Governor of Tamaulipas wants to play golf but club won’t let him

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June 28, 2018

As Tamaulipas continues to make a name for itself as one of Mexico’s most violent states, the governor wants to play golf.

Francisco Javier García Cabeza de Vaca has gone to the Supreme Court with a case of alleged discrimination against him by a golf club. Yesterday, the court agreed to hear the case.

The story began in December 2013 when García bought a 14.3-million-peso apartment (US $1.1 million at the time) in the Mexico City neighborhood of Bosques de Santa Fe, which also has a golf club.

But the club’s management has denied him access to it, claiming that he did not fulfill certain requirements.

García asserts that the purchase of the apartment made him a shareholder at the golf club, and his wife and daughters members.

The club, however, says that shareholder status is not automatic.

García filed a formal complaint in 2016, charging that he and his family had suffered moral damage and discrimination and demanded compensation. Two courts ruled in the governor’s favor and ordered the golf club to pay compensation for moral damages in US dollars.

But a federal court ruled that the defendant had fully justified and documented its position in not recognizing him as shareholder.

More legal maneuvers followed until yesterday when the case arrived at Mexico’s highest court, where the first chamber agreed to look at it.

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

One-third of voters offered something for their vote; 17% said no: poll

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César Hernández

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June 28, 2018

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election ballots — How much for your vote?

A survey has revealed that one-third of Mexican voters have been approached by political parties to buy their vote in Sunday’s general election, and 17.3% declined.

Conducted by three non-governmental organizations, the poll found that parties offered money, goods or services in exchange for the vote of 33.5% of those polled.

Only 17.3% of those approached refused the offer. Those who agreed to sell their vote stated that the transaction was not binding, so no actual conditions had been placed on them.

Alberto Serdán of Citizen Action Against Poverty, one of the NGOs behind the poll, found some hope in the numbers.

He said it was a source of hope that the 79% who received something for their vote felt they were not obligated to vote for someone in particular.

“A lot of people received offers, but very few people feel threatened about supporting a particular party. For this reason, we make an open call for a massive turnout during the July 1 elections as a means to counter the effects of the buying [of votes].”

The poll also broke down vote-buying by political party: 21.5% responded that “all the parties” had made offers, while 5.9% identified the governing Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and its coalition allies as the buyer.

Another 5.5% said the left-right For Mexico In Front coalition had tried to buy their vote and 0.7% identified the other coalition, Together We’ll Make History, as the buyer.

The poll was conducted between June 6 and 26 in at least one electoral area of each of the 32 states.

Source: Milenio (sp)

He’s running for mayor but no one has seen him during the entire campaign

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Tony Richards

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June 28, 2018

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The internet has been a boon for a candidate for mayor of Pungarabato, Guerrero: he can campaign without even entering the municipality — and stay alive.

Luis Avellaneda Pineda isn’t even in the state, he told the newspaper Milenio in an interview, for fear that a criminal gang would follow through on its threats against him.

He takes those threats seriously: his father, a melon farmer, was assassinated in 2012 in Rivapalacio, a neighboring municipality in Michoacán.

Earlier this month, voters in Pungarabato were wondering where the Morena party’s candidate was. He didn’t even show up when party leader Andrés Manuel López Obrador visited for a campaign rally on June 2 at the municipal seat, Ciudad Altamirano.

Publicly, party leaders too wondered where Avellaneda was. Privately, it was commonly known: gangsters had threatened that they would make him disappear.

The 45-day election campaign has come to an end and Avellaneda has made no public appearances.

“I had to leave the municipality for reasons of security, threats and other things,” he told Milenio. “I am outside the state and from here I’m conducting my campaign on the internet, and with friends who want real change.”

Working through social media is the only way to avoid physical risk, he said.

Some candidates who remained in their communities “are no more,” he said, having lost their lives.

The virtual candidate said the threats against him were made first on the telephone, but later they were made in person.

That was when he and his family left town.

Pungarabato is not the only municipality where candidates have opted not to campaign, Animal Político reported. Anonymous sources within Morena said it was the same story in Arcelia, Apaxtla de Castrejón, Eduardo Neri and Quechultenango.

Their caution is not without justification. According to the latest tally, 48 candidates have been assassinated since last September.

Source: Milenio (sp), Animal Político (sp)

Pumps at BP, Pemex stations in Puebla closed for irregularities

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MND Staff

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June 28, 2018

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Police stand guard at a BP gas station in Puebla.

In an unprecedented move the federal consumer protection agency (Profeco) requested support from the Federal Police to carry out an operation in Puebla this week that resulted in the closure of pumps at two gas stations.

Profeco said in a statement issued yesterday that it resorted to asking the security force’s National Gendarmerie for backup due to repeated refusals from two gas station owners to allow their pumps to undergo calibration checks, which are required twice annually.

At about 11:00am Tuesday, Profeco officials arrived at a British Petroleum (BP) station located in the Santa Cruz Los Ángeles neighborhood of the state capital where they closed five of 18 pumps.

Four of the pumps were closed due to fuel leaks while the fifth was shut down because of “clear defects,” the agency said.

Hours later, Profeco shut down all 20 pumps at a Pemex station in the La Libertad neighborhood of the city.

At that station, the agency said, none of the pumps was displaying valid calibration certification.

The statement also said that staff refused to grant access to Profeco officials to conduct inspections in other areas of the gas station despite the presence of the gendarmerie forces.

BP responded to the closure of its pumps by saying that it was working as quickly as possible to resolve the issues detected by authorities.

The company also said in a statement that its Santa Cruz Los Ángeles station would continue to operate as normal and reiterated its commitment “to providing quality service to Mexican consumers and complying with the obligation of selling fuel in the correct way.”

Profeco said in its statement that in accordance with reforms to federal consumer law promulgated by the current government, it has the power to apply measures in order to “coercively enforce its requirements or decisions,” which includes requesting the assistance of security forces.

Until this week the agency had never called for backup from police.

A report released in April said that 21 Pemex gas stations were closed in Puebla last year because they were selling stolen fuel, known colloquially as huachicol.

The central Mexican state, and in particular the region known as the Red Triangle, is a hotbed of petroleum theft from state-owned pipelines, a crime which the Pemex CEO said in April costs the company 30 billion pesos a year (US $1.5 billion).

Source: El Popular (sp), e-consulta (sp), Milenio (sp)

Parents’ group criticizes sex education content in textbooks

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MND Staff

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June 27, 2018

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'How to make love:' some parents aren't happy with new textbook material.

A parents’ group has accused the federal government of attempting to indoctrinate children through sexual education content in new textbooks for first-year middle school students.

The National Parents Union (UNPF) also charged that the government wants to “control” children’s consciences and said that any sexual education provided to students should have a “transcendental” or spiritual component.

At a press conference yesterday, UNPF president Leonard García Camarena called into question the members of an expert group who were responsible for reviewing the content of new biology textbooks that will be distributed to students free of charge at the start of the 2018-19 school year.

“We’re complaining about things that don’t have any scientific proof, about the ideological baggage [of people] who, hiding in the offices of the state, want to indoctrinate our children . . .” he said, warning that the group was organizing across the country to stop that happening “without our consent.”

Criticizing the government of the day is not new for the conservative parents’ group.

In March 1975, the New York Times reported that the UNPF had charged that children were being indoctrinated in Marxist-Leninist ideology and “abnormal” sexual views through content in social and natural sciences textbooks.

Yesterday García said giving information to teenagers about contraceptives and other sexual education was like providing them with alcohol and paying for a motel room.

“If a family wants to give the pill and condoms [to their children], if it asks the government to be progressive and not just give them those things but also a six-pack [of beer] and a night in a motel, it’s that family’s problem but respect the judgement of the rest of us . . .” he said.

The newspaper El Universal reported last week that among the things that first-year middle-school students will learn about via new biology textbooks are that there are people with different sexual identities, and gay, bisexual and transsexual communities.

It also said the books contain information about sexual and reproductive rights as well as content relating to self-exploration of one’s own body.

In response to the UNPF’s criticism, the federal Public Education Secretariat (SEP) said in a statement that all the sexual education content in the textbooks was provided from an educational perspective within “the framework of sexual and reproductive health and human rights.”

García speaks at yesterday's press conference. — García speaks at yesterday’s press conference.

SEP added that the aim of the content is to avoid sexually-related “fears, blame, false beliefs, coercion, discrimination and violence” among young people.

The books also take into consideration the constitutional rights of children to education, the department said.

The SEP also pointed out that sexual education is particularly important given that Mexico has the highest teen pregnancy rate among the member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and because of the risks associated with contracting sexually transmitted infections.

In addition, it said the Federal Education Authority has the sole power to prepare, update and edit the government-sanctioned textbooks and added that it was ultimately up to teachers to decide what books they will use with their students.

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

Illegal fireworks makers outnumber the legal ones in Tultepec

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MND Staff

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June 27, 2018

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Scene of a fireworks explosion this week that left one person dead.

In Mexico’s self-declared fireworks capital, illegal manufacturers and vendors of the explosives dominate the local industry, increasing the risk of tragic accidents, according to a municipal government official.

Juventino Luna, director of artisanal development and pyrotechnics in Tultepec, México state, told the newspaper Milenio that local authorities know of around 700 fireworks-related businesses that are operating unlawfully in the municipality.

In contrast, those with official permission to make and distribute the explosives — which is granted by the federal Secretariat of Defense (Sedena) — number just 585.

Since an explosion in Tultepec’s San Pablito market in December 2016 that left 42 people dead, Luna said that there have been a further nine fireworks accidents, mainly at workshops without Sedena authorization.

For that reason, the municipality is lobbying higher authorities for the power to regulate the industry at a local level.

Luna said right now all the municipality can do is “raise awareness” about the dangers of making fireworks and “carry out campaigns” aimed at dissuading people from making and storing the explosives at their homes or transporting them without the relevant licenses.

The dangers of fireworks were again brought into sharp focus when more than 500 people were injured during Tultepec’s annual fireworks fair in March while an explosion at a fireworks workshop in the city earlier this month killed seven.

On Monday of this week, another workshop blast left one person dead and a further eight with injuries.

Although that workshop had permission from Sedena to operate, Luna said the incident shows that “human error” can still lead to accidents, although he added that “the risk is less.”

The official pointed out that the manufacture and distribution of fireworks is the most important economic activity in the municipality and estimated that 30% of local families depend on it for their livelihood, further underscoring the need for regulations at a local level.

Meanwhile, the leader of a fireworks merchants’ union at the San Pablito market said that a new market will open in August, one that was specifically designed to prevent a another disaster similar to the 2016 tragedy.

Germán Galicia said that shops within the new market are made out of reinforced concrete while it also has built-in security features such as firewalls and lightning rods.

“The stores are a little bit smaller to avoid excess storage [of fireworks and] between every establishment there are air pockets measuring 60 centimeters so that in the case of a fire it doesn’t spread from store to store,” he added.

The state government contributed 35 million pesos (US $1.7 million) for the construction of 150 stores within the market while the Tultepec municipal government chipped in seven million pesos (US $346,000) towards building its 150 other stores.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Researcher develops process that converts waste into livestock feed

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César Hernández

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June 27, 2018

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Hernández: from fruit waste to livestock feed.

In Oaxaca, they’re obtaining livestock feed from organic waste.

The project that converts fruit waste into feed is the result of three years of research and development led by Jorge Hernández Bautista at the Benito Juárez Autonomous University of Oaxaca (UABJO).

Hernández’s raw material are the peelings and other fruit waste discarded by juguerías, or juice stands, located in the wholesale Central de Abastos market in Oaxaca city.

Every morning he visits three of the establishments to gather the fresh waste before it starts fermenting. Back in his lab, he dries it and gives it a protein treatment.

Hernández can obtain 300 grams of feed for sheep out of every kilogram of organic waste. So far, he has taken 15 tonnes of what would otherwise become smelly garbage and obtained a nourishing source of food for animals instead.

“Everybody wins with this process: juguería owners save what they spend to get the garbage truck to collect their waste, others can even start dehydrating it themselves and selling the waste at up to two pesos per kilogram,” said the researcher.

There’s also the benefit of keeping this waste from ending up in open-air landfills, where it becomes yet another source of pollution.

Hernández’s sheep feed is also advantageous for livestock breeders: regular feed costs five pesos per kilo, but his product is 50 centavos cheaper.

Along with being more affordable and nourishing, it can also produce a carcinogenic-free meat, he claimed.

Hernández explained that the high antioxidant content of jugería waste can counter the high levels of free radicals found in meat.

His project was presented last month at a meeting of the Latin American Association of Animal Production (ALPA) in Ecuador, where it obtained international recognition.

Source: Milenio (sp)

One of FBI’s most wanted captured in Michoacán

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César Hernández

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June 27, 2018

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One of the 10 most wanted men in the United States was arrested yesterday in Uruapan, Michoacán.

Eduardo Ravelo Rodríguez, known also as Richolm and El Tablas among other aliases, was apprehended by federal officials along with three of his collaborators. The men were carrying several firearms and an undetermined amount of methamphetamine at the time of their arrest.

The government of the United States has a standing extradition order against him for racketeering, money laundering and conspiracy to possess heroin, cocaine and marijuana for the purpose of trafficking.

He is also wanted for numerous murders in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. His criminal activities are alleged to have begun in 2003. In 2008 and 2011, Ravelo was indicted in the United States District Court, Western District of Texas.

Ravelo has been singled out as one of the founding leaders of the Barrio Azteca transnational gang, with an area of influence extending to the cities of El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez. More recently, the criminal organization is said to have extended its activities into Michoacán.

Barrio Azteca is believed to maintain close ties with Línea gang, considered to be the armed branch of the Juárez Cartel. That organization is embroiled in a years-long violent turf war with the Sinaloa Cartel.

The FBI posted a reward of up to US $100,000 last year for any information leading directly to the arrest of Ravelo. At the time, it warned that Ravelo was considered armed and extremely dangerous.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Mexico loses to Sweden 3-0 but advances after Germany’s defeat

By

MND Staff

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June 27, 2018

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Goalkeeper Ochoa during this morning's game.

Mexico has qualified for the second round of the soccer World Cup in Russia despite losing 3-0 to Sweden in its final group match today.

The national team known as El Tri finished second in group F behind Sweden due to an inferior goal difference although both sides finished on six points with two wins and one loss apiece.

Mexican fans, both at the stadium in Ekaterinburg and back home, endured a highly anxious last few minutes of the match as attention turned to the result of the group’s other final match, which was played simultaneously between defending champions Germany and South Korea.

A draw in that match would have been enough for Mexico to advance but with the score locked at 0-0 until injury time started, there were fears that the Germans could score a late goal and edge Mexico out of the tournament due to a superior goal difference.

But in the end it was Korea that surprised with a goal in the 92nd minute of the match before following up with a second in the 96th minute to well and truly secure Mexico’s path through to the round of 16 and send the Germans packing.

Social media quickly filled up with memes and posts praising South Korea for its victory and thanking the team for helping secure Mexico’s passage through to the next round of the World Cup.

Scores of social media users declared their love for the East Asian nation and many Mexico City residents suggested going to the Zona Rosa district of the capital — where the city’s Korean community is centered — to show their affection and gratitude to the citizens of many Mexicans’ new favorite country, at least for today.

El Tri will now play the winner of group E which, depending on results in the two matches to be played later today, could be Brazil, Switzerland or Serbia.

The 3-0 loss to Sweden will no doubt serve as a wake-up call for El Tri’s Colombian coach Juan Carlos Osorio and his players after they enjoyed a dream start to the tournament with victories over Germany and South Korea in their first two matches.

After a scoreless first half today, Mexico conceded its first goal in the 50th minute of play before goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa’s defenses were broken twice more in the 62nd and 74th minutes.

The second goal came via a penalty after the referee ruled that a Swedish player had been fouled in the penalty area. Sweden’s captain Andreas Granqvist made no mistake from the spot, drilling the ball into the back of the net.

The third and final goal was an own goal after the ball deflected off the leg of Mexican defender Edson Álvarez and past Ochoa into the goal. Mexico had 20 shots of its own during the match but only three were on target.

Following the conclusion of the match, Mexico’s players and support staff gathered in the middle of the pitch and after the conclusion of the Germany-South Korea match a couple of minutes later, it was confirmed that El Tri would live to play another day at Russia 2018.

While celebrations were muted among the players, there can be no doubt that the relief for them — and the team’s millions of supporters — was enormous.

Mexico’s fans in Russia can go ahead and book their accommodation in the southwestern Russian city of Samara, where Mexico will take on its round of 16 opponent on July 2, while those back home will no doubt be once again glued to their screens.

Mexico News Daily

Ballots stolen in Tabasco, Oaxaca; some polling stations at risk

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MND Staff

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June 27, 2018

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Election materials ready for shipping to polling stations.

Thousands of ballots for Sunday’s elections have been stolen over the past two days in separate incidents in two southern states.

In Tabasco, a total of 11,025 ballots were stolen Monday in the municipality of Macuspana, state and federal electoral authorities said.

A truck parked across a highway near the community of San Antonio forced a vehicle carrying personnel from the National Electoral Institute (INE) to stop.

At the same time, armed civilians arrived in a pick-up truck and proceeded to steal the packets containing the ballots.

State INE official María Elena Cornejo Esparza said one of the INE personnel was treated later at a hospital for fright.

Of the stolen ballots, 6,615 were for state elections including 2,205 for the gubernatorial contest, while the other 4,410 were for federal elections, including 1,470 for the presidential race.

Cornejo said the robbery was an isolated incident and one that doesn’t place elections in Tabasco at risk, but explained that security for INE officials transporting ballots would be beefed up to avoid a repeat of similar incidents.

In Oaxaca yesterday, more than 8,000 ballots were stolen and burned in the Coast region on a road leading to the municipality of San Juan Quiahije.

State electoral authorities said officials were delivering ballot packets to Mixtepec when their vehicle was intercepted by a group of unidentified individuals. The officials were unharmed but 8,204 ballots were destroyed. All corresponded to local elections and were destined for polling stations in three municipalities.

In a statement, the Oaxaca Electoral Institute said it would carry out “the steps and actions necessary so that the burned ballots are reprinted” in a timely manner in order to guarantee citizens’ right to vote.

In addition to ballot theft, electoral authorities are also facing problems installing voting booths in some other parts of the country.

An electoral councilor and the president of the INE’s organization and training committee said Monday there is a risk that around 100 polling stations may not go ahead due to social conflict.

“The number [of voting booths with problems related to their installation] has increased but it’s not something that places any of the elections at risk. It’s a recurring problem in every electoral process. We’re talking about around 100 [booths] out of 157,000,” Marco Antonio Baños said.

However, he stressed that it was not organized crime or violence that were causing the problems.

Instead, regular crime and dangers such as being bitten by a dog were hindering the process of setting up the voting booths, he said.

“Fortunately, violence hasn’t created a situation that has impeded the formation of voting booth committees . . .” Baños said.

Millions of voters will go to the polls Sunday in Mexico’s largest ever elections with thousands of municipal, state and federal-level positions up for grabs.

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