Category 3 Hurricane Bud will produce rain and wind on Pacific coast

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June 11, 2018

Hurricane Bud's forecast track. the weather channel

Hurricane Bud, the second hurricane in less than a week in the eastern Pacific Ocean, is expected to remain well offshore but will still deliver heavy rain and high winds to parts of the west coast.

The category 3 hurricane was situated about 425 kilometers southwest of Cabo Corrientes, Jalisco, and 760 kilometers south-southeast of the southern tip of the Baja peninsula at 10:00am today, said the United States National Hurricane Center (NHR).

Maximum sustained winds were 195 kilometers per hour. Bud was moving northwest at 11 kilometers per hour and was expected to remain offshore of the southwestern coast of mainland Mexico, the NHR said.

Some additional strengthening is possible today but a slow weakening should begin tomorrow.

A tropical storm watch is in effect between Manzanillo, Colima, and Cabo Corrientes.

The National Meteorological Service issued a forecast at 7:00am for intense storm conditions in Nayarit, Jalisco, Michoacán, Colima, Puebla, Chiapas and Oaxaca.

Bud is expected to produce rainfall accumulations of 75 to 150 millimeters across much of southwestern Mexico and waves of three to four meters in Michoacán, Colima and Jalisco.

Aletta was the first hurricane of the season and went from a tropical storm to category 4 hurricane in just 24 hours last week but it too was located well away from the coast.

By this morning it was a tropical depression, the NHR said.

Mexico News Daily

Amazon’s convoys reduce highway robbery in Valley of Mexico

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MND Staff

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June 9, 2018

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Many Amazon trucks travel in convoys to avoid robbery.

Trucks transporting goods for e-commerce giant Amazon used to be a frequent target for thieves in the greater Mexico City metropolitan area, where the company has two distribution centers.

But thanks to the implementation of a successful anti-robbery strategy, Amazon hasn’t suffered any holdups on the roads during the past three months.

Since January, trucks leaving the company’s warehouses in Cuatitlán Izcalli, México state, have traveled in convoy, while security vehicles also accompany the trucks during times when robberies have been shown to be more frequent.

Amazon has also increased its cooperation with security authorities.

Consequently, robberies gradually became less frequent before stopping altogether.

The director of loss prevention at Amazon México told transportation news website T21 that the introduction of the new security strategy followed a meeting between directors of several other companies that were also suffering losses due to highway robbery.

“We analyzed the modus operandi [of the thieves], the common problem that we had, and drew up a risk map of the areas where they were stealing from us . . . the next step was to decide what joint actions we could take,” Héctor Coronado said.

“We activated the protocols among the whole group . . .The benefit is that we share intelligence and counter-intelligence,” he explained.

Before the strategy was put into action, Coronado said, Amazon was the target of at least one robbery a week and that theft from a single truck resulted on average in a loss of 5 million pesos (US $ 245,000) worth of merchandise.

Highway robbery is a growing problem in Mexico, with the number of reported cases affecting trucks almost doubling last year.

To combat robbery and improve security on the nation’s highways, federal Transportation Secretary Gerardo Ruiz Esparza said Thursday that the government is planning to have 5,000 kilometers of video surveillance installed by 2020.

Source: T21 (sp)

Anthony Bourdain had a deep love affair with Mexico and Mexican cuisine

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MND Staff

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June 9, 2018

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Bourdain with Abigail Mendoza, second from left, in Oaxaca.

“Mexico. Our brother from another mother. A country, with whom, like it or not, we are inexorably, deeply involved, in a close but often uncomfortable embrace. Look at it. It’s beautiful. It has some of the most ravishingly beautiful beaches on earth. Mountains, desert, jungle. Beautiful colonial architecture, a tragic, elegant, violent, ludicrous, heroic, lamentable, heartbreaking history.”

There could be no doubting chef Anthony Bourdain’s deep love of Mexico — and particularly authentic Mexican food — that was cultivated during several trips to various parts of the country and which he wrote about in a 2014 essay entitled Under the Volcano.

But the writer, television personality and celebrity chef’s love affair with Mexico — and many other countries around the world — has come to an end. Bourdain died in France yesterday by his own hand. He was 61.

After shooting to fame on the back of a 1999 confessional piece in The New Yorker in which he spilled secrets about the restaurant trade and then a follow-up book entitled Kitchen Confidential, Bourdain entered the world of television.

While filming for his first show, A Cook’s Tour, Bourdain made his first professional visit to Mexico, traveling to the hometown of a Mexican cook with whom he worked in the New York restaurant Brasserie Les Halles.

In Izúcar de Matamoros, Puebla, Bourdain learned about the elaborate process to make mole poblano, chowed down on escamoles (ant larvae) and enchiladas and sampled the viscous, pre-Hispanic drink of the gods made out of the fermented sap of the maguey plant, pulque.

An infatuation with real Mexican food that would last for years was born.

During visits to Mexico City, Bourdain ate tacos al pastor on the streets of the historic center, migas (a traditional soup) — washed down with a michelada — at La Güera in the notorious neighborhood of Tepito and fell in love with the cerdo en salsa verde and refried beans at the breakfast diner Fonda Margarita in Colonia del Valle.

He also visited the massive wholesale market Central de Abasto, enjoyed some of the capital’s famous cantinas and dined at the upscale restaurant Máximo Bistrot.

While making his second show, No Reservations, Bourdain visited Baja California where he ate tacos and drank mezcal in Tijuana and devoured a lobster lunch on the beach at Rosarito.

The highlight, however, was undoubtedly his visit to the seafood street stand in Ensenada called La Guerrerense.

The chef with Sabina Bandera of Ensenada. — The celebrity chef with Sabina Bandera of Ensenada.

There, Bourdain ate ceviche, scallop, sea snail, sea urchin and octopus tostadas and met the stand’s owner and namesake, Guerrero-native Sabina Bandera, whom he called a “genius.” He would later invite her to show off her culinary talents at a street food convention in Singapore.

Oaxaca was another favorite hunting and eating ground for the acclaimed television personality, whose death yesterday triggered an outpouring of emotion from fans around the world.

On his first visit to the southern state, Bourdain ate iguana and tamales while on a more recent visit he sampled tlayudas (a large, crispy tortilla filled with a variety of ingredients), squash blossom soup and atole (a hot corn-based beverage) with internationally renowned chef Abigail Mendoza in the town of Teotitlán del Valle. While there, he marveled at the delicateness of a Zapotec woman’s hands and the strength of her forearms as she ground corn to make tortillas.

Bourdain also ate at the renowned pasillo del humo, or smoky aisle, in Oaxaca City’s central market, where visitors are usually affected more by the delicious smells of the grilling meats than the wafts of smoke.

The New Yorker, however, was more than just a connoisseur of all kinds of weird and wonderful food from all over Mexico and beyond.

He was also a champion of the underdog who stood up for immigrants in the United States, aware that they are the backbone of some sectors of the economy.

“Despite our ridiculously hypocritical attitudes towards immigration, we demand that Mexicans cook a large percentage of the food we eat, grow the ingredients we need to make that food, clean our houses, mow our lawns, wash our dishes [and] look after our children,” he wrote in his 2014 essay.

He also questioned why many of his compatriots embrace Mexican food, beverages, people and other products and aspects of the country but not Mexico itself.

“Americans love Mexican food. We consume nachos, tacos, burritos, tortas, enchiladas, tamales and anything resembling Mexican in enormous quantities. We love Mexican beverages, happily knocking back huge amounts of tequila, mezcal and Mexican beer every year. We love Mexican people — as we sure employ a lot of them . . .” Bourdain said.

“We love Mexican drugs. Maybe not you personally, but “we,” as a nation, certainly consume titanic amounts of them — and go to extraordinary lengths and expense to acquire them. We love Mexican music, Mexican beaches, Mexican architecture, interior design, Mexican films,” he continued.

“So why don’t we love Mexico?”

Source: El Universal (sp)

Weather creates water shortage affecting 900,000 in Mexico City

By

César Hernández

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June 9, 2018

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Trucks deliver water to thirsty neighborhoods of Mexico City.

Close to 1 million people in Mexico City have been left without running water mainly due to high temperatures produced by a high-pressure weather system.

The water shortfall is being felt in seven of the city’s 16 boroughs: Iztacalco, Iztapalapa, Benito Juárez, Cuauhtémoc, Tlalpan, Azcapotzalco and Venustiano Carranza.

City authorities blamed an atypical high-pressure system, damage to the power grid by high winds, the diversion of water to aid farmers and a spike in demand by as much as 20% because of the heat.

Relief is still at least a few days away as the heat wave recedes northward; moisture is expected to reach the city in the coming days.

The director of the city’s water system, who explained that the capital went through a similar dry spell 85 years ago, warned that even if it starts raining on Monday or Tuesday, water service won’t be fully restored until two or three days after.

In the meantime, the government has deployed a fleet of 390 tanker trucks to distribute water in the affected boroughs. Each will make three trips per day, with which authorities expect to be able to deliver 12 million liters daily until the shortage is over.

The city estimated that the flow of water from the Lerma aqueduct has declined by 700,000 liters per second, while the Cutzamala aqueduct is operating at 60% capacity.

Elsewhere in the country, it’s hurricane season.

The first named phenomenon on the Pacific coast, Hurricane Aletta, strengthened from category 2 to 4 in the lapse of 12 hours yesterday, with wind speeds reaching 270 kilometers per hour. But the storm has been located well off the coast and was rapidly weakening this afternoon, the United States National Hurricane Center said.

It was situated about 430 kilometers southwest of Socorro Island, in the Revillagigedo Islands, and 865 kilometers south-southwest of the southern tip of Baja California Sur.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Teachers withdraw blockades in Oaxaca, strike action cut back

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César Hernández

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June 9, 2018

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Teachers had set up camp at the ADO bus terminal in Oaxaca city.

After four days of gridlocked traffic, most of the street blockades set up by unionized teachers in the greater Oaxaca city area have been lifted.

Almost all vehicle traffic had been halted at several points along the northwest-southeast axis created by federal highway 190 and its urban segment, known as Calzada Héroes de Chapultepec, as well as on the southbound federal highway 175.

The roadblocks impeded transit to and from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and Coast regions of the state and to the neighboring states of Veracruz and Puebla.

Passengers leaving from the city’s main bus terminal were forced to catch their buses elsewhere, due to the teachers’ roadblocks at the terminal.

The teachers have now pulled back to two areas as they continue their indefinite strike: the camp set up two weeks ago on some 10 streets in the city center and the road connecting highway 175 with Oaxaca International Airport, effectively stopping vehicles from entering or leaving the terminal.

Although the airport can be reached via an alternate vehicular entrance, the reigning chaos and confusion has forced some travelers to walk up to three kilometers to get in or out.

The state government has met three times with the teachers in the two weeks since the dissident CNTE union began their strike and protests.

Governor Alejandro Murat Hinojosa said the meetings had resolved some of the union’s demands but the chief one, repeal of the 2013 education reform, is outside the state’s jurisdiction.

The union’s Oaxaca local, Section 22, said after the most recent meeting, held today, members decided to carry on with the strike, but only 20% of the membership will participate.

While the union has described its strike and protests as “massive,” from what education authorities say it appears otherwise.

They say 94% of the state’s 12,000 schools have continued to operate normally.

Although city businesses have seen sales drop between 20 and 35%, enough to cause “serious economic damage,” it has not been as bad as past years.

Pedro Corres Sillas, the head of an association of small businesses, said teacher protests have meant a decline in sales in May and June for the last 35 years. The difference this year, he said, was the strike had little impact and few classes were suspended.

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

Anaya slams Peña Nieto, PRI for video accusing him of money laundering

By

MND Staff

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June 9, 2018

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Coalition members closed ranks around candidate Anaya, center. — Coalition members closed ranks yesterday around candidate Anaya, center.

Presidential candidate Ricardo Anaya has blamed the federal government for a video in which he is accused of money laundering and using the proceeds to fund his election campaign, triggering a war of words between the coalition he heads and the ruling party.

In the five-minute video released Thursday, Juan Barreiro — the younger brother of Querétaro businessmen Manuel Barreiro, who allegedly transferred 54 million pesos to Anaya as part of a bogus real estate transaction — describes the modus operandi of the money laundering scheme from which the candidate allegedly benefited.

In audio and video that was presumably secretly recorded at three alleged meetings with an unidentified Argentine businesswoman, Barreiro charges that Anaya provided “first-hand” privileged information to a group of Querétaro businesspeople — including his brother — which allowed them to purchase land at prices well below market value.

After it was developed, the land was resold at significantly higher prices and some of the profits were later funneled into Anaya’s campaign via illicit means, Barreiro explained.

He said the group has provided Anaya with “a lot of money so that he wins” and claimed that an Anaya presidency “will open the doors to us for whatever we want.”

Barreiro added that it has become very difficult to transfer more money to the campaign because “they’re checking everything,” citing authorities’ investigation into his brother’s alleged illicit dealings with Anaya as an example.

Asked by the woman whether it’s still worth investing in Anaya’s campaign, Barreiro said that doing so would be “complicated” but added that “there are always ways to do it.”

Since the allegations were first made against him in February, Anaya has denied any wrongdoing and accused the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) of fabricating the allegations against him to damage his chances of winning the presidency.

In a video posted to his social media accounts Thursday, Anaya rejected the claims contained in the new video and accused the Enrique Peña Nieto-led PRI government of waging a “dirty war” against him by using “the same lies” as before.

“First, the content of this video is completely false. Second, it’s a strategy orchestrated and driven by the government of President Peña Nieto to damage my candidacy,” he said.

“Third, they’re attacking me because the day before yesterday [Tuesday] at Ibero [University] I said very clearly that Enrique Peña Nieto is corrupt and I repeated that when I am president, I will task myself with ensuring that he faces justice and if he’s proven to be guilty, that he goes to jail. Fourth, they’re also attacking me because I revealed that Enrique Peña Nieto and [Andrés Manuel] López Obrador have already made a pact . . .” Anaya added.

“Peña Nieto is helping López Obrador by attacking me, the only candidate who can beat him, and in exchange López Obrador promised to pardon him for everything. He even said it publicly. I know that the dirty war against me isn’t going to stop from here until election day,” he continued.

“To you, President Peña Nieto, I hold you responsible for my safety and that of my family. You’re not going to defeat me, I’m not going to surrender. We’re going to win, Mexico is going to change.”

Yesterday, Anaya denied knowing Juan Barreiro, contradicting the latter’s assertion in the video that the candidate had approached his family to ask for money.

Anaya campaign boss Jorge Castañeda, who this week accused frontrunner López Obrador of making a “pact of impunity” with the president, also charged that the video was “orchestrated from Los Pinos,” the president’s official residence.

National Action Party (PAN) president Damián Zepeda added that the video was a deliberate ploy designed to damage and distract Anaya’s campaign.

“. . . We’re not going to fall into the PRI’s strategy. They want us to waste time, for us to spend the last three weeks [before the election] clarifying this,” he said.

Zepeda also charged that the government’s attempts at intimidation have turned physical, explaining that a car Anaya had been traveling in was intercepted and attacked Thursday and the rear windshield was smashed.

Leaders of the two other parties that make up the Anaya-led For Mexico in Front coalition also spoke out against the government’s alleged interference and reaffirmed their support for their candidate.

Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) national president Manuel Granados said the possibility of an Anaya victory had made the government nervous, while the leader of the Citizens’ Movement party, Dante Delgado, condemned the government’s actions.

In response, Attorney General Alfonso Navarrete Prida said via Twitter that the federal government “strongly rejects” the claim that it has intervened in the electoral process.

“. . . [the federal government] demands respect from the political actors who are participating in this [electoral] contest by making unfounded accusations which tarnish the climate of civility that should prevail,” he wrote.

PRI candidate José Antonio Meade, who is languishing in third place in most opinion polls, also hit back at Anaya, responding succinctly on Twitter by writing in English: “Insulting and unacceptable.”

At a later press conference, he elaborated on his tweet, which repeated the exact words Anaya used to describe United States President Donald Trump’s assertion that Mexico will pay for his proposed border wall.

“What is unacceptable and insulting is to try to hide behind his candidacy in order to avoid accountability and transparency. Any of us . . . who has committed any kind of offense should be permanently ready to be held accountable,” Meade said.

PRI national president René Juárez Cisneros said the evidence in the video is damning and that the government has nothing to explain.

“. . . Who should be explaining is Ricardo Anaya, he shouldn’t be making excuses for himself for everything that Mexicans saw in the video, it’s clear evidence,” he said. “When you’re looking for arguments to justify defeat, these kinds of statements start.”

The presidential election is just three weeks away and López Obrador maintains a commanding lead over Anaya and Meade.

According to the newspaper El País, there is a 92% probability that he will be Mexico’s next president.

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

PRI candidate for federal Congress assassinated in Coahuila

By

Tony Richards

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June 9, 2018

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Purón, assassinated last night in Piedras Negras.

A lone gunman shot and killed a Coahuila candidate for federal Congress last night in Piedras Negras.

Fernando Purón Johnston, a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party and former mayor of the border municipality, was killed outside an auditorium at the Autonomous University of Coahuila after participating in a political forum.

Surveillance video captured the killer as he approached his victim from behind, pulled out a handgun and shot him twice at point-blank range, once in the head, before fleeing.

Purón died en route to the hospital.

Governor Miguel Riquelme told a press conference after the shooting that the involvement of organized crime was not being ruled out. He described Purón as a mayor who “fought against insecurity.”

The governor said someone at the scene of the murder attempted to follow the killer, who fired another shot before leaving in a vehicle.

Purón was mayor of Piedras Negras from January 2014 until last December when he took a leave of absence to run as a federal deputy. He married this year and leaves his wife and baby daughter.

Source: Vanguardia (sp)

Chinese citizens arrested in CDMX part of international criminal network

By

MND Staff

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June 8, 2018

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Zhenli Ye Gon was arrested with more than US $200 million in cash. — Zhenli Ye Gon was arrested in 2007 with more than US $200 million in cash.

Six Chinese citizens and four Mexicans who were arrested last month in Mexico City belonged to a money laundering ring that provided services to two of Mexico’s most notorious drug cartels, according to the federal Attorney General’s office (PGR).

The head of the organized crime investigation unit (SEIDO) told a press conference yesterday that in addition to detaining the 10 suspects late last month, federal security forces also seized just over US $10.5 million, 95,800 pesos (US $4,720), five properties, 10 vehicles with hidden compartments, financial records and a firearm.

“. . . The persons under arrest are part of an international network of financial operators linked to different criminal organizations who generate violence in national territory and operate with the proceeds of their illicit operations,” Israel Lira Salas said.

The Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and the Gulf Cartel are both believed to be among the criminal groups that sent profits to the money laundering ring, made up of nine men and a woman.

Personnel from the army, SEIDO, the Federal Police and a financial intelligence unit carried out operations on May 26 and May 29 to execute search warrants at several addresses in the capital.

The six Chinese nationals were arrested on the first date and the four Mexicans were detained three days later.

The wife of CJNG boss Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes was also arrested on May 26.

Rosalinda González Valencia was allegedly “the administrator of the economic and legal resources” of the cartel, Attorney General Alfonso Navarrete Prida said, making it likely that she had close contact with the money laundering ring.

The PGR said the 10 detainees remain in custody in Mexico City and will face trial on charges of organized crime, the use of funds derived from illegal sources and the violation of federal firearm laws.

In its 2017 National Drug Threat Assessment, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said there was evidence that Mexican drug cartels collaborate with the Chinese mafia to launder drug profits from around the world in Mexico City.

The DEA charged that there are Chinese criminal cells in cities such as New York and Los Angeles that send illicit money to the Mexican capital through a variety of payment methods.

Federal authorities in Mexico have said that the CJNG has increased its presence in Mexico City by forming alliances with smaller drug trafficking organizations such as the Tláhuac Cartel, which is based in the borough of the same name in the south of the city.

Relations between Mexico’s cartels and Chinese criminals are not new.

In 2007, authorities seized US $205 million in cash as well as other assets from the Mexico City home of Chinese-Mexican businessman Zhenli Ye Gon.

Ye Gon was alleged to be a member of the Sinaloa Cartel and involved in money laundering and drug trafficking. He was arrested in the United States in 2007 where he remains imprisoned.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Construction, accident choke Monterrey-Laredo highway

By

MND Staff

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June 8, 2018

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Traffic backed up this morning between Monterrey and Nuevo Laredo.

Resurfacing work coupled with a multiple-vehicle collision brought traffic to a virtual standstill in both directions this morning on the highway between Monterrey, Nuevo Leeon, and the border city of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas.

The road work started early this morning between the 53 and 57-kilometer markers on the highway, leaving just one northbound and one southbound lane open.

But about 8:00am two semi-trailers, a bus and two cars were involved in an accident at the northbound 68-kilometer marker in the Nuevo León municipality of Sabinas Hidalgo that left three people with minor injuries.

One truck was transporting ice that spilled on to the highway.

By 11:40am, one of the lanes in the accident zone had been reopened but traffic jams continued.

Even before the accident, truckers and other motorists had taken to social media to vent their frustration about the snarled conditions.

One truck driver traveling from Nuevo Laredo to Saltillo said he expected his travel time to double from five hours to 10.

Some motorists traveling towards the U.S. border chose to pull over and wait until the highway was cleared and traffic conditions improved.

While motorists were stuck, the newspaper Reforma reported, one local salesman took advantage of a captive market by selling drinks and snacks stacked onto a hand truck, known in Mexico as a diablito.

Sodas were reportedly his best seller, going for as much as 18 pesos (US $0.88) a pop.

Source: Reforma (sp), Milenio (sp)

Tamaulipas brothers’ smartphone app keeps babies’ medical records

By

César Hernández

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June 8, 2018

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Rafael and José Manuel Collado, developers of medical records app.

Becoming the parent of two baby girls two years ago was the spark that fired up Rafael Collado Bermúdez to develop what is proving to be a popular medical record-keeping application for infants and toddlers.

Collado and his brother José Manuel developed the app called My Baby’s List to help parents of children up to four years old keep record of their shots, medical appointments and any medications that were prescribed.

Now it has become the go-to medical history resource for new parents, registering more than 10,000 downloads in the last two years in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Latin America and China.

“By simply recording the baby’s date of birth the platform starts reminding parents about what shots are needed and when,” explained José Manuel Collado.

Screenshot from My Baby's List. — Screenshot from My Baby’s List.

The app is available for iOS and Android devices in both English and Spanish, and the developers expect to have it available soon in Portuguese and Mandarin Chinese.

The brothers operate out of Reynosa, Tamaulipas, but they have registered their company in the United States with the goal of further expanding their market presence there.

“We want to scale our company up, to get more people to trust in us and become a point of reference for all parents, giving them more control over their baby’s health and allowing them to enjoy this stage of their development the most,” said Rafael Collado.

What sets My Baby’s List apart from other services is that it’s fully based in science, following the World Health organization’s recommended list of routine immunizations.

“We do not play with the baby’s health, everything we do is backed up by physicians,” explained Rafael. “We do not give unsolicited advice, on the contrary, if [parents] have specific doubts we always recommend visiting their baby’s pediatrician.”

The Collado brothers have been financing their app themselves, but they have met with international organizations and pharmaceutical companies that have shown interest in collaborating.

“This is a market that does not stop growing,” said the brothers. “We want to improve the quality of life of our users and we know that science will help us achieve that goal, to eradicate ailments and have healthier communities.”

Source: Milenio (sp)