Proposal to extend military control of public security moves ahead in Congress

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September 8, 2022

A military regiment patrols the streets in Puebla after heavy rains. — An army regiment patrols the streets in Puebla after heavy rains "to guarantee the safety of residents," Sedena said on social media. Twitter @SEDENAmx

Two controversial public security initiatives were endorsed by congressional committees on Wednesday and will now be considered by all lower or upper house lawmakers.

A bill that would authorize the use of the military for public security tasks until 2028 was approved by the Chamber of Deputies’ constitutional points committee, while a proposal to put the National Guard (GN) under the control of the army was approved during a joint meeting of the Senate’s justice and legislative studies committees.

The former, put forward by an Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) deputy, will be considered in the lower house next week, while the latter is being debated in the Senate on Thursday.

As things stand, the military is authorized to carry out public security tasks until March 2024. However, PRI Deputy Yolanda de la Torre believes that a four-year extension of the authorization is needed because the National Guard and state and municipal police haven’t shown they have the capacity to combat Mexico’s significant public security problems.

Some politicians said the National Guard was not ready to stand alone without domestic military support.GN/Twitter

Her bill states that a “solid and effective” police force “is not built overnight” and therefore, while the National Guard “develops its structure, capacities and territorial establishment,” the president of the day can use the armed forces for public security tasks in an “extraordinary, regulated, controlled, subordinated and complementary way.”

PRI national president Alejandro Moreno said that the party’s deputies can vote as they see fit, but indicated that they are united behind the constitutional bill, which will likely also be supported by the ruling Morena party and its allies.

The proposal threatens the electoral and legislative alliance between the PRI, the National Action Party and the Democratic Revolution Party because the latter two are opposed to increased militarization of the country.

Earlier this week, PAN national leader Marko Cortés called on PRI lawmakers to withdraw de la Torre’s bill, or vote against it, while PRD chief Jésus Zambrano described the proposal as “not only concerning but also offensive.”

PRI president Alejandro Moreno indicated that his party stands behind the reforms. Twitter @alitomorenoc

They both said that the Va por México coalition – which fielded common candidates in gubernatorial elections earlier this year – was at risk of breaking up.

Morena’s support for the second proposal – which seeks to put the GN under military control rather than civilian – ensured that it was approved by the two Senate committees. The proposed reform, which, if approved, would modify no less than four different laws, has been rejected by opposition parties, which warned of the risk of the militarization of public life.

It requires support from two-thirds of lawmakers to pass Congress – a supermajority Morena and its allies don’t have, but President López Obrador said last month that he also intended to issue a decree to put the National Guard under the control of the army. The decree, he asserted, would be binding even if the reform doesn’t pass Congress.

During Wednesday’s joint committee meeting, Morena Senator María Merced González asserted that most Mexicans want the GN to be under military control and that lawmakers have an obligation to legislate accordingly.

“The people rule. The majority of people believe the National Guard should have military control,” she said, apparently citing recent polls.

González said that Morena’s objective is to “protect society and give people an effective remedy against violence,” which neither the GN – under civilian command – nor the military has been able to significantly combat since López Obrador took office in late 2018.

In expressing his opposition to the plan to put the GN under military control, PAN Senator Damián Zepeda said that the militarization of public security – a policy implemented by former president Felipe Calderón when he deployed the army to combat cartels shortly after he took office in 2006 – has failed.

Calderón – who held office for the PAN between 2006 and 2012 – “failed in public security policy,” he said, adding that former president Enrique Peña Nieto, who perpetuated the militarized model during his 2012-18 government, “failed in public security policy” too.

López Obrador – who has also depended on the army to carry out public security tasks despite a campaign pledge to return soldiers to their barracks – has done no better, Zepeda charged.

With reports from La Jornada and Reforma

European companies investing more in Mexican acquisitions

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MND Staff

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September 8, 2022

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Ritz Carlton Hotel in Cancun — Ritz-Carlton Cancún, taken over by Swiss company Kempinski Hotels in August

In early August, the French company Vinci Airports announced it will become the leading shareholder of Grupo Aeroportuario del Centro Norte (OMA) by agreeing to purchase 29.99% of the Nuevo León–based company that runs 13 airports in Mexico, including one of its busiest, Monterrey International Airport.

A few weeks later, the Netherlands-based firm IMCD, a leading distributor of specialty chemicals and advanced materials, announced it had signed an agreement to buy 100% of the Mexico-based plastics firm PromaPlast.

“European companies see in Mexico an opportunity for investment in various sectors,” an article in Expansión magazine analyzing those moves and others declared this week.

According to data from the Bank of Mexico (Banxico), investment in Mexico by European countries represented some 17.5% of the total foreign investment at the end of 2021, an amount close to US $4.82 billion, according to Expansión, a Mexican publication focused on economics, finance and business.

Aeropuerto de Monterrey — Monterrey International Airport

Vinci is one of the top global operators of building and operating airports, with 57 under its wing before the OMA transaction, which was for nearly US $815 million, according to Expansión. Vinci runs hubs such as London Gatwick; Kansai International near Osaka, Japan; Lisbon; Lyon-Saint Exupéry in France; and Salvador Bahia in Brazil.

The 13 Mexican airports to be added to its portfolio when the deal is finalized — which is expected to occur by the end of 2022, according to Vinci — include locations in Northern and Central Mexico such as Monterrey, Mazatlan, Chihuahua, Juárez, Culiacán, Acapulco and Zihuatanejo-Ixtapa. Monterrey is the fifth-most used passenger airport and third-most used cargo airport in Mexico.

“Vinci Airports is thus establishing itself in the third-most populous country in the Americas, where passenger numbers in the second quarter of 2022 already managed to exceed pre-pandemic levels,” the company said in a press release that noted the contract is through 2048. “[This 25-year] period will allow Vinci Airports to deploy its long-term partnership model to support the country’s tourism industry and economic growth.”

Foreign direct investment statistics — Foreign direct investment, first quarter comparisons 1999-2022 (Ministry of Economy)

PromaPlast, which is based in Lerma in México state, comprises PromaPlast Resinas, Proveedora de Materiales Plásticos and PromaPlast USA Inc. It’s a leading distributor in Mexico of specialized products for the plastics industry. The amount of the transaction wasn’t disclosed, but IMCD said the closing of the transaction will occur this month.

“The acquisition of PromaPlast is an exciting step into an important new market for IMCD Mexico and further expands our capabilities in the United States,” Olivier Champault, director of the IMCD Advanced Materials group, said in a press release. “PromaPlast is a complementary addition to our global network of advanced materials experts and underscores our commitment to expanding opportunities for customers in Mexico and suppliers looking for a strong and reliable channel partner in the region.”

According to Expansión, Vinci and IMCD will join many of the European companies that “we have known on a daily basis in Mexico for several years, and [which] have even been an important part of the national economy, such as BBVA, AB InBev, Nestlé, Bayer, Adidas, Santander, Zara, Boehringer, Henkel and Danone, among others.”

August saw other deals between European and Mexican companies, Expansión reported: Madrid-based VASS acquired Mexico City–based Hexagon Data; the London-based RS Group purchased Nuevo León–based Risoul; and Switzerland- and Germany-based Kempinski Hotels announced a deal to take over the Ritz-Carlton in Cancún.

Expansión reported that there were 18 instances of overseas companies investing in or buying Mexican companies in August, an increase of eight over the previous month and a 38.4% increase over the same period in 2021. For all of 2022, the magazine added, there have been 91 such transactions for approximately US $7.7 billion.

With reports from Expansión and Simple Flying

Winemakers plead for regulation of urban development in Valle de Guadalupe

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MND Staff

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September 8, 2022

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Valle de Guadalupe winery — A winery in Valle de Guadalupe, one of Mexico's prime wine-growing regions today. (Archive)

A group of winemakers, chefs and concerned members of the Valle de Guadalupe community have issued a dire warning: If urbanization in the burgeoning region is not halted soon, it will cease to exist as “wine country” by 2037.

Members of newly formed Rescue the Valley (Rescatemos el Valle) took their case to the media this week, putting out a clarion call to federal, state and municipal governments to save the essence of Valle de Guadalupe — which is a sub-region of the larger Baja California winemaking area, sometimes referred to as “the Napa Valley of Mexico.”

Located only 113 kilometers southeast of the San Diego–Tijuana border crossing, Valle de Guadalupe and its more than 200 wineries have become an increasingly popular tourist destination for tasting, boutique hotels, Baja-Med cuisine, food and wine festivals and large-scale concerts. Wine-related tourism brings in 3.6 billion pesos (US $180 million) of annual revenue to Baja California.

As the area has grown in popularity, there has been an onslaught of real estate development and urbanization with few laws and regulations enforced to moderate the impact, according to members of Rescatemos El Valle.

Vineyard in Valle de Guadalupe, Baja California

“The valley is at risk,” said winery owner Fernando Pérez Castro, president of the State Council of Wine Producers of Baja California at a virtual press conference held on Tuesday. The press conference included a panel of winegrowers, officials from regional wine associations and commerce groups, a professor who specializes in ecosystems management, civic leaders and the well-known chef Jair Téllez, among others.

In becoming urbanized, the panelists said, El Valle is destroying its viability as an agricultural and wine region, which is why it became one of the most iconic destinations in Mexico in the first place.

They reported that at least 1,000 hectares (2,500 acres) of land that was either fallow or being used for viticulture has been gobbled up for private homes, businesses, and temporary and permanent concert venues. Between 2014 and 2019, 18% of agricultural land was lost in Valle de Guadalupe, which is located in the municipality of Ensenada, about 20 kilometers north of that city.

According to figures from the Institute of Metropolitan Research and Planning of Ensenada, the 5,445 cultivable hectares that existed in 2017 will be reduced to approximately 2,000 hectares in five years, The same forecast estimated that by 2037 the only remaining farmlands will be the ones upon which wine grapes are already planted.

“In general terms, what is identified as the main cause of the problem in Valle de Guadalupe is uncontrolled growth … which brings direct consequences related to water, soil, agriculture, the community and the landscape,” explained the panelists.

In addition, they said the 2010 Urban-Tourism Development Sector Program of Los Valles Vitivinícolas, which had a stated purpose of “preserving agricultural land by 95% for the next 30 years,” has been an absolute failure. An updated version in 2018 reduced the conservation goal by 424% and the area covered under the program was 81% smaller.

One project for a music venue, which wanted to clear 16 hectares of vegetation in an agricultural/conservation area, was scrapped by the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection, but the 9,000-capacity Valle de Guadalupe Arena is scheduled to open by the end of this year, and the 7,000-capacity Valle Amphitheater is already open.

Moreover, five other music clubs have opened in the area, which the group members said “would be unheard of in any other wine region in the world, from Mendoza [Argentina] to Bordeaux [France].”

Valle de Guadalupe also hosts numerous festivals that attract international visitors, such as the fourth annual Valle Food & Wine Festival, returning on October 22-23 after a three-year hiatus. The event will feature 25 chefs and 20 winemakers from the United States and Mexico, including big-name chefs such as Rick Bayless and Nancy Silverton.

Members of Rescatemos El Valle called for the creation of federal agencies to protect the agricultural and biocultural heritage of the country and emphasized they seek collaboration with the authorities, not confrontation. In addition to wine regions, they suggested these government entities could protect and regulate areas where coffee, chocolate, vanilla, fruit, agave and other important and endemic crops are cultivated.

With reports from El Pais, Reforma, Agencia Informativa de Mexico and Zeta Tijuana

From drought to floods: heavy rains continue across the country

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MND Staff

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September 8, 2022

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Lightning storm — The North American monsoon brought higher than average rainfall last month

Drought conditions eased in August as much-needed rain fell across much of Mexico, but the precipitation caused another problem in some parts of the country: flooding.

Just over 27% of Mexico’s territory was experiencing some level of drought at the end of August, according to the National Water Commission (Conagua). While the figure remains high, it’s 14 points lower than that recorded at the end of July, when 41% of the nation’s territory was in moderate, severe, extreme or exceptional drought.

In its latest drought monitor report, Conagua reported that 596 municipalities were in drought at the end of last month, while an additional 975 were “abnormally dry.”

The former figure declined 22.5% in the space of a month after July ended with 770 municipalities in drought. There are currently no municipalities in exceptional drought – the worst category, a situation that hadn’t been reported since the second half of February.

Drought conditions in mexico — At the end of August, 27% of Mexico was experiencing some level of drought. But heavy rains in the past few days have been a mixed blessing.

Conagua said that rainfall was above average in the second half of August in the northwestern, northern, central-west and southern regions of the country as well as the Yucatán Peninsula. It said that the rains were brought by the North American monsoon, which “interacted with an unseasonal cold front” in the second half of last month.

Conagua said that rainfall eased drought conditions on the Baja California peninsula and in the states of Sonora, Durango, Chihuahua and Coahuila. However, a lack of rain caused drought conditions to worsen in Tamaulipas, San Luis Potosí, Hidalgo, Veracruz, Chiapas and Oaxaca, the water commission said.

In two states – Baja California and Querétaro – 100% of municipalities are currently experiencing some level of drought, while more than 90% are in the same situation in San Luis Potosí, Tamaulipas and Coahuila.

Coahuila – which has the highest number of municipalities in extreme drought with eight – should see an additional improvement to its situation in Conagua’s next drought monitor report as extremely heavy rain fell in the northern state on the night of August 31 and in the early hours of September 1, causing extensive flooding in the municipality of Múzquiz.

Another state that has experienced flooding in recent days is Nuevo León. Heavy rain on Sunday caused flooding in several parts of the northern state, including the metropolitan area of Monterrey, where harsh water restrictions have been in place in recent months.

In Cadereyta, a municipality about 40 kilometers east of Monterrery, four people died when the vehicle they were traveling in was swept away by floodwaters on Monday. Two women, a man and a child drowned, according to state Civil Protection authorities.

Governor Samuel García said on Twitter Monday that Civil Protection personnel had responded to more than 700 emergency calls and salvaged 95 stranded vehicles.

“The good news is that these rains have brought a great benefit to catchment areas, rivers, streams and dams,” he wrote on Twitter. “The rain is a blessing at the moment.”

On Instagram, the governor said Wednesday that the La Boca dam, located south of Monterrey, was 70% full. Before the recent rains, the dam was in its “dying days,” he said.

García also noted that the El Cuchillo dam was 62% full compared to 39% “before the rains” and that the Cerro Prieto dam was at 11% of capacity, up from 0%. He asserted that Nuevo León would soon exit its water crisis and that the rain would allow authorities to improve water service to citizens.

Meanwhile, Hurricane Kay, which strengthened into a Category 2 storm on Wednesday and as of Thursday morning, remains a threat to the Baja California peninsula. The United States National Hurricane Center (NHC) said at 7 a.m. Central Time that the hurricane was about 135 kilometers west of the Cabo San Lázaro and moving north-northwest at 22 km/h.

It said that Kay has weakened slightly, but the hurricane still has maximum sustained winds of 140 kilometers per hour with higher gusts. A hurricane warning is in effect for north of Punta Abreojos to San José de las Palomas, while a hurricane watch is active for Puerto Cortés to Punta Abreojos. Those locations are all in Baja California Sur.

“Hurricane conditions are expected within the hurricane warning area beginning on Thursday, and are possible within the hurricane watch area Thursday,” the NHC said.

“A dangerous storm surge is likely to produce coastal flooding near where the center passes the coast in areas of onshore winds, or east of the center if Kay makes landfall along the western Baja peninsula of Mexico. The surge will be accompanied by large and destructive waves.”

With reports from Infobae, El País, Excélsior, Aristegui Noticias and El Universal

Mexico will acquire 9 million doses of Cuban vaccine for children ages 5-11

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MND Staff

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September 7, 2022

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The federal government has reached an agreement to buy 9 million Cuban-made COVID-19 vaccines, Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said Tuesday.

He said the shots will be used to inoculate children aged five to 11, who became eligible for vaccination in June.

“We already have a contract with the Cuban government and its biotechnology company [to buy] the Abdala vaccine,” López-Gatell told President López Obrador’s morning news conference.

He said the 9 million shots will be sufficient to inoculate 3 million children as Abdala is a three-dose vaccine. However, the vaccine has not yet been approved for use on children by health regulator Cofepris, and it is unclear when authorization might occur.

Deputy Secretary of Health, Hugo López-Gatell at a press conference announcing updates to COVID-19 vaccination strategy for children. Salud México/Twitter

Developed by Cuba’s Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, the Abdala shot is 98% effective against symptomatic COVID and 100% effective against severe disease and death, according to the Cuban government.

However, the protein subunit vaccine – meaning that it contains pieces of the virus that causes COVID – has not yet been approved by the World Health Organization (WHO).

To date, Mexico has only used the Pfizer vaccine to inoculate children against COVID-19 as it is the only shot authorized by Cofepris for use on minors. López-Gatell said that 46% of children aged five to 11 have received at least one shot and that the vaccination rate among the entire Mexican population is 82%.

He also reported that the first shipment of 10 million COVID-19 vaccines owed to Mexico by the WHO-backed COVAX initiative will arrive this week. By the end of the month, all 10 million Pfizer shots – which will also be used to vaccinate children – will have arrived, the coronavirus point man said.

Abdala COVID-19 vaccine — Cuban-made COVID-19 vaccine (Abdala)

In earlier remarks, the deputy minister noted that Mexico’s coronavirus situation has continued to improve over the past eight weeks after case numbers soared during a fifth pandemic wave fueled by highly contagious omicron sub-variants.

Mexico’s estimated active case count is currently just over 19,000, less than 10% of the figure recorded at the peak of the fifth wave. López-Gatell highlighted that just 4% of general care beds in COVID wards are occupied while only 2% of those with ventilators are in use.

Mexico’s accumulated case tally is just over 7 million, a figure widely accepted as a vast undercount, while the official COVID-19 death toll rose to 329,652 on Tuesday with 22 additional fatalities reported.

With reports from La Jornada, Reforma and Animal Político

IMSS announces plans to bolster midwifery and traditional medicine

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Lydia Carey

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September 7, 2022

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person making traditional medicines — Traditional medicine and midwifery are often the only health care available in Mexico's poor or remote communities, but have been marginalized over decades in the public health system. UNAM

Midwifery and traditional medicine practices will soon become more widely available options for patients in the country’s national public health system, two high-level officials announced at President López Obrador’s daily press conference Tuesday.

Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) head Zoé Robledo Aburto and Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell made the announcement, saying that in Mexico’s recent history, both practices had been greatly diminished and marginalized over the years as options for patients due to their lack of inclusion in the nation’s public health care strategy.

“Mexico’s legal framework is clearly insufficient to promote midwifery. Instead, in the last several decades, the spaces for midwifery have been diminished and its capacities lessened because it wasn’t a practice sufficiently incorporated into the national health system, which has prioritized, instead, a very technical and at times technocratic vision of childbirth,” said López-Gatell.

Community midwives (parteras) and traditional medicine doctors are often the only sources of medical care in poor and isolated communities in Mexico. Many work in rural indigenous communities where distance, language barriers and lack of services leaves community members, women in particular, vulnerable.

Indigenous midwives in Chiapas — Indigienous midwives at a center for women in Chiapas

Community midwives generally receive no salary and learn their trade from the generational knowledge collected by grandmothers, mothers and mothers-in-law. Although their work saves the lives of countless people every year, their ancestral knowledge and practices are often disrespected and disregarded by mainstream medicine.

According to statistics from the National Survey on Household Relations (ENDIREH) in 2021, three out of 10 pregnant women in Mexico have experienced some kind of abuse from doctors during pregnancy. Women report being yelled at, criticized or berated, ignored or made to remain in uncomfortable positions. At the very extreme, they’ve had contraceptive devices placed in their bodies without their permission.

Robledo said that IMSS would be working with midwives, traditional doctors, health committees, volunteers from rural areas and other citizens to bring more medical treatment to rural areas as well as incorporate communities and their traditional medical practices more fully into the national system.

One initiative includes cataloging medicinal plants and the building of ethnobotanical greenhouses in each state across the country to preserve local flora.

With reports from Proceso, Pie de la Pagina and Vanguardia

Arrest warrants issued in Ayotzinapa case include retired army general

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MND Staff

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September 7, 2022

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General Jose Rodriguez Perez of Mexico — Retired General José Rodríguez Pérez is reportedly being sought by authorities for ordering the murder of six kidnapped teaching students in 2014 from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College in Guerrero. Internet

A retired army general is among scores of people sought in connection with the disappearance and presumed murder of 43 students in Guerrero in 2014, the newspaper El País reported Wednesday.

Retired Gen. José Rodríguez Pérez, a then-colonel who commanded the 27th infantry batallion at the time of the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers College students’ disappearance in Iguala on September 26, 2014, is accused of ordering the murders of six students several days after they went missing.

On August 19 – the day former attorney general Jesús Murillo Karam was arrested in connection with the students’ disappearance – the federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) said that a federal judge had issued a total of 83 arrest warrants against 20 military commanders and soldiers belonging to two battalions in Iguala, five administrative and judicial officials in Guerrero, 33 municipal police officers from Huitzuco, Iguala and Cocula, 11 state police and 14 members of the criminal organization Guerreros Unidos.

The FGR hasn’t said whether Rodríguez – who became a general in 2015 before retiring a short time later – is among the military commanders sought, but El País reported that sources close to the investigation have confirmed that he is.

Deputy Interior Minister of Mexico Alejandro Encinas — Deputy Interior Minister Alejandro Encinas, second from right. Alejandro Encinas/Twitter

The revelation comes almost two weeks after Deputy Interior Minister Alejandro Encinas, the government’s point man for the Ayotzinapa case, made explosive accusations against the fugitive army leader. Speaking at President López Obrador’s regular news conference on August 26, Encinas said there was evidence that six of the 43 Ayotzinapa students were held in a warehouse for several days before Rodríguez ordered their murders.

It was the first time that the government directly accused the military of active participation in crimes committed against the students, although Encinas previously said that the army witnessed their abduction without intervening.

“There is … information corroborated with emergency … telephone calls where allegedly six of the 43 disappeared students, [still] alive, were held during several days in what they call the old warehouse and from there were turned over to the colonel,” Encinas said August 26 during lengthy remarks about a truth commission report on the Ayotzinapa case.

“Allegedly the six students were alive for as many as four days after the events and were killed and disappeared on orders of [someone referred to as] ‘the colonel,’ allegedly the then-colonel José Rodríguez Pérez,” said the deputy minister, who earlier last month described the Ayotzinapa case as a “state crime.”

ex attorney general of Mexico Jesus Murillo Karam — According to El Pais, General Rodríguez’s warrant was issued the same day as ex-attorney general Jesús Murillo Karam, who is currently in preventative prison charged with torture and other crimes in the case.

The Ayotzinapa truth commission report says that the army received an anonymous emergency call on September 20, 2014, during which the caller claimed that students were being held in a large concrete warehouse on the outskirts of Iguala.

It also says that on September 30, 2014, an unnamed colonel (believed to be Rodríguez) remarked that “they” – presumably soldiers – “will take care of cleaning everything up and that they had already taken care of the six students who had remained alive.”

The entry about the anonymous emergency call, the Associated Press reported, is followed by several pages of redacted material, but that section of the report concluded with the following: “As can be seen, obvious collusion existed between agents of the Mexican state with the criminal group Guerreros Unidos that tolerated, allowed and participated in events of violence and disappearance of the students, as well as the government’s attempt to hide the truth about the events.”

The federal government has rejected former president Enrique Peña Nieto administration’s so-called “historic truth” in the Ayotzinapa case, but a common thread between the truth commission report and that version of events is alleged collusion between Guerreros Unidos and authorities. However, the previous government rejected claims that the army was involved.

27th Batallion of Mexico in Iguala, Guerrero — Rodríguez, then a colonel, commanded the 27th infantry army battalion believed to have been involved in killing at least some of the kidnapped students. TRT World

The “historic truth,” presented by Murillo Karam in January 2015, posits that the students, traveling on a bus they commandeered to go to a protest in Mexico City, were intercepted by corrupt municipal police who handed them over to members of the Guerreros Unidos, who – mistaking them for rival gangsters – killed them, burned their bodies in a dump in the municipality of Cocula and disposed of their remains in a nearby river.

The former attorney general is alleged to have fabricated the version of events. He faces charges of forced disappearance, torture and obstruction of justice.

Many people have long suspected that the army played a role in the kidnapping and apparent murder of the students, a belief supported by leaked testimony from a suspected Guerreros Unidos leader.

The remains of just three students have been found and identified, leaving most of the students’ families with no closure – and as yet no justice – in the case that upended their lives eight years ago.

With reports from El País and AP

The story of Mexico’s national anthem and its banned verses

By

Lydia Carey

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September 7, 2022

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Decorations for Independence Day in Mexico. (Shutterstock)

In Mexico, September is the month of las fiestas patrias (patriotic festivities) — a time for flags, fireworks and, of course, singing the himno nacional, or national anthem. But Mexicans today don’t sing the song as it was originally written.

In 1853, president Antonio López de Santa Anna hosted a contest to create this symbol of national pride, calling for submissions from poets and musicians. Out of 26 participants who submitted lyrics, a poem was chosen by Francisco González Bocanegra, originally from San Luis Potosí.

The poem, a colorful ode to the country’s military glory and national fortitude, was supposedly written by González under duress. Legend has it that his fiancée had such extraordinary faith in his talents that she locked him in a room filled with images from Mexican history and refused to let him out until he finished the lyrics.

After González’s lyrics were chosen, it was time to put them to music, and among the entries was a composition by Jaime Nunó, a Spaniard who had met Santa Anna on a trip to Cuba and had just arrived in Mexico to work as a band director.

Mexican National Anthem - "Himno Nacional Mexicano" (ES/EN)

Watch this video on YouTube

Mexico’s National Anthem.

Nunó’s music was chosen to accompany Bocanegra’s lines, but even though his work was the official choice, many Mexicans didn’t like the fact that Nunó was a foreigner and felt that both the lyrics and the music of the national anthem should be written by Mexicans.

In the end, Nunó’s music was selected despite local grumbling, and the anthem was first heard on September 15, 1854, at the Santa Anna Theater in Mexico City (what would later become the National Theater). That first playing of the anthem was under the direction of orchestra leader and double bass virtuoso Giovanni Bottesini, an Italian who had also participated in the national contest.

Because President Santa Anna wasn’t present for this first performance, it wasn’t considered the anthem’s official debut, instead, it was “debuted” the following day, with musicians directed by Nunó himself.

Santa Anna, then anthem’s sponsor, would eventually be vilified by many Mexicans as the leader responsible for losing over half of Mexico’s national territory to the United States. By 1943, during the presidency of Manuel Ávila Camacho, a new official version of the anthem was published that excluded several stanzas referring to Santa Anna.

The verses about Agustín de Iturbide, an Independence-era general and the country’s first emperor, were also removed. According to Mexican law, a singer can be fined a whopping 900,000 pesos for singing the banned stanzas of the anthem or modifying the lyrics.

With reports from La Silla Rota, Excelsior, Velas Resorts Magazine, and Milenio

Section 6 of Maya Train is “environmentally viable”

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MND Staff

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September 7, 2022

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Heavy machinery clears a section of jungle to make way for the Maya Train. Greenpeace / Paola Chiomante

A study carried out by the National Autonomous University (UNAM) has concluded that the Tulum-Chetumal section of the Maya Train railroad is environmentally viable, but Greenpeace warned that the project places jungle along the route at “serious risk.”

Citing an environmental impact statement (EIS) prepared by UNAM’s Institute of Engineering at the federal government’s request, the National Tourism Promotion Fund (Fonatur) said in a statement Tuesday that section 6 of the 1,500-kilometer-railroad is “environmentally viable” as it “complies with Mexican laws and international treaties in the area.”

Fonatur, which is managing the US $10 billion project, also said that “complementary works” such as 138 wildlife crossings will be built along the 255-kilometer Tulum-Chetumal section, which will pass through the Quintana Roo municipalities of Tulum, Felipe Carillo Puerto, Bacalar and Othón P. Blanco.

The section, which will be built by the army and is expected to cost some 70 billion pesos (US $3.5 billion), has already been granted provisional approval.

Fonatur officials and UNAM academics presented the result of the government-commissioned study in the community of Felipe Carillo Puerto on Tuesday. Tren Maya / Facebook

At a meeting in a Felipe Carillo Puerto community on Tuesday at which the section 6 EIS was presented to local residents, Fonatur officials and UNAM Institute of Engineering academics highlighted that the EIS “provides for programs and actions” to compensate for “possible” environmental impacts “during the preparation of the site, construction, operation and maintenance of the project,” Fonatur said in its statement.

It said that some of the impacts “would be temporary and others can be prevented, mitigated and/or compensated.”

For its part, Greenpeace México, which carried out its own technical analysis of sections 6 and 7 of the Maya Train project, offered a scathing assessment of the environmental impact statements prepared for those routes, the latter of which will run between Bacalar and Escárcega, Campeche.

“Hand in hand with experts, Greenpeace meticulously reviewed the environmental impact statements and found that once again, the National Tourism Promotion Fund is presenting insufficient, false and inaccurate information,” the environmental organization said in a statement published Monday.

Greenpeace said that sections 6 and 7 are slated to run through “regions of major importance for conservation” and that its technical analysis concluded that the Mayan Jungle would be placed at “serious risk.”

“Section 6 is located just 2.5 kilometers from the Sian Ka’an Natural Protected Area (ANP), and therefore it’s very probable that the negative impacts … will affect this ANP, which was registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site,” Greenpeace said after noting that the Tulum-Chetumal stretch will also pass through areas with cenotes (natural sinkholes) wetlands, lagoons and mangroves.

It also said that section 7 will negatively impact “the area of influence of the Mexican Caribbean Biosphere Reserve” and the UNESCO-protected ancient Mayan city of Calakmul, among other areas.

Greenpeace – which also challenged the EIS for the contentious Playa del Carmen-Tulum stretch of the railroad – called on the government to “stop pretending and protect the Mayan Jungle,” of which almost 1,500 hectares need to be cleared for section 6 alone.

Greenpeace said that the proposed Maya Train routes will negatively impact the ancient Mayan city of Calakmul, a UNESCO-protected site. INAH

The environmental impact statements for both sections 6 and 7 should be rejected because the two projects pose risks to heritage sites and wildlife corridors that are “crucial for the preservation of endangered species,” the organization said, adding that they “violate international treaties and human rights.”

President López Obrador has repeatedly played down the impact the railroad will have on the natural environments of the five states – Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán, Quintana Roo and Chiapas – through which it will run.

He asserts that the railroad – which has faced a range of legal challenges since construction began in 2020 – will spur social and economic development in what he describes as Mexico’s long-neglected southeast, and has pledged that it will begin operations in 2023.

However, two people working on the ambitious project claimed earlier this year that it won’t be finished while the current federal government is in office, if at all. Several construction companies offered a similar opinion last year.

With reports from Sin Embargo, La Jornada Maya, Reforma and Expansión

Labor statistics show increase in job creation

By

MND Staff

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September 7, 2022

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Construction workers on a rebar structure with a construction crane in the background. — The transport and communications sector recorded the biggest job growth, followed by the construction sector. DepositPhotos

A net total of more than 157,000 formal sector jobs were created last month, the best result on record for the month of August.

The Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) reported Monday that the total number of IMSS-affiliated jobs rose by 157,432 in August to more than 21.23 million. Last month’s result was a 0.7% improvement compared to July.

The financial group Banco Base noted that formal employment has recovered fully from the pandemic-induced downturn, with the total number of positions 3% higher than in February 2020.

IMSS said that a net total of 616,718 jobs were created in the first eight months of the year, 76.2% of which are permanent positions. Almost 87% of the more than 21 million IMSS-affiliated jobs are permanent.

New jobs created in each state in 2022 (as of August). — New jobs created in each state in 2022, as of August. México Cómo Vamos

In the 12 months to the end of August, just over 816,000 jobs were created, IMSS said, lifting the total number of people employed in the formal sector by 4%.

In August, almost 20,000 jobs were created in Mexico City, the highest figure among the 32 federal entities. Nuevo León, where over 18,000 formal sector jobs were added to the IMSS books ranked second, followed by Jalisco, México state and Coahuila.

The only states where the number of formal sector jobs decreased last month were Morelos and Guerrero.

Over the past year, Baja California Sur recorded the strongest job growth in percentage terms, with the total number of positions up by 13.6%. Tabasco (13.5%) and Quintana Roo (10.7%) were the only other states with formal sector job growth above 10%.

The economies of both Baja California Sur and Quintana Roo – home to destination such as Los Cabos and Cancún – are heavily dependent on tourism, which was hit hard by the pandemic and associated restrictions. However, the sector has recovered strongly, allowing tourism-related businesses to increase their workforces.

Government infrastructure projects such as the Dos Bocas refinery and the Maya Train likely boosted employment in Tabasco, President López Obrador’s home state.

All 32 states recorded net job growth in the past 12 months, with seven states – Hidalgo, Nayarit, Yucatán, Querétaro, México state, Tlaxcala and Nuevo León – reporting figures of 5-9%. Sixteen states recorded job growth of 2-4%, while the figures for six states were below 2%.

Among the latter group, Sinaloa was the worst performer with the total number of formal sector jobs up by just 0.7% over the past year. San Luis Potosí, Zacatecas, Aguascalientes, Campeche and Michoacán recorded job growth between 1.3% and 1.5%.

State and local economies that depend on tourism, like Cancún in Quintana Roo, have recovered strongly. DepositPhotos

Among the different sectors of the economy, transport and communications recorded the biggest job growth in annual terms with the total number of positions up by 8.6%. The construction sector ranked second with the number of people it employs up by 5.3%, followed by the commercial sector with growth of 4.1%.

IMSS also reported that the average base salary of formal sector workers was 484.3 pesos (US $24) per day in August.

“This [average] salary represents an annual increase of 11.5%, the highest registered for any month in the last 20 years,” the institute said.

Data shows that the unemployment rate in Mexico (considering formal and informal sector workers) was just 3.2% in the second quarter of 2022, but over 49 million Mexicans – almost 40% of the population – were considered to be living in situations of in-work poverty due to their low salaries. Women were slightly more likely than men to be in situations in which they work but cannot afford all basic necessities.

With reports from Proceso and Publimetro