Sinaloa governor announces 307-meter overpass for Culiacán

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July 14, 2018

The governor and a sketch of the new overpass.

The governor of Sinaloa has announced the construction of a 307-meter, 140-million-peso overpass for a congested area in the capital city of Culiacán.

Quirino Ordaz Coppel described the US $7.4-million overpass as a crucial public works project for traffic mobility. Although an underpass was recently built at the junction of the Rolando Arjona and Pedro Infante thoroughfares, traffic jams continue to affect the area.

The overpass is an attempt to solve the congestion problem.

The governor explained that the area where the overpass is to be built is used by a large number of heavy trucks and other vehicles, as thousands of families drive through it on their way to work or school.

The overpass will also be located in close vicinity to the city’s first-class bus station, a public sports center and large shopping centers currently in development, making the public infrastructure project essential in speeding up local traffic.

Ordaz said it was important that large-scale road projects be built in several areas of Culiacán and around the state due to rapid urban growth and the high number of vehicles that hit the streets every day.

Source: Milenio (sp)

SAT auditor, two accomplices arrested after bribe attempt

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César Hernández

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July 14, 2018

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An auditor with the federal tax department (SAT) and two others have been arrested for attempted bribery in the amount of 4.5 million pesos (almost US $240,000).

The arrest was the result of a citizen’s complaint filed directly before the SAT.

The auditor, who worked at the SAT office in Xalapa, Veracruz, and two accomplices demanded the multi-million-peso payment from a taxpayer in exchange for not applying procedural penalties.

The auditor and her accomplices face up to 14 years in prison, dismissal, being barred from holding a similar position in the future and a fine. In a case such as this, where a group of people worked together to obtain the bribe, the sentence can be up to one and a half times greater.

Formal complaints about cases that might be considered abuse or unlawful acts can be made by email to denuncias@sat.gob.mx or by calling (55) 8852 2222.

Source: El Universal (sp)

35 customers hold out to get TVs for 5 pesos or less in Ciudad Juárez

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MND Staff

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July 14, 2018

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A shopping cart can hold a lot of televisions.

Thirty-five opportunistic shoppers got the bargain of their lives in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, yesterday, paying just five pesos (US $0.26) or less for widescreen plasma televisions.

But before they were able to take their purchases home, the customers had to endure a wait of almost 20 hours.

At around 5:00pm Thursday several people shopping at a Bodega Aurrerá supermarket in the northern border city noticed that a variety of electronics, including televisions, computers and speakers, had been incorrectly marked with prices of two, three and five pesos.

Eager to take advantage of the big discounts, some shoppers loaded up their carts with as many as five items and made their way to the checkout to demand that the prices be honored as required by law.

As has happened in previous cases before, store staff refused to respect the marked price, arguments broke out and the consumer protection agency Profeco, which usually sides with customers, was called to intervene.

Presumably to prevent more shoppers arriving to try to take advantage of the offer, employees shut the supermarket’s doors although municipal police entered to prevent an escalation of the confrontation between customers and staff.

After Profeco officials failed to arrive on Thursday 35 bargain-hungry customers refused to leave the store, fearful that they would lose the opportunity to take home their purchases. Instead, they remained in the supermarket overnight in the company of police.

At around midday yesterday an agreement was reached between Profeco officials, supermarket management and customers that stipulated that the prices would be honored on the condition that each shopper could only purchase one television, most of which exceeded 40 inches in size.

Pricing bungles resulting in customers going home with outrageous bargains are relatively common in Mexico.

In July last year, a shopper in Tamaulipas got 9,000 pesos worth of deodorant for less than 40 pesos, while in November 50 happy customers in Chihuahua took home televisions for just 10 pesos a pop during the annual shopping event known as El Buen Fin.

Source: El Financiero (sp)

Former mayor, police officers guilty in murder of 10 in Michoacán

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César Hernández

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July 14, 2018

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A former mayor and four former municipal police officers were found guilty yesterday of the murder of 10 young men in Cuitzeo, Michoacán, in July 2016.

Ex-mayor Juan Carlos Arreygue Núñez of Álvaro Obregón and the four officers were charged after the bodies of 10 young men were found half burned in a pickup truck on a property Arreygue owned.

Investigators determined that municipal police had detained the men on orders of the mayor, who had personal differences with one of them.

The former mayor himself was found directly responsible for the deaths of three of the victims at the conclusion of the eight-month trial.

Arreygue, who had run for election under the banner of the Labor Party, had been suspected of ties with the Caballeros Templarios criminal gang before becoming mayor.

The party issued a statement saying it would appeal the ruling.

A member of the executive committee said they would take the case before another judge “with more understanding . . . one that will rule that we are right and will order [Arreygue’s] release.”

Francisco Salguero said there were many doubts surrounding the case and “when there’s doubt there should be absolution . . . ”

The ex-mayor’s wife was in the news in May when as a candidate for her husband’s old job she was kidnapped from her campaign headquarters. María de Lourdes Torres Díaz was rescued the following day.

She ran for mayor in the coalition headed by president-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador, but lost the election to the Institutional Revolutionary Party candidate.

Source: SDP Noticias (sp), Notivideo (sp)

There were 43 missing at graduation of Ayotzinapa’s class of 2018

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MND Staff

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July 14, 2018

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A tearful graduation ceremony at the Ayotzinapa teacher training college.

Almost four years ago, 43 young men studying to become teachers at a college in rural Guerrero were forcibly disappeared and never seen again.

Yesterday, they should have graduated.

Instead, 43 chairs at the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College were left vacant during the ceremony at which the missing men’s classmates received their degrees in education in front of their families, friends and professors.

It wasn’t the only homage paid to the disappeared students, who were attacked and kidnapped in Iguala, Guerrero, on September 26, 2014 allegedly by corrupt police who, according to the official version of events, subsequently turned them over to a local criminal gang.

Before the students filed into the venue for yesterday’s graduation ceremony, the names of their 43 missing peers were read one by one over the school’s PA system during a final roll call for the graduating class of 2018.

The students demanded justice for their absent former classmates and chanted a plea that has been heard far and wide across Mexico since their disappearance:

“¡Porque vivos se los llevaron, vivos los queremos!” — “They were taken alive, we want them back alive!”

The emotion in their voices was palpable.

As Enrique Peña Nieto nears the end of his six-year term as president, the truth about what really happened to the students on that fateful night remains unclear but something of which there is little doubt is that the events of September 26, 2014 will forever leave a dark stain on his presidential record.

According to the government’s “historic truth,” the Guerreros Unidos gang killed the students whom they allegedly mistook for rivals and later burned their bodies in a municipal dump.

But the investigation into the case has been widely criticized by international experts, human rights organizations, Mexican journalists and the students’ families. Many suspect that the army may have played a role in the students’ disappearance.

Last month, a federal court ordered the creation of a truth and justice commission to undertake a new investigation, ruling that the one carried out by the federal Attorney General’s office (PGR) “was not prompt, effective, independent or impartial.”

Earlier this year, the United Nations released a report that said that 34 people were tortured in connection with the investigation and that suspects had been arbitrarily detained.

Yesterday, as 74 students dressed in crisp blue suits were recognized for their hard work over the past four years, the empty chairs served as a stark reminder that 43 young men — the sons of farming families in one of Mexico’s poorest and most violent states — were deprived of their liberty in the prime of their lives and never had the chance to achieve their dreams.

But as a graduating student emphasized yesterday in a valedictory speech, it is clear that they will never be forgotten.

“They are present here, here in our hearts. And that’s the way it will be until they can be by our side and by the side of their families.”

Source: El País (sp)

Hitman guns down victim in church but spares the man’s child

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July 14, 2018

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Investigators at the crime scene in Ciudad Obregón.

“Don’t shoot my child,” were the last words of a 38-year-old man shot and killed yesterday evening in front of the altar at a church in Ciudad Obregón, Sonora.

Witnesses said the man pulled up in front of the church, located in the Casa Blanca residential area, followed by armed civilians in a pickup truck.

He ran into the church with the child in his arms but one of his assailants caught up with him inside and killed him with a burst of gunfire. The child survived the attack uninjured.

About 35 people were in El Buen Pastor church attending mass at the time.

The victim was identified only as Victor Alejandro by state authorities, who said he had a criminal record and was a pilot who worked for a crime gang known as El Chapo Trini.

Source: Entorno Informativo (sp)

Two gold medals for Mexico at World U20 Championships in Finland

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July 14, 2018

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González at the finish line today in the 10,000-meter race walk.

Two Mexican athletes won gold medals today at the IAAF World U20 Championships in Tampere, Finland.

Alegna González made history by winning the women’s 10,000-meter race walk, becoming the first athlete from the Americas to win gold in that category in the history of the World U20 Championships.

Two gold medals were awarded in the men’s high jump after Mexico’s Roberto Vilches and Antonio Merlos of Greece both cleared 2.23 meters on their first attempts.

The IAAF reported that a jump-off was an option but the two protagonists warmly embraced and agreed to split the prize.

González won her medal today with a time of 44:13 minutes, four seconds less than second-place winner Meryem Bekmez of Turkey.

It was Gonzalez’s second gold this year. She also won the U20 women’s 10-kilometer gold medal at the IAAF World Race Walking Championships in Taicang, China, in May.

Mexico News Daily

WATCH – Alegna Gonzalez of Mexico taking gold in the women’s 10,000m race walk world U20 championships in Tampere#IAAFworlds pic.twitter.com/rBr2zO17N6

— IAAF (@iaaforg) July 14, 2018

WATCH – How Antonios Merlos of Greece and Roberto Vilches of Mexico cleared 2.23 and shared the gold medal in the men’s high jump in Tampere#IAAFworlds pic.twitter.com/KX7gWX0iIH

— IAAF (@iaaforg) July 14, 2018

Smoothing the bumps: positive signs after high-level bilateral meetings

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MND Staff

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July 13, 2018

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Today's meeting between López Obrador and US officials at the president-elect's campaign headquarters.

July 13, 2018 could go down in history as the day that marked the start of a new, more positive era in bilateral relations between Mexico and the United States.

A delegation of high-ranking U.S. officials led by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled to Mexico City today to meet with President Enrique Peña Nieto and president-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Pompeo made it clear that the purpose of the trip was to begin to repair relations that have been strained by issues including migration, trade and U.S. President Donald Trump’s border wall proposal.

“We wanted to come down here to let you know that President Trump cares deeply for the success of the relationship between our two countries. Our presence here today signals that to you,” he said.

“We know there have been bumps in the road . . . but President Trump is determined to make the relationship between our peoples better and stronger.”

There are signs that today’s visit went some way to smoothing over the rough road down which bilateral relations have traveled since Trump took office in January 2017.

Mexico’s future foreign affairs secretary described the meeting between López Obrador and Pompeo as “frank, respectful and cordial.”

Marcelo Ebrard, who López Obrador announced as his prospective chief diplomat last week, told a press conference that the incoming administration has “reasonable optimism” that Mexico will be able to find common ground with its northern neighbor and have a good relationship in the coming years.

Ebrard said the president-elect submitted a proposal for the future of the bilateral relationship to the Pompeo-led delegation, which also included Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and senior White House advisor Jared Kushner, who has played a central role in U.S. relations with Mexico since his father-in-law became president.

López Obrador’s proposal covered a range of issues including NAFTA, migration, security and development, Ebrard said.

He explained that further detail about the proposal would only be made public once a formal response has been received from the United States administration, although he revealed that an overarching aim of a new bilateral relationship is for no Mexican “to have to emigrate because of poverty or insecurity.”

The border wall proposal and the illegal trafficking and smuggling of weapons between the two countries were not discussed, he added.

At an earlier meeting, Peña Nieto urged the American delegation to quickly reunite migrant families that have been separated at the United States’ southern border and stressed the need to find a “permanent alternative that prioritizes the wellbeing and rights of minors.”

A statement released by the president’s office also said that Peña Nieto advised the U.S. delegation that the July 1 elections were “exemplary” and “a sign of the democratic maturity of our country.”

In addition, the president expressed concern about the recent attack on a 92-year-old Mexican man in Los Angeles, California, asserting that such incidents “encourage a climate of hate and racism that we must avoid.”

The statement concluded by saying that Peña Nieto had emphasized the government’s willingness to continue to negotiate an updated North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the objective of completing a deal as soon as possible.

Representatives of both governments agreed to “move forward constructively” on the renegotiation process that has been characterized by the United States’ hardline stance aimed at achieving a more favorable incarnation of the 24-year-old agreement.

López Obrador has said that he will support Mexico’s negotiation team during the five-month transition period before he is sworn in on December 1.

Security was tight in the capital today for the diplomatic meetings but it didn’t stop a group of people protesting against Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy near López Obrador’s transition headquarters in the neighborhood of Roma.

Protesters jeered as Pompeo’s motorcade approached the modest offices and held up signs with messages including “Where are our children?” and “Trump, no more migrant children separated from their families!”

Even though López Obrador and Trump are on opposite ends of the political spectrum, some analysts believe that the two leaders might defy the odds and develop a constructive, if not overly friendly, relationship.

López Obrador has emphasized the importance of that relationship and has declared that his government will be respectful of the Trump administration. But he has also said that Mexico in turn will also demand respect and that the country will not be the piñata of any foreign government.

One person who is confident that happier days are ahead is the U.S. Republican Party’s representative in Mexico.

“It’s a clear sign from the government of the United States, that just days after Andrés Manuel López Obrador won the election, a delegation of three secretaries and Jared Kushner are in Mexico,” Larry Rubin said in a message issued today.

“The bilateral relationship is entering a new and very positive era for both nations.”

Source: Milenio (sp) Reforma (sp)

Natural gas production even more critical than gasoline: regulator

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MND Staff

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July 13, 2018

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Mexico should produce more of its own natural gas to reduce dependence on imports from the United States, according to the National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH).

Juan Carlos Zepeda, president of the federal agency, told the newspaper El Financiero that Mexico relies on U.S. imports for 85% of its gas needs, which he said creates not only a “geopolitical risk” but also an “operational risk” due to the possibility of a natural disaster interrupting supply.

“One of the first things we have to do . . . is produce more [of our own gas],” Zepeda said, sending a clear message to president-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

This year, Mexico has imported an average of almost 120 million cubic meters of gas per day via pipelines that run into the north of the country.

Meanwhile, Mexican production of natural gas declined by 8.9% in May compared to a year earlier, according to data from the Mexican Energy Information System.

While López Obrador has said that he will seek to end massive gasoline imports — which also mainly come from the United States — and boost domestic production capacity by building one or two new refineries, Zepeda charges that ensuring Mexico’s gas security is an even more pressing need.

Speaking at a recent business forum, the CNH chief said that it is possible to bring gasoline into the country via ship in two days but because Mexico has insufficient regasification capacity, it cannot import gas by the same means.

Zepeda added that the need to produce more gas domestically represents an opportunity for the transformation of Pemex, explaining that the state oil company was awarded the rights to 90% of Mexico’s proven gas reserves but has been unable to exploit them due to a lack of capital.

He recommended that the government replicate the model in use in China, where petroleum companies owned and operated by the state are permitted to undertake joint ventures in order to raise capital.

Zepeda also said the federal government should provide tax incentives to encourage gas exploration and production and invest in increasing regasification capacity to mitigate the risk of supply cuts due to natural disasters such as hurricanes.

The latter measure would also allow gas purchases to be made from a greater range of suppliers located in countries that don’t share a land border with Mexico.

“We have a very limited regasification capacity in Mexico so our vulnerability [to supply cuts] is greater,” Zepeda said.

The CNH estimates that if Pemex increases its focus on the development of natural gas reserves, an additional 85 million cubic meters of gas could be produced daily, increasing Mexico’s daily output to 283 million cubic meters per day.

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

Hundreds saved by advance warning of commercial center’s collapse

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MND Staff

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July 13, 2018

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The commercial center where hundreds were evacuated in the nick of time.

Advance warning of the partial collapse of a commercial center in southern Mexico City yesterday saved the lives of hundreds of people, according to a report published today by the newspaper El Universal.

Half an hour before a section of the Artz Pedregal Commercial Plaza came crashing down just after 11:00am, private security personnel told employees and members of the public at the center that they had to evacuate immediately.

The account contrasts with the version of events provided by the Mexico City government, which said the center was evacuated three hours before the collapse occurred.

Structural faults are believed to have caused the incident. Mexico City Mayor José Ramón Amieva said the collapse was a “case of negligence” and that an investigation would determine the exact cause.

Víctor Cuéllar, a chef at a restaurant located on the third floor of the center next to the section that collapsed, told El Universal that the forewarning he and his 60 staff received came just in the nick of time.

While going downstairs on the building’s second floor, Cuéllar said, he and other restaurant workers heard “a very loud noise” that sounded like the dragging of boxes across the ground and then the building started to collapse.

After exiting a rear door of the plaza, Cuéllar and his team were engulfed by a cloud of dust that made it difficult for them to orient themselves and see exactly what had happened.

The evacuation raised suspicions that the collapse was a planned and controlled demolition but a spokesman for the plaza denied that was the case in a radio interview yesterday.

The center’s operator said in a statement that it notified city authorities as soon as it detected signs that the area would collapse.

It also said it regretted the impact the incident was having on traffic on the busy Periférico ring road, which is located adjacent to the commercial center. At least two outer lanes of the road were closed.

The order to evacuate was not the only warning sign that something ominous was about to happen at the new commercial center, which has only been open since March.

El Universal reported that before 10:00am people reported hearing a creaking sound emanating from the third floor.

Following the hurried evacuation, employees, shoppers and passersby gathered outside the plaza where they witnessed rows of windows splintering off just before the rest of the building section collapsed. Many of them filmed the incident on mobile telephones and uploaded the footage to social media.

Emergency services arrived at the scene soon after and 40 minutes after the collapse, Civil Protection Secretary Fausto Lugo said via Twitter there were no casualties.

Mexico City’s Attorney General’s office said last night that the weight of a rooftop garden might have caused the collapse. It said large planters could have added excessive weight to the building’s roof.

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