Four years on and it’s time for a change at Mexico News Daily

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June 16, 2018

Four years on and we’re still plugging away here but having fun, too. In fact, publishing a newspaper — for me — has never been so much fun.

It’s a great job and a great business, particularly if you can show a profit at the end of the year.

Which we are not.

Mexico News Daily was born in June 2014 in the spare bedroom of a house in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca. I had a computer, an internet connection and enough knowledge of WordPress to be able to throw together a site (it was, admittedly, a bit of a mess behind the scenes) and launch.

I had read somewhere there were 1 million expats from the United States living in Mexico.

Back in the days when I published a weekly community newspaper, 90% of adults in our community were readers.

So, my thinking went, if I can get 10% of those expats to read a newspaper with Mexican news in English we should do all right; 90% would be fantastic but unlikely.

Well, we attracted rather more than 100,000 readers — we had 400,000 in May — but I was naïve. Those numbers are nothing in digital publishing. They are not enough to generate the advertising revenues we need to be in the black. It was time for a change.

I decided well over a year ago that I would do two things in the next six months: redesign the site and initiate a metered paywall.

In the end it took some 18 months to reach the stage where we are today, and now comes the moment of reckoning: now that we’ve built this thing will they come — and pay to do so?

I say we’ve built this thing but in fact we haven’t finished the building: we need revenue to do that.

There are three of us here at Mexico News Daily and we ought to be at least six. That’s three more writers.

With additional editorial staff we can finally do what I really want: publish original content that will give us desperately needed balance in coverage.

Our email newsletter, Mexico News Today, has long been a reliable bellwether for indicating reader satisfaction. Although subscriber numbers have increased on average by more than 100 a week (to nearly 25,000 now), we have also lost a few — at least 3,000.

Many of those bailed after particularly gruesome, violence-filled issues. We know because many said so when invited to tell us why they were leaving.

Under our current business plan, we curate news from (mostly) Mexican sources. If those newspapers have days where there is little more than cartel murder stories, so do we.

Now it’s time to change that and do what we should be doing: informing our readers with coverage of Mexico news — however bad it might be — but entertaining them too with stories about Mexico. The good stories about the people and the culture that reflect the reasons why so many expats — this one included — live here and love it.

If all goes well, which is not likely considering the near-daily outages of either our phone, internet, electricity or all three, our new subscription service will take effect on Tuesday. Readers will be able to access up to 10 stories in a 30-day period, after which they will be asked to subscribe.

I invite you to stay with us for this next stage. These are interesting times in Mexico and we look forward to covering them, with a new and special emphasis on all the positive stories there are to tell.

—Tony Richards, Editor & Publisher

Click here if you would like to subscribe.

Consultancy identifies emerging tourism destinations

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MND Staff

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June 16, 2018

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The waterfront walkway in La Paz, BCS. iron roamer

As tourism continues to grow in Mexico, more and more destinations are seeking to attract higher numbers of visitors to compete with established hotspots such as Cancún and Los Cabos and cash in on a lucrative market.

The coastal cities of La Paz and Loreto in Baja California Sur, the Costa Alegre in Jalisco and the Riviera Nayarit are all among the emerging destinations that have experienced strong growth, according to statistics from the federal Tourism Secretariat (Sectur).

Mazatlán, Sinaloa, and Huatulco, Oaxaca, are also seeking to build on their existing tourism markets by attracting new investment in the sector.

“The time [in the sun] has to arrive for coastal areas like La Paz and Loreto, considering the success that Los Cabos already has,” John McCarthy, principal of tourism and real estate consultancy Leisure Partners, told the news website Expansión.

“The Baja California peninsula has a lot more to offer yet,” he added.

In order to develop destinations, McCarthy said, more hotels and entertainment venues are needed.

Visitor numbers to La Paz and Loreto grew by 12% and 26% respectively last year but the number of hotel rooms only increased by 2% in the former city and remained the same in the latter.

McCarthy added that to sustain growth in emerging destinations, tourists need to be drawn from a wider range of source countries as almost 80% of all international tourists to Mexico come from the United States and Canada.

Gustavo Ripol, who along with McCarthy is a founding partner of Leisure Partners, said that four projects in Huatulco will increase the number of hotel rooms in the resort city by 70% over the next few years.

He also said that Mazatlán has managed to reduce the perception of insecurity associated with the city and in turn had managed to increase its visitor numbers.

The city hosted the Tianguis Turístico — Mexico’s largest tourism industry event — in April, while hotel chain Pueblo Bonito and real estate development company Vicasa are planning large-scale developments there.

In Costa Alegre — a series of 43 beaches, capes and bays distributed along the Pacific coast between Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, and Manzanillo, Colima — more luxury tourism projects similar to the existing El Careyes resort are planned but tourism industry experts say that more transport infrastructure needs to be built in the region because it currently lacks an airport that is nearby and good highways.

Almost 40 million international visitors came to Mexico last year and spent over US $21 billion in the country.

Mexico is now the sixth most visited country in the world and Tourism Secretary Enrique de la Madrid said in February that annual international tourist numbers could reach 50 million by 2021.

Record visitor numbers continued in the first quarter of 2018, testament to de la Madrid’s statement last week that the upsurge in violent crime has not deterred foreign or domestic tourists from visiting Mexico’s beaches, magical towns and largest cities.

Source: Expansión (sp)

NAFTA talks to resume in summer: Canadian minister

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MND Staff

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June 16, 2018

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Guajardo and Freeland: talks to resume in summer.

The process to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) will resume over the summer, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said this week.

“We decided to continue our work in an intensive way over the summer,” Freeland told reporters Thursday after meeting with United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.

“We didn’t set specific dates today [Thursday]. We talked about following up on setting up specific dates for meetings and that is what we are going to do,” she explained.

“All three countries are clear that meaningful progress has been made to date and we need to keep working hard to get to a deal on a modernized NAFTA.”

Canadian media reported that Freeland received the support of several United States senators during the meeting with Lighthizer, including two Republicans.

Republican Senator Bob Corker, who is the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, later confirmed that the majority of U.S. senators are in favor of renewing NAFTA.

For her part, the minister said the meeting with Lighthizer was “constructive” and explained that its main aims were to set a path towards reaching a deal to continue the 24-year-old trade pact and to discuss and reconcile differences about the United States metal tariffs that were imposed on Canada and Mexico June 1.

Both countries imposed retaliatory tariffs on their neighbor in response.

Freeland also said that she had spoken with Mexico Economy Secretary Ildefonso Guajardo and they had agreed to continue working to reach an agreement regardless of the outcome of the July 1 presidential election.

Following Freeland’s remarks, the president of Mexico’s influential Business Coordinating Council, Juan Pablo Castañón, said the three countries’ technical teams were continuing to work to reach a deal and that only the political will to achieve a deal was stagnant.

United States President Donald Trump has made repeated threats to terminate the agreement and more recently suggested that the U.S. could seek to negotiate separate trade deals with both Mexico and Canada.

However, Castañón said he was hopeful that “internal dialogue in the United States” would lead the Trump administration to reconsider its position and that the three chief negotiators —Guajardo, Freeland and Lighthizer — would sit down to new talks soon.

Following the United States’ decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau both condemned the move but also reaffirmed their commitment to reaching a new NAFTA deal.

While the announcement of the new metal tariffs and Mexico and Canada’s retaliatory tit-for-tat measures didn’t deliver a knockout blow to an updated agreement, the trade tensions have further complicated a process that was already strained by differences on issues such as rules of origin for the auto industry and the so-called sunset clause.

According to former United States Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutiérrez, the United States’ decision to impose tariffs on its neighbors and allies effectively killed the possibility of reaching a new NAFTA in 2018.

Source: El Financiero (sp)

Orange weather alert in Guerrero as storm sits off coast

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June 16, 2018

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The tropical storm warning area, between Acapulco and Chacahua lagoon, Oaxaca. the weather channel

The Guerrero Civil Protection office has raised its yellow weather warning to orange as Tropical Storm Carlotta continues to sit off the coast, generating steady and sometimes heavy rainfall in both Guerrero and Oaxaca.

Agency Secretary Marco César Mayares Salvador told a news conference this afternoon that Carlotta, which was designated a tropical storm yesterday, had been sitting off the coast of the two states for 72 hours.

Weather forecasts call for rain totaling 100-200 millimeters with totals up to 250 in some locations.

The United States National Hurricane Center’s report at 4:00pm CDT said Carlotta was about 70 kilometers west-southwest of Punta Maldonado, Guerrero, and 115 kilometers southeast of Acapulco.

Rainfall forecasts for today and tomorrow. the weather channel

It was drifting at two kilometers per hour towards the north and was expected to move inland within the tropical storm warning area — between Acapulco and Chacahua lagoon in Oaxaca — by late tonight or early Sunday.

Maximum sustained winds at the eye of the storm were 85 km/h, but no significant change in strength is anticipated before it makes landfall, likely near or just southeast of Acapulco, when it will quickly dissipate.

Tropical storm-force winds are expected in the warning area into Sunday.

Mexico News Daily

Krispy Krunchy Chicken to open its first Mexican location

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César Hernández

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June 16, 2018

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The United States-based fast food chain Krispy Krunchy Chicken is coming to Mexico, with its first outlet to open this month in Yucatán.

The food service chain that saw record growth in the U.S. last year will open on June 27 in the GoMart Montecarlo mall in the city of Mérida.

Sometimes called gas-station chicken for the fact that its product is sold primarily inside gas stations and convenience stores, Krispy Krunchy Chicken closed 2017 with 509 new stores, bringing its total to 2,294. Most of those are in the U.S.; the company also has a presence in Malaysia and American Samoa.

Last year the it sold 14 million chicken breasts, 24.5 million wings and 20 million thighs.

In Mexico, Krispy Krunchy Chicken will compete with brands such as Pollo Feliz and KFC. The latter has 328 restaurants throughout the country, operated by Premium Restaurant Brands.

According to the market research firm Euromonitor International, the food service market in Mexico recorded year-on-year growth of 3.9% last year, with sales of 819 billion pesos (US $43.4 billion).

The firm also found that the consolidation of convenience stores continued to rise. Of all the fast food companies in Mexico, Oxxo recorded the highest sales and the largest number of locations.

Source: Forbes (sp)

‘Not even fraud can stop me now:’ presidential frontrunner AMLO

By

MND Staff

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June 16, 2018

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The man who appears likely to win the presidential election in two weeks says it will take a miracle to stop him from winning.

Leading presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador declared yesterday that he is absolutely certain he will win the July 1 election and that not even electoral fraud can stop him.

Only a miracle would allow one of his main rivals, Ricardo Anaya or José Antonio Meade, to become the next president of Mexico, the third-time hopeful said.

“They [Meade and Anaya] already know [I’m going to win], but they’re hoping there may be a miracle . . . only with a miracle [could they win], not even by fraud now,” the Morena party leader told reporters in Colima.

Asked what kind of miracle would have to happen in order for Anaya or Meade to beat him, the political veteran widely known by his initials AMLO declined to explain.

“I don’t want to say because the people [of Mexico] love me a lot and I love them a lot as well. They’re protecting me from above and science is protecting me. That’s all I can say,” he said.

Earlier, López Obrador said that he and his campaign team were in a buoyant mood and charged that it was now “just a matter of waiting” until his inevitable victory.

“. . . We’re taking it step by step, poco a poquito [little by little], like the song,” he said in reference to the hit song Despacito that AMLO said he, his team and supporters will dance to after they triumph on July 1.

Despite his optimism, the candidate for the three-party Together We Will Make History coalition said that he was concerned that state governors hadn’t committed to not interfere in the elections and to respect the decision voters make on July 1.

“[The governors] are very quiet, they’re not committing themselves to defend a [free and fair] vote, they’re involved in campaigning and using money from the budget, not in all cases but in the majority [of cases], they’re involved in the electoral process . . .” López Obrador said.

“I’m waiting for them to declare that they are committed to respect citizens’ votes and committed to not carry out electoral fraud and to not use money from the budget . . . to buy votes,” he added.

Apart from electing a new president and federal Congress on July 1, voters in nine states will choose a new governor and thousands more municipal and state-level positions are also up for grabs.

Meanwhile, ruling party candidate José Antonio Meade shared two opinion polls via his Twitter account yesterday that showed that he had moved past Ricardo Anaya into second place.

The first poll — supposedly conducted by the Mexican Business Council (CMN) and disseminated by the journalist David Páramo — showed that AMLO had 44% support on June 5, followed by Meade with 24% and Anaya with 20%.

In addition to publishing a graphic of the poll, which tracked voter intentions starting last November, Meade wrote:

“Here’s the sign that many expected . . . We’re in a clear and ascendant second place and we’re heading firmly towards victory. I ask for your free, conscious, strategic and reasoned vote. I will not fail you!”

In the second “tracking poll” — conducted by a polling company called Innovación Encuestas y Investigación — Meade’s overall support was slightly lower at 23.2% but the margin between him and López Obrador was reduced to just 11 points.

Anaya, of the right-left For Mexico in Front coalition, was again in third place with 20.2% while independent candidate Jaime “El Bronco” Rodríguez dropped one point to 2% backing compared to the first poll Meade shared.

Perhaps significantly, the second poll showed that 20.4% of respondents said that they didn’t yet know who they would vote for, potentially giving Meade ample space to catch the frontrunner.

The polling company said the survey was conducted between May 20 and June 14 with 800 eligible voters and that its margin of error was ± four points.

The polls contrast with other surveys that have consistently shown Anaya in second place with Meade languishing in third.

A poll published by the newspaper Reforma in the last week of May showed AMLO with 52% support, compared to Anaya with 26% and Meade with 19%.

Bloomberg’s poll tracker, last updated on June 8, shows similar results with López Obrador at 50.8%, Anaya at 24.8% and Meade 21.6%.

The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate has failed to gain much traction with voters, perhaps partially because of his largely mild manner but mostly because of his association with a government that has been plagued by corruption scandals and is led by a deeply unpopular president.

However, Anaya too has been damaged by claims of corruption and scrutiny of his alleged involvement in a money laundering scheme has intensified over the past two weeks.

Two recently-released videos allegedly provide evidence of his complicity in the scheme related to real estate purchases and sales in his home state of Querétaro. The federal Attorney General’s office (PGR) continues to investigate the case.

Anaya has repeatedly denied the allegations. He has also accused López Obrador of making a pact of impunity with President Enrique Peña Nieto, which AMLO has rejected.

In contrast, Anaya says that if he wins he will launch a corruption investigation focusing on Peña Nieto’s time in office and if the president is found guilty, he will go to jail.

However, given that election day is just two weeks away and the size of López Obrador’s advantage over his rivals, the likelihood of Anaya or Meade causing an upset and beating López Obrador would seem, barring miracles, unlikely.

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

At 101, Marcial Martínez has learned how to read

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César Hernández

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June 16, 2018

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Marcial Martínez: back to school at 101.

He’s 101 years old but Marcial Martínez Martínez has decided it’s time to go back to school.

The Mexico City man has just finished a course in which he learned how to read and is now planning to pursue further studies.

Even as an illiterate young man and father Martínez knew how important it was to be able to read and write.

“I put my children in school, I tried to get them all in, I decided that my children had to learn, it didn’t matter that I didn’t. Thank God my children know how to read. I didn’t want them to be like me . . .” he told the newspaper Milenio.

Martínez is one of 133,126 people enrolled at the National Institute for the Education of Adults (INEA) in a program that targets people 15 or older with gaps in their education.

While people of all ages are welcome in the program, INEA pays special attention to younger students, providing them with counseling and family planning courses.

INEA offers courses up to the preparatory school level, but Martínez has his sights set a bit lower than that, at least for now. His next step is to finish primary school.

He will not be alone in the classroom: there are currently over 53,000 parents enrolled in INEA’s courses.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Senior police officials arrested in connection with murder of 6 officers

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César Hernández

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June 16, 2018

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The six officers who were slain yesterday in Puebla.

Two senior police officers in Amozoc, Puebla, have been arrested in connection with the murder yesterday of six municipal police officers who had filed a formal complaint about issues in the municipal government.

The state Attorney General’s office said the six victims had been tortured and executed after being lured to an ambush with a false alarm about a disturbance.

Initial reports said fuel thieves killed the officers. Two heavily armed civilians were arrested shortly after the execution, and a pipeline tap and tanker truck were found one kilometer away from the location where the bodies were found, state authorities said last night.

But today, the Attorney General’s office announced that the state investigation agency had arrested two Amozoc police officials for their presumed participation in the murders.

The six police who were killed had made an official complaint on Thursday before the municipal controller, the office said, but did not reveal any details regarding the nature of the complaint.

Source: Periódico Central (sp)

Jalisco bus accident kills seven, injures 30

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June 16, 2018

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The bus that went off the road last night Jalisco. — The bus that went off the road last night in Jalisco.

Some survivors of a bus accident that killed seven people last night in Jalisco are blaming excessive speed.

Thirty people were injured when the bus went off the road at about 11:00pm after the driver lost control. The vehicle overturned and plunged into a drainage canal on the San Martín de las Flores-El Verde highway in Tlaquepaque.

State Civil Protection officials said two children aged two and 11 were among the dead. There were about 40 passengers aboard.

Ambulances were called in from Guadalajara, Zapopan and Tlajomulco to transfer the injured to hospital.

Emergency personnel said there was a meter of water inside the bus, which caused panic among survivors who feared more water was going to enter.

Some said the driver was going too fast when he lost control.

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

3 weather systems are bringing rain, stormy weather

By

MND Staff

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June 16, 2018

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mexico weather forecast — The numbers indicate heavy rain (1), very heavy rain (2) and intense rain (3). The yellow symbol indicates electrical storms.

Three weather systems will bring rain to much of the country today, according to the National Meteorological Service (SMN).

Hurricane Bud was downgraded to a tropical storm Wednesday but the SMN said it could still bring strong to severe storms to the north of the country with wind gusts of 45 to 55 kilometers per hour and one to three-meter swells on the coasts of Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sonora and Sinaloa.

In central and southern Mexico, Tropical Storm Carlotta is also producing strong winds and heavy rain.

The stormed formed in the Pacific Ocean near Acapulco, Guerrero, yesterday and is forecast to move inland late today or early tomorrow. A tropical storm warning is in effect between Acapulco and Lagunas de Chacahua, Oaxaca.

Wind gusts of 45 to 55 kilometers per hour are expected along with swells of one to three meters on the coasts of Guerrero and Oaxaca, the SMN said.

The United States National Hurricane Center said Carlotta would produce 75 to 150 millimeters of rainfall along the Guerrero and southwestern Oaxaca coasts, including the city of Acapulco, with isolated higher amounts of 250 millimeters possible.

It also said the rains are likely to produce life-threatening flash floods and mud slides, especially in areas of higher terrain.

Stormy weather is also forecast for Michoacán, Chiapas, Puebla and Veracruz.

The SMN said that a third tropical storm system will affect the Yucatán Peninsula and also bring heavy rains.

The system is currently located off the northern coast of Quintana Roo and there is a 10% chance that it could develop into a hurricane.

It will cause severe storms with torrential rains in the states of Quintana Roo and Yucatán and strong storms with heavy rain in Campeche and Tabasco, the SMN said.

The rainfall expected today will add to what has already been a wet week in much of Mexico.

A strong storm struck Guadalajara, Jalisco, Sunday producing flash flooding that affected several parts of the city, including the light rail system from which scores of people had to be rescued, while heavy rains in Guanajuato Wednesday turned streets in the capital into raging rivers after a dam burst its banks.

In Sinaloa, Hurricane Bud caused flooding, toppled trees, closed the ports of Topolobampo and Mazatlán, tore a roof off a building and forced at least 14 people to evacuate their homes.

In neighboring Sonora, the ports of Yavaros, Guaymas, Bahía de Kino, Puerto Libertad and Puerto Peñasco were also closed.

Steady rain has also fallen over the past three days in Mexico City, causing flooding in several parts of the city and shutting down five subway stations in the east of the city Thursday.

Source: El Universal (sp)

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