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Outage comes after warning of electrical emergency on Yucatán peninsula

By
MND Staff
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The Federal Electricity Commission said there would be no further outages.
The Federal Electricity Commission had said there would be no further outages.

A power outage left part of Mérida in the dark last night just hours after the National Energy Control Center (Cenace) announced its intention to declare a state of emergency on the Yucatán peninsula due to a lack of natural gas to generate energy.

Lights went off in the west of the city just after 10:00pm and power hadn’t returned by midnight, according to a report published early this morning by the newspaper El Universal.

Cenace said in a statement earlier yesterday that in the coming months – it didn’t specify when – there will be a shortage of natural gas on the Yucatán peninsula and power stations in Mérida, Campeche and Valladolid will operate at only 25% capacity.

The Mérida III combined-cycle plant will operate at half-capacity during high-demand daylight hours but will disconnect from the grid completely during low-demand periods, the federal agency said.

At least 985 megawatts (MW) of power are needed to guarantee power supply on the Yucatán peninsula but it is anticipated that output could fall to as low as 732 MW.

“In that context, while dispatchable generation is less than 985 MW. . . we inform . . . that a state of operational emergency will be declared for the Yucatán peninsula . . .” Cenace said.

While an emergency declaration is in effect, Cenace may issue special instructions to citizens with regard to energy use or prioritize electricity supply to certain areas of the Yucatán peninsula’s cities and towns.

“. . . It doesn’t mean that there won’t be power but in such a case . . . Cenace can take extraordinary measures,” said Paul Sánchez, founder of Ombudsman Energía México, a civil society organization.

Today, however, Cenace backed away from the declarations it made Monday.

In an “explanatory note,” it said that it has asked the national gas network to make a “greater effort” to transport larger quantities of natural gas to the peninsula, which will increase availability at the three power stations where capacity was to be cut.

Cenace also noted that the Federal Electricity Commission is building a new stretch of pipeline from the port city of Campeche that will be capable of proving diesel to power stations on the peninsula 24 hours a day, adding that transmission lines between Ticul, Yucatán, and Escárcega, Campeche, can provide backup energy supply if required.

“The declaration of a state of operational emergency” referred to in yesterday’s statement “at this time has no foundation . . .” Cenace said.

However, as last night’s blackout indicates, power supply issues on the Yucatán peninsula are far from resolved.

Residents have already suffered three widespread blackouts this year, one in March and two in April.

The first two outages were blamed on fires beneath transmission lines but energy expert Edgar Ocampo Telléz said that a lack of gas to generate power was the real reason.

He warned in April that an increased demand for energy in the warmest months of the year and a shortage of gas will cause more power outages on the Yucatán peninsula.

The electricity commission insisted in April there would be no more outages and that there was no shortage of natural gas.

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

12 Federal Police get 34 years for 2012 shooting of CIA agents

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MND Staff
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Scene of the 2012 attack.
Scene of the 2012 attack.

A federal judge has sentenced 12 Federal Police officers to 34 years in prison for the attempted murder almost seven years ago of two CIA agents as they traveled in an armored diplomatic vehicle on the Mexico City-Cuernavaca highway.

The police shot at the vehicle on August 24, 2012 as it passed Tres Marías, a community in Morelos around 50 kilometers south of central Mexico City.

The two United States agents, Stan Dove and Jess Hoods, were wounded in the attack. Fabián Molino, a Mexican marine who was driving the SUV, was unharmed.

The officers involved in the shooting denied that their aim was to kill the people traveling in the vehicle, stating that they opened fire because they believed the car was involved in the kidnapping of a former official of the National Institute of Anthropology and History.

Fourteen police were detained in relation to the incident but two were absolved yesterday of involvement in the crime. However, the acquittal was immediately appealed by the federal Attorney General’s Office.

All 14 officers claimed that during the investigation into the incident, they were interrogated by FBI and DEA agents at the Attorney General’s Office without the presence of a lawyer.

Authorities initially called the shooting an accident but three months later the 14 officers were charged with attempted murder.

Suspicions were raised by the fact that none of the officers was in uniform.

That was revealed after the group’s commanding officer had insisted they were in uniform. He was subsequently charged with providing false information to investigators.

Juan Manuel Pacheco also ordered his men to hide their vehicles, which were unmarked.

There was speculation at the time that the Beltrán Leyva Organization could have planned the attack. Mexican and U.S. officials confirmed that might have been the case, according to an Associated Press report.

A foundation dedicated to the study of organized crime said soon after the incident that it raised questions about the Federal Police.

“The shadowy details of this case raise serious questions over just how reliable they can be in the fight against organized criminal groups,” wrote InSight Crime.

In addition to imposing the custodial sentence, the judge ruled that the 12 convicted officers must pay compensation to the victims of just over 1.8 million pesos (US $94,000).

Source: Milenio (sp) 

San Miguel de Allende kidnapping gang boss gets 60 years

By
MND Staff
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Alleged ex-terrorist and convicted kidnapper Escobar.
Alleged ex-terrorist and convicted kidnapper Escobar.

The Chilean leader of a kidnapping ring that operated in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, for 10 years has been sentenced to 60 years in prison.

Raúl Julio Escobar Poblete received the hefty sentence on Friday for the 2017 abduction of French-American woman Nancy Michelle Kendall who was freed after spending 78 days in captivity.

The criminal gang he headed is also believed to have carried out several other kidnappings in San Miguel, including abductions of 1994 presidential candidate Diego Fernández de Cevallos; Mónica Jurado, the former daughter-in-law of ex-president Vicente Fox; and the owner of the fast food chain, Pollo Feliz.

Escobar, allegedly a former guerilla fighter from Chile who is accused of assassinating a senator in that country in 1991, was arrested on May 30, 2017, as he followed a taxi driver he had paid to deliver a package to Kendall’s husband that included instructions for the payment of a US $1-million ransom and a finger that had been severed from his wife’s hand.

After Friday’s sentence was handed down, Guanajuato Attorney General Carlos Zamarripa Aguirre said that attempts are being made to bring to justice those who collaborated in the kidnapping ring with Escobar, who used various aliases and was known in Chile as Comandante Emilio.

Among the suspected accomplices are Escobar’s ex-wife, Marcela Mardones, who was arrested in Chile after fleeing Mexico in the wake of her ex-husband’s arrest, and Isabel Mazarro Gómez de Santiago, a more recent partner of the convicted kidnapper who was detained in Spain in 2017.

Another person allegedly involved in the kidnapping ring’s activities is believed to be in France.

“We are certain that they participated in several kidnappings committed in San Miguel de Allende in the past decade. . . ” Zamarripa said.

The attorney general described part of the modus operandi of the gang. Its members used stolen cars during abductions, and always wore gloves to ensure they didn’t leave fingerprints and hoods to conceal their identities.

The gang very rarely used telephones as a means to negotiate with victim’s families, preferring instead to take out advertisements in newspapers or deliver messages by mail or taxi.

Victims were held hostage for periods of up to a year and a half and large ransoms were usually sought in dollars, Zamarripa said.

The kidnapping ring allegedly kept some victims captive in coffins and employed other unusual techniques such as playing loud music with revolutionary themes, serving hostages bacalao a la vizcaina (a codfish dish) at Christmas and providing them with the book Man’s Search for Meaning by concentration camp survivor Viktor Frankl.

Source: El Universal (sp) 

Smugglers defy outnumbered marines at Guatemala border

By
Madison Koen
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Marines on patrol at the Suchiate river.
Marines on patrol at the Suchiate river.

Mexican soldiers found themselves outnumbered and outmaneuvered in a confrontation with smugglers and informal merchants at the Suchiate river on the Mexico-Guatemala border on Sunday.

As part of the new deal between the United States and Mexico to avoid President Donald Trump’s threat to impose blanket tariffs on all Mexican goods, soldiers, marines, Federal Police and the National Guard have been deployed to the southern border to stop the flow of migrants entering the country through Guatemala.

According to various news outlets, forces have begun regular patrols in Chiapas in the cities and towns of Tapachula, Comitán, Comalapa and Ciudad Hidalgo and along the river. On Sunday morning, they met with the first serious challenge to their authority.

At 9:00am, a small patrol of marines confronted a group of merchants as they secured articles meant for sale aboard a makeshift raft and prepared to cross the river. The marines warned that without proper documentation, the group’s merchandise would be classified as contraband and confiscated.

News of the marines’ threat spread quickly among other merchants who were also preparing to cross the river, and soon a group of 20 was shouting at the soldiers, angry at the prospect of seeing their sales hindered.

“Get out of here or we’ll burn your vehicle,” cried one.

In the face of the verbal onslaught, the marines gripped their automatic rifles nervously and watched the merchants’ advance across the river before finally climbing into their patrol vehicle and driving away, reported the newspaper El Universal.

The merchants, called balseros for the makeshift rafts used to transport merchandise across the river to avoid duties, say they have seen business suffer because of Mexican authorities’ crackdown on illegal entry into the country.

However, informal merchants, business owners and even local government officials concurred that, despite their illegal nature, local economies on both sides of the border and the jobs of thousands depend on informal commerce such as that carried out by the balseros, who frequently transport migrants across the river as well.

Loyda González, the manager of a store in Ciudad Hidalgo, said his business relies heavily on goods smuggled across the river.

“Yes, well, right now about 80% of the business here is from Guatemala.”

Shortly after the marines withdrew from the brief confrontation at the river, Suchiate Mayor Sonia Eloína Hernández Aguilar approached the merchants, who addressed her familiarly, to help them calm down.

She said informal jobs such as balseros, bicycle vendors, money changers and shop owners made possible by constant contact between border communities are the only economic opportunity for most of the region’s families, and that many would decide to migrate themselves if the informal economy were shut down by authorities.

The mayor was accompanied by Guadalupe Polanco, the leader of a group of balseros at another crossing on the river, who calculated that close to 500,000 people depend on informal border jobs for their sole income.

The mayor expressed support for the merchants and smugglers, who plan to present their case directly to President López Obrador and ask for special permission to continue their irregular cross-border trade.

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

Politicians, business people slam AMLO’s ‘orchestrated’ vote on Durango bus

By
Simon Schatzberg
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Durango bus vote
Democracy at work?

Politicians and business owners in Durango and Coahuila are blasting the decision by President López Obrador to cancel a Metrobús project in the Laguna metropolitan area after a show-of-hands vote at a rally Sunday in Gómez Palacio, Durango.

According to Gómez Palacio Mayor Leticia Herrera, at least 70% of those present at the rally had been brought in from southern Mexico. “It was orchestrated,” she charged.

The outcome was a shame, she added, because citizens had fought for the project.

Durango Government Secretary Adrián Alanís agreed that attendees who raised their hands in opposition were not from Durango.

She said most were from Torreón, Coahuila, and were supporters of López Obrador’s Morena party.

“The modernization of transportation has been cancelled,” said Alanís. “We respect institutions, and we’re not going to confront anyone, even though the highest institution [the presidency] doesn’t respect the other institutions.”

The Metrobús would have connected the Coahuila municipalities of Torreón and Matamoros with the neighboring Durango municipalities of Lerdo and Gómez Palacio in the Laguna metropolitan area, which straddles the two states.

The project, to be paid for by state and federal governments, was approved in 2014 and work on the Coahuila side is already 90% complete. But in Durango, the release of funds has been constantly delayed, and neither construction nor the purchase of new vehicles has started.

The Metrobús was opposed by bus drivers, who feared they would not be included in the new system.

In an op-ed published in the newspaper Reforma, Torreón journalist Javier Garza Ramos wrote that the cancellation of the Metrobús serves the interests of a “mafia” of bus drivers who provide substandard service.

“Either the president was manipulated by local authorities who are serving a mafia of bus drivers, or he is protecting that mafia himself,” wrote Garza.

Garza also wrote that allowing the Metrobús to be finished on the Coahuila side while cancelling it in Durango will further exacerbate the gap in development between the two parts of the metropolitan area.

President López Obrador has said frequently that public consultations are useful for determining whether public works projects should proceed because “the people are wise.”

Critics have said the format of the consultations conducted — including that which cancelled Mexico City’s new airport — are unrepresentative. Some also charge they are illegal.

The airport vote in particular was criticized because only selected municipalities were hand-picked to participate. Most had supported the Morena party in the July 2018 elections.

In Durango on Sunday, fewer than 3,000 people at a rally intended to distribute welfare funds voted on a public transportation project that was to serve 123,000 people in the state’s Laguna region.

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

Maya Train route change cuts 55 kilometers, saves 5 billion pesos

By
Simon Schatzberg
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The red line indicates the part of the Maya Train route that has been eliminated.
The red line indicates the part of the Maya Train route that has been eliminated.

A change in the route of the Maya Train on the Yucatan peninsula will knock 5.5 billion pesos (US $287 million) off the cost of the project by eliminating a direct line between Valladolid, Yucatán, and Cancún.

The National Tourism Promotion Fund (Fonatur) announced that the train will no longer directly connect the two cities along the Kantunil-Cancún Highway, which is operated by the construction company ICA.

Instead, the train will run from Valladolid to Cobá, Quintana Roo, and then to Tulum. At Tulum, travelers will be able to take another line north to Cancún, or south into Campeche and Chiapas.

The change, said Fonatur legal director Alejandro Varelo, will cut 55 kilometers from the total length of the Maya Train, which has an average cost of 100 million pesos per kilometer.

Varelo said Fonatur made the decision based on a cost-benefit analysis, and that it was not due to a breakdown in negotiations between the government and ICA.

“This has nothing to do with the negotiations,” he said. “The decisions are based on technical, economic and financial issues, as well as questions of social development. That’s how we make decisions; we favor areas where we want to promote more development.”

The original route would have run alongside 218 of the 241 kilometers of the Kantunil-Cancún Highway. The new route runs along state and federal highways, and there will be no need for negotiations with concessionaires.

“We are going to promote development in the Cobá area, which has archaeological importance, but we’ll be very careful with the tangible and intangible heritage,” said Varelo. “We’ll be going to an area in the Quintana Roo-Yucatán border where there is a great need for development.”

Varelo added that Fonatur will accept bids this year for three of the 10 contracts required to build the train. The first contracts will be to build the first three stretches of rail between Palenque and Escárcega, Escárcega and Campeche, and Campeche and Izamal.

The Maya Train is scheduled to begin operations in 2023.

Source: La Jornada (sp), Aristegui Noticias (sp), Infobae (sp)

Mexico City’s anti-kidnapping chief out after questions over investigations

By
Simon Schatzberg
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In: Harfuch, left; out: Valdez.
In: Harfuch, left; out: Valdez.

The latest casualty in a restructuring of Mexico City law enforcement is Luis Felipe Valdez, head of the anti-kidnapping unit, who was asked to resign Monday by Attorney General Ernestina Godoy.

Her office said Valdez was fired because of his handling of the Norberto Ronquillo case, in which a 22-year-old student was kidnapped and later found dead earlier this month.

According to Ronquillo’s family, officers from the anti-kidnapping unit did not properly investigate Ronquillo’s kidnapping in the 72 hours after he went missing. After his body was found, officers are alleged to have improperly handled evidence at the crime scene.

Valdez was also in charge of a May 15 operation to rescue a kidnapping victim in Iztapalapa in which officer Mario Cortés was killed and two other officers were injured.

The Attorney General’s Office (PGJ) has not announced a replacement for Valdez.

At least four other high-level PGJ employees were also fired on Monday, including Benjamín García López, police intelligence chief, and José Carlos Villarreal, a special prosecutor for crimes committed by public servants. According to El Universal, around 45 employees at different levels will lose their jobs in the restructuring.

Bernardo Gómez del Campo, head of the Mexico City police intelligence unit, resigned last week to take a different job, and was replaced by Omar Hamid García Harfuch, former head of the federal investigative police.

Representatives from the PGJ told Milenio that García’s plan for the intelligence unit will be focused on strengthening the police in strategic areas to achieve reductions in crime as quickly as possible, and on investigating allegations of corruption within the unit.

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

Government moves to block accounts, seize assets of migrant smugglers

By
MND Staff
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Migrants exit one of the trailers apprehended Saturday in Veracruz.
Migrants exit one of the trailers apprehended Saturday in Veracruz.

The government will block the bank accounts and seek to seize the assets of the company whose semi-trailers were used to attempt to transport almost 800 Central American migrants to the northern border, federal officials said.

Police stopped four semi-trailers carrying 782 undocumented migrants in Veracruz on Saturday, the first major action in a new immigration strategy adopted after Mexico reached an agreement with the United States to do more to stop migration through the country to the northern border.

The chief of the Financial Intelligence Unit told reporters that a criminal complaint against the unnamed company and its drivers will be filed with the federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR).

Santiago Nieto noted that 26 people allegedly involved in the trafficking of migrants have already been reported to the FGR and had their bank accounts frozen, adding that “today a new [criminal complaint] will be presented in relation to the case we saw in Veracruz.”

He described the conditions in which the migrants were transported as “practically subhuman” and pledged that those responsible will have their bank accounts blocked and face criminal charges.

Nieto: migrants were transported in subhuman conditions.
Nieto: migrants were transported in almost subhuman conditions.

Earlier yesterday, Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said the government will initiate efforts to seize the assets of the transport company involved in the foiled people smuggling attempt as well as those of any other businesses involved in the illegal transport of migrants.

Any attempts by transportation operators to deny knowledge of their vehicles being used for human trafficking activities will not protect them from prosecution, he said.

“. . .Let’s suppose that there was an accident with these people on the weekend. What would the owners of these semi-trailers say? Probably that they had no knowledge, but the law says that they do have responsibility and that it’s not enough to just say that they didn’t know [what their vehicles are being used for] because obviously they do know, it’s almost impossible for a few semi-trailers . . . to provide service for several days and for the owners to not know where they are,” Ebrard said.

The foreign secretary said the migrants who were “rescued” on Saturday paid a total of 69 million pesos (US $3.6 million) to be transported to the Mexico-United States border, explaining that most told authorities they paid US $3,500 each for the service.

However, some paid $5,000 for a “second round” in case they should be arrested during their first attempt and deported to their country of origin, Ebrard said.

He added that most migrants either make the payments in their home countries or upon arrival in the United States.

Ebrard said the authorities of those countries must collaborate with investigations into human trafficking networks to determine exactly who is involved and how they operate.

The foreign secretary warned that Mexico is facing one of the “most significant human trafficking [operations] in the world,” which he described as a “very lucrative business.”

Arrests of undocumented migrants in the United States have spiked significantly in recent months, raising the ire of President Donald Trump who threatened to impose tariffs on Mexico if it didn’t “take action to dramatically reduce or eliminate the number of illegal aliens crossing its territory into the U.S.”

A June 7 agreement in which Mexico agreed to “take unprecedented steps to increase enforcement to curb irregular migration,” including the deployment of 6,000 National Guard troops to the southern border, indefinitely suspended the tariffs that would have been imposed on June 10.

However, if the United States decides that the anti-migration measures are not achieving the desired results by the third week of July, Mexico has agreed to take “all necessary steps under domestic law” to implement a safe third country agreement, according to a supplementary agreement signed by both countries.

Source: Milenio (sp) 

Former boss of the Caballeros Templarios gets 55 years

By
César Hernández
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Gómez, left, during his heyday and right, during his capture in 2015.
Gómez, left, during his heyday and right, during his capture in 2015.

The former boss of the Caballeros Templarios cartel has been sentenced to 55 years in jail for the kidnapping of a businessman in 2011.

Servando Gómez Martínez, also known as “La Tuta” and “El Profe,” both of which mean “the teacher,” was one of the founders of the criminal organization known in English as the Knights Templar Cartel.

He was arrested in 2015 for organized crime, kidnapping and drug trafficking.

Before becoming one of the most wanted criminals in Mexico, Gómez taught at a teacher training school. He then went to work as a farmer and also created several rehabilitation centers for young drug abusers.

His stint as a caregiver was followed by a life of crime and he rose to become the leader of the Caballeros Templarios cartel when it splintered off from La Familia Michoacana in 2011.

Like its predecessor, the new cartel cast itself as a “self-defense” organization engaged in a struggle with Mexico‘s larger criminal cartels on behalf of the people of Michoacán.

As the cartel’s leader, Gómez infiltrated the highest levels of power and government in Michoacán, with former governors Jesús Reyna García and Fausto Vallejo Figueroa having been directly linked to him.

Source: El Financiero (sp)

Ex-Pemex chief loses protection from arrest but he won’t be found: lawyer

By
Simon Schatzberg
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Lozoya is in Mexico City but he won't be found, his lawyer says.
Lozoya is in Mexico City but well hidden, his lawyer says.

Former Pemex CEO Emilio Lozoya Austin is a wanted man again after a judge withdrew a temporary order protecting him from detention on corruption charges.

On Monday, Judge Luz María Ortega Tlapa rescinded a ruling she had made earlier this month temporarily protecting Lozoya from arrest for his prosecution for money laundering.

Ortega noted that he had been summoned to appear before the criminal court where he faces prosecution but had failed to appear, a violation of the temporary suspension of his arrest warrant.

In an interview with El Financiero, Lozoya’s lawyer, Javier Coello Trejo, confirmed that Lozoya is in Mexico City, but said he will not be arrested because authorities will not be able to find him.

Coello also said that his client had never been cited by the criminal court, and that he will continue pushing for the suspension of the arrest warrant.

“The injunction proceedings are still going on, and we’re going to present all the proof we have that the prosecutors never summoned us to defend ourselves,” he said.

Coello added that Lozoya is in good health, although he is “hurt” by what he sees as political persecution.

Coello also insisted that his client is innocent of the charges against him, which relate to the 2014 purchase by Pemex of a dilapidated fertilizer plant for US $475 million from steelmaker Altos Hornos de México. Prosecutors say that Lozoya received bribes from Altos Hornos in exchange for purchasing the plant.

According to Coello, the timeline of the alleged events will prove Lozoya’s innocence.

“It’s honestly funny to say that two years before Lozoya was Pemex director, Altos Hornos gave him money,” said Coello. “. . . It would be like if I gave you money so that, in case you get the job three years later, you can give me a contract.”

The arrest warrant against Lozoya was originally issued on May 26. Alonso Ancira, CEO of Altos Hornos, was arrested in Spain by Interpol on May 28 for charges relating to the fertilizer plant.

A judge in Spain today ruled that Ancira must remain in jail without bail after his lawyer filed for his release, arguing that “a series of errors” had been made in ordering his incarceration.

Interpol has also issued a red notice against Lozoya at the request of Mexican prosecutors. He could be arrested in any of the 190 countries where Interpol has jurisdiction.

Arrest warrants against Lozoya’s mother, sister and father remain suspended.

Source: El Financiero (sp), MVS Noticias (sp), La Jornada (sp)

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