Nopal juice forms basis for new biodegradable plastic

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June 12, 2018

A researcher from Guadalajara, Jalisco, has created a biodegradable, natural plastic that could be used to make eco-friendly shopping bags. Its source? The juice of the nopal cactus.

Sandra Pascoe of the University of the Valley of Atemajac (Univa) told the news agency EFE that she has used both the most common variety of edible nopal — the opuntia ficus-indica — and the opuntia megacantha, which is known for its fruit called tuna, to make her innovative product.

“The plastic is basically made out of the sugars of nopal juice, the monosaccharides and polysaccharides it contains,” she said.

Pascoe explained that the sugars, pectin and organic acids in the juice give it a very viscous consistency, adding “that viscosity is what we’re taking advantage of so that a solid material can be produced.”

Glycerol, natural waxes, proteins and colorants are mixed with the juice after it has been decanted to remove its fiber, creating a formula that is then dried on a hot plate to produce thin sheets of plastic.

The process was registered with the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) in 2014 and the National Council of Science and Technology (Conacyt) has contributed funding to advance the project.

The researcher said that she is now collaborating with the University of Guadalajara Center for Biological and Agricultural Sciences to determine how quickly and under what conditions the plastic will decompose.

“We’ve done very simple degradation tests in the laboratory; for example, we’ve put it in water and we’ve seen that it does break down [but] we still have to do a chemical test to see if it really did completely disintegrate. We’ve also done tests in moist compost-like soil and the material also breaks down,” Pascoe said.

She explained that in addition to shopping bags, the nopal juice plastic could be used to make products such as cosmetic containers, imitation jewelry and toys.

Tests are currently being conducted to establish how much weight the plastic can bear which will help determine what other products it could be used for.

Pascoe said the next step on the path towards commercialization will be to make or buy a machine that can make prototypes of the plastic bags in order to market them to businesses.

The scientist is also in the process of applying for a patent for her product from IMPI, which she said would allow interested companies to use the process she developed under a licensing agreement.

Source: Vanguardia (sp)

Isla Mujeres council candidate dies after Saturday shooting

By

Tony Richards

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June 12, 2018

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A candidate for municipal council in Isla Mujeres, Quintana Roo, died last night of gunshot wounds inflicted during an attack Saturday night.

Institutional Revolutionary Party candidate Rosely Magaña Martínez had been in intensive care for 48 hours and although her condition had been stabilized, she died due to internal hemorrhaging and damage to vital organs, medical personnel at the Galenia hospital said.

Initial reports said Magaña was out of danger after she was admitted to hospital.

The shooting took place during a campaign meeting at a private home in mainland Isla Mujeres. Two men arrived on a motorcycle and opened fire.

Campaign worker Lizbeth Pasos Sarabia was also wounded, but survived the shooting.

At least 113 politicians have been assassinated during the current election period, which began last September. Forty-two of the victims were candidates or pre-candidates.

Source: El Financiero (sp)

Bud now category 4 hurricane; weakening expected today

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Tony Richards

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June 12, 2018

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Bud's forecast track. the weather channel

Hurricane Bud strengthened to category 4 overnight but is expected to weaken later today, the United States National Hurricane Center (NHC) said this morning.

Nevertheless, the National Meteorological Service is forecasting torrential storm conditions for Michoacán and coastal and southern areas of Jalisco and Colima. Wind gusts up to 60-80 kilometers per hour are predicted and wave heights of three to five meters.

The NHC said Bud was about 365 kilometers southwest of Cabo Corrientes, Jalisco, and 560 kilometers south-southeast of Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, at 4:00am. Maximum sustained winds were 215 kilometers per hour.

Forecasters warned that citizens in Baja California Sur should monitor the hurricane’s progress. On its forecast track, Bud will be near the southern coast of the state on Thursday.

A weakening trend is expected to begin later today and the storm should be below hurricane intensity by Wednesday night, the NHC said.

The Weather Channel said predicted it would be a tropical storm when it arrives in Baja California Sur.

Mexico News Daily

Appliance prices to rise due to peso’s decline, NAFTA uncertainty

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MND Staff

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June 11, 2018

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Two leading home appliance manufacturers have announced that prices of their products will increase due to the decline of the peso and continuing uncertainty about the future of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

On May 31 — the same day that the United States announced it would impose tariffs on Mexican steel and aluminum — the Mexican subsidiary of United-States-based multinational Whirlpool said its prices would rise across the board by 8% on July 1.

In a statement, the company said that “the exchange rate and the price of supplies” have both increased significantly in recent months, specifically citing higher costs for steel and petroleum products that it can no longer absorb.

Three days later, the Mexican company Mabe said its prices would go up by 9.5% on July 1, the same day that Mexicans will vote for a new president and Congress.

It also cited increased cost pressures stemming from a lower peso and higher prices for its key supplies.

The newspaper El Universal reported today that industry sources it consulted had indicated that other companies, such as Teka, would also soon follow suit.

Stoves, refrigerators, ovens, washers, driers and blenders are among the products that will soon become more expensive.

For both Whirlpool and Mabe, the July 1 price hike will be the second time they have raised prices in the space of a single year after 15% and 5-7% respective increases took effect in January. The higher prices will affect around 10 different brands that the two companies own between them.

Trilateral talks to renegotiate a new NAFTA deal have been drawn-out and contentious and the United States tariff announcement last month further complicated the process and placed additional pressure on the peso.

While uncertainty about the future of the trade deal remains, the Bank of México said the value of the peso against the US dollar is one of the variables that will suffer the most.

According to the currency conversion website operated by foreign exchange company XE, one US dollar currently buys just under 20.6 Mexican pesos.

Some analysts said last month that the peso could trade at up to 22 to the US dollar before the presidential election.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Federal Police build, open school in Otomí community

By

César Hernández

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June 11, 2018

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New school in Chapa de Mota, México state.

Seeking to build trust, the Federal Police have constructed and opened a new primary school in the Otomí town of San Francisco de las Tablas in México state.

Education facilities described as “precarious” triggered the move to build the school with the help of parents in the municipality of Chapa de Mota.

Eleven months later, the school is now catering to 11 students although the facilities are intended to benefit at least 70 families living nearby.

The 96-square-meter school has a 120-square-meter multiple-use area and a 160-square-meter soccer field.

Five computers will be available to start, along with a library containing 1,000 books. All these resources were donated by local residents, businesses and the Federal Police. One report observed that the school has electricity and running water.

This used to be the community's primary school. — This used to be the community’s primary school.

The plan for the school in future is to bolster social inclusion for the Otomí community, and promote the human rights of the indigenous peoples of Mexico, said Federal Police Commissioner Manelich Castilla Craviotto.

The force’s social proximity department has the task of strengthening citizens’ trust in police by improving social conditions and promoting active citizen participation in their own social development, the commissioner said.

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The Otomí people live in the states of México, Puebla, Veracruz, Hidalgo, Guanajuato, Querétaro, Tlaxcala and Michoacán, and speak three distinct dialects of their language.

Some have proposed to use the name Hñähñu as a more formal or correct way to call themselves, but little traction has been gained. Hñähñú refers to the dialect of the language spoken in the Mezquital Valley region in central Mexico.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Projects amounted to nothing after officials cut and ran with the money

By

MND Staff

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June 11, 2018

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Site of a processing plant that was never built. el universal

At least 34 federal and state-funded agricultural infrastructure projects in Yucatán that were slated to be built between 2014 and 2016 amounted to nothing, according to the state’s College of Agronomists.

College president Lorenzo Alvarado Sosa said that 15 of the abandoned projects involved the installation of irrigation systems, while the other 19 included the construction of greenhouses, a solar-powered agricultural processing plant and an organic farm.

The Yucatán state government and federal agricultural authorities announced the latter two projects with pomp and circumstance four years ago.

But neither project went beyond the planning stage and thieves looted the few materials that arrived at the proposed sites in the municipality of Tahmek, such as solar panels and parts for an irrigation system.

Similar scenarios played out on the other projects which were planned for other rural areas in the state, with the money allocated ending up in the pockets of unscrupulous government officials and contractors, according to intended beneficiaries.

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“They cheated us, we thought that they would help us. We trusted them, that’s why we gave them the 450,000 pesos [US $21,850 at today’s exchange rate] from the checks. We cashed them, gave the project engineers [the money] and then they disappeared,” Tahmek resident María Cornelia Keb Canul told the newspaper El Universal.

She and at least 17 other producers from the area had planned to grow habanero chiles, citrus fruits and other crops to supply the planned processing plant.

Keb Canul said that two engineers — one each from the federal Agriculture Secretariat (Sagarpa) and the state government’s rural development department — personally accompanied her to a bank where she cashed the check and handed over the funds with the assurance that they would start the work quickly.

“That day [in 2014], after we cashed the check and gave them the money, they invited us to have breakfast . . . in Mérida. Then they brought us back to the farm and never returned,” she said.

The 54-year-old woman and her husband Silvino Puc Ek told El Universal that they didn’t report what had happened out of fear that they wouldn’t receive any government support in the future and because the engineers kept the documents related to the project.

Another factor that complicates accountability is that under Sagarpa rules, project beneficiaries are required to hand over the funds that they have been granted to officials or contractors, although it’s the farmers who remain legally responsible for the execution of the work.

A Sagarpa official who spoke to El Universal on the condition of anonymity said the absence of responsibility on the part of anyone but the beneficiaries of the projects had led to the practice of taking the cash and running, so to speak, becoming commonplace.

The same two state and federal officials who swindled Keb Canul also failed to deliver on a promised farm project after receiving funds in 2014 from a cooperative made up of eight farmers in Tahmek.

Alfonso Baas Casanova, an ejidatario, or communal landowner, and the cooperative’s head told El Universal that he cashed a check for 460,000 pesos and gave the proceeds to Máximo Paredes Rodríguez of the state government’s rural development department, and Sergio Muñoz de Alba of Sagarpa.

Again, the understanding was that work on the project would start soon but, as before, the farmers never saw the men again. The site that today should be a working, organic farm instead lies abandoned.

Alvarado Sosa, who worked for the state government before heading up the Yucatán College of Agronomists, said that frauds of this type are not only discouraging for farmers but also leave many with no other option than to abandon the countryside and look for opportunities elsewhere.

“There are more and more migrants who go to Mérida and Cancún, more migrants who go abroad, there are few or none who want to sow crops. The Yucatecan countryside yields profits but we have to be well-organized, apply the resources honestly and really get to work,” he said.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Students bring home eight medals from robotics competition

By

César Hernández

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June 11, 2018

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Medal-winning robotics students from IPN.

Six students from the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN) came home with eight medals after participating in the fifth Robot Games Zero Latitud in Quito, Ecuador.

The young men returned with five gold medals, one silver and two bronze, earning a total of 59 points that ranked their team No. 2 at the event.

The IPN students competed against more than 500 of their counterparts from all over the world in three intense days that concluded earlier this month.

The mechatronics students won in the Mini Sumo RC category, the three-pound combat category, Autonomous Mini Sumo and 12-pound combat categories.

Along with bragging rights, the five victories gave the IPN roboticists international certifications to join prestigious international robotics competitions in six of 31 categories.

In just five years, the first international robotics tournament to be held in Ecuador has become the most important robotics competition in the region.

Source: emeequis (sp)

Municipal candidate wounded in Quintana Roo attack

By

César Hernández

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June 11, 2018

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Candidate Magaña, center and wearing red hat, was attacked on Saturday.

A candidate running for Isla Mujeres municipal council was the victim of an armed attack Saturday evening in Quintana Roo.

Rosely Magaña Martínez was at a campaign meeting in her home on the mainland when armed civilians entered and opened fire.

The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate and campaign worker Lizbeth Pasos Sarabia were wounded.

Both victims were transported to a nearby hospital but neither was in serious condition according to reports yesterday.

Authorities mounted an intense operation to locate the attackers but there have been no arrests.

Mayor Juan Carrillo Soberanis, who has taken leave to campaign for a second term, told a press conference that at least 10 of his associates have received threats during the present electoral process.

Carrillo announced he would file a formal complaint before the state Attorney General along with information regarding the identity of the person behind the threats.

As elsewhere, the current election period has been violent in the Caribbean state.

On Thursday, campaign workers with the Social Encounter Party (PES) in Puerto Morelos were attacked while riding a motorcycle. Four vehicles intercepted them, one of which struck the bike, whose riders were then threatened with beheading.

Nothing further transpired but the incident was enough to give one of the workers a nervous breakdown.

Souce: El Universal (sp), La Jornada (sp)

After 2 years, hidden grave body count is at 300 in Veracruz

By

MND Staff

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June 11, 2018

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Searching for the missing continues in Veracruz.

More than 300 bodies have been exhumed from hidden graves in Veracruz over the past two years, according to members of a group dedicated to searching for missing persons in the state.

In August 2016, the collective Solecito, which is made up of families of kidnapping victims, began the grisly task of identifying sites on a 10-hectare piece of land near the city of Veracruz where bodies have been buried in makeshift graves.

Once the graves are found, officers from the Federal Police’s scientific division excavate the areas.

With the discovery of six skulls last week, the remains of 295 people have now been recovered from the Colinas de Santa Fe property.

By the middle of next month, search efforts at the state’s largest clandestine grave are expected to end and construction of a memorial for the victims will begin.

In the municipality of Omealca, Federal Police have recovered at least another 20 bodies and 12 skulls from four artesian wells.

Marcela Zurita, the leader of Solecito in Córdoba, said the search in Omealca started last month and will continue until all the detected graves have been fully excavated.

Two bodies exhumed in the municipality, which is located about 25 kilometers southeast of Córdoba, have been identified by their clothing and the personal documents found on their person but are still awaiting DNA testing for formal confirmation.

Following a meeting Saturday with the four candidates for state governor, Solecito member Lucía Díaz said that the state is living through “a humanitarian crisis.”

In February, the Veracruz government formally accused four high-ranking former security officials and 15 police officers of the forced disappearance of 15 people during the administration of former governor Javier Duarte.

The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) ex-governor is awaiting trial on corruption charges and a Veracruz judge issued new charges against him last week, accusing him of being involved in the forced disappearance of at least 13 people.

Despite the arrests, Díaz charged that investigations into disappearances in the state are not thorough and that in some cases officials have refused to file the complaints lodged by victims’ family members.

She also accused the current state government of politicizing the investigations and warned that the haste to leverage a political advantage — the son of current Governor Miguel Ángel Yunes Linares is contending the July 1 election to replace his father — could result in errors which jeopardize the serving of justice.

“They’re playing with very dangerous issues because if they make mistakes in their electoral zeal and later they can’t properly try [the accused], they will have to pay in some way,” Díaz said.

She called on whoever becomes the next governor to head a government which treats victims and their families with dignity and conducts a thorough search for the disappeared persons.

The Solecito collective rebuked Veracruz Attorney General Jorge Winckler this month when he appeared in a soccer team photo with other officials from the FGE, the office he heads. The name of their team is Los Desaparecidos, or The Disappeared.

“It’s a mockery that humiliates [victims and their families] . . .” Díaz said.

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

Flash flooding traps passengers in Guadalajara transit cars

By

MND Staff

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June 11, 2018

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Rail cars under water yesterday in Guadalajara. informador

A strong storm struck Guadalajara, Jalisco, yesterday producing flash flooding that affected several parts of the city, including the light rail system from which scores of people had to be rescued.

Water up to four meters deep flooded the Dermatológico station on line 1 and trapped about 40 people inside the carriages of a stationary train.

Civil Protection personnel, firefighters and local residents all contributed to the rescue efforts.

In a video that was live-streamed on Facebook by one stranded passenger, people could be seen waist-deep in water and a distressed baby can be heard crying. In another video, passengers were attempting to swim to safety.

Authorities said that none of the affected passengers was injured but one person who showed signs of hypothermia received medical treatment.

Through the formation of a human chain, another rescue operation saved a man who was swept away by flood waters in the Nueva España neighborhood.

Elsewhere in the city, a canal running parallel to Patria Avenue in Zapopan overflowed and flooded the thoroughfare between the Américas and Acueducto avenues.

Several cars were left stranded in the floodwaters, according to social media posts.

Transportation authorities said that several other roads in the city were affected by the heavy rains including the tunnel on Washington avenue, Federalismo avenue and the city’s Periférico, or ring road, between Melchor Ocampo and Pino Suárez streets.

Fallen trees also blocked Vallarta avenue in both directions between Rafael Sanzio and Independencia streets and shut down other roads in the Jalisco capital.

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Shoppers in the Plaza Patria mall — located about 10 kilometers north of the city’s downtown — were forced to take shelter on the upper levels of the shopping center after its ground floor was inundated. Cars in the mall’s parking lot were also affected by the rapidly rising floodwaters.

Water was reported inside the Zoquipan and Zapopan hospitals, while the city’s Dermatological hospital also sustained damage.

Jalisco Governor Aristóteles Sandoval wrote on Twitter last night that there were no reports of injuries from the flooding and that Civil Protection services in all the municipalities of the Guadalajara metropolitan area were involved in clean-up efforts.

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