

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Smugglers' boats found off coast of Oaxaca.

Navy marines seized half a tonne of what is believed to be cocaine after detecting two small boats traveling off the coast of Oaxaca.

Aircraft patrols, which have caught several such drug smuggling boats over the past year, located the vessels. Navy boats then forced the smugglers to the beach at Cerro Hermoso, near Huatulco.

Marines found 11 sacks of white powder that appeared to be cocaine and 66 containers holding some 350 liters of fuel.

Each of the two go-fast boats was powered by two outboard engines.

One of the boats’ crew members was detained; the others escaped arrest.

Mexico News Daily

Residents block highway: quake-damaged school still not replaced

By

Madison Koen

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February 6, 2019

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Parents and teachers block the Oaxaca highway yesterday.

Parents and teachers blocked Federal Highway 200 yesterday to demand that the Oaxaca state government finish repairs to an earthquake-damaged elementary school in San Andrés Huaxpaltepec in the state’s coastal region.

Benito Juárez Elementary School principal Guadalupe Cruz Vásquez accused the state and federal governments of abandoning the work to replace five classrooms that were damaged in the September 2017 and February 2018 quakes.

“It is unacceptable for them [the government] not to reply to this petition. We demand the work’s completion and a decent space for our students’ education. They cannot just abandon us.”

Of the four damaged classrooms the government was going to replace, only one was completed, the principal said. Such repairs fall under the jurisdiction of the Oaxaca Institute for Educational Infrastructure Construction (Iocifed).

Teachers at the school, whose enrollment is 170, complained that the institute abandoned the construction and repair work in December after completing only about 50%.

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For more than a year and a half, fourth and fifth-grade students have had to study in temporary and improvised structures made of materials such as metal sheeting and tarps.

Vehicles traveling on the federal highway linking Pinotepa Nacional and Puerto Escondido were impeded by the roadblock, which was lifted intermittently to allow a few drivers at a time to pass.

A spokesman for the CNTE teachers’ union said the blockade would continue Wednesday to pressure authorities into resuming work. “If there is no pressure, the work will not proceed.”

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

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