AMLO proposes including assisted dying in new federal health plan

By

-

December 15, 2018

The president with state governors yesterday in Mérida.

President López Obrador has announced more details about a new integrated federal health system, including the news that he favours allowing voluntary assisted dying.

When someone is declared terminally ill and there are no options or alternatives, he said yesterday in Mérida, Yucatán, “it’s not enough to say, ‘OK, take the patient home.'”

“Why don’t we implement a program for dignified death? Why not assisted [dying]?”

It is not currently considered in health care in Mexico, he observed, adding “these are very important questions we have to solve together.”

Another element of the government’s new health plan is to make available the medications required by patients, a move that will entail the elimination of what is known as the basic list of medications.

Medications cannot be prescribed if they are not on the list. Instead, patients must purchase them themselves, sometimes at great cost.

The main focus of the new health program is those who have no health insurance. The two systems now in place — IMSS and ISSSTE — are for workers in the private and public sectors.

“More than half the population has no health insurance,” the president told an audience in Mérida. “So this program is for them. It is for everybody, but the emphasis is to care for those with no insurance, the poorest people.”

The uninsured will be able to obtain emergency treatment at hospitals in the two health systems, where funding and staffing will be improved, López Obrador said.

The president also intends to put all health workers on the payroll.

“This means regularizing thousands of workers who are on temporary contracts,” he said, observing that some workers have been employed on a contract basis for two decades.

“We are talking about some 80,000 workers . . . this can’t be done overnight, but we must commit to formally hiring them . . . .”

Another element of the plan is to standardize salaries and benefits.

Federal and state health workers doing the same job earn different salaries, he said.

The president announced on Friday morning that the delivery of health care services will become the responsibility of the federal government. The new integrated health system, which will cost 90 billion pesos (US $4.5 billion) to create, is to be fully implemented within two years.

Yesterday, he signed an agreement with the governors of Guerrero, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Veracruz, Tabasco, Yucatán, Quintana Roo and Campeche, the first eight states in which the new plan will be launched.

Source: Sin Embargo (sp), Milenio (sp), Associated Press (en)

Government halts tenders on two sections of long-overdue Oaxaca highway

By

MND Staff

-

December 15, 2018

0

The highway between Oaxaca city and the coast could be delayed further.

The federal government has suspended some of the work needed to complete the long-overdue highway between the capital of Oaxaca and the Pacific coast, the Oaxaca infrastructure secretary said.

In an appearance before the state Congress, Fabián Herrera Villagómez said the López Obrador-led administration has declared void two of four tendering processes to award contracts for incomplete stretches of road on the Oaxaca-Barranca Larga-Ventanilla highway.

However, he added that negotiations aimed at resuming the projects are ongoing.

The secretary said the Oaxaca government has no direct involvement in the highway project, explaining that it is only charged with resolving problems related the its right of way.

The federal Secretariat of Communications and Transportation has ultimate responsibility for building the highway, Herrera said.

He told state lawmakers that the company Omega was originally granted a concession to build the highway but when it was unable to fulfill its obligations it ceded its rights to another construction company, ICA, which continued the project.

However, ICA abandoned the project in 2016 when it experienced financial difficulties and was no longer able to fund the highway’s construction.

Herrera said that since then, 3 billion pesos (US $148.2 million at today’s exchange rate) has been invested to complete the highway.

“At the start of his administration, state Governor Alejandro Murat agreed with then-president Enrique Peña Nieto on a 3-billion-peso investment to conclude the highway, [money] that is not managed by the state but by the National Infrastructure Fund [Fonadin], that depends on [state development bank] Banobras . . .” he said.

Herrera explained that the process to buy back the concession from ICA took a year and that this year the plan was to award new contracts to build the four sections of highway that are incomplete.

But, the secretary said, “on the verge of awarding [the contracts] . . . the new administration arrived and decided to suspend the tendering processes [for two of four incomplete stretches of road], declaring them void.”

Herrera said the partial suspension of the project would push the highway’s completion date – which has been revised several times – back even further and that there is a risk that the cost will increase due to factors such as the rising price of concrete.

He explained that the highway is currently 52% complete and that work on some parts of it is still going ahead.

“. . . Two of the four incomplete sections are suspended . . . the rest of the work continues to progress. There are people currently working on the completion of three tunnels and a viaduct,” Herrera said.

Earlier this year, work on the highway was estimated to be completed by November 2019 but it is now unclear whether that target will be met.

The highway is expected to reduce travel time between the capital and the coast by half, making the tourist destinations of Huatulco and Puerto Escondido accessible within as little as three hours.

Another highway linking Oaxaca city to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec is also well behind schedule.

Herrera said the SCT is trying to reach an agreement with the Carlos Slim-owned conglomerate Grupo Carso to complete the highway, which would cut travel time between the state capital and the isthmus from four and a half hours to two.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Mexico loses 10-year battle with US over tuna labeling after new WTO ruling

By

MND Staff

-

December 15, 2018

0

dolphin free tuna — May not contain Mexican tuna.

Mexico lost a 10-year legal battle with the United States over “dolphin safe” tuna labeling yesterday when World Trade Organization (WTO) appeals judges dismissed its argument that U.S. labeling rules violated WTO rules.

Mexico claimed that the U.S. rules unfairly penalized its fishing industry because most tuna caught in Mexican waters is not certified as “dolphin safe” even though dolphin deaths have been reduced to minimal levels.

The United States’ demands for paperwork reflected discrimination against the Mexican tuna industry, it said, pointing out that the same industry in other parts of the world didn’t face the same strict tests.

The United States has refused to grant a “dolphin safe” label to tuna caught by chasing and encircling dolphins with a purse seine net that is used to catch tuna swimming beneath them. That method is used almost exclusively by Mexico’s tuna fleet in the Pacific Ocean.

Because most Mexican-caught tuna is not considered “dolphin safe,” Mexico has largely been locked out of the United States lucrative canned tuna market.

The WTO ruled yesterday that “setting on” dolphins with a purse seine net was likely to kill or injure them, even if there was no clear evidence of such deaths or injuries and thus the United States was within its rights to refuse to grant a “dolphin safe” label to tuna caught in that way.

Mexico won two previous rounds of the long legal battle, which forced the United States to modify its labeling rules in 2013 and again in 2016.

In April last year, Mexico won the right to impose US $163 million in annual trade sanctions on its northern neighbor if the WTO ruled that U.S. labeling rules still didn’t comply with WTO rules.

Mexico had planned to impose duties on high-fructose corn syrup imports but the United States sought a review of the ruling and six months later the WTO said that its labeling laws were WTO-compliant.

Mexico appealed that ruling, which resulted in yesterday’s decision.

In a statement, the Secretariat of the Economy (SE) said that the latest WTO ruling “doesn’t recognize the high standards of sustainable practices in the Mexican [tuna] industry.”

The SE said “the government of Mexico and the [fishing] industry have played an important role in the protection of dolphins against the adverse effects of tuna fishing,” adding “thanks to Mexico’s efforts, the United States modified its rules on two occasions.”

It also said that “the [fishing] method used by the Mexican tuna fleet is regulated by the International Dolphin Conservation Program Act, [which is] recognized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations as being the most sustainable program.”

In addition, the Mexican tuna industry’s fishing method “has been certified by the Marine Stewardship Council as . . . sustainable in maintaining the target species and minimizing the impact on the environment,” the statement said.

The SE said that “Mexico hopes that beyond [yesterday’s] ruling, the United States recognizes the effect that fishing methods used by its fleet and that of other countries have on the marine ecosystem.”

Foreign trade undersecretary Luz María de la Mora said in a radio interview yesterday that Mexico will now focus on growing its tuna exports to other markets while attempting to enter into dialogue with the United States on the labeling issue.

She also defended the Mexican tuna industry’s use of seine nets and said that abandoning that fishing method was unlikely.

“The industry will have to decide if it’s convenient to modify its fishing method, but I don’t think that will happen because it’s a sustainable, responsible method,” de la Mora said.

Source: El Economista (sp), Reuters (sp)

Smaller states will feel loss of Tourism Promotion Council: travel agencies

By

MND Staff

-

December 14, 2018

0

Smaller states such as Tlaxcala could be hurt by the loss of Mexico's tourism promotion council. — Smaller states such as Tlaxcala could be hurt by the loss of Mexico's tourism marketing agency.

The imminent disappearance of the federal government’s tourism promotion agency will affect Mexico’s smaller states the most, tourism insiders agree.

Tourism Secretary Miguel Torruco confirmed last week that the Tourism Promotion Council (CPTM) would be disbanded and its international offices closed, with its budget going to the construction of the Maya Train project.

Jorge Hernández, president of the Mexican Association of Travel Agencies (AMAV), told the newspaper Milenio that Hidalgo, Tlaxcala, Durango and some of the states in the Bajío region will be hardest hit by the decision.

They will now only have resources collected via state-based lodging taxes to fund tourism promotion, he said.

However, small states generate only modest income from the tax and there are questions over whether tourism officials will use the resources for their intended purpose.

According to the president of the Mexican Association of Hotels and Motels (AMHM), hotel taxes in Tlaxcala and Hidalgo only generate between 20 and 30 million pesos (US $1 million to $1.5 million) a year whereas the city of Cancún alone collects 2 billion pesos (US $99 million) annually.

Rafael García said the money collected via the tax goes to tourism trusts in each state but contended that 90% of them lack transparency in the exercise of the resources they receive. In other words, at least part of the funds is likely siphoned off to line officials’ pockets.

Francisco Madrid, director of the faculty of tourism at Anáhuac University and a former federal tourism undersecretary, said the new government took a unilateral decision to disband the CPTM and warned that it would have a damaging impact in the short and medium term.

“Depriving Mexico of an organization specialized in the task of tourism promotion is a bad decision. Once again, the [view of] the private sector wasn’t taken into account, the same thing happened with the cancellation of the airport,” he said.

“The promotion council is creating employment in the sector, [attracting the entry of] foreign currencies, and generally [stimulating] the benefits that we know tourism provides,” Madrid added.

The National Tourism Business Council (CNET) has warned that with the elimination of the CPTM there is a risk that Mexico will return to the level of growth in international tourism recorded between 2008 and 2012, which was just 2.1% compared to around 8% currently.

The industry group suggested that the government could keep the CPTM open but reduce the size of its workforce in order for it to be compatible with the federal austerity plan.

Tourism is one of the most important sectors of Mexico’s economy, contributing 8.7% of total GDP and generating 3.7 million jobs.

Almost 40 million international tourists came to Mexico last year, making it the sixth most visited country in the world.

This year is expected to end with more than 42 million foreign arrivals while almost 45 million international tourists are predicted to visit Mexico next year.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Energy watchdog orders halt to work on new refinery after mangroves cleared

By

MND Staff

-

December 14, 2018

0

The refinery site where mangroves were allegedly removed.

Mexico’s energy sector watchdog has ordered that preparatory work on the Tabasco site where a new oil refinery is to be built must stop after mangroves were allegedly cleared without environmental authorization.

The Agency for Safety, Energy and the Environment (ASEA) directed the company Sistemas Empresariales del Golfo (SEG) to immediately cease all activities that alter the condition of the site, which is located on the Gulf of Mexico coast at Dos Bocas.

The Mexican Center for Environmental Law (Cemda) filed complaints last month when both ASEA and the federal Environmental Protection Agency (Profepa) claimed that neither environmental authorization nor permission to change the land use of the site had been granted before work began.

The National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity (Conabio) confirmed the presence of mangroves on the site before the preparatory work took place.

After a December 4 inspection of the site where President López Obrador says a US $8-billion refinery will be built, ASEA set a timeframe of 30 days within which SEG must conduct a study to assess the environmental damage caused.

The watchdog also directed the company to show, within a period of 60 days, that it had acquired the necessary authorization to complete the work.

Cemda president Gustavo Alanís said the orders by ASEA are proof that the federal energy secretary is lying when she says that environmental impact studies have already been carried out and that permits have been granted.

“Rocío Nahle is disregarding the truth, she’s grabbing other supposed [environmental] impact authorizations but they have nothing to do with the construction of the refinery,” he said.

“If they [the federal government] want to do the refinery project, they have to comply with the damage study that ASEA is asking for and pay compensation for damages,” Alanís added.

The Mexican Environmental Impact Academy (AMIA) also said that there are inconsistencies in Nahle’s claims.

“Nahle says that the permits were issued by the state and municipal governments when they should have been issued by Semarnat [the federal Environment Secretariat],” the non-governmental organization said in a statement.

The academy added that environmental impact authorizations and a land use change permit that were granted in 2007 for oil wells to be installed on the site are not transferable.

López Obrador has pledged that the new refinery, which would be the nation’s seventh, will help Mexico to become self-sufficient in energy and boost the economy of southeastern states.

Source: Reforma (sp)

Residents protest parking meters in San Miguel de Allende

By

César Hernández

-

December 14, 2018

0

A protest held earlier this year against parking meters in San Miguel.

Some residents of San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, traveled to the state capital to protest what they called the “privatization” of their city’s streets.

A dozen members of Yo Soy San Miguel de Allende (I am San Miguel de Allende) protested outside the state Congress in the city of Guanajuato after lawmakers approved a parking meter project for the colonial city.

The organization’s spokesman said the municipal administration had signed a contract with a firm that will operate the parking meters, but citizens were not consulted about the project.

There were several processes through which public opinion was gauged, but José Luis Vargas said people were “lied to through a false consultation on transportation issues.”

The proponents of the parking meters also collected signatures and conducted a consultation during a bullfight, “but they did not adhere to citizen participation laws,” he accused.

The parking meters project has been approved under the “pretext” of obtaining resources to improve the urban mobility of disabled citizens, but Vargas questioned why only 20% of the revenue obtained through the meters will go to city coffers. The remaining 80% — of an estimated 360 million pesos (US $17.8 million) per year — will go to the firm operating the devices.

The protest concluded with a warning that injunctions would be filed against the municipal administration.

Source: El Financiero (sp)

AMLO announces new integrated health system; Seguro Popular to be replaced

By

MND Staff

-

December 14, 2018

0

López Obrador announced a new health strategy this morning.

President López Obrador has announced a new integrated federal health system that will incorporate all of Mexico’s states within two years.

The president told reporters at his daily press conference today that eight states will be added to the new federally-operated system every six months.

The first to be included will be Guerrero, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Veracruz, Tabasco, Yucatán, Quintana Roo and Campeche.

The president said the public health system as it is currently organized, with federal and state authorities offering separate services, is not working and that his plan will fix it.

“The agreement means that the states will transfer [management] of their health care services to the federal government, which will be in charge of the whole health system,” López Obrador said.

Health funding currently allocated to state governments will instead be used by the federal government, he added, explaining that a constitutional reform would allow that to occur.

The leftist president, who has promised to create a universal and free health care system such as those in Canada and Europe, said the federal government has a budget of 90 billion pesos (US $4.5 billion) to create the system and that 25 billion additional pesos will be allocated to implementing it in the first eight states.

López Obrador also said that the Seguro Popular health care program – which offers free health care services to people with no other insurance – will be replaced by a new scheme.

“It’s obvious that it hasn’t worked, it’s not insurance and it’s not popular. It’s going to be replaced by a public health system that guarantees quality medical care and free medication,” he said.

The president will officially present his federal health plan at an event in Mérida, Yucatán, later today.

Source: El Financiero (sp)

Oaxaca city tops list of cultural destinations for 2019

By

César Hernández

-

December 14, 2018

0

Oaxaca city has topped a list of the world’s best cultural destinations for 2019.

Culture Trip, a global start-up operating in travel, media and entertainment, has released its Culture Trip Wishlist, a ranking of 12 destinations travelers shouldn’t miss in 2019 based on search data and global contributor expertise.

“Taking our cultural crown for 2019 is Oaxaca city,” said Culture Trip, for its sensational cuisine, amazing archaeological sites and a rich tradition of handwoven crafts. Culture Trip recommends Oaxaca city’s contemporary art museum, MACO, which “showcases an intriguing curation of Mexican art housed in an impressive old colonial building.”

The capital of the diverse state is described as the birthplace of mezcal. “Unlike spring break favorites Acapulco and Cabo . . . Oaxaca offers a truly authentic experience, from the flavors to the festivals.”

Known as the “land of the seven moles” due to the rich and complex sauces for which its cuisine is famous, this city will fire up visitors’ taste buds as much as their other senses. Locally made ceramics, embroidery and hand-woven rugs are just a few of the handicrafts that can be found.

Historical treasures abound in the city as well, as pre-Columbian times saw Oaxaca ruled from atop Monte Albán and there are well-preserved archaeological elements, including pyramids and ball courts, that deserve a visit. With temperate weather all year round, continued the report, “there is no bad time in 2019 to visit this gem of a city.”

Owen Pritchard, editorial director at Culture Trip, said, “With so many places to explore around the world – and the abundant, if unorganized, streams of inspiration on social media – it’s sometimes hard to decide where to go next. We wanted to see what we could do to help anyone looking for memorable cultural experiences or choosing a destination in 2019.”

The destinations included in the Culture Trip Wishlist – Destinations 2019 were identified as having the biggest growth in interest from the start-up’s millennial audience.

Mexico News Daily

Amid conflict between executive, judicial powers, chief justice calls for harmony

By

MND Staff

-

December 14, 2018

0

López Obrador and Morena party Deputy Martí Batres listen as Supreme Court justice Aguilar gives his address.

The chief justice of the Supreme Court (SCJN) has called for harmony between the three branches of government amid a conflict over judicial salaries.

Presenting his fourth and final annual report yesterday, Luis María Aguilar Morales declared that “we want to work together for a better Mexico, resolving controversies according to the laws that the Congress draws up and according to the constitution in order to protect the rights of everyone.”

In an address before President López Obrador, lawmakers and other officials that was punctuated by a spell of dizziness that forced him to take a seat and pause for a few minutes, the 69-year-old Aguilar said the Supreme Court is guided by the legacy of former president Benito Juárez.

“Among the many areas of agreement, one of the most important we have with you [López Obrador] is . . . [Benito Juárez’s] maxim that governs the life of a constitutional democracy: nothing by force, all by reason and law,” he said.

Aguilar’s address came just three days after federal judges demonstrated publicly for the first time ever to accuse López Obrador of attempting to interfere in the judiciary and to reject his claim that they earn up to 600,000 pesos (US $29,500) a month.

As part of the new government’s austerity measures, lawmakers from the president’s leftist Morena party presented a bill that was approved by Congress last month that decreed that no public official should earn more than the president, who has set his monthly salary at 108,000 pesos – 60% less than the former president’s wage.

But the SCJN ruled last Friday that the Federal Public Servants Remuneration Law must be suspended, triggering criticism that judges are only concerned about protecting their own hip pockets.

But Aguilar said the court is committed to working for the benefit of all Mexicans.

“The federal judicial power is one of the three powers of the union and thus we recognize that we are part of the framework of the Mexican state and that we must be joined, in harmony and agreement, with the other powers, the executive and the legislative,” he said.

In spite of the underlying conflict between the executive and judiciary, Aguilar contended that the presence of López Obrador at the court’s presentation of its annual report and that of Supreme Court justices at the president’s December 1 inauguration were evidence of “democratic normality.”

He explained that under his four-year administration, 80% of cases heard by federal courts related to just three crimes: petroleum theft, drug trafficking and weapons possession.

Aguilar also said that federal courts had sanctioned 260 public officials – including 85 judges – declaring that “in the Federal Judiciary Council there is no place for tolerance of corruption or improper conduct.”

López Obrador, who on Tuesday said that “only Donald Trump earns more than the president of the Supreme Court,” extended his hand in assistance to Aguilar when he sat amid his episode of giddiness and applauded him when he recommenced his address.

At the end of the presentation, he shook hands with the chief justice and gave him a friendly slap on the back, belying the differences between the branch of government he heads and that led by Aguilar.

Earlier in the day, López Obrador left the National Palace on foot to walk to the Supreme Court only to be swamped by a horde of well-wishers.

The president’s small, unarmed security detail was overwhelmed, which allowed one woman to get close enough to plant two kisses on the president, the newspaper Milenio reported.

After Aguilar’s presentation, López Obrador walked back to the National Palace, with his small group of security “assistants” enlisting the support of street vendors in the area to help clear a path for the president amid another swarming mass.

“Don’t push him, you’ll give him a heart attack” and “I love you Grandpa” were among the comments called out by those present while some suggested that the president needed to rethink his approach to security.

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

Luxury hotel announced for Costa Canuva in Riviera Nayarit

By

César Hernández

-

December 14, 2018

0

The Nayarit coastline where Costa Canuva is being developed.

A US $150-million Ritz-Carlton Reserve luxury hotel has been announced in the Costa Canuva development in the Riviera Nayarit.

Portuguese construction firm Mota Engil and Thor Urbana, a Mexico City real estate developer, said the new hotel, with 110 rooms and 45 villas, will open in 2022.

Costa Canuva is a $1.8-billion project that is being developed by Mota Engil on 25 hectares of prime coastal real estate, and will have a golf course and over 7,000 hotel rooms at five exclusive luxury properties.

The Ritz-Carlton Reserve is the second hotel that has been confirmed for Costa Canuva, but Mota Engil continues to look for more investors.

The first stage of the project concluded with the construction of the first Fairmont property in the region.

Costa Canuva is located in Costa Capomo, Compostela, 10 kilometers from Rincón de Guayabitos and 35 kilometers from the Puerto Vallarta International Airport, making it the beach community closest to the city of Guadalajara.

Source: El Financiero (sp)