6 women, girls disappear in state of Oaxaca in 10 days

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November 12, 2018

BP's convenience stores and cafes are opening in Mexico.

The British oil and gas company BP continues its expansion in Mexico with the opening of its first ToGo convenience store in the country, where it also introduced its Wild Bean Café to customers.

In a statement, BP said the opening took place at its Autónoma service station in Guadalajara, Jalisco, where it intends to meet the needs of Mexican consumers by offering them a new convenience store-cafe concept.

The new store and its coffee is part of a strategy to transform the concept of service stations in Mexico.

“Wild Bean Café pleases those looking for quality Mexican coffee while on the go [and] attractive promotions, while at the same time enjoying quick, friendly and clean service,” said the statement.

” . . . We have 39 service stations in Jalisco and we continue to grow,” said BP México general manager Álvaro Granada Sanz.

BP operates the Wild Bean Café brand in 1,200 convenience store locations in 11 countries. In Mexico, the company has more than 350 gas stations.

Source: El Financiero (sp)

Migrant caravan splits after leaving Mexico City; some have reached Sinaloa

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November 12, 2018

Migrants ride on a truckload of steel rolls.

Central Americans traveling as part of the first migrant caravan began to split into smaller groups after leaving Mexico City Saturday as they travel towards the Mexico-United States border at Tijuana.

Some members of the caravan, made up mainly of Hondurans fleeing poverty and violence, reached as far north as Culiacán, Sinaloa, yesterday after arriving in Guadalajara, Jalisco, the day before.

Approximately 1,100 more migrants reached the Jalisco capital yesterday afternoon.

However, the largest caravan contingent, estimated to number 2,500, has traveled at a slower pace and arrived in Guanajuato yesterday from Querétaro.

Most stayed at a shelter in Irapuato last night and today are attempting to hitch rides to Guadalajara, about 240 kilometers to the west.

Early yesterday morning, authorities in Jalisco transported around 400 migrants to federal highway 15D so they could hitch rides towards Mazatlán, Sinaloa, after spending Saturday night in an auditorium in Zapopan.

When they reached Tepic, Nayarit, state police, acting on orders from Governor Antonio Echevarría, rounded up the migrants and offered them transportation in buses to the border with Sinaloa.

From there, some reached Culiacán, which is still more than 1,500 kilometers from the border crossing between Tijuana and San Diego, California.

Members of the first caravan have now spent almost a month on the road after leaving Honduras on October 13.

While in southern Mexico, many migrants walked long distances between towns but they are now relying on hitching rides in all manner of transport to accelerate their journey towards the United States.

Migrants traveled on one truck intended to transport pigs and another carrying coffins, the Associated Press reported.

A request last week to the United Nations for bus transportation to the border from Mexico City was declined.

Authorities in Querétaro said that 6,531 migrants traveled through the state over the weekend.

Early yesterday, large groups of migrants arrived at the toll gates at the entry to the Querétaro-Celaya highway, where caravan leaders ordered that families be given priority to board passing trucks offering rides.

Hundreds of kilometers to the south, members of the second migrant traveled on trucks yesterday from Sayula, Veracruz, to Puebla and were expected to begin arriving today in Mexico City.

Truck drivers reported that Federal Police officers stationed in Veracruz forced them to give lifts to the migrants.

“They tell us to support them voluntarily [but really] they force us . . . We have no other choice,” one truck driver told the newspaper Milenio.

Another said that he was at risk of losing his job by transporting the migrants because it violated company regulations.

“I’m not supposed to take anyone, I’ll get fired but the federal agents pulled me over and said that they’re putting them [the migrants] on anyway . . .” the driver said.

Despite the drivers’ claims, the National Security Commission (CNS) denied that Federal Police are forcing truck drivers to transport the migrants.

CNS officials told Milenio that in fact police are ordering migrants off trucks in order to avoid accidents. One migrant died after falling from a truck while traveling through Chiapas.

José Alejandro Caray, a 17-year-old Honduran, told the Associated Press that he fell off a trailer last week and injured his knee.

“I can’t bend it. Now I’m afraid to get on,” he said. “I prefer to wait for a pickup truck.”

Despite the risks, which also include the possibility of being intercepted by organized crime, most migrants are determined to continue the journey to the border, where they intend to seek asylum in the United States.

While there are an estimated 12,000 Central American migrants currently in Mexico, authorities said that only 2,697 temporary visas have been issued, meaning that the majority crossed the southern border illegally.

Despite a warning from the federal government that those who entered illegally would be detained and deported, only a small fraction of the thousands of migrants in Mexico have been forcibly returned to their country of origin.

The migrant caravan became a campaign issue in the U.S. midterm elections held last week.

United States President Trump described the first caravan as an “invasion” and said that as many as 15,000 troops could be deployed to the U.S. southern border to meet the migrants.

Once they reach the border, the migrants will face a “legal wall” to enter the United States, according to a migrants’ advocates.

Eunice Rendón of the advocacy group Agenda Migrante said a proclamation signed by Trump Friday, requiring migrants to cross the border legally if they wish to apply for asylum, means they will have to demonstrate “credible fear” that they would suffer violence should they return to their home countries.

Source: El Universal (sp), Milenio (sp), The Associated Press (en)

World’s biggest cruise ship makes a stop in Cozumel

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November 12, 2018

The largest cruise ship in the world docked yesterday for 11 hours at the resort island of Cozumel, Quintana Roo.

The MS Symphony of the Seas, the fourth Oasis-class vessel ever built, is owned and operated by the cruise line Royal Caribbean International.

With capacity for up to 6,680 passengers and a crew of 2,200, the vessel visited Mexico on its first ever western Caribbean itinerary.

The occasion was celebrated by local authorities who organized a welcome ceremony. After touring the massive cruise ship, Cozumel Mayor Pedro Joaquín Delbouis presented a commemorative plaque to its captain, Robert Hampstead, who in turn thanked the island and its government for their hospitality.

By welcoming the Symphony of the Seas, Cozumel has reasserted its leadership in the national and international arenas as a cruise ship destination, Joaquín said during the event.

“We are convinced that Cozumel has the tourist potential to be ranked as one of the main cruise ship destinations worldwide,” he continued, observing that it is only through collaboration with the state and federal governments that the island’s port infrastructure can improve.

Joaquín explained that the local government maintains close relationships with the cruise lines that visit the island to make sure it continues to be a popular destination.

According to the Quintana Roo harbormaster’s agency, Apiqroo, Cozumel received 3.5 million cruise ship visitors between January and October.

Other than the novelty and interest of setting foot on the Caribbean island, the more than 6,000 passengers on board the Symphony of the Seas have little reason to disembark.

Its 18 decks offer passengers water parks and the ocean’s tallest water slide, a full-size basketball court, an ice-skating rink, a laser tag arena, a bar tended by robots and two 43-foot rock-climbing walls, among many other amenities. There is also a “central park” which contains over 20,000 tropical plants.

The vessel called all aboard at 5:30pm, bidding farewell to the Mexican coast and heading for Nassau in the Bahamas.

Source: Noticaribe (sp)

Thousands march in Mexico City to protest airport cancellation

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November 12, 2018

Over 5,000 marched yesterday in Mexico City.

Around 5,500 people marched in Mexico City yesterday to protest the decision to cancel the new airport project at Texcoco, México state.

Protesters argued that the public consultation that led to the cancellation decision was unconstitutional and warned that president-elect López Obrador would hold more illegitimate referendums on other issues.

“What’s going to happen is that he’s going to want to have consultations for everything and they will be unconstitutional. That’s why we’re marching, to stop this man who wants to do a lot of damage to Mexico,” said protester Josefina Ruiz.

The demonstrators also contended that cancelling the new airport would cost thousands of jobs and halt Mexico’s economic development.

Late last month, 70% of people who participated in the consultation voted in favor of building two new runways at an air force base in México state and upgrading the existing Mexico City airport and that in Toluca over continuing with the US $14-billion project at Texcoco.

López Obrador has long criticized the project, charging that it is corrupt, too expensive and not needed.

Prominent private sector leaders slammed the decision to cancel the new airport which was announced by the president-elect the day after the consultation ended.

Mexican Employers Federation (Coparmex) president Gustavo de Hoyos said cancelling the project would be “the biggest waste of public resources in the history of the country” and described the public vote as a “Mickey Mouse consultation” and a “flagrant violation of the rule of law.”

Those sentiments were echoed by demonstrators yesterday during the protest, which many social media users dismissed as a marcha fifí, or snob’s march.

Many of the participants appeared to be of a social class that seldom takes to the streets to protest.

Following the march, the president of the influential Business Coordinating Council (CCE) again added his voice to the opposition against the decision, although he conceded that the project was not squeaky clean.

“I don’t deny that there were a lot, a few or some contracts that were awarded directly with elevated prices beyond those of the market [but] . . . it’s not justification to cancel a large-scale airport. What there has to be is transparency and punishment,” Juan Pablo Castañón said.

“All the contracts have to be analyzed and technically studied to see if there were bad decision-making processes or not but that doesn’t mean that [the next government] should cancel an infrastructure project that Mexico needs for the next 40, 50 years,” he charged.

The Federal Auditor’s Office (ASF) said last month that it had detected irregularities of 328 million pesos (US $16.1 million) in airport construction contracts.

Castañón said it doesn’t matter where the new airport is being built, those responsible for the irregularities should be held accountable.

“Shelving [the airport project] and saying, ‘nothing happened here, we’ll give your money back and forget about the money you stole’ is not the Mexico we want.”

López Obrador, who takes office on December 1, met with airport contractors last week and declared that the companies that have been building the project would not take legal action against the incoming government over the cancellation decision.

The contractors would have the opportunity to work on the project to adapt the air force base, upgrade the existing airports and rehabilitate the Texcoco site, he said.

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

Jalisco farmers seek help after Hurricane Willa’s rain destroyed their crops

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November 10, 2018

Flooding in Tomatlán, Jalisco, has devastated the crops of small producers.

Three days of torrential rain brought by Hurricane Willa last month destroyed crops worth at least 100 million pesos (US $5 million), according to the mayor of a Jalisco municipality.

Jorge Luis Tello García said that more than 700 hectares of pineapple, papaya, chile, corn, tomatillo and sorghum crops were damaged by the heavy rain that fell between October 22 and 24 in Tomatlán, a coastal municipality south of Puerto Vallarta.

Willa slammed into the coast of southern Sinaloa on the evening of October 23.

Among the affected farmers in Tomatlán are 20 women who belong to an all-female senior citizens’ agricultural collective that grows pineapples.

Two members, Engracia and Adelina, told the newspaper El Universal that they lost their entire four-hectare crop due to the hurricane because they couldn’t access their land to save it.

“It rained and rained for three days, the rivers swelled, the roads were cut off . . . We couldn’t get there until Saturday [October 27], we cut the pineapples and took them to Guadalajara but they were no good, they’d rotted and the market returned them to us,” Engracia said.

They are among about 1,000 farming families in the region who lost their crops but have been unable to access government compensation because state Civil Protection services ruled that there wasn’t sufficient damage to declare a state of disaster.

Engracia and Adelina, accompanied by Mayor Tello García, traveled to Guadalajara to report the situation to state authorities.

The mayor said he believes that Governor Aristóteles Sandoval is not aware of the situation because following past natural disasters, such as Hurricane Patricia in 2015, assistance was provided immediately.

“What we want is for them to make insurance available for the farmers, for them to help us,” Tello explained.

Without government assistance, Adelina said, the members of the women’s collective won’t be able to plant more pineapples.

“. . . Half of what we make we share and the other half we use to produce again but now it’s over,” she said.

Adelina explained proudly that one hectare of well-tended land can yield up to 80 tonnes of pineapples.

Asked how much the collective had lost due to the loss of its crop, she responded:

“In money? Well, you do the math, they pay us five pesos per kilo.”

Source: El Universal (sp)

Son of Sinaloa Cartel drug lord makes a deal, pleads guilty in US court

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November 10, 2018

Former cartel logistics specialist Vicente Zambada.

The son of Sinaloa Cartel boss Ismael Zambada has pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges in a United States federal court.

Vicente Zambada, a former logistics chief for the cartel, said in a plea agreement unsealed yesterday that he will cooperate with prosecutors in the hope that in exchange he will receive a reduced sentence and protection for his family from cartel retribution.

The cooperation agreement means that the 43-year-old Zambada will likely be a witness at the trial of former Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán that is set to start next week.

Zambada’s appearance in a Chicago court Thursday was the first time that he has faced a judge in person since his extradition to the United States in 2010.

Since then, the trafficker known by the nickname El Vicentillo has been held in a maximum-security prison in Michigan and has only appeared before a judge via video link.

In the 19-page plea deal, Zambada accepts responsibility for drug trafficking charges that were originally filed in Washington D.C. in 2002 but transferred to Chicago in August this year.

He also agreed not to contest the seizure of US $1.3 billion in illicit gains.

Starting in the 1990s, Zambada admitted to overseeing the importation of cocaine from Colombia and its shipment across the Mexico-United States border at Ciudad Juárez and then on to cities including Chicago, Los Angeles and New York.

From 2005, Zambada confessed, he managed a sophisticated operation involving the use of planes, trains, trucks, speed boats and even submarines to transport drugs from Colombia to Mexico and then into the United States.

The Sinaloa Cartel sent Boeing 747 cargo planes filled with clothes to South America supposedly as part of a humanitarian mission only to return to Mexico with large quantities of cocaine, according to U.S. authorities.

The judge set sentencing for February 27 but that date is likely to be delayed as Zambada continues to cooperate with prosecutors.

He could face life imprisonment but prosecutors will recommend a sentence not exceeding 10 years if he cooperates as promised.

Zambada’s family could also be allowed to stay permanently in the United States, according to the plea agreement.

The former logistics mastermind’s potential value to prosecutors at the Guzmán trial is considerable given that he would know details about the Sinaloa Cartel’s inner workings that few other people would know.

The plea agreement signed by Zambada doesn’t explicitly say he will testify at El Chapo’s trial in New York. However, he has agreed to providing testimony “in any matter” and “in any investigation.”

Twelve New Yorkers were chosen this week to sit on the jury to pass judgement on Mexico’s most notorious drug lord.

Guzmán, 61, has pleaded not guilty to 17 counts of drug trafficking, conspiracy, firearms offenses and money laundering.

Opening statements in the trial are scheduled for Tuesday. A federal judge ruled this week that Guzmán cannot enjoy a hug with his wife before his trial begins.

While Guzmán and Vicente Zambada face justice in the United States, the latter’s father, better known as El Mayo, continues to bring in massive profits for the Sinaloa Cartel.

Ismael Zambada García, a 70-year-old former poppy-field worker and long-time partner of El Chapo, has evaded law enforcement authorities during a trafficking career spanning half a century.

The United States State Department is offering a US $5-million reward for information that leads to his capture.

Source: EFE (sp), Associated Press (en)

Study ranks Mérida No. 1 for quality of life

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November 10, 2018

Mérida, Yucatán, is the place to be, according to a new quality of life study.

The latest City Prosperity Index, compiled by UN-Habitat and the national housing fund Infonavit, ranked Mérida No. 1 for best all-round quality of life.

The Yucatán capital topped a list of 305 Mexican cities ranked by the index which measures productivity, quality of life, infrastructure development, equity and social inclusion, environmental sustainability and urban governance and legislation.

UN-Habitat executive director Maimunah Mohd Sharif said that along with the financial progress experienced by the city, it has also advanced in terms of environmental sustainability.

The index is part of the City Prosperity Initiative, which collects information that can serve as the basis for public policy.

Mérida has been recognized before for quality of life. For two consecutive years — 2015 and 2016 — it was ranked No. 1 on the most livable cities survey by the polling firm Gabinete de Comunicación Estratégica.

Source: El Financiero (sp)

New state government will declare humanitarian crisis in Veracruz

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November 10, 2018

Incoming governor García and relatives of missing persons.

The incoming federal government has announced it will fully support a decision by the new Veracruz government to declare a humanitarian crisis in the state.

Cuitláhuac García will make the declaration after he is sworn in on December 1, citing insecurity in the Gulf coast state and the embezzlement of public funds during successive administrations as justification for the move.

García, who will govern Veracruz under the banner of president-elect López Obrador’s Morena party, will also request humanitarian aid from the United Nations (UN) and other international organizations.

López Obrador will also take office on December 1 but he will travel to Veracruz the following day with members of his cabinet to meet with García and formally announce the new government’s support for the declaration.

Alejandro Encinas, who will serve in the Interior Secretariat as human rights undersecretary, told the newspaper Milenio that the incoming government has already held discussions with García about the situation.

“We have been speaking with the governor-elect about the whole human rights violation issue and the humanitarian crisis that exists in the state,” he said.

“There has to be a special treatment for Veracruz and other states,” Encinas added.

Veracruz was governed between 2010 and 2016 by an Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) administration led by former governor Javier Duarte.

The Duarte administration is considered by many as the most corrupt government in Mexico’s history. The Federal Auditor’s Office (ASF) said in 2016 that the irregularities in the use of public funds during Duarte’s governorship were the most it had even seen.

In addition to the embezzlement of millions of pesos from state coffers during the six-year period, thousands of people disappeared in Veracruz, hundreds of bodies were found in mass graves and at least 17 journalists were murdered.

A federal court sentenced Duarte in September to nine years in prison for money laundering and criminal association. He must still face charges at the state level.

López Obrador labelled the criminal case against Duarte a circus and a sham and declared that the punishment he received — widely considered as overly lenient — is indicative of entrenched corruption in the political system.

The federal Attorney General’s office (PGR) has recovered almost 1.4 billion pesos (US $69.3 million) through the seizure of bank accounts held by Duarte and real estate he owned.

High levels of violent crime and the discovery of mass graves have continued during the governorship of Miguel Ángel Yunes Linares, who assumed office for the National Action Party (PAN) in December 2016.

Since 2010, 364 hidden graves have been found in the state.

Most recently, authorities exhumed at least 166 skulls and other human remains from 32 clandestine graves believed to be located near the sleepy fishing village of Arbolillo.

According to Lucía Díaz, founder of the Solecito Collective — a group made up of family members of missing persons — some of the recently-exhumed human remains belong to people who have disappeared during the administration of Yunes Linares.

All told, there are 15,000 missing persons’ cases in Veracruz, according to non-governmental organizations, although state authorities only have 3,600 cases open.

There are also claims that the current state government has acted corruptly.

The Veracruz Auditor’s Office (Orfis) said last month it had detected the probable embezzlement of more than 338 million pesos (US $16.7 million) from state coffers during 2017, Yunes’ first full year in office.

Encinas said the request for humanitarian aid will be directed not just to the UN but also to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the International Red Cross, both of which will be asked to assist in the search for missing people.

By formally requesting humanitarian aid, the international organizations “can help to confront the humanitarian crisis,” he explained.

The new state government also hopes to attract greater funding for the identification of human remains found in hidden graves.

Any new resources will either be made available to the State Search Commission or placed in a fund to finance missing person investigations.

Encinas stressed that the new federal government will pay particular attention to the situation in Veracruz, adding that “we are going to work very closely with the new [state] government; there is already an agreement.”

Source: Milenio (sp)

Veracruz woman received 18 incorrect diagnoses at 4 hospitals

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November 10, 2018