Weed, water and welfare: the week at the mañaneras

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April 15, 2023

AMLO looks over a crowd of reporters — In this week's mañaneras, the president discussed cannabis licenses, water supplies and the abolition of the state-owned Notimex news agency. (lopezobrador.org.mx)

Before returning to Mexico City from an Easter break on his ranch in Palenque, Chiapas, President López Obrador took a moment to record a video message for his social media followers.

“We’re saying goodbye to the ceiba trees, to the soursop tree, to the mamey tree, to the palo de tinte [tree], to the birds, to the howler monkeys, to the macaws,” he said.

AMLO on his ranch in Palenque — The president began his weekly addresses from his ranch in Palenque, Chiapas, where he spent the Easter break. (@lopezobrador_/Twitter)

“We’ll be at the mañanera tomorrow, even though the conservatives want to prohibit it,” AMLO said, referring to his weekday morning press conference and his critics and political adversaries, respectively.

“They’re intolerant. They want to be the only ones to talk — they don’t want all of us to speak,” he said. “But they won’t be able to [ban the pressers]. See you tomorrow, at the mañanera.”

Monday

“Good morning. There have been, there are and there will always be mañaneras,” López Obrador remarked at the top of his presser before breaking into a hearty laugh.

He went on to note that it was the (104th) anniversary of the assassination of the “great campesino leader” Emiliano Zapata, a hero of the Mexican revolution.

The week started with recognition of Emiliano Zapata, a revolutionary leader and Mexican hero. (Wikimedia)

“Zapata is the pioneer of the agrarian movement in Mexico. He first called on his people … in Ayala, [Morelos], to take up arms to confront the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz that protected the latifundistas, the large landowners,” AMLO said. “It’s time to remember that in the Porfiriato, the estates encroached on the land of the people.”

Back at the mañanera for the weekly Maya Train update, the director of the National Tourism Promotion Fund said that tracks along 200 kilometers of the 239-kilometer Izamal-Cancún section have been laid.

Section 4 of the 1,554 kilometer railroad — the entirety of which is slated to open in December — “goes through nine municipalities, 17 localities in Yucatán and Quintana Roo,” Javier May Rodríguez said.

“It has three stations, at Chichén Itzá, Valladolid and Cancún Airport,” he said without mentioning the Izamal terminus.

Campeche city residents blocked the Maya Train's proposed route through their historic center — There were more updates on the progress of the Maya train, including a new hotel near Chichén Itzá. (Fonatur)

“There are also two stops, Nuevo Xcán and Leona Vicario. … Near Chichén Itzá, there will be a Maya Train hotel,” May added.

“… Along Section 4 [and in nearby areas] passengers will be able to enjoy true natural paradises and zones of great archaeological wealth — Chichén Itzá, [Isla] Holbox, Isla Mujeres, the beaches of Cancún, the Sotuta caves, Río Lagartos and Las Coloradas, to name some of the places.”

Welfare Minister Ariadna Montiel Reyes reported that almost 177,000 people are participating in the Sembrando Vida (Sowing Life) tree-planting employment program in the five states through which the Maya Train will run: Tabasco, Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatán and Quintana Roo.

“As you know, this program is the largest reforestation program in the world, and the goals have been achieved, particularly in the southeast,” she said.

During his engagement with reporters, AMLO acknowledged a Chinese government spokesperson’s assertion that illicit fentanyl isn’t sent from China to Mexico but added that his government still hasn’t received a “formal response” to the letter he sent to President Xi Jinping to seek his support in the fight against the synthetic opioid.

“We want to establish communication with the government of China, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with the embassy. The foreign affairs minister [Marcelo Ebrard] is already doing this in order to have a clear position about the pronouncement the government of China made,” he said.

“We have to find out where fentanyl is made. If it’s not made in China, where is it made? What is known is that it is used and causes a lot of harm in the United States. … Obviously, more than what is required for medical purposes is made. So where is this surplus being made? I’ll make it clear again that fentanyl isn’t made in Mexico, the raw material for fentanyl isn’t made [here],” López Obrador said.

The president was later asked about the withdrawal from the Mexico City Metro of the National Guard (GN), whose troops were deployed to the subway system in January following a series of “atypical” incidents including a collision between two trains in which one person was killed.

“There were indications of acts of bad faith, so it was decided that the National Guard would protect and keep an eye on [the Metro system], but the situation normalized. … Fortunately the accidents — real or provoked — decreased … so [the GN troops] are gradually withdrawing,” López Obrador said.

Among other remarks, the president noted that a global survey on happiness was recently carried out and that “Mexico did well.”

Mexicans are among the happiest people in the world, AMLO said. Mexico ranked as the 36th happiest country among 137 nations included in the World Happiness Report.

“I’m saying this because our adversaries, the conservatives, will get angry. ‘It’s not true,’ they’ll say. Of course … they didn’t respond that they’re happy … but the majority of people are happy, and that’s very good,” he said.

Tuesday

Newly-designated addiction prevention czar Hugo López-Gatell took center stage early in the press conference to discuss the dangers of drugs.

“The use of drugs, the abuse of drugs and drug addiction are different stages in a very complex process,” the deputy health minister said during the newly minted mañanera segment called “Social Prevention of Addictions.”

Hugo López-Gatell discuss drugs at the mañanera. — New drug addiction prevention czar Hugo López-Gatell discussed the effects of fentanyl and addiction on society and how to prevent the issue. (lopezobrador.org.mx)

“…It’s important to consider that the problem of [drug] use, abuse and addiction … is related to the loss of opportunities, the loss of spaces for social integration, especially for young people,” he said.

“… Today, we’re going to begin by speaking about fentanyl, one of the most dangerous drugs due to the enormous potential for addiction. It’s immediately addictive even in small doses, and it has very serious effects on health and a great capacity to cause overdose and death,” López-Gatell said.

“In the future, we’ll talk about other drugs that are used more frequently in Mexico. Methamphetamines [or] crystal, for example, alcohol, cannabis or marijuana, benzodiazepines and many others.”

Director of the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) Zoe Robledo later reported that 24 of Mexico’s 32 federal entities have joined the universal health care scheme, called IMSS-Bienestar.

AMLO inspects new hospital equipment in San Luis Potosi — The success of the IMSS Bienestar plan has improved conditions in hospitals across Mexico and increased access to quality equipment and staff, the president said. (lopezobrador.org.mx)

“Today, April 11, marks one year … [since] the IMSS-Bienestar health plan was presented to all the country’s governors, and fortunately a year later, 24 states are at different stages of its implementation,” Robledo said.

He said that some of the IMSS-Bienestar funding has been used to refurbish 30 operating rooms in 24 public hospitals in 11 states.

“By increasing the number of specialists, increasing the provision of supplies for surgeries and obviously increasing the number of operating rooms, more surgeries are performed,” Robledo said.

Back behind the mañanera lectern, AMLO reiterated his view that the government’s decision to purchase 13 power plants from Spanish energy company Iberdrola was a “very good” one and rejected claims that some are “junk” due to their advanced age.

The average remaining useful life of the 13 plants is three times longer than that of Federal Electricity Commission plants (CFE), he said. “In other words, they’re newer than … the CFE plants,” López Obrador said.

He said that the US $6 billion deal with Iberdrola could be completed in 45 days and predicted that the CFE, which will run the 13 plants, will next year increase its share of the electricity generation market to 65%, up from just under 40% currently. Ten percent of that 65% figure will come from new construction and the rehabbing of hydropower plants.

AMLO later said he had become aware that five days before the end of the 2012–18 government of former president Enrique Peña Nieto, health regulator Cofepris granted 63 permits to “commercialize products derived from cannabis,” with some being awarded to companies linked to the family of ex-president Vicente Fox, a prominent entrepreneur in the sector.

“These kinds of things are discovered every day. And, of course, a complaint will be filed,” he said.

“… The director of Cofepris informed me yesterday [about this] because there were basements there in [the Cofepris offices], and they’re discovering things,” López Obrador said.

Fox has denied having any such permits. In a post to his Twitter account later on Tuesday, Fox called the president “the great liar of the mañaneras” and challenged him to “present proof or shut up.”

Before bringing his second presser of the week to a close, AMLO noted that the Health Ministry was considering declaring an end to the “COVID-19 health emergency.”

“They already did this in the United States,” he said, referring to a resolution signed by President Joe Biden on Monday. “… [We’ll do] what is most advisable for the people of Mexico.”

Wednesday

The recurring “Who’s Who in the Lies of the Week” segment — presented every Wednesday by government media monitor Ana García Vilchis — is only a “summary” of some of the latest fake news, López Obrador stressed at the start of his mañanera, explaining that it would take the length of the entire press conference, if not “several days,” to expose all the falsehoods published by the press.

“That’s all we’d be talking about. We wouldn’t take care of our duties as public servants,” he said.

Vicente Fox, former president of Mexico — A major focus of the mañaneras this week has been on the alleged licenses granted to former president Vicente Fox, who may have received official permits to commercially produce cannabis from the previous government of Enrique Peña Nieto. Fox denies having received any such permits. (Vicente Fox/Instagram)

The “manipulation” of information by the media is a “general trend” in Mexico and around the world,” AMLO asserted.

“The press in the United States is very scandalous, biased, closely linked to interests at the peaks of economic and political power. We’re talking about the influential, famous press: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post.”

Rather than rebutting spurious reporting, García initially chose to focus on a tweet published by ex-president Fox in which he asserted he has no “cannabis license.”

“Fox isn’t telling the truth,” she said after acknowledging AMLO’s assertion that the family of the former president was granted permits to commercialize cannabis products just before Enrique Peña Nieto’s presidency came to an end in 2018.

A total of 65 permits — two more than the number cited by López Obrador — were issued by Cofepris in the last days of the Peña Nieto administration, and some of those went to companies linked to Fox, García said.

Cofepris official Bertha María Alcalde subsequently said that actions had been taken against officials who issued the “irregular authorizations” with “surprising speed” in the final days of Peña Nieto’s government.

The Cofepris official who signed the 65 permits was dismissed and disqualified from working in the public sector and an application for the revocation of the permits has been filed with the Federal Tribunal of Administrative Justice, she said.

López Obrador was immediately asked about the criminal case against National Immigration Institute (INM) chief Francisco Garduño when he opened up his presser to reporters.

Mexico's INM director Francisco Garduño — The fate of INM director Francisco Garduño is uncertain after migrants were left inside a burning INM facility (Government of Mexico)

“There is an investigation that includes … Garduño in the regrettable case of the loss of [40] migrants’ lives in Ciudad Juárez,” AMLO said, referring to the March 27 fire in an INM detention center.

“We don’t yet know … the accusation against him because there are various people involved,” he said.

“The Attorney General’s Office needs to provide more information about the investigation,” López Obrador said, adding that judges will have the ultimate responsibility of ensuring that justice is served.

He said that Garduño would remain at the helm of the INM for the time being and that the government would make a decision about his future in due course.

The president later revealed that he had shelved his proposal to allow foreign airlines to fly domestic routes in Mexico. A bill to reform the nation’s aviation law sent to Congress at the end of last year no longer seeks the authorization of cabotage for foreign airlines, he said.

Those who were concerned about the proposal can celebrate, AMLO said.

Toward the end of his presser, the president said he was “extremely happy” about the Senate’s decision to award its prestigious Belisario Domínguez medal to lauded writer Elena Poniatowska, who is perhaps best known for her account of the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre of protesting students.

“Well deserved, well deserved,” AMLO said.

Thursday

Responding to his first question of the day, AMLO declared that it was “completely reprehensible” that a person who occupied the position of president of Mexico had decided to dedicate himself to the commercialization of marijuana.

“[Vicente Fox] has a ranch [in Guanajuato]. … Can’t he plant corn, wheat, vegetables? Why the business of selling drugs? he asked.

AMLO shows a video of ex-president Fox during an attack in his mañanera — López Obrador continued his attack on former president Fox, questioning his need to commercially produce marijuana. (Daniel Augusto/Cuartoscuro)

The president later defended his proposed reform to the Mining Law, saying its aim is to protect water and prevent “the monopolization of large tracts of … subsoil for mining exploitation.”

Mexico’s five previous presidents all “handed over” land to mining corporations, López Obrador said.

“They handed over 60% of national territory, 120 million hectares,” he asserted, repeating figures that have previously been disproved.

One reporter asked the president about a water supply problem in the city of San Luis Potosí, saying that “official data” from the National Water Commission (Conagua) showed the state capital would be left without water in fewer than 45 days.

“I’m going there tomorrow. I’m going to San Luis Potosí, and I’m going to deal with this issue,” AMLO said after the reporter explained that the main source of water for the city — a dam in Guanajuato state — is losing over 600 liters of water per second due to leaks and that a pipeline that transports water from the dam has had 28 “breakdowns” in the last 18 months.

“I’m going to speak with the governor. … We always help. … Germán Martínez from Conagua [the National Water Commission] is probably listening and … he’ll send me all the information about this matter, and we’ll help,” he said.

The El Realito dam, in San Luis Potosí’s neighboring state of Guanajuato, seen here in 2015, is low on water, has leaks and also requires extensive repairs to leaks in the pipeline that brings water to San Luis Potosí city. (Cuartoscuro)

“It’s a good thing I’m going tomorrow. That’s why … [my] weekend tours are good, because one is constantly traveling around the whole country, and that helps me a lot, it helps us to have communication with local authorities, with the people, and to attend to problems, the most important needs. That’s what the tours are for,” AMLO said.

Shifting his focus from San Luis Potosí to the neighboring state of Tamaulipas, López Obrador praised the tamaulipecos — the “men and women” of the northern border state — for having the “courage” to carry out “a very important change” by electing a Morena party government led by Governor Américo Villareal, who took office last October.

“What they did was a feat because they decided to carry out a change that was needed in Tamaulipas. The change was urgent, because [the state under former governor Francisco García Cabeza de Vaca] was suffering from an extreme social, economic and political breakdown; it was more than a crisis,” he said.

AMLO revealed that he was planning to head to the state soon to tour the entire border region from Matamoros in the east to Nuevo Laredo in the west.

“I’m going to Zacatecas. I’m going to San Luis, to Oaxaca. Then it’s [another inspection of the] Maya Train, but after that, it’s very likely I’ll go to Tamaulipas,” he said.

Before wrapping up his presser, López Obrador said there was a possibility that some of the money seized by United States authorities from a former finance minister of Coahuila would be returned to the state.

Officials, including Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero, are in Washington, and “they’re going to bring us news about the money,” AMLO said. The United States already committed to returning the money, but it still “hasn’t become reality,” he said.

Friday

AMLO arrived at his last press conference of the week with the country’s top water official and announced that his colleague would speak about the water supply situation in San Luis Potosí — in response to the concerns expressed by a reporter a day earlier.

Conagua director Germán Martínez acknowledged that water is leaking from the dam that supplies water to San Luis Potosí city but assured reporters that the state capital isn’t going to be left without water.

National Water Commission (Conagua) head Germán Martínez assured reporters that Conagua will carry out repairs to the El Realito dam and that the rainy season in May or June will improve its water levels. Work on the pipeline to San Luis Potosí city has already begun, he said. (Cuartoscuro)

The El Realito dam, located in the Guanajuato municipality of San Luis de la Paz, is currently holding 12.2 million cubic meters of water, enough to guarantee supply at current levels, he said without specifying any time period.

“The rainy season starts in May or June. The storage levels in the El Realito dam will improve,” Martínez said.

He also said that Conagua is preparing a project to repair the leaks at the dam and that work has already begun on the faulty pipeline that transports water to San Luis Potosí city.

After Martínez’s presentation, López Obrador spent well over two hours answering reporters’ questions, and, in his customary fashion, augmented many of his responses with lengthy history lessons and pointed attacks on past governments and current critics.

For 20 or 30 years — he said in response to a question about the oil industry — Pemex spent half its budget in the north of Mexico when “oil is in the south.”

“Why this irrationality? Because of corruption, because [past governments] didn’t care about extracting oil; what they cared about was … handing out contracts, many of them to foreign companies,” AMLO said.

He later turned his attention to one of his government’s pet infrastructure projects.

The Isthmus of Tehuantepc trade corridor project — which includes the modernization of a railroad between Salina Cruz on the Pacific coast and Coatzacoalcos on the Gulf coast and the expansion of ports in those cities — is “very important, historic,” López Obrador said.

“… It’s a strategic area, it’s the narrowest part of [our] national territory, connecting the Pacific to the Atlantic,” he said before likening the project to the Panama Canal.

Istmo Tehuantepec diagram — The Isthmus of Tehuantepec has the potential to be a new Panama Canal, the president suggested. (Gobierno de Mexico)

After a rundown on the history of that canal, during which he highlighted the agreements between former United States president Jimmy Carter and ex-Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos to ensure the U.S. hand over control of the 82-kilometer-long waterway to Panama in 1999, AMLO said that the isthmus project would link Asia to the Atlantic Ocean.

“This project will allow a more direct connection to the east coast of the United States from the countries of Asia,” López Obrador said, suggesting that Asian exports will cross the isthmus by rail before being shipped on to the U.S.

Toward the end of his Friday mañanera, the president revealed his government would shut down the state-owned news agency Notimex, which was created over 50 years ago.

“We no longer need a news agency in the government; that’s from the time of press statements and official press,” he said. “… It’s not something we need as a government, we have the mañanera.”

By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies ([email protected])

‘Sorry, no machines’: these artisan rope makers do it all by hand

By

John Pint

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April 14, 2023

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artisan rope making facility in Mexico — A new handmade rope being made at the outdoor, rope-making “factory” next to the cemetery of San Miguel Cuyutlán in Jalisco. These artisan ropes are made for specialty buyers, like horsemen doing traditional Mexican charrería.

Lake Cajititlán is located 25 kilometers due south of Guadalajara and enjoys a fine reputation for its artesanías, handmade crafts. Each community around the lake has its specialty.

While visiting these artisans, I was told that I must not miss the rope makers of the nearby town of San Miguel. “They use the fibers of wild agaves to make specialized ropes for charros (rodeo cowboys),” I was told. “They’re famous both in Mexico and in the U.S.”

artisan agave rope making facility in Mexico — It all begins with fibers from the maguey bruto, which abounds on the slopes of Cerro Viejo, southwest of San Miguel.

So, one day several years ago, I drove into San Miguel Cuyutlán. When I reached the plaza, I thought for sure I would see all sorts of shops selling lariats. But to my surprise, I didn’t find a one.

“Don’t you make ropes here?” I asked a lady on the street.

“Claro que sí, she replied. “Lots of people here make ropes.”

That was how I ended up in the home of an elderly master rope maker named Don Isidro Díaz.

artisan ropemaker — Don Isidro Díaz (RIP) with one of his Green-Brand ropes. Unprocessed strands and ixtle fiber in the background.

“How long have you been making reatas? I asked him.

“Reatas? I don’t make reatas,” he replied. “I make sogas.”

I had used the wrong word. Reata is the origin of the English word lariat, an interesting corruption of “la reata,” but Don Isidro quickly pointed out that his ropes were much stronger than a mere reata. They’re referred to by professionals as sogas.

I discovered that Don Isidro had learned his trade at the tender age of 15, and after making ropes for over half a century had gained the fame of a master craftsman.

“You won’t believe it,” he told me, “but people call me from places like Chicago and Nevada, and they come all the way here to buy their sogas. They know they’re good because I give them my personal guarantee.”

I asked for how many months he guaranteed them. “Months? My guarantee is for the life of the rope!”

Of course, I wanted to see the place where the ropes are made, but Don Isidro warned me, “Foreigners have come here expecting to see a factory full of machines. I hope you won’t be disappointed, because we have no machines — we do everything by hand.”

I was not at all disappointed. The soga-making works were located only a few blocks from Don Isidro’s house. Nothing like a factory, it was an open-air operation: a flat place where strands of rope up to 50 meters long are stretched between stakes only a few inches above the ground.

The strands are made of twisted ixtle fiber which comes from the maguey bruto (Agave inaequidens Koch), which grows on 2,970-meter-high Cerro Viejo, overlooking San Miguel. This same agave, I was told, is also used to make raicilla, a competitor of tequila.

I found only one man working in the “non-factory.” His name was Fernando Romero, and he told me that there are many different procedures in soga-making. This afternoon, he said, he would be “twisting.”

Artisan rope maker in Mexico — The rope maker Don Manuel Leonel is passing on to his sons the skills he learned from his father.

How in the world he was going to twist those already tightly twisted cords, I couldn’t imagine, but Romero plucked one of them and said, “See? This one is a little slack.”

With brute strength, he then slipped the looped end of the rope off the stake and, maintaining tension, walked over to an axle with a handle mounted on a sturdy pole. He slipped the loop over a pin at the end of the axle and turned the handle vigorously for about a minute.

Again, straining mightily, he transferred the loop back to the stake. Next came a curious procedure he called puliendo (cleaning).

Romero grabbed a thick wad of loose ixtle fibers and wrapped it around one of the stretched cords, which he then lifted up to shoulder level (this I would have thought impossible if I hadn’t seen it) and then began to walk forward — against great resistance — sliding the rope through the loofa-like wad of fibers, another operation requiring great strength.

“I do this 30 times in each direction for each cord…every day,” he shouted over his shoulder as he disappeared off into the distance.

Don Isidro passed on a few years later, but his legacy lives, and today San Miguel has more rope makers than ever. Of course, you’ll still not find a rope store in town, but if you wander out to the cemetery, you’ll find plenty of sogueros nearby, twisting and stretching rope under the hot sun.

“There’s no shade here because the fibers need to be exposed to full sunshine for at least 15 to 20 days,” I was told by Don Manuel Leonel, whose Red Brand ropes are highly in demand by charros — Mexico’s traditional horsemanship sport.

“By regulation, the only ropes charros can use in competition must be made of ixtle,“ he said, “and most people agree that the best sogas in Mexico are made right here in San Miguel.”

The procedure starts with an armful of agave fibers which the men spin into long strings called hebritas. Fifteen of these hebritas are then twisted into a cordón (strand) which must be stretched and twisted ever tighter for weeks, occasionally receiving a bath of liquid starch.

The final stage is to attach four strands to a sturdy device with gears, which permits each strand to be individually twisted while, at the far end, those same four strands are, in turn, twisted together to form a soga so incredibly hard, it literally feels made of metal.

Two sogueros earn 500 pesos each per rope, and typically they turn out five per week. That same rope (the 50-meter length) is then sold for about 4,000 pesos to customers who buy them — still hot from manufacture — right at the rope-making works, no middle man needed.

Want to watch the procedure for making charro ropes? Ask Google Maps to take you to: CJ78+J66 San Miguel Cuyutlán, Jalisco.

The writer has lived near Guadalajara, Jalisco, since 1985. His most recent book is Outdoors in Western Mexico, Volume Three. More of his writing can be found on his blog.

Human rights commision: abuse, torture at migrant detention centers

By

MND Staff

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April 14, 2023

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Protest in Comitan, Chiapas, about abuse at migrant detention centers — Mexico's National Human Rights Commission has published 54 reports detailing abuses by immigration officials and private security personnel at migrant detention centers since 2019 (Damián Sánchez/Cuartoscuro).

Torture, sexual assault and extortion are some of the abuses migrants have allegedly suffered while detained at government detention centers since Francisco Garduño became Mexico’s immigration chief.

The conditions endured by migrants at National Immigration Institute (INM) facilities are currently in the spotlight in the wake of a fire at a provisional detention center in Ciudad Juárez last month that claimed the lives of 40 men from Central and South America.

Deadly fire at migrant detention center in Juarez, Mexico — The fire at a provisional detention center left 40 migrants dead (Juan Ortega Solís/Cuartoscuro).

Garduño, INM’s director, is the subject of a criminal investigation in view of his alleged failure to fulfill his duty to supervise and protect the people and facilities under his control.

Since Garduño succeeded Tonatiuh Guillén in June 2019, the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) has published 54 reports detailing abuses allegedly committed by immigration officials and private security personnel at migrant detention centers.

Guillén, who served as INM director for seven months at the start of the current government, didn’t receive any damning reports from the CNDH, while Ardelio Vargas Fosado and Gerardo García Benavente, immigration chiefs who served under former president Enrique Peña Nieto, received 20 and three, respectively.

The newspaper El Universal, which reviewed the CNDH’s reports, reported that abuses at detention centers were committed against both detained migrants and their family members.

In a report published in February, the newspaper noted, the CNDH detailed the case of a migrant from El Salvador who was said to have been handcuffed to a bunk bed for five days at an INM detention center in Guadalupe, Nuevo León, as punishment for starting a hunger strike due to poor conditions at the facility.

In 2019, the CNDH documented the case of a 17-year-old migrant who was alleged to have been tortured by INM personnel at a detention center in Tlaxcala. Medical examinations confirmed that the minor suffered injuries and psychological harm consistent with torture, the commission said.

In another 2019 report, the CNDH described the conditions in INM detention centers as prisonlike. The INM detention center model “doesn’t guarantee full respect” for migrants’ “dignity” and human rights, the report said.

Migrants are kept in locked cells and subjected to prison-style routines that violate their human rights, the commission said.

Guillén promised a kinder approach to immigration. Today, he resigned. — Former director of the National Migration Institute Tonatiuh Guillén supported a kinder approach to immigration. Under Guillen’s direction, there were no human rights abuses reported at migrant detention centers (Photo: Archive).

Guillén, who resigned in 2019 shortly after the Mexican government reached an agreement with the United States to ramp up enforcement against undocumented migrants, told El Universal that violations of migrants’ rights have become more frequent, a situation he said is indicative of the “hardening” of Mexico’s immigration policy.

Mexico has come under pressure from the United States to do more to stop the flow of migrants to its northern border and has deployed both INM agents and members of the National Guard to detain migrants, many of whom are deported after spending time in a provisional detention center.

The treatment of migrants at detention centers is disrespectful, irresponsible and lacking in care, Guillén asserted, adding that the prevailing situation can have “extremely serious consequences such as those we recently saw in Ciudad Juárez.”

Eunice Rendón, head of the migrants’ advocacy group Agenda Migrante, said that it is “very important” that the INM review the reports published by the CNDH and implement the recommendations it has made.

“What’s the use of recommendations if the vast majority have been ignored by the INM?” Rendón asked.

Along with the National Migration Institute, the National Guard has come under attack for its violent treatment of migrants in southern Mexico (Damián Sánchez/Cuartoscuro).

In addition to abuses such as torture and physical and sexual assault, migrants detained at INM facilities are forced to endure crowded and inhumane living conditions, according to an umbrella organization called Colectivo de Observación y Monitoreo de Derechos Humanos en el Sureste Mexicano (Human Rights Observation and Monitoring Collective in the Mexican Southeast).

According to the news website Pie de Página, the collective attests that most detention centers have no running water and that migrants are often held in sections exposed to the elements.

Food served to migrants is often spoiled, according to the collective. One of their reports says that private security personnel working at detention centers use “threatening and abusive language” toward migrants and don’t allow them to contact people on the outside, presumably by confiscating their telephones.

The collective also documented a disturbing episode in 2021 at the Siglo XXI detention center in Tapachula, a city in Chiapas just north of the border with Guatemala.

Representatives of the collective spoke with migrants who said that INM agents and private security guards forced them to lie on their backs in a patio with their hands on their necks for 10 hours between 2 p.m. and midnight. They were exposed to sun and rain and warned they would be beaten if they closed their eyes, the collective said.

Following the Ciudad Juárez tragedy, protesters spoke out against the conditions inside provisional detention center Siglo XXI in Tapachula, Chiapas (Damián Sánchez/Cuartoscuro).

The newspaper Milenio spoke this week with migrants currently being held or who have spent time in INM detention centers in different parts of the country, and they, too, offered a damning assessment of the conditions and treatment they experienced.

A Cuban man who has spent a month in the Siglo XXI detention center told Milenio that migrants eat and sleep among buckets filled with urine and feces.

“Despicable conditions — we’re sleeping between shit, there is no medical care, everyone is sick with colds,” said the migrant who was only identified as Manuel.

“… They don’t let us speak with anyone, they don’t let lawyers visit us, they don’t give us any news [about our immigration status],” he said.

África, a Colombian woman who spent time in a detention center in Acayucan, Veracruz, told Milenio that she and other detainees were unable to shower when they had access to the bathroom because there was no water. A Venezuelan woman said that the “psychological damage” from being locked up without knowing when she would be released was enormous.

The offices of the INM in Mexico City — The INM prioritized the protection of property over the safety of migrants, according to a contract with the agency and a private security company hired to provide guard services at the Ciudad Juárez facility. (Daniel Augusto/Cuartoscuro).

Despite the scenarios described and the tragedy in Ciudad Juárez, President López Obrador said earlier this week that Garduño’s performance as immigration chief has generally been good.

He remains INM’s director even as the federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) prepares to charge him with improper exercise of public service.

In a statement on Tuesday, the FGR noted that both the CNDH and the Federal Auditor’s Office have identified shortcomings and an unrectified “pattern of irresponsibility” at the INM that caused “regrettable events” such as the March 27 fire.

At the Ciudad Juárez detention center, security guards were told to protect property but not detainees in an emergency, according to a contract awarded to the security company Camsa.

One security guard, three INM agents and a Venezuelan migrant have been detained in connection with the fire and face charges of homicide and causing injury.

Garduño and other INM officials, including the agency’s chief in Chihuahua, face a court hearing before a federal judge next week at which they will be formally charged.

With reports from El Universal, Pie de Página and Milenio

20,000 Chiapas residents left stateless as Oaxaca votes to change border

By

Cat Rainsford

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April 14, 2023

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Approximately 20,000 people who used to be from Chiapas no longer know which state they live in after the Oaxaca state congress voted on Wednesday to modify the border with its neighboring state.

The vote complies with a March 2022 ruling by the Mexican Supreme Court (SCJN), which ordered that a 162,000-hectare territory known as Chimalapas be returned to the Zoque indigenous communities of Oaxaca.

Since last year’s ruling, the Zoque communities have protested to demand that Oaxaca governor Salomón Jara Cruz comply with the SCJN’s mandate.

Chimalapas was the western limit of the state of Chiapas. The Oaxaca senate voted Wednesday to redraw the border so that Chimalapas is contained within the state of Oaxaca, in compliance with a Supreme Court ruling in 2022. (Wikimedia).

The ruling was the result of a decades-long campaign led by the Zoque communities of San Miguel and Santa María Chimalapa, who filed an injunction with the SCJN in 2012, arguing that their rightful territories had been invaded by cattle ranchers and loggers from Chiapas.

However, the border change also affects several non-Zoque communities that settled later in the area: Rodulfo Figueroa, Belisario Domínguez, Cal and Mayor. The National Electoral Institute (INE) has stopped issuing credentials to the 20,000 residents of these areas until it is confirmed whether they are residents of Oaxaca or Chiapas.

“The government of Chiapas cannot oppose a court order,” said Geovany Vásquez Sagrero, head of Oaxaca’s Office of Legal Counsel. “However, honestly, we have to say that there is a strip in the southern part [of the affected area] that no longer has anything to do with Chimalapas.”

Vásquez recognized that these communities see themselves as from Chiapas but said that talks are underway to persuade them to accept being part of Oaxaca.

The area of Chimalapas is home to the largest undisturbed cloud forest in Mexico (La Coperacha).

The new Oaxaca-Chiapas border will start at the Tonalá peninsula at a latitude of 16 degrees north, head north to Cerro del Chilillo, continue northwest to Cerro de La Jineta, then northeast to Cerro de los Martínez, in the tri-border area with Veracruz.

The affected area is covered with dense forest and is considered one of the most biodiverse ecosystems in the Americas.

The border dispute began in 1950, when the Chiapas government granted five logging concessions to two companies, allowing them to seize 100,000 hectares of communal forest belonging to the Zoque communities.

To legitimize these concessions, the communal territories were redesignated as national lands in the municipality of Cintalapa, Chiapas. Later, the Chiapas government granted spaces within these areas to displaced Tzotzil communities from the highlands of Chiapas.

The dispute over Chimalapas dates back to 1950, when the Zoque communities of Oaxaca lost their forest cover to logging companies granted permits by the government of Chiapas. (Arturo Perez/Cuartoscuro).

Although the conflict was temporarily resolved in 1967 with a presidential resolution that recognized and titled communal property, it flared up again following the creation of the Chiapas municipality of Belisario Domínguez in 2011.

In 2018, the previous Chiapas legislature created the “Special Commission to address the Chimalapas case,” which sought to preserve the Chimalapas region as part of Chiapas.

However, this commission has refused to make any comment on the SCJN’s ruling in favor of Oaxaca and announced that they are no longer in office.

With reports from El Heraldo de Chiapas

US brings charges against Sinaloa Cartel, including Los Chapitos

By

MND Staff

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April 14, 2023

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US Atty Gen Merrick Garland — U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco at a press conference Friday announcing charges against "Los Chapitos," the sons of former Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, who is in jail in the U.S. (Screen capture)

The United States Department of Justice announced on Friday that it had unsealed charges against 28 high-ranking Sinaloa Cartel members, including three known as “Los Chapitos” — the children of jailed former Sinaloa Cartel boss Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

To date, Ovidio Guzmán is the only one of the three of Guzman’s sons who has been detained. He is currently in custody in Mexico and has been fighting extradition to the United States.

Brothers in crime:. Los Chapitos, from left to right: Iván Archibaldo Guzmán Salazar, Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, and Ovidio Guzmán. Another brother, Joaquín Guzmán López, not shown. was also charged. (Internet)

At a press conference on Friday afternoon, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said that seven other defendants named in the indictments were already in custody in other countries and that they were pursuing over 100 more people charged with helping Los Chapitos’ Sinaloa Cartel fentanyl operation “flood the U.S.” with the deadly synthetic drug.

The three “Chapitos” — a nickname meaning “little Chapos” — are Ovidio Guzmán López, Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar and Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Sálazar. They run a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel known as its most violent.

The U.S. government is also offering a reward of US $10,000 for information leading to the capture of any one of Los Chapitos.

The full roster of individuals charged includes operators around the world who the DOJ says are responsible for – among other crimes – drug and weapons trafficking, buying chemical precursors for fentanyl, money laundering, murder, extortion, kidnapping and torture, all in order to operate the complex networks needed to ensure the Sinaloa Cartel’s drug trafficking operation continues to function.

The charges have been filed by federal courts in Illinois, New York and the District of Columbia.

chart showing operations of SInaloa Cartel — A flowchart Garland shared at his press conference Friday that shows the steps the Sinaloa Cartel takes to make fentanyl and smuggle it into the U.S., then launder money back from the U.S. into Mexico. (Department of Justice)

“Today, the Justice Department is announcing significant enforcement actions against the largest, most violent, and most prolific fentanyl trafficking operation in the world – run by the Sinaloa Cartel and fueled by Chinese precursor chemical and pharmaceutical companies,” Garland announced at a press conference late Friday morning.

Garland said that the charges attacked “every aspect of the cartel’s operations,” seeking arrests of people around the world. In addition to Los Chapitos, the list of those charged includes:

Suppliers in China who sell fentanyl precursors to the cartel
A Guatemalan-based broker who purchases the precursor chemicals on behalf of the cartel
Operators of the Sinaloa Cartel’s clandestine fentanyl labs in Mexico
A weapons trafficker who supplies the cartel with arms smuggled from the U.S.
Money launderers who the DOJ says helps the cartel move money internationally
Members of the Sinaloa Cartel who serve as brutal security enforcers

The DOJ also revealed that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) had infiltrated the Sinaloa Cartel and has spent a year and a half tracking the highest levels of the group across the world.

reward poster for capture of los chapitos — The U.S. government is offering a reward of up to US $10,000 for information leading to the capture of any of Los Chapitos. (DEA)

“Today’s indictments send a clear message to the Chapitos, the Sinaloa Cartel, and criminal drug networks around the world that the DEA will stop at nothing to protect the national security of the United States and the safety and health of the American people,” said DEA Administrator Anne Milgram at a press conference Friday afternoon.

In February, Milgram told reporters that Mexico could be doing more to combat the Sinaloa and the Jalisco New Generation cartels.

Fentanyl seizures in the U.S. have increased by more than 400% since 2019, according to U.S. government officials, and 2023 has already seen more fentanyl seized to date than in the entirety of 2022.

The Department of Justice regards Los Chapitos as a significant piece of the fentanyl trafficking problem. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), they are responsible for the majority of the drug currently in the United States.

“The Sinaloa Cartel is largely responsible for the surge of fentanyl into the United States over the last eight years,” Garland said.

The indictments describe in detail the cartel’s brutality and callousness — and its prioritization of financial gain at all times, even when they knew the drugs they were sending to the U.S. would prove fatal.

Los Chapitos’ security forces, said Garland, also regularly engage in torture and brutal acts of violence, Garland said, including injecting victims with massive doses of fentanyl until they overdose and feeding people to the Chapitos’ pet tigers.

The wide-ranging charges come as pressure intensifies on Mexico to stem the flow of fentanyl into the United States. The two countries held high-level meetings on Thursday in Washington D.C. to discuss how best to work together to combat the trafficking of both synthetic drugs like fentanyl and weapons.

According to U.S. government data, fentanyl is the leading cause of death for Americans between ages 18 and 39 and led to the deaths of more than 100,000 people from overdoses between 2021 and 2022 — almost 300 per day.

With reporting by the Department of Justice, AP News, Latinus and NPR

AMLO meets with former UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn

By

Cat Rainsford

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April 14, 2023

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AMLO Corbyn — López Obrador and Jeremy Corbyn have been friends for a number of years. (@jeremycorbyn/Twitter)

President López Obrador received former UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn at the National Palace this week, hailing him as an honest man, a friend and “a hope for the people of the UK.”

The two politicians have been close since they met in 2016, prior to López Obrador’s victory in the presidential elections. Corbyn’s wife since 2013 is Mexican businesswoman and lawyer Laura Álvarez, who is also known in Mexico for having served on Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission.

Jeremy Corbyn and his wife Laura Alvarez — Member of the United Kingdom’s parliament and former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, right, is married to Mexican lawyer and businesswoman Laura Álvarez, left. (File photo)

“I will never forget that, when we were in opposition and he was leader of the Independent Labour Party in the English Parliament, he visited me in Tabasco and then we met in London,” President Lopez Obrador said in a tweet, alongside a photo of the two together.

Corbyn, a long-serving British politician known for his socialist views and support for causes such as nuclear disarmament, last formally visited Mexico in January 2022 with Álvarez, when they were invited to sit in on a daily mañanera, the colloquial name in Mexico for López Obrador’s daily press conference.

At that time, Corbyn responded to a question from a journalist by praising AMLO’s efforts to address inequality in Mexico and his practice of holding daily press conferences.

“It is very impressive and shows a degree of openness in government that is not found in many countries of the world,” Corbyn said.

The Mexican president has shown similar support for Corbyn in the past, even using the eve of his inauguration in December 2018 to openly champion Corbyn as the next prime minister of the UK.

“I want it with all my heart, with all my soul – to have a prime minister like Corbyn,” AMLO said then. “I won’t be the constitutional president until tomorrow, that’s why I dare to say these things. From tomorrow, I have to put a limit on myself but now, I say what I think.”

With reports from Infobae

Cozumel saw over 1.2 million cruise ship passengers in 1st quarter

By

Cat Rainsford

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April 14, 2023

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Cozumel cruise ships 2023 — Quintana Roo's island municipality has seen a bumper crop of cruise ships arrive between January and March.

Cruise ship tourism on the islands of Cozumel is nearly back to pre-pandemic levels, receiving 1.2 million cruise ship passengers aboard 390 ocean liners in the first three months of 2023.

The figure is 88.4% of the 1.4 million cruise tourists who visited Cozumel in the same period of 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic devastated the cruise industry.

Although cruise tourism restarted in mid-2021, the recovery has been gradual. Cozumel received just over 600,000 cruise ship passengers in the first quarter of 2022, less than half this year’s figure.

Across the country, Mexico saw 6.6 million cruise ship passengers in the whole of 2022, according to the Ports Directorate of the Infrastructure, Communications and Transport Ministry — around 75% of the 8.9 million who visited in 2019.

Over 60% of cruise tourists in 2022 arrived in the Caribbean ports of Cozumel and the rapidly developing tourist village of Mahahual. The next most popular destinations were the Pacific ports of Ensenada, Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta.

Although Cozumel remains Mexico’s main cruise destination, it has lagged behind Mahahual in recovering pre-pandemic levels of cruise tourism. The 2.9 million cruise passengers Cozumel saw in 2022 represented around 64% of its record-breaking 2019 numbers, while the 1.2 million who arrived in Mahahual represented a recovery of 75%.

The number of cruise visitors to Cozumel over the year was also lower than the 3.5 million predicted by the Federal Tourism Secretariat (Sectur) in mid-2022.

In February 2022, a federal judge granted an injunction in favor of environmental activists in Cozumel, blocking the construction of a fourth cruise ship pier.

Cozumel is now looking to broaden its cruise routes, receiving for the first time this week the Viking Octantis, a small super-luxury cruise ship from Argentina.

“With the arrival of this new route from Argentina, Cozumel is consolidated as the leader in cruise ship arrivals in Central America and the Caribbean,” Quintana Roo governor Mara Lezama said on social media.

With reports from El Economista

Mexico, US convene in D.C. for high-level security summit

By

MND Staff

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April 14, 2023

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A meeting of Mexican and US politicians — The summit focused on stopping the flow of fentanyl into the U.S and the flow of arms into Mexico. (@m_ebrard/Twitter)

Mexico and the United States’ efforts to combat drug trafficking and gunrunning will soon yield “good results,” Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard asserted Thursday after a high-level bilateral security meeting in Washington D.C.

In a video message posted to his Twitter account, Ebrard said that the “main objective” discussed at the meeting was to “drastically reduce” the flow of fentanyl precursor chemicals via air and sea to both Mexico and the United States.

Homeland Security Advisor Liz Sherwood-Randall welcomed Mexican Secretary of Security & Citizen Protection Rosa Icela Rodríguez and Canadian National Security and Intelligence Advisor Jody Thomas to the White House to accelerate trinational efforts to counter the fentanyl threat. — Homeland Security Advisor Liz Sherwood-Randall welcomed the Mexican delegation, including Mexico’s Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodriguez, right. Sherwood-Randall, center, led the U.S. side of the talks. (@NSC_Spox/Twitter)

The second objective considered was to “drastically reduce the number of weapons that enter Mexico” from the United States, Ebrard said.

The foreign minister also said that Mexico had asked the U.S. to establish a “task force,” whose members will work at ports of entry between the two countries and aim to “substantially reduce” the southward flow of firearms, most of which end up in the hands of violent cartels.

“This has already been discussed a lot with the United States, but now a very specific measure was proposed to them and they said yes,” he said.

“From my point of view, it was a good meeting and we’re going to have good results soon,” the foreign minister added.

US-Mexico fentanyl conference — Binational relations have been heavily defined by the struggle to assign blame for the fentanyl crisis in the U.S., with Mexico denying that the drugs are produced in the country.(@roseicela_)

In a joint statement, Mexico and the United States said that Thursday’s meeting “follows through on implementing” a commitment made by President López Obrador and President Biden earlier this year to “elevate and accelerate efforts to address the synthetic opioid epidemic.”

The Mexican delegation was led by Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez and included Ebrard, Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero, National Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval, Navy Minister José Rafael Ojeda and other senior officials.

The U.S. delegation was led by Homeland Security Advisor Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall and included Attorney General Merrick Garland, White House Director of National Drug Control Policy Rahul Gupta, Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar and other officials.

The joint statement said that the Mexican delegation highlighted this week’s presidential decree that allows the creation of a commission to fight the trafficking of illicit synthetic drugs, firearms and ammunition.

US Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar, left, Mexico Ambassador to U.S. Esteban Moctezuma, right — U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar, left, and Mexico’s Ambassador to the U.S. Esteban Moctezuma both attended the talks. (File photo/@USAmbMex Twitter)

It also said that Mexico and the United States “committed to continue joint work to dismantle the fentanyl supply chain and the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel on both sides of the border.”

In addition, Mexico and the U.S. “committed to developing a bilingual, binational public awareness prevention campaign in each country that educates our citizens, especially young people, on the dangers of synthetic drugs.”

Mexico recently appointed Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell as the government’s addiction prevention “czar,” and a new schools-based program will educate young people about the risks associated with drug use.

As Ebrard indicated, the United States pledged to increase cooperation to combat illegal firearms trafficking to Mexico.

Soldier with a weapon — Despite restrictive gun ownership laws, easy access to weapons in the U.S. has made it difficult for the Mexican government to clamp down on firearms entering the country. (Cuartoscuro)

“The Department of Justice and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are deploying new authorities from the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act to target southbound firearms flows and [are] working with Mexican counterparts to increase firearms tracing to identify and choke off the source of firearms flows into Mexico,” the joint statement said.

Thursday’s meeting came two weeks after the U.S.-Mexico Synthetic Drug Conference in Mexico City at which officials from both countries emphasized the importance of cooperating to combat the illicit fentanyl trade.

Fentanyl trafficking is a hot-button issue on both sides of the border, with Mexican officials repeatedly defending Mexico’s efforts to stop the flow of the drug into the United States amid claims from some U.S. Republican Party lawmakers that the Mexican government isn’t doing enough to combat the notorious cartels that traffic the synthetic opioid.

López Obrador has emphasized that demand for fentanyl in the United States, rather than in Mexico, is driving the illicit trade and asserted that the precursors used to make the drug are not manufactured here.

At Thursday’s meeting, Security Minister Rodríguez reiterated bluntly that “Mexico doesn’t make precursor chemicals.”

Mexico and the United States agree that precursors come from Asia and in particular China, but a spokesperson for the Chinese government recently declared that “there is no such thing as illegal trafficking of fentanyl between China and Mexico.”

US Mexico bilateral talks in April 2023 in Washington, DC — In between talks, there was also time for tours of the White House complex and much posing for photos. (Rosa Icela Rodríguez/Twitter)

In her public remarks at the Washington meeting, Rodríguez said that Mexico is willing to cooperate with the United States to “eradicate the fentanyl pandemic” and asserted that Mexican authorities are focused on increasing seizures of drugs and guns, arresting “priority targets,” dismantling their financial networks and weakening the supply chains of organized crime.

Clandestine laboratories are frequently located and shut down by Mexican authorities, and the federal government has highlighted that over 6 tonnes of fentanyl have been seized since López Obrador took office in late 2018. Over 600,000 fentanyl pills were found at one particularly large narco lab that was dismantled earlier this year.

The Mexican government has also highlighted the large numbers of weapons it has confiscated in recent years. Ebrard said late last year that Mexico was in the grip of a “firearms pandemic,” noting that almost 56,000 guns had been seized since the beginning of 2020.

Via legal action, the government sought, albeit unsuccessfully, to hold U.S. gun manufacturers to account for what it alleged were negligent business practices that have led to illegal arms trafficking and deaths in Mexico. The government is appealing the dismissal of its lawsuit.

Ambassador Salazar said after Thursday’s meeting that “guns and drugs form an unholy alliance we must break.”

He noted on Twitter that Canadian officials had also joined conversations about “stemming the flow of fentanyl and other illicit narcotics.”

“We must work together to stamp out drugs,” Salazar wrote.

Mexico’s ambassador to the United States Estebán Moctezuma, who also attended Thursday’s meeting, asserted on Twitter that binational problems “will be resolved with coordinated actions, with respect for our sovereignty and the spirit of cooperation always.”

“Intense day today with U.S. officials to agree on solutions to the trafficking of weapons and fentanyl,” Moctezuma added.

Mexico News Daily

Senate passes bill to require health sector to report abuse of minors

By

MND Staff

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April 14, 2023

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A child stares out from behind bars — The new law, which passed unanimously, seeks to identify and prevent cases of child abuse in Mexico. (Juan José Estrada Serafin/Cuartoscuro)

The Senate unanimously approved a bill on Thursday that obliges healthcare professionals who treat minors to report to authorities when a child or adolescent shows signs of abuse or violence.

The reform to the General Law of Health, which has now been sent to the Chamber of Deputies for review, seeks to eliminate crimes against children and teenagers.

children in Zamora, Michoacan — Children at an orphanage in Zamora, Michoacán, where in 2014, the state brought charges of physical and sexual abuse of minors against the Casa Hogar de Mamá Rosa orphanage. (Juan José Estrada Serafin/Cuartoscuro)

It mandates that healthcare providers must inform hospital management if they treat a child or adolescent with injuries that could be related to violence or mistreatment. Hospital management must then notify the state public prosecutor’s office.

During the session, Senate Health Committee President Lilia Valdez Martínez said that physical abuse can occur in families, community and educational environments – places where children should feel safe and protected. The bill acknowledges that violence against children and adolescents also occurs online.

The bill also highlights that girls and adolescents are more prone to suffer sexual violence and psychological aggression in most settings, while men are usually the primary victims of homicide. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Mexico had the highest levels of minor sexual abuse in the world in late 2021. UNICEF numbers estimate that an average of 3.4 children have been murdered every day in Mexico over the last seven years.

Valdez said health professionals play a key role in preventing such crimes. She also lamented a lack of data on the number of injured children and adolescents hospitalized due to acts of violence.

According to the UNICEF Agenda of Childhood and Adolescence 2019–2024, six out of 10 children up to the age of 14 have experienced some form of violent discipline in Mexico. The most common type of violence is psychological (37.8%), followed by sexual (29.6%) and physical (26.3%), according to the national statistics agency, INEGI.

Senator María Antonia Cárdenas Mariscal remarked upon the important step this reform represents in putting this issue “on the public agenda and [eradicating] violence against children.”

With reports from Siete24, El País, UNICEF, UNAM.

UNAM biologist warns of unexpected risks in pollinator gardens

By

MND Staff

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April 13, 2023

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En los cinco santuarios de la mariposa Monarca, que se ubican en Michoacán, han arribado cerca de 160 millones de estos insectos, 50% de estos se albergan en el cerro de El Campanario. — Gabriela Castaño Meneses has warned that butterfly migration patterns are being affected by the availability of pollen-rich plants in gardens. (Juan José Estrada Serafin/Cuartoscuro)

The trend of creating gardens in one’s yard to attract pollinators runs the risk of disrupting natural ecosystems, a UNAM scientist is warning.

Biologist Gabriela Castaño Meneses, a professor the National Autonomous University’s Faculty of Sciences in Juriquilla, Querétaro, told El Universal in an interview about the problems associated with planting too many pollen-rich plants or non-native plants.

a red flower — So-called ‘butterfly bushes’ can attract insects, but may cause problems for butterfly migration. (Royal Horticultural Society)

“There was a problem with the monarch butterfly. [People were] encouraged to plant Asclepias [milkweed] to attract butterflies and keep them here — but they should not stay, as the monarch butterflies come to spend the cold season here and must return,” Castaño said. “By planting these flowers, we will break the process, and there will be no more migration.”

“At the moment, this species is not at risk, but the migration process is. Every migration is more and more affected by climate change, and we need to see what we can do, as we use more insecticide and poison, which removes plants that [the butterflies] would feed upon on their journey,” she warned.

During Covid-19 restrictions, many in Mexico chose to expand their homes and create new areas of concrete in their gardens, such as patios — in the process reducing the green space available for plants to flourish.

“We must consider that the countryside is now the city. Every time we have more altered areas, there is very little left of original vegetation on the planet,” Castaño said. “More and more people live in urban areas. We have to change our idea of these areas, where everything is cement, everything is factories.”

MX Embassy RU — Non-native plants can also quickly replace local species, warn experts. (Mexican Embassy UK)

Research from the University of Maryland also suggests that while planting new gardens to support insect life is important, amateur gardeners should be careful to ensure that the plants they introduce to their environment are appropriate for the region in which they live.

University researchers found that so-called Butterfly bushes — fast-growing, pollen-rich flowers that have become popular ways to attract butterflies in the U.S., often cause problems for local plants. They have ended up classified as pests by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

This research is supported by the work of the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) in the U.K., which found that native plants often produce the best results in a balanced environment. The RHS did note, however, that planting pollinating flowers was better than doing nothing at all.

“The power of a garden lies in its very smallest inhabitants. Gardeners who look after them will have the greatest positive impact for biodiversity,” said Andrew Salisbury, a RHS principal entomologist, who has championed the investigation into native plant life and insect life.

With reporting by El Universal, the Royal Horticultural Society and the University of Maryland