Canadian medical marijuana firm names ex-president Fox to its board

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July 19, 2018

Mexico’s most visible proponent of the legalization of marijuana and a former president has joined the board of another foreign marijuana-related firm.

Khiron Life Sciences, a Canadian medical marijuana company that operates in Colombia, announced it had appointed former president Vicente Fox Quesada to its board of directors.

Fox is to serve as “strategic advisor and brand ambassador,” Khiron said in a statement, and will promote the firm’s education and brand leadership interests across Latin America.

Fox said it represents “a great opportunity to accomplish our dream of reducing violence in Mexico due to the underground and illegal criminal activities related to cannabis and move to a new legal industry creating jobs and income for families, taxes to governments and wealth creation . . .”

Khiron’s core operations are in Colombia where it is fully licensed for the cultivation, production, domestic distribution and international export of both tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) medical cannabis.

Fox is a long-time promoter of legalizing marijuana in Mexico. During the opening ceremony in May of the CannaMéxico World Summit, a medical marijuana conference hosted by the ex-president’s foundation Centro Fox, the ex-president stated that “Mexico arrives late to this new industry and these new markets. We have to close the gap and be at the forefront.”

Khiron CEO Alvaro Torres said that after participating in CannaMexico 2018 “it was clear that the collaboration between Khiron, former president Fox and Centro Fox provided the opportunity to greatly advance our shared interests in increasing the level of education and understanding of the benefits of medical cannabis for all of Latin America.”

He said that by appointing Fox to the firm’s board and forging an alliance with his organization, Khiron’s scope of influence and relationships within the Latin American market will expand significantly.

The firm said it is well positioned to enter the Mexican market by establishing a subsidiary to submit license applications, complete an in-depth regulatory review of the country’s legal medical cannabis landscape as well as an assessment of market needs.

Mexico has nearly 11.7 million potential candidates for medical cannabis treatment, it said.

Fox, who was president from 2000 until 2006, was named last month to the board of the company that owns marijuana magazine High Times.

Source: El Economista (sp)

Mexico’s 10 dirtiest beaches are located in just three Pacific coast states

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César Hernández

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July 19, 2018

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Six of Mexico's dirtiest beaches are in Acapulco.

Beach-goers beware: according to the federal Environment Secretariat (Semarnat), some beaches in the Pacific coast states of Guerrero, Nayarit and Michoacán are the dirtiest in Mexico.

The department has found that although all Mexican beaches are currently within acceptable pollution levels, there are a few that are on the brink of becoming unsuitable for recreational enjoyment.

Water quality testing revealed that Papagayo beach in Acapulco is the dirtiest in Mexico, at 198 fecal coliforms per 100 milliliters of water. Anything over 200 is considered unsafe for swimming.

Papagayo is the worst of the six Acapulco beaches that made Semarnat’s list of the dirtiest 10.

Ranked second with 191 fecal coliforms is Nuevo Vallarta II beach in Banderas Bay, Nayarit, followed by Acapulco’s Icacos beach, 189, and Copacabana beach, 183.

The only Michoacán beach to make the list is Chuquiapan in the municipality of Lázaro Cárdenas, scoring 173.

Two more Nayarit beaches followed: Bucerías in Banderas Bay and Chacala in Compostela, with test results of 165 and 163 respectively.

The list closes with three more Acapulco beaches: Hornos, Caletilla and Carabali, all testing between 152 and 158.

Environmental authorities warn that high fecal coliform levels can cause stomach flu, salmonella, cholera, ear inflammation, pink eye and other skin and respiratory conditions.

Beach-goers should be aware of cold-like symptoms, fever, diarrhea and digestive upset.

In order to determine which beaches are suitable for swimming, vacationers are urged to heed warnings issued by local authorities and avoid entering water located near sewage outfalls, river mouths and lagoons.

Close attention should also be paid to weather conditions before and during a day at the beach: swimmers are advised to wait up to one day before going into the water after heavy rains. In the case of smaller, enclosed bays and coastal lagoons, the preventive waiting period is three days.

Beach-goers are also advised to be aware of water conditions before going in: the water should not be dirty, smelly or murky, and foam should not have unusual colors.

Source: Animal Político (sp)

U19 football team makes history with big win over US

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July 19, 2018

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Mexico celebrates its football win yesterday over the US.

Mexico’s under-19 football team made history twice yesterday by winning a berth in the final and by beating the United States team to get there at the 2018 IFAF U19 World Championship.

Both were a first for the Mexican squad and stunned the international football community, said a report by American Football International (AFI).

Mexico won 33-6 before a crowd of 15,000 at Mexico City’s University Olympic Stadium after losing 55-0 and 49-14 in two previous meetings. Mexico’s 33 points were the most ever allowed by a U.S. team at a U19 World Championship tournament.

After a two-touchdown performance by running back Julio Hurtado and excellent defense, Mexico took the lead and never let up, said a report by AFI Review. The team had a 23-0 halftime lead, shocking Team USA and delighting the crowd.

Mexico goes up against Canada in the final on Sunday, also at the Olympic Stadium.

Yesterday’s game was the second big win for a Mexican football team in the last month. Mexico won its third consecutive title June 24 at the World University Championships in China. No other country has won the tournament since it began in 2014.

Mexico News Daily

Mexico repeats it wants three-way accord after Trump sows new doubts

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MND Staff

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July 19, 2018

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Economy Secretary Ildefonso Guajardo repeated yesterday that Mexico will seek to maintain a trilateral trade agreement in North America after United States President Donald Trump once again suggested the U.S. could pursue separate deals with Mexico and Canada.

Guajardo said an agreement in principle for an updated North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) could still be reached at the end of August and that a definitive version of a new pact could follow in November.

He added that he would travel to Washington D.C. on July 26 for bilateral trade talks and would later meet with Canadian officials, telling reporters that the three countries are “resuming negotiations.”

Earlier yesterday, Trump returned to the separate accords idea he first floated at the start of June, sowing fresh doubts about the future of the 24-year-old agreement.

“We have had very good sessions with Mexico and with the new president of Mexico, who won overwhelmingly, and we’re doing very well on our trade agreement,” the president said.

“So we’ll see what happens. We may do a deal separately with Mexico and we’ll negotiate with Canada at a later time. But we’re having very good discussions with Mexico.”

A United States delegation led by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Mexico City last Friday and met with president-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador after first meeting with current President Enrique Peña Nieto.

Pompeo said during the visit that “President Trump cares deeply for the success of the relationship between our two countries” and that while “there have been bumps in the road,” the president is “determined to make the relationship between our peoples better and stronger.”

López Obrador, who won the July 1 election with 53% of the vote, has said that he will support the current administration in its ongoing NAFTA negotiations during the five-month transition period and has made it clear that he wants the agreement to continue.

At Friday’s meeting, he submitted a proposal for the future of the bilateral relationship to the Pompeo-led delegation that covered a range of issues including NAFTA, migration, security and development.

Specific details of the proposals and discussions were not disclosed but Pompeo said yesterday that “we made clear to them [Mexico] that the migration issue must be resolved and we need to have strong borders.”

“We talked to them about trade. There will be more, I think, in the coming days to talk about — the progress we’re making on trying to resolve the issues on NAFTA. I’m very hopeful there.”

Negotiations to modernize the deal began last August and were initially scheduled to finish by the end of last year but talks have moved slowly as Mexico and Canada struggle to accommodate United States demands.

The negotiations were further complicated by the United States’ decision to impose metal tariffs on both Mexico and Canada from June 1 on national security grounds.

The move was widely seen as a strategy to pressure its neighbors into accepting the NAFTA amendments it is seeking.

Both Peña Nieto and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau were scathing of the decision and Mexico and Canada introduced their own retaliatory measures.

However, both leaders were also quick to reaffirm their commitment to NAFTA but Trump has refused to give the same level of commitment as his Mexican and Canadian counterparts.

But while he has been highly critical of NAFTA and threatened to terminate it, Trump hasn’t completely shut the door on the possibility of a new deal being reached.

That position was reiterated by White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders yesterday when asked whether trilateral talks and separate Canadian talks were off the table.

“We’re continuing both of those tracks. We see a lot of progress on the conversations with Mexico, and if we could make a bilateral deal with them, we’re certainly very happy to do that. But, again, we’re continuing both conversations, both tracks.”

Source: El Financiero (sp), Reuters (en)

Man with record of sexual assault arrested in murder of eight-year-old

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July 19, 2018

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The suspect and Ana Lizbeth, whose body was found Tuesday.

A 37-year-old man arrested yesterday in Nuevo León is the principal suspect in the abduction and murder of an eight-year-old girl on Sunday.

Juan Fernando N was taken into custody in the city of Juárez after a tip from a private citizen. The state Attorney General had offered a reward of 500,000 pesos (US $26,000) for information leading to the arrest of the killer.

Ana Lizbeth Polina Ramírez was taken in Juárez’s Vistas del Río neighborhood near an office where her mother worked. Surveillance video captured an adult male approach the girl and talk to her outside the building.

Her body was found on Tuesday on a vacant lot in the same neighborhood.

The suspect in the video was identified as a man with a criminal record for sexual assault against minors and had served seven years in jail.

The Attorney General’s office said Ana Lizbeth died of asphyxiation on Sunday night. No further details were released “to preserve the dignity of the victim and her family.”

Today, members of Ana Lizbeth’s family were demanding the death penalty, a punishment prohibited under Mexican law.

Also today, state officials said the suspect had been sought since 2014 for violating a young girl, and had served as a police officer in Monterrey 18 years ago.

Meanwhile, the state is investigating why it took the Juárez municipal police 12 hours to report the child’s disappearance.

Her parents reported she was missing at about 11:00pm Sunday but it wasn’t until 7:00am Monday that state authorities were notified, triggering an Amber Alert.

Residents of Vistas del Río protested today against insecurity and the absence of a police presence in the area. Poor street lighting and many abandoned houses are also causes for concern, they said.

Source: El Universal (sp), Excélsior (sp), Vanguardia (sp)

UPDATED: This story was updated with new information at 4:45pm Thursday, July 19.

No damage reported after 5.9 earthquake in Oaxaca

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July 19, 2018

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The quake's epicenter is marked in orange. national seismological service

The epicenter of an earthquake measuring 5.9 this morning was in Oaxaca but it was felt as far as Mexico City.

The quake was recorded at 8:31 near Huajuapan de León, 230 kilometers southeast of the capital, the National Seismological Service reported.

There have been no reports of damage.

“As of this moment at the locations where the seismic alert sounded and the earthquake was felt Civil Protection units have not reported any damage,” said national Civil Protection chief Luis Felipe Puente.

In Mexico City, security officials said the flyover protocol had been activated to conduct an aerial inspection to identify damage. Metrobús service was suspended to allow for evacuation of buildings near the system’s routes.

The quake’s epicenter was nine kilometers northwest of Huajuapan, a city of about 45,000 in the north of Oaxaca’s Mixteca region.

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

Court dismisses case against self-defense force founder Mireles

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MND Staff

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July 18, 2018

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A federal court yesterday dismissed the case against Michoacán self-defense force founder José Manuel Mireles, who was arrested and imprisoned in 2014 for possession of unauthorized weapons.

Mireles was released in May last year following the introduction of the new criminal justice system because it doesn’t classify his crime as serious but yesterday’s ruling marks a definitive end to the proceedings against him, meaning that his freedom is absolute.

Federal authorities arrested Mireles, a medical doctor, in June 2014 on charges of crimes against public health and possession of restricted weapons and he spent almost three years in jails in Sonora and Nayarit.

The latest ruling is the second legal victory for Mireles since he was released after a judge ruled in November last year that he was not guilty of inciting violence.

The federal Attorney General’s office (PGR) accused Mireles of the crime because on July 11, 2017, via a post on his Twitter account, he called on members of self-defense groups in Michoacán to take up arms and defend the municipality of Tepalcatepec against an army deployment.

The PGR said that Mireles’ actions violated his bail conditions, which stipulated that he could not have any contact with self-defense group members or reoffend in any way.

It considered his conduct as grounds for him to be returned to prison.

Although the judge said that Mireles’ actions were regrettable, she charged that he was not guilty of inciting violence because he had not specified what kind of weapons should be used by the recipients of his message.

Mireles took up arms and encouraged others to do so in 2013 in an effort to bring safety and security to his home state of Michoacán, which had been victimized by several criminal organizations, the most notorious being the Knights Templar Cartel, or Caballeros Templarios.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Analyst who predicted stronger peso is still bullish on the currency

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July 18, 2018

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The peso has strengthened since the election. bloomberg

One of just two analysts who predicted the peso would strengthen after the July 1 election is still bullish, Bloomberg reported today.

Ilya Gofshteyn at Standard Chartered Bank in New York forecast the currency would strengthen past 19 to the dollar during this quarter.

It has gained more than 5% since the election to about 18.85 per dollar, the best performance among more than 40 currencies tracked by Bloomberg.

Now it will reach 18 to the dollar by the end of the year, predicts Gofshteyn, who expects a new NAFTA agreement by early next year.

A United States trade war with China would be good for Mexico as companies move their purchases to Mexico to avoid tariffs on Chinese goods. Barriers for Chinese goods mean an advantage for Mexican producers, the analyst said.

Source: Bloomberg (en)

Legalizing drugs is on the table in AMLO’s quest for peace

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MND Staff

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July 18, 2018

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Sánchez: do whatever is necessary for peace.

Mexico’s next interior secretary says president-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador has given her a “blank check” to explore the possibility of legalizing drugs as well as any other measures that could help restore peace to the country.

Olga Sánchez Cordero, a former Supreme Court judge, said López Obrador is familiar with her writings and public comments about drug legalization and told her at a meeting Saturday that she had “a blank check, whatever is necessary to pacify this country, let’s open the debate.”

Speaking at a university seminar about violence and peace, Sánchez said that over the past 10 years successive federal governments have been incapable of putting an end to violence and have claimed that the insecurity problem isn’t as bad as it really is.

“We’re not going to pretend that nothing’s happening in Mexico . . . Mexico is immersed in violence. We’re a country with tens of thousands of missing people. We have to transcend the legal truth, go further . . .” she said.

Sánchez said it’s crucial to start talking about a “transitional justice system” that would include a reduction in prison sentences for criminals that shed light on unsolved cases, reparations for victims of crime, an amnesty program and the establishment of truth and investigative commissions.

The last proposal is consistent with a federal court order last month that a truth and justice commission be created to undertake a new investigation into the case of the 43 students who disappeared in Guerrero in 2014 after it ruled that the original probe was flawed.

López Obrador, who won the July 1 presidential election in a landslide, was heavily criticized for his amnesty proposal during the presidential campaign, especially by his main rivals who charged that it was evidence that he would be soft on crime.

But the prospective interior secretary said yesterday that those who reject the president-elect’s proposals to combat violence deny that there is a problem in the first place.

“Those who question the possibility of starting to talk about another way of combating violence, not with more violence, question whether we are in a conflict and whether we need new institutions and systems to confront this reality,” Sánchez said.

Earlier this month, she and prospective public security secretary Alfonso Durazo told a press conference that women, children and youth forcibly recruited by organized crime would be the main focus of an amnesty law.

The López Obrador-led administration also plans to gradually withdraw the military from public security duties on the nation’s streets and instead focus on improving training, pay and conditions for the nation’s police.

The military-based war on drugs was introduced by former president Felipe Calderón in 2006 and continued under the current administration led by President Enrique Peña Nieto.

However, despite the increased military presence, homicide rates have continued to rise, leading many analysts to conclude that the strategy has failed.

More than 200,000 homicides have been recorded since the war on drugs started and 2017 was the most violent year in Mexico in at least two decades.

“A transitional justice system for Mexico is possible and urgent, not just for the victims of the violence but for all of Mexican society,” Sánchez said.

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

VivaAerobus orders 25 new aircraft from Airbus

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César Hernández

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July 18, 2018

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An illustration of Viva's new Airbus A321neo.

VivaAerobus has announced the purchase of 25 new Airbus A321neo aircraft, rounding up its fleet to 80 airplanes.

The ultra-low-cost airline first ordered 52 A320 aircraft in 2013, and ordered three more in the last two years.

The A321neo aircraft has a 240-seat configuration, 54 more than the A320.

Price tag on the 25 planes is US $3.5 billion.

VivaAerobus CEO Gian Carlo Nucci said “this investment reflects the confidence shareholders, workers and passengers have in Viva’s business model, and represents a step forward in the consolidation of VivaAerobus’ ongoing and disciplined expansion.”

The airline described the purchase as historic. It is also the second largest after the 2013 purchase, which amounted to more than $5 billion.

Chief commercial officer Eric Schulz said VivaAerobus will benefit from the additional capacity of the A321neo, its superior performance and lower operational costs, meeting the increasing demand for low-cost air travel in Mexico.

Source: El Financiero (sp)

UPDATED: This story was updated with new information at 4:45pm Thursday, July 19.

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