There were border wall hugs on Saturday for 250 families

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October 15, 2018

Some 3,000 people gathered at the Mexico-United States border on Saturday in the latest installment of the Hugs, Not Walls event.

Organized for the sixth time by the Border Network for Human Rights, the event was held with the cooperation of the U.S. Border Patrol and the Mexican Federal Police.

The gathering of Mexicans and migrant relatives took place at the Rancho Anpara neighborhood in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, and the town of Sunland Park, New Mexico.

The event gives the families separated by the border the opportunity to physically meet and greet for a few minutes.

Fernando García of the Border Network told the newspaper Milenio that it took some effort and some pressure on the Border Patrol in order to get the authorization.

“The doors opened to allow more than 200 families to hug each other and be together for a little while, because this is an important moment in the migrants’ resistance against the racist policies that this wall represents,” said García at the foot of the border fence.

“As long as they continue to build walls, we will continue to open these doors,” he continued, remarking that on Saturday children, families, siblings and parents “defeated this wall with a hug.”

“Something must be done to change this policy, this dynamic. I hope that the new government of Andrès Manuel Lòpez Obrador understands that and can exert enough pressure to change the way migrants are treated, that their human rights are respected and that no child is detained or any family separated,” García said.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Looting Veracruz: 33 billion pesos unaccounted for over 10 years

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MND Staff

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October 15, 2018

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Ex-governor Javier Duarte is not the only one accused of embezzling public funds.

State and municipal governments in Veracruz have been accused of embezzling more than 33 billion pesos (US $1.8 billion) between 2007 and 2017.

During the 10-year period, the Veracruz Auditor’s Office (Orfis) filed 158 criminal complaints against mayors and state and municipal officials due to financial irregularities it detected in public accounts.

Successive Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) administrations, led by Fidel Herrera Beltrán and later Javier Duarte governed Veracruz for almost the entire period to which the complaints refer.

Duarte was sentenced last month to nine years in prison for money laundering and criminal association while his predecessor has also been accused of corruption.

State government officials are accused of embezzling around 97% of the 33 billion missing pesos but a higher percentage of the criminal complaints — 100 of 158 — are against their municipal counterparts.

Almost 93% of the missing funds were detected in audits of public accounts for 2015 and 2016, the final two years of Duarte’s six-year term.

While the PRI leads the way in terms of the number of allegations against its officials, no political party that held power in Veracruz at a municipal level during the most recent three-year term is untainted by the claims of corruption.

Mayors of 153 of 212 municipalities in the state are accused of illegally diverting resources in 2017 alone: 71 represented the PRI; 29 held office for the National Action Party; and 22 for the Democratic Revolution Party.

The others belonged to four other, smaller parties.

The municipal administrations, which were in office between 2014 and 2017, are alleged to have embezzled more than 1.1 billion pesos (US $58.5 million) of public money last year.

According to Orfis data, last year’s alleged municipal embezzlement is the highest it has ever recorded.

The 1.1-billion figure is five times greater than the entire budget the federal Secretariat of Public Administration (SFP) has this year to crack down on corruption.

The funds are believed to have been diverted via overpayments to contractors for public works, through other payments for which no records exist or by simply not paying suppliers and other government creditors and taking the money owed.

With irregularities totaling more than 142 million pesos, the municipal government of Coatzacoalcos, led by PRI mayor Joaquín Caballero Rosiñol, is accused of the largest diversion of resources last year followed by the administrations in Acayucan and San Andrés Tuxtla, governed until 2017 by an Alternativa Veracruzana and PRI mayor respectively.

However, Orfis has not yet filed any criminal complaints against municipal officials for last year’s irregularities. Former mayors and ex-officials accused of diverting the resources must be given the opportunity to either provide documentation that justifies the use of the money or to return it.

In previous years, officials have been able to provide paperwork that resulted in Orfis reducing the amounts of the irregularities it initially detected.

In 2014, the figure came down from 116 million to zero and therefore no criminal complaints were filed.

Source: Milenio (sp)

530 tankers will provide water for nearly 4 million people

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César Hernández

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October 15, 2018

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Mexico City residents stock up on water containers.

When the water is turned off for 3.8 million people in 13 boroughs of Mexico City at the end of the month, 530 tanker trunks will be called on to keep people supplied.

Maintenance work on the Cutzamala aqueduct will start on October 31 and take four days, but the National Water Commission (Conagua) has warned that an additional four days will be needed for the network to stabilize, meaning that water service won’t be back to normal until after November 8.

Sacmex, the Mexico City water department, has arranged for tanker trucks to distribute water.

Although water will be available free, priority will be given to schools, hospitals, penitentiaries and nursing homes.

Sacmex will add 50 new locations to the 28 it already has where water trucks can fill up. All will be kept under guard by city police.

The city’s boroughs themselves will prepare water delivery schedules and routes for Sacmex to follow.

Meanwhile, there has been a rush on buckets and other containers in which to store water. The newspaper Milenio reported that hundreds of residents were buying containers of up to 120 liters water container in preparation for the waterless week ahead.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Eight ex-cops linked to Jalisco cartel get jail terms of up to 52 years

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MND Staff

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October 15, 2018

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The jailed officers worked with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

Eight former municipal police officers have received prison sentences of up to 52 years after they were found guilty of working for the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and involvement in the disappearance of two federal agents.

A federal judge also convicted the ex-cops from Vista Hermosa, Michoacán, on charges of drug trafficking, possession of weapons restricted to the military and vehicle theft.

According to investigations completed by the federal Attorney General’s office (PGR), the former officers supplied information to the CJNG about the movements of state police, federal investigators and the army in the states of Michoacán and Jalisco.

In November 2013, the police kidnapped federal criminal investigators René Rojas Márquez and Gabriel Quijados Santiago in Vista Hermosa and handed them over to CJNG members who are believed to have killed them.

Statements made by the eight men led investigators to 35 clandestine graves in La Barca, Jalisco, where the remains of 67 people including two soldiers were found between November 2013 and February 2014.

However, the bodies of Rojas and Quijados have never been located.

The judge imposed sentences of 52 years and six months on five ex-officers and fined them more than 406,000 pesos (US $21,600) each.

The other former cops received jail terms of either 15 or 33 years as well as fines between 23,000 and 49,000 pesos (US$1,200 to $2,600).

Collusion between municipal police and organized crime is common in Mexico and has led to federal and state authorities disarming local forces and taking over policing duties in several states, most recently in Acapulco, Guerrero, and Zamora, Michoacán.

With poor pay and often limited training, municipal police can be easy targets for criminal groups, who offer financial incentives in exchange for cooperating with them and sometimes threaten to kill them if they don’t.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Tara to deliver tropical storm conditions in western states

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October 15, 2018

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Tara's forecast track. us National Hurricane Center

Tropical Storm Tara has formed off the coast of Colima and Michoacán and is forecast to produce strong winds and heavy rain in Jalisco, Colima, Michoacán and Guanajuato, the National Meteorological Service said.

A tropical storm watch is in effect from Punta San Telmo in Michoacán to Cabo Corrientes, Jalisco.

The storm was situated 155 kilometers south of Manzanillo, Colima, at 10:00am CDT, according to the United States National Hurricane Center (NHC), and was moving west-northwest at two kilometers per hour.

Some strengthening is forecast but the expected track of the storm will keep it near or just offshore during the next two days and moving westward after the middle of the week.

Maximum sustained winds were close to 75 kilometers per hour.

Waves two to three meters high are predicted for the coasts of Jalisco, Colima, Guerrero and Michoacán.

Mexico News Daily

Citizens pitch in to remove sargassum from beaches in Quintana Roo

By

MND Staff

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October 15, 2018

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Beaches in two Quintana Roo municipalities are free of sargassum, local authorities have declared.

Massive clean-up operations in Puerto Morelos, located between the resort cities of Cancún and Playa del Carmen, and Isla Mujeres have cleared the beaches of the smelly, brown seaweed that has arrived en masse on the state’s coastline this year.

“Sargassum is a nightmare for the whole state but in Puerto Morelos we fought it with the support of all municipal employees. Everybody . . . from general managers to secretaries, police and firefighters joined the efforts to pick up the seaweed. We’ve also had the support of the hotel sector . . .” Puerto Morelos Mayor Laura Fernández Piña said.

“We allocated more than 80,000 man-hours to cleaning up our beaches,” she explained, adding that up to 200 tonnes of sargassum were removed on some days.

Students, taxi drivers and fishermen also contributed to the efforts.

Fernández said that Puerto Morelos authorities in conjunction with the business sector and environmental experts have established protocols to respond to future sargassum invasions to ensure that beaches — and the tourism industry — are protected.

Kerem Pinto Aguilar, an Isla Mujeres official, said that Hurricane Michael caused more sargassum to wash up on local beaches last week but it was quickly removed.

She told a press conference that government authorities, the private sector and citizens all did their bit to ensure that the visitors could enjoy the white sands and clear waters that Isla Mujeres is famous for.

“Throughout the week we didn’t drop our guard in cleaning up Playa Centro and Playa Norte and today they look beautiful,” Pinto said.

Hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of sargassum have arrived on Quintana Roo beaches over the past five months, causing a significant drop in tourism and triggering warnings of a serious environmental disaster.

State authorities said last week that the quantity of the seaweed washing up on beaches is on the decline but it won’t disappear completely until the end of the year.

Source: El Universal (sp)

US couple wanted for 19 years arrested in Baja California Sur

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October 13, 2018

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San Pedrito Beach, where the wanted couple operated a vacation rental business.

A couple on the run from United States authorities were arrested last week in San Pedrito, Baja California Sur.

The U.S. Marshals Service released a statement yesterday saying that Robert Edward Freer II, 61, and his wife Wendy Dehaven Freer, 52, were arrested on October 4.

Both had been indicted in North Carolina in 1999 for conspiracy to distribute marijuana and money laundering but fled when they learned of the charges.

The Marshals Service said it has worked for 19 years to locate the couple.

In July the service learned that the Freers were living on the Baja peninsula under different names.

Marshals worked with local officials to confirm the information, learning that the couple were operating a vacation rental resort on San Pedrito Beach.

They were deported to the U.S. following their arrest.

Mexico News Daily

AMLO promises health care system like those in Canada, Europe

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César Hernández

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October 13, 2018

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Yucatán Governor Mauricio Vila, left, with López Obrador yesterday.

A free health care system such as those in Canada and Europe will be a reality in Mexico by the end of Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s term as president.

The president-elect promised free and universal health care by 2024 while speaking at a rally in Mérida, Yucatán, yesterday.

“We want the right to health to be guaranteed in Mexico. By the end of [my term in office] it will have a health system like that of Canada, England, the Nordic countries; we are going to have quality free health service for all the people of Mexico,” he said.

López Obrador explained that eliminating corruption in the health care system will make the goal achievable.

He said federal and state governments spend 100 billion pesos (US $5.3 billion) every year on medicine. “If that money was managed with honesty, it would be enough to deliver free medicine to everyone.”

“What happens instead? They steal the money for medicine, that’s why there are no medicines in the health centers, that’s why there are shortages. The politicians, it turns out, sell the medicines but that is going to end.”

Source: Milenio (sp)

NGOs terminate agreement with National Security Commission

By

MND Staff

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October 13, 2018

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NGOs quit accord over information sharing regarding Federal Police.

Five non-governmental organizations have terminated a transparency agreement with the National Security Commission (CNS) due to its “visible disinterest” in making information about public security agencies available to them.

Causa en Común (Common Cause), México Unido Contra la Delincuencia (Mexico United Against Crime), México Evalúa, Observatorio Nacional Ciudadano (National Citizens’ Observatory) and the National Network of Public Security Professionals claim that the Citizens’ Transparency Mechanism, agreed to in 2016, has not led to greater transparency on the part of the CNS as intended.

In a statement issued yesterday, the five organizations said they repeatedly faced bureaucratic hurdles when attempting to gain access to information about internal processes at the Federal Police, which under the transparency agreement they believed they had a right to.

A meeting with National Security Commissioner Renato Sales in November 2017 resulted in a commitment on his part that the CNS would comply with its transparency mechanism obligations but according to the NGOs, nothing changed.

“Given the lack of substantive progress and the visible disinterest of the CNS for the mechanism to operate . . . the participating organizations . . . have decided to terminate the collaboration,” the statement said.

However, the organizations said they are interested in resuming collaboration once the new federal government takes office and implementing a mechanism that “really is effective,” allowing the goals of transparency and accountability to be achieved.

Later yesterday, the CNS rejected the organizations’ opacity claims in its own statement, saying that it provided information when requested about the Federal Police’s budget, recruitment practices, certification processes, protocols and assessment measures.

It added that it has a legal obligation to protect sensitive information whose dissemination could place CNS personnel or processes at risk.

“In no way can it be assumed that the [transparency] mechanism should work to deliver confidential and classified information even when it is for academic or research purposes. The mechanism is governed by privacy policies, the General Law on Transparency and Access to Public Information . . . and other applicable regulations . . .”

Source: Milenio (sp)

Monterrey refuses permits for ‘blasphemous’ Swedish rock band

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October 13, 2018

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Municipal authorities in Monterrey, Nuevo León, have bowed to public pressure and refused permits for a concert by a “black metal” band from Sweden.

A religious group called Familias Cristianas created a petition at change.org calling on local authorities to prohibit concerts by the group, which it described as the world’s most blasphemous rock band.

The three-week-old petition, entitled “We don’t want Marduk in Monterrey and Mexico City,” has earned 65,000 signatures as of today.

“This message is for all Catholic and Christian Mexicans who believe that the battle against Satan is won with prayer,” the petition reads. “But prayer needs reinforcement with action, for which we ask that you sign the petition so that together we can stop this heavy metal rock group called Marduk from coming to blaspheme and insult God in our own home (Mexico).”

The municipal government has decided it will not issue the necessary permits for a concert scheduled for tonight at Café Iguana.

The move brought accusations of censorship from the venue and the promoter, but fans were told they would be reimbursed their ticket money.

Another concert by the band is scheduled for tomorrow in Mexico City but there has been no indication that it might be canceled as well.

Marduk has faced a similar reaction elsewhere in Latin America. Concerts have been canceled in Colombia, Ecuador and Guatemala.

A change.org petition in Colombia picked up 167,000 supporters. In Guatemala, a congressional decree banned the band and anyone involved with it from entering the country, canceling a concert scheduled for October 11.

Marduk, named after the patron god of Babylon, was formed in 1990 to create “the most brutal and blasphemous metal act ever,” according to information on the band’s website.

Themes of its song lyrics include Satanism, anti-Christianity, blasphemy, death, Nazi German history and World War II.

Mexico News Daily