Dogs get their own park in León, Guanajuato

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September 4, 2018

New park for dogs in León, Guanajuato. — New park created especially for dogs.

The country’s largest dog park was dedicated yesterday in León, Guanajuato, providing facilities such as a jogging track, wading pool, green space, an artificial lake, veterinary services and training areas.

Perro Parque is located on 2.5 hectares of land next to the León zoo and was created with a 2.5-million-peso investment (US $129,000) by the zoo and private contributions.

León Mayor Héctor López Santillana said the park is evidence of a society that “doesn’t discriminate.”

“An event like this leads us to recover respect and the integration of society, of our community . . . allowing us to develop in harmony,” said the mayor during the dedication ceremony.

The president of the León Zoological Park council, Francisco Muñoz López, said the goal of the dog park is to “promote contact with nature and respect for all living beings.”

Mexican-American dog behaviorist Cesar Millan was also in attendance, and said the new facility was an example of the way Mexicans open their hearts to animals.

He said he was moved to see the creation of such a park, as his experience growing up in Culiacán, Sinaloa, is one repeated throughout the country: dogs living on rooftops or wandering loose in the streets, “or with lemon necklaces to cure their distemper.”

The dog park will officially open its doors to the canine and human public tomorrow. Admittance is 10 pesos, and the only requirement is that dogs be fully vaccinated.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Number of vehicles in 12 CDMX municipalities has soared 600% since 2000

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MND Staff

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September 4, 2018

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vehicle numbers mexico city — In green are figures from 2000 and in red those from 2017.

The number of vehicles in 12 densely populated México state municipalities that form part of the greater Mexico City metropolitan area has increased on average by 600% since the year 2000, statistics show.

The surge in numbers far outpaces population growth, according to census results, which show that the number of people living in the same 12 municipalities increased from 7.23 million in 2000 to 8.37 million in 2015, a much more modest increase of 15.5%.

The municipalities where the 600% increase occurred are, in order of population, Ecatepec, Nezahualcóyotl, Naucalpan, Chimalhuacán, Tlalnepantla, Tultitlán, Cuatitlán Izcalli, Atizapán de Zaragoza, Ixtapaluca, Chalco, Coacalco and Huixquilucan.

Data from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi) showed that in 2017 there were 4.6 million cars in those 12 Valley of Mexico municipalities, the most populous in the Mexico City/México state conurbation, compared to just 663,000 in the year 2000.

Added to those in the 16 boroughs of Mexico City proper — where the number of vehicles has increased by a more moderate 100% from 2.5 million in 2000 to 5 million in 2017 — there are at least 9.6 million cars in the immense sprawl of the megalopolis, whose total population is estimated at around 21 million.

It’s no wonder that the TomTom Traffic Index ranks the Mexican capital as the world’s most traffic congested city, one in which motorists can expect to spend an additional 227 hours a year — nine and a half full days — in traffic on top of their regular travel time.

In terms of sheer numbers, the municipality that recorded the biggest increase in vehicles was Ecatepec, where the number went from 147,000 in 2000 to just over one million in 2017, or 600% more.

However, in Chimalhuacán — voted the worst city in Mexico in which to live in a recent survey — the number of cars multiplied by a factor of 17, while in Nezahualcóyotl, located to the immediate east of Mexico City, the number climbed 11-fold from 70,000 at the start of the century to 776,000 in the most recent count.

Ixtapaluca and Huixquilucan also recorded increases of above 1,000%.

There are now more cars in the 12 crowded México state municipalities than in all of the state’s 113 other municipalities combined, Inegi data shows.

Bernardo Baranda, Latin America director at the global nonprofit The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), says the exponential increase in the number of vehicles in greater Mexico City is the result of federal and state government policies that have favored road building over investment in public transit infrastructure.

Another factor has been the construction of large-scale residential developments in outlying metropolitan areas.

“This motorization is the result of a development model from the last century. The use of cars has to be discouraged by promoting public transit and improving [infrastructure] for journeys on foot or by bicycle . . . Traffic congestion brings about high economic and health costs,” he said.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Police arrest two suspected instigators of Puebla lynching

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César Hernández

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September 4, 2018

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Two men have been arrested on suspicion of being the main instigators of the August 29 lynching of two innocent men in San Vicente Boquerón, Acatlán de Osorio.

One of the two, identified as Manuel N., died a few hours after being detained. An official explained that the man succumbed to cirrhosis of the liver.

The other, Petronilo Raymundo N., was charged yesterday with homicide, property damage and injuring public officials and is being held in preventative custody.

Wednesday’s lynching was recorded on video and posted online by several witnesses, giving authorities the opportunity to identify the two men as the instigators of the lynch mob.

The victims, a 56-year-old man and his 21-year-old nephew, were accused of being child kidnappers. The two were detained by local police but local citizens took them by force , tied them up, doused them with gasoline and set them on fire in front of the police station.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Mayor-elect assassinated in Puebla; criminal links suspected

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September 4, 2018

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Victim's car was covered in a tarp to prevent photos.

The assassination late yesterday of a mayor-elect in the state of Puebla could have been to settle scores, said the state’s Public Security Secretariat.

Félix Aguilar Caballero, who won the July 1 election for mayor of Nopalucan, was traveling on the Nopalucan-Soltepec highway when he was intercepted by two vehicles, whose occupants shot and killed him in the community of Santa María Ixtiyucan.

A state security official said there were suspicions that the Green Party mayor-elect was involved in petroleum theft and train robberies.

After the shooting, paramedics confirmed Aguilar’s death but about 100 people gathered at the scene and initially refused to allow either state or municipal police to approach Aguilar’s vehicle, which they covered with a tarp to prevent photographs being taken of the victim.

The newspaper Página Negra reported last month that six Puebla mayors have been assassinated in the last five years. Although arrests have been made in two of the cases, none of the six has been solved.

Aguilar, 60, was scheduled to take office October 15.

Source: e-consulta (sp)

Luxury vehicle sales up 13% in first seven months

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César Hernández

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September 4, 2018

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The upward trend in luxury vehicle sales.

Luxury vehicle sales hit a record 48,241 units in the first seven months of the year, up 13.4% over the same period last year.

The Mexican Automotive Dealers Association (AMDA) said buyers of luxury vehicles have high purchasing power and are therefore less vulnerable to macroeconomic shifts and economic uncertainty.

“These clients . . . are less sensitive to changing credit situations and prices,” AMDA official Guillermo Rosales told the newspaper El Financiero.

BMV and Mercedes Benz, whose sales between January and July grew by 20.1% and 10.2%, respectively, when compared to the same period of 2017.

Raúl Peñafiel, managing director of Jaguar/Land Rover Mexico, told a press conference in July that Mexico continues to be one of the most attractive markets for his company.

The upward trend in luxury vehicle sales contrasted with an 8% drop in automotive sales in general in July. Suzuki Mexico marketing director David Hernández Sánchez said poor sales of vehicular fleets had a negative impact.

Source: El Financiero (sp)

‘Builders’ took the money from Oaxaca earthquake victims and ran

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MND Staff

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September 4, 2018

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Two hundred residents of Juchitán, Oaxaca, who lost their homes in the first of two major September 2017 earthquakes have reported being defrauded of financial aid money by unscrupulous construction companies, local officials say.

In the aftermath of the September 7 and September 19 quakes that devastated parts of central and southern Mexico, the federal government granted 120,000 pesos (US $6,200 at today’s exchange rate) to people whose homes sustained total damage.

Victims received stored-value bank cards loaded with 90,000 pesos to pay for labor and 30,000 pesos in cash to buy construction materials.

In Juchitán, the commercial hub of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec region where houses fell like dominoes in the powerful 8.2-magnitude quake, 200 people who received the government aid handed their cards and money over to construction companies who committed to build them new homes but failed to deliver on their promises.

In other words, the “builders” took the money and ran, without completing any or all of the work they promised.

Meanwhile, their victims are still without adequate housing just shy of the first anniversary of the tragic disaster.

Juchitán Mayor Gloria Sánchez told the newspaper Milenio that municipal authorities have received 200 complaints from duped residents.

“What happened is that a lot of people who were sleeping in the street were driven to despair and in these companies they saw a chance to have a home quickly. They never imagined that these men would disappear with their money. What’s certain is that it’s a very serious problem because if the 200 complaints are confirmed, we’re talking about fraud of around 24 million pesos [US $1.2 million],” she said.

One of the earthquake — and fraud — victims is Juan Castillo, an 85-year-old man whose home collapsed when the quake struck just before midnight on September 7.

Rendered homeless and desperate, Castillo gave all the aid money he received to Federico Irán Cabrera, director of the construction company Hiram Habif, who committed to building him a single-story, two-room home with a bathroom and all finishings included. But all he got was a shoddily-built, half-finished home with a leaky roof.

“He offered us everything, a decent house and that’s why I gave him my card with the 90,000 pesos and 30,000 more in cash but this bad person only took the card and the money and left, he disappeared. I’ve gone to look for him and I call the telephone number he gave us but nothing. It seems that the earth swallowed him up,” Castillo said.

“I worked in construction for a long time, I was a builder but an injury left me all twisted out of shape, that’s why I left that job. Before this tragedy, I said: ‘what am I pushing myself for if I already have a home?’ I never imagined that at the age of 85 I would have to start from zero, or even worse, that I would be chasing after an opportunist,” he added.

Castillo said that he fears that the half-completed home could also collapse in another strong earthquake and is living instead in a small, makeshift wooden home his neighbor helped him build.

“. . . While there’s no solution and they don’t catch up with that man, I’ll stay here,” he said.

According to data from the Secretariat of Agrarian Development and Urban Planning (Sedatu) — the federal department that deposited the aid funds —at least 30 complaints have been filed against Hiram Habif and Grupo Delta, another construction company, but despite being ordered by state authorities to complete the work they committed to, they have failed to do so.

A municipal government official in charge of fraud complaints told Milenio that many residents have also tried to file complaints with a municipal judge but they haven’t been accepted based on the argument that what they are victims of cannot be classified as a criminal offense.

“So where can people go to complain? Who can protect them? Nobody, the authorities themselves say that it’s not a serious crime. So what can we do?” Manuel Vázquez asked.

Complicating the situation, he explained, is that the contracts many quake victims signed with construction companies were not certified by a notary public, meaning they can’t legally prove that they handed over their aid money.

Vázquez said it was reprehensible that companies had defrauded people who lost everything in the earthquake, adding that they should be firmly punished for their actions.

“The people who do this are perverse, taking advantage of the tragedy of these poor people and making a mockery of their needs. It’s astonishing that in the middle of a tragedy, there are people who want to do more harm.”

Source: Milenio (sp)

Tourists struck and killed by train while taking selfie

By

César Hernández

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September 4, 2018

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A locomotive at the Real de Catorce station.

Two women taking a selfie on railway tracks died when they were struck by a train on Sunday in San Luis Potosí.

The two victims, aged 12 and 27, were visiting Real de Catorce from Santa Catarina, Nuevo León, with other members of their family.

While touring the old train station, known as Estación Catorce, they heard the train approaching and decided to step on the tracks to take a self-portrait with their cell phones.

But they under-estimated the train’s speed and despite repeated whistles from the locomotive were struck and killed instantly.

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

6 police gunned down in Guadalajara in one day

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September 4, 2018

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Investigators at the scene of yesterday's shooting in which four police officers died.

Six police officers have been shot and killed in the space of less than 24 hours in the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area.

The first incident took place yesterday morning in the Loma Dorada neighborhood of Tonalá when armed civilians attacked a senior police officer and his three bodyguards. The senior officer, who was third in command of the Guadalajara police, had just left his home when the attack took place.

The police returned the fire and wounded some of the attackers, but all four officers died at the scene and the aggressors escaped.

The mayor-elect of Guadalajara said the attack was in response to “the good job” that Eduardo Plazola had been doing to combat crime.

“He was a commander who was at the head of all the operations in which there had been arrests; he had produced results . . .” said Ismael del Toro.

The police force said the same in a statement. The attack was a result of “important arrests of members of organized crime groups” in recent weeks.

Two more officers were killed late last night in Zapopan while investigating the theft of a vehicle. After a chase, they caught up with the suspects in El Mante. But the latter opened fire, killing one officer at the scene. The second died later in hospital.

Source: Informador (sp), Milenio (sp)

Peña Nieto points to structural reforms as his greatest achievement

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MND Staff

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September 3, 2018

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Peña Nieto gives his last report at the National Palace today.

President Enrique Peña Nieto declared today that the structural reforms put in place by the current federal government are the greatest achievements of his administration but conceded that security was not a strong suit.

The president made the remarks during an address to lawmakers — and the nation — in which he presented his sixth and final government report.

“Important areas of national life were transformed as a result of labor, energy, economic competition, telecommunications, budgetary, financial, educational, transparency and regulatory reforms,” Peña Nieto said.

“The structural reforms are without doubt the biggest success of this administration, and are our contribution to the country’s future growth.”

He also noted that last year the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) described the package of reforms as the most ambitious reform agenda any member country has undertaken in recent years.

On security, Peña Nieto said “we didn’t achieve the objective of restoring peace and security for all Mexicans in every corner [of the country].”

He added that “to make that desire a reality, a sustained effort for a long period supported by public resources will be required.”

However, the president sidestepped total responsibility for the security situation, instead blaming high levels of violence on the inability of municipal and state police forces to combat small criminal gangs that emerged after cartel leaders, such as Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, were captured.

He highlighted that his administration had proposed a reform to have single command police forces in each state but it didn’t pass Congress.

Peña Nieto described the new accusatory justice system as “the most important [legal] change in more than a century” although he conceded it was “perfectible.”

In contrast, a report published by the Washington Post last December said the system was in turmoil.

Turning to social policy achievements, Peña Nieto said that more than two million people had come out of extreme poverty during his six-year term, adding that if the same rate of poverty eradication continues to be maintained, no Mexicans would live in extreme poverty by the end of the next decade.

On education, Peña Nieto defended the highly-controversial reform his administration implemented, stating that the government sought to put students at the center of education.

“We planted the most important seed of change in public education in Mexico in the last 60 years,” he said.

With regard to the economy, Peña Nieto said that financial, telecommunications and energy reforms are starting to produce results and have opened up new opportunities, while he also stressed that the trade agreement reached last week with the United States reduced economic uncertainty.

In addition, he cited the trade agreement with the European Union, the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the strengthening of trade relations in Latin America as achievements of his administration along with investment in infrastructure, tourism and agriculture.

However, a devaluation of the peso of almost 50% during his term and anemic average economic growth of 2.1% during his first five years in office provided nothing to brag about.

Peña Nieto said that he was leaving “a manageable and declining level of debt” although government debt as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) actually increased during his administration from 33.8% in 2012 to 45.4% by mid-2018.

The president, who will leave office at the end of November, also congratulated his successor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who will be sworn in on December 1 and has pledged to stamp out corruption and review or change some of Peña Nieto’s key reforms.

Although he faced historically low approval ratings — resulting in a crushing defeat for the Institutional Revolutionary Party at the July 1 elections — and led an administration that was plagued with corruption scandals and record levels of violence, Peña Nieto charged that he has delivered on the vast majority of his public pledges.

“When my administration ends, I will have fulfilled 97% of the promises I made to the public.”

Source: El Economista (sp), El Financiero (sp), Associated Press (en)

More than 4mn turtles arrived last year in Oaxaca, thanks to conservation

By

MND Staff

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September 3, 2018

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Turtles arrive on a Oaxaca beach to lay their eggs.

The number of olive ridley sea turtles arriving on Oaxaca beaches continued to increase the last nesting season thanks to a ban on turtle hunting in place since 1990 and other conservation efforts aimed at protecting the species.

Laura Sarti Martínez, coordinator of the National Sea Turtle Program at the Natural Protected Areas Commission (Conanp), told the newspaper Milenio that more than 4.6 million turtles came ashore at the Playa Escobilla and Morro Ayuta sanctuaries during the 2017-2018 nesting season, which ended in February.

The two beaches are considered the most important in the world for the reproduction of the species known in Mexico as the tortuga golfina.

The number of arrivals last season represents a massive increase on the number of turtles nesting at the beaches in the 1980s before the hunting ban was enforced.

“The olive ridley turtle was hunted legally in the 70s, they were captured in quotas by certain fishing cooperatives in Michoacán, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Colima and Jalisco. In 1990, the ban was declared due to the decline of turtles nesting on the beaches of the Mexican Pacific. Currently the [Oaxaca] population is the biggest in the country. From 120,000 nests in the 80s to . . . four million is a clear trend,” Sarti said.

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The number of hatchlings reaching the water has also increased exponentially, from 3.7 million in 2012 to 79.2 million last season.

But despite the turtle’s impressive recovery, the golfina is still considered in danger of extinction.

Valeria Towns, a Conanp director who coordinates conservation efforts, said that more needs to be done to raise awareness about the risks sea turtles face.

“. . . Yes, in recent years, we have managed to increase the number of turtles that are nesting, the population has increased but that doesn’t mean that risks have decreased and that their removal from the endangered species list could be considered,” she said.

One of those risks — fishing nets — last week caused the death of as many as 380 olive ridley turtles off the coast at Barra de Colotepec, a community near Puerto Escondido.

The Environmental Protection Agency (Profepa) said Wednesday that the nets that trapped the turtles belonged to coastal fisherman and not a tuna or shrimp boat as initially thought, while the coordinator of the Mexican Turtle Center in Mazunte alleges that the turtles were deliberately targeted.

Source: Milenio (sp)