US ambassador acknowledges permit problems facing energy companies

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March 18, 2022

United States Ambassador Ken Salazar has acknowledged that U.S. energy companies are having problems securing the permits they need to operate without encumbrance in Mexico.

He addressed the issue while speaking about the federal government’s proposed electricity reform – which would guarantee 54% of the market to the state-owned Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) – during an Atlantic Council discussion in which Mexico’s ambassador to the United States, Esteban Moctezuma, also participated.

“My role as ambassador is to represent the United States and to carry out President Biden’s wishes. The way we view the energy, electricity reform challenges is we have to resolve … [them] in a way that supports the vision of the United States of America and that’s to create a clean energy powerhouse [in North America],” Salazar said.

“That’s part of the series of conversations we’ve had,” the ambassador said, noting that he, United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry and U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm have all met with President López Obrador.

“We have all expressed our real concerns. In the State Department world they call these things inquietudes [concerns], I call them temblores, little earthquakes, but we still have the building together. We need to work through some really tough issues, one of them has to do with contracts and permits. We’re pushing resolution of those things, hopefully there will be some resolution of that because otherwise you can’t have confidence in investment in Mexico,” Salazar said.

More than 600 energy sector permit applications submitted to the Energy Regulatory Commission, the Energy Ministry and the Agency for Safety, Energy and the Environment are stalled, according to Beatriz Marcelino Estrada, president of the Association of Energy Distributors and Dealers. The delays are affecting investments worth approximately 18 billion pesos (US $883 million), she said.

The newspaper Reforma reported last month that gasoline retailers and other private companies are effectively being forced to purchase fuel from the state oil company Pemex because the federal government isn’t renewing import permits and has shut down some privately owned fuel storage terminals. It said that there were just 88 valid fuel import permits as of February 1, whereas there were over 1,000 in December 2018.

Continuing his commentary on the proposed electricity reform, which will face a vote in the Congress some time later this year, Salazar acknowledged that “Mexico has its own sovereignty” and “will pass … legislation of some kind.”

“But at the end of the day our concern is that it support the integration of the supply chain between the United States and Mexico. Everywhere I go – I’ve been to some 20 states in Mexico – I see how our economies are already so integrated,” he said.

For his part, Ambassador Moctezuma noted that energy sector stakeholders had discussed the proposed constitutional reform in an “open parliament” process.

“Many companies have been very vocal and active telling [us] what they think about the initiative. In Mexico we need a strong public electricity enterprise because it’s responsible for all the grid. All the grid is supported by CFE,” he said.

“… Whatever comes from the initiative I think that it’s going to be for the … [betterment] and the efficiency of the system as a whole,” Moctezuma said.

“And one thing that also is the backbone of President López Obrador’s view about not just electricity but any public activity is to really get rid of corruption and that’s part of the initiative, to really make a transparent system,” he said.

Moctezuma also said that the Mexican government is in “permanent dialogue with specific companies” to understand their needs and reaction to the bill.

“I believe the outcome will be something that will guarantee what the president needs to strengthen the CFE and also [guarantee] an open, transparent and efficient market,” the ambassador said.

Salazar and Moctezuma also discussed a range of other bilateral issues, including migration and security, in a 45-minute discussion with Jason Marczak, director of the Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center at the Atlantic Council, a Washington D.C.-based think tank.

Meanwhile, two bank chiefs who spoke with the newspaper El Financiero said that a lack of certainty in the energy sector is affecting investment.

“We expected that a very significant part of investment in Mexico would go to this sector but as this isn’t materializing we’re seeing a significant burden on the economic potential of Mexico,” said Jorge Arce, CEO of HSBC México.

“… They have to clarify the rules about how and when people can invest in this sector,” he said.

Noting that energy sector activity is crucial for economic growth, Scotiabank México chief Adrián Otero also called for clarity.

“We’re confident there will be dialogue … and we know that the impacts [of the proposed reform] will be analyzed,” he added.

With reports from El Economista and El Financiero

Go-fast narco boat cocaine seizures soared in February

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MND Staff

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March 18, 2022

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A narco boat carrying drugs from South America to Mexico.

The navy seized more than 4.8 tonnes of cocaine brought into Mexican waters on go-fast narco boats in February, an amount close to the 5.3 tonnes confiscated in all of 2021.

According to navy statements, 3,004 kilograms of cocaine were seized off the southern coast of Baja California on February 15; 1,119 kilos were confiscated off the coast of Chiapas on February 19; a shipment of 716 kilos was seized off the coast of Chiapas on February 17; and 120 kilos were seized in the port of Manzanillo on an unspecified date in the second half of February.

The first three seizures, in which speedboats were used to bring the drug to Mexico, add up to 4.84 tonnes.

Go-fast boats that are capable of speeds of up to 100 kph are used to bring cocaine to Mexico from countries with coastlines on the Pacific Ocean such as Colombia, Ecuador and Guatemala. They refuel at “floating gas stations” made up of supply boats routinely disguised as fishing vessels, the newspaper Milenio reported. They also supply smugglers with food, water and batteries for communication equipment.

Criminal groups such as the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and the Sinaloa Cartel are allegedly responsible for bringing the drugs into the country via sea routes.

In addition to confiscating almost five tonnes of cocaine last month, the navy seized at least five vessels involved in smuggling operations and arrested 18 people, including five Guatemalans and five Ecuadorians. The navy pursued the smugglers with planes, helicopters and its own speedboats.

Information provided by naval authorities in Colombia and the United States aided the operations carried out by Mexican marines, according to a navy official who spoke with Milenio.

“There is prior work [done] well in advance through the exchange of information with national and international authorities. It facilitates our work,” said Rear Admiral Artemio Cuervo, director of the Navy Ministry’s command and control center.

The more than three tonnes of cocaine seized on February 15 was allegedly destined for Caborca, a northern border municipality in Sonora with a coastline on the Gulf of California.

Had the shipment reached that municipality, Sinaloa Cartel members affiliated with the sons of imprisoned drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán would have allegedly taken possession of it, presumably in order to smuggle it into the United States.

A 2021 navy report said that criminal organizations such as the CJNG and the Sinaloa Cartel are outsourcing the retrieval of cocaine shipments to smaller groups posing as fishing cooperatives. The cartels contract local gangs in the southern states of Chiapas, Oaxaca and Guerrero to fetch large shipments of cocaine out at sea, the report said.

With reports from Milenio

Legislation gives domestic workers access to health insurance and other benefits

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MND Staff

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March 18, 2022

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A woman working as a cleaner — Gender pay gaps and workplace discrimination affect women's employment choices. (Cuartoscuro)

The Senate has approved a reform that would ensure that Mexico’s more than 2 million domestic workers have access to social security benefits.

Senators voted unanimously in favor of reforming the Social Security Law to make the enrollment of domestic workers in a simplified IMSS social security scheme obligatory.

The Supreme Court ruled in 2018 that domestic workers must must have access to social security benefits like any other worker, but legislation to support its decision was not in place.

The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women said in February that only 3% of 2.2 million domestic workers receive social security benefits.

The reform approved by the Senate Thursday will now be considered by the lower house of Congress. If it becomes law, domestic workers will have the legal right to access benefits such as health care, sick leave, maternity leave, paid vacations, worker’s compensation, childcare, life insurance, severance pay and a pension.

Employers of housekeepers, gardeners, drivers, nannies and more will be legally obliged to register them in a simplified social security scheme and pay the relevant contributions.

Presenting the reform, Morena party Senator Napoleón Gómez said that recognizing the social and labor rights of domestic workers is urgent.

“For a long time, domestic workers have invested time and effort in work that is essential for the correct functioning of society but for which they receive little pay and no recognition,” he said.

“This is the enormous debt we have with a sector of the population that is mainly made up of women, 94% currently, according to data from [national statistics agency] INEGI.”

With reports from Milenio, El Financiero and La Jornada

To the brave people of Ukraine, a society in desperate need of peace

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Omar Vidal

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March 17, 2022

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Ukraine residence bombed in Feburary 2022 — Sometimes the most brutal wars are between those who once lived side by side. Shutterstock

When I have dreams of war, for whatever reason, they are never of world wars.

When I dream of war, I always dream of war between neighbors, between brothers and sisters, civil wars.

When I dream of war, I dream of more intimate conflicts. I dream of the wars I most fear: of the revolutions fought by France, the United States, Mexico, Russia, India and Cuba. I dream of civil wars between the Chinese or the Vietnamese; between Tutsis and Hutus in Rwanda; in Yugoslavia, in Iran, in Syria, in Nicaragua, in Colombia.

When I dream of war, I dream of poems about internecine wars, wars within a group: Homer’s Iliad, Li Po’s Nefarious War, Pablo Neruda’s To all of you… (A todos vosotros…) and Rubén Darío’s ¡Pax!…

When I dream of war, I dream of the bombardment of Guernica on April 26, 85 years ago — the event represented in Pablo Picasso’s painful portrait of the Spanish Civil War.

It’s the same war about which poet Miguel Hernández (assassinated by dictator Francisco Franco’s military when he was just 31 years old) sang: “Sad wars, if the end isn’t love. Sad, sad. Sad weapons if they aren’t the words. Sad, sad. Sad men if they aren’t dying of love. Sad, sad.”

When I dream of war, I dream of tormented open mouths and sharp-edged tongues of men, women, bulls and horses that bite themselves while screaming in pain. I dream of a mother and her dead son thrown onto an empty street. When I dream of war, I live Picasso’s Guernica. I dream of the remains of arms and forearms — disjointed and abandoned hands and legs that cling to the broken sword and the defenseless but living flower.

I dream of the painting’s agonizing horse and of the woman who grabs the lamp with her right hand. I dream of the barefoot and of the fallen. I dream of the dove of peace with the defeated wing and the open beak. I dream of brutality and darkness, of flames and fire, of the fallen knee, of the woman’s full breasts that will not feed any child.

I dream of the sun’s shimmering light that from the sky stares at everything — while in the distance, the arrows creep closer.

And this is when I am awakened by nightmares of my beloved Colombia and Mexico being torn apart by the unbearable pain of the hundreds of thousands of dead — the dead that raging violence and our bad rulers of today and yesterday make us carry on our collective shoulders.

This is why, when I dream of war, I dream of wars of fratricide. I dream of civil wars that strip off, exacerbate and reproduce the primordial challenges that haunt a society in desperate need of peace — challenges like poverty, inequity, insurrections, coups d’état, repression, violence, misery, death and rancor, the nauseating vomit that polarization breeds among compatriots.

These wars I fear the most. These wars frighten me, sadden me, keep me awake, make me fear for my children and yours. Those are Miguel Hernández’s sad wars of sad weapons and sad dead.

When I see the heartbreaking images of suffering that the brutal Russian invasion is bringing to Ukraine, I am flooded by memories from my first Russian books about war: Boris Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.

“A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny,” Solzhenitsyn said in his book, The Gulag Archipelago, his words from years ago still echoing truth today.

And then, I can no longer sleep. I cannot stop seeing the blood flow, the fleeing, crying wives carrying in their arms the broken orphans — the orphans of fathers who took a gun and stayed behind to fight and die for their homeland in Ukraine.

I cannot stop seeing burning homes and bombed cities, children and pregnant women left to their fate on the streets. I cannot stop seeing the faces of the millions of refugees abandoning their homeland to save their lives but leaving behind everything else.

I then close my eyes and daydream, wishing that Vladimir Putin and his war criminal accomplices would vanish as the sounds of Kyiv’s air raid sirens fade away.

Omar Vidal, a scientist, was a university professor in Mexico, is a former senior officer at the UN Environment Program and the former director-general of the World Wildlife Fund-Mexico.

COVID roundup: Some states drop mask mandates as fourth wave eases

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MND Staff

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March 17, 2022

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Two states have dropped outdoor face mask mandates, and others are considering changes.

All but one state is low risk green on the federal government’s coronavirus stoplight map, but Mexico is still recording hundreds of COVID-19 deaths most days.

The federal Health Ministry reported 244 additional fatalities on Wednesday and 260 on Tuesday. A total of 3,470 COVID-19 deaths were reported in the first 16 days of March for a daily average of 217.

Mexico’s official death toll rose to 321,619 on Wednesday, while the accumulated case tally increased to almost 5.62 million with 5,910 new cases reported.

There are currently just under 17,300 estimated active cases, a small fraction of the more than 300,000 at the peak of the omicron-fueled fourth wave earlier this year.

The easing of the fourth wave has led authorities in Coahuila and Nuevo León to drop mask mandates for outdoor public spaces, while Tabasco Governor Carlos Merino said his government is considering that possibility. An announcement will be made soon, Merino said.

Meanwhile, President López Obrador has ordered his health cabinet to analyze whether the ongoing use of masks is required, according to Ruy López Riadura, director of the Health Ministry’s National Center for Disease Prevention and Control Programs.

“The president tasked us with the face mask matter,” he said Wednesday, adding that a statement will be released to advise the public of the decision health officials take.

In Jalisco, authorities have decided not to drop their mask mandate despite the improved coronavirus situation in the state, where there are currently fewer than 500 active cases.

The Jalisco Health Ministry said Wednesday that masks are still required in outdoor and indoor spaces, but as of Thursday there are no capacity limits for events and businesses, and the requirement to present a COVID-19 vaccination certificate to enter certain establishments is no longer in place.

“[It took] two years of pandemic to reach this moment: starting tomorrow [Thursday], all economic activities in Jalisco will return at 100% capacity, but with your face mask properly in place,” tweeted Governor Enrique Alfaro.

With reports from Milenio

Monthly crime report shows February homicides total 2,260, down 14%

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MND Staff

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March 17, 2022

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rodriguez — Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez presents at the Thursday morning press conference.

Last month was the least violent February of the past five years, with total homicides down 14% from the same month last year.

Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez presented data Thursday that showed there were 2,260 homicides in February for a daily average of 81.

There was an average of 94 homicides per day in February 2021, 96 in the same month of 2020, 101 in February 2019 and 87 in the second month of 2018.

Speaking at President López Obrador’s regular news conference, Rodríguez claimed that homicides decreased 26.4% in the last nine months, but data she displayed didn’t support that assertion.

“Here I want to pause, Mr. President, to tell the people of Mexico and to tell the media that we have a sustained downward trend in the last nine months in which intentional homicides decreased 26.4%,” she said.

Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez compared February homicide trends over the past five years at her Thursday presentation. — Rodríguez compares February homicide trends over the past five years at her Thursday presentation.

The graphic she was displaying showed that the 26.4% decline in fact referred to the difference in the number of homicides between last month and July 2018, when a record high of 3,074 murders was reported.

The data presented by the security minister showed that there were 23,725 homicides in the last nine months, a period that ran from June 2021 to February 2022.

There were 25,351 homicides in the same nine-month period of 2020 and 2021, meaning that the decline in homicides in the last nine months was a much more modest 6.4%.

Nevertheless, Rodríguez used her false claim to support her argument that “the national security strategy is working,” even though homicide levels remain at near record highs.

“It’s the correct one,” she said, referring to the government’s strategy, which is often referred to as “hugs, not bullets” due to the precedence it gives to addressing the root causes of violence over combating it with force. “In this way the country is being pacified,” Rodríguez said.

As has become routine, the security minister noted that half of all homicides are concentrated in just six states. She presented data that showed there were 2,326 homicides in Michoacán, Guanajuato, Baja California, México state, Jalisco and Chihuahua in the first two months of the year, a figure that equates to 49.5% of the 4,697 murders recorded this year.

Michoacán, where the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Cárteles Unidos are engaged in a bloody turf war, recorded 484 homicides in January and February; Guanajuato, Mexico’s most violent state in recent years, registered 477; and Baja California, where the country’s most violent city – Tijuana – is located, saw 388.

Baja California Sur, plagued by violent crime as recently as the second half of the last decade, recorded just seven homicides in the first two months of the year, while Yucatán registered nine and Aguascalientes saw 10.

Mexico News Daily

New airport offers speedy check-ins to compensate for longer travel times

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MND Staff

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March 17, 2022

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AIFA director General Isidoro Pastor presented Thursday at the president's morning press conference. — AIFA director general Isidoro Pastor presented Thursday at the president's morning press conference.

Getting to the new Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA) from central Mexico City will take much longer than traveling to the capital’s existing airport, but check-in times will be shorter, the general director of the AIFA said Thursday.

Army General Isidoro Pastor presented a table at President López Obrador’s morning press conference that showed that the travel time between the World Trade Center (WTC) in the Nápoles neighborhood and the AIFA – located 50 kilometers north of the capital – is one hour and 15 minutes, while getting to the Mexico City International Airport (AICM) from the WTC takes just 27 minutes.

He noted that passengers are currently asked to arrive at airports in Mexico two hours before a domestic flight and three hours before an international one.

However, passengers flying out of the AIFA will be able to arrive just one hour prior to a national flight and two hours before an international one thanks to “technological developments” that will reduce check-in times at the new airport, Pastor said.

The combined travel time/check-in-and-waiting time for a passenger traveling to the AIFA from the WTC for a domestic flight will thus be two hours and 15 minutes, whereas for a passenger departing from the AICM it’s 12 minutes longer at two hours and 27 minutes.

At his Thursday presentation, AIFA director General Isidoro Pastor also shared a map showing transit options and costs for getting to the new México state airport.

The combined travel time/check-in-and-waiting time is shorter for AIFA passengers traveling from 11 other points in the Mexico City metropolitan area including the National Auditorium, Santa Fe, the four main bus terminals and the Indios Verdes Metro station, according to the table presented by Pastor, whereas it is exactly the same for passengers traveling to the AIFA or the AICM from the Cuatro Caminos Metro station, also known as Toreo.

“In all cases with the exception of the route from Toreo, we have minutes in our favor,” the AIFA director said.

“In other words, the longer time it will take you to travel to the Felipe Ángeles Airport will be compensated by the waiting time you’re in the Felipe Ángeles Airport,” Pastor said.

He detailed the “expeditious system” for checking-in AIFA passengers, which includes the use of smart phones or self-service check-in kiosks as well as a self-service luggage documentation process.

Pastor also said that getting through airport security will be much quicker thanks to “state-of-the art electronic security devices.”

“Hand luggage will be processed for the detection of dangerous substances in an average of 30 seconds,” he said.

The entire check-in/luggage documentation/security process for a planeload of 180 passengers will take approximately 33 minutes at the AIFA, whereas the process takes 80 to 90 minutes using the conventional, or manual, method, according to information presented by Pastor.

The plan to hasten the check-in process will also be aided by the fact there will be few flights departing the AIFA when it begins operations next Monday. Three Mexican airlines will each have two departures per day to domestic destinations, while a state-owned Venezuelan airline is slated to fly once weekly to Caracas.

Built by the army, the AIFA is located on an Air Force base some 50 kilometers north of the capital’s downtown in México state.

A train link from central Mexico City and new highway infrastructure connecting to the airport have not yet been completed.

Mexico News Daily

US issues travel alert for Tamaulipas following violence in Nuevo Laredo

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MND Staff

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March 17, 2022

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A sign reading "Bienvenido a Nuevo Laredo" on a Tamaulipas highway — (File photo)

The United States has updated its Mexico travel advisory after the arrest of a cartel boss triggered a violent response in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas.

Northeast Cartel leader Juan Gerardo Treviño Chávez – a United States citizen, according to Mexican authorities – was detained in the northern border city on Sunday and deported to the U.S. on Tuesday.

Gunfire, the torching of vehicles and blockades on main roads were reported in Nuevo Laredo after his capture. A high-ranking Tamaulipas official told the news agency Reuters that there was at least one “collateral” death due to the violence.

The U.S. Department of State on Wednesday reissued its warning not to travel to Tamaulipas due to crime and kidnapping.

In its updated advisory, it said it authorized the departure of non-emergency U.S. government personnel and eligible family members from the U.S. Consulate General in Nuevo Laredo due to security conditions.

“As of March 15, the Department of State is not able to offer routine consular services from the U.S. Consulate General in Nuevo Laredo. U.S. citizens wishing to depart Nuevo Laredo should monitor local news and announcements and only do so when considered safe during daylight hours,” the advisory said.

The State Department said that organized crime activity – including gun battles, murder, armed robbery, carjacking, kidnapping, forced disappearances, extortion, and sexual assault – is common along the northern border and in Ciudad Victoria, the Tamaulipas capital.

Insight Crime, a foundation dedicated to the study of organized crime, said that the arrest of Treviño may only stoke further violence along the U.S. border by providing an opening for the Jalisco New Generation Cartel to continue its national expansion.

The State Department noted that heavily armed members of criminal groups often patrol areas of Tamaulipas and operate with impunity, particularly along the border region from Reynosa to Nuevo Laredo.

“In these areas, local law enforcement has limited capacity to respond to incidents of crime. … U.S. citizens and LPRs [lawful permanent residents] have been victims of kidnapping,” it said.

The State Department also said that travel for U.S. government employees in Tamaulipas is limited to Matamoros and overland travel, but they “may not travel between cities in Tamaulipas using interior Mexican highways.”

The State Department also warns U.S. citizens not to travel to Colima, Guerrero, Michoacán and Sinaloa due to crime and kidnapping.

It advises U.S. citizens to reconsider travel to Baja California, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Guanajuato, Jalisco, México state, Morelos, Nayarit, Sonora and Zacatecas due to crime or crime and kidnapping, and advocates increased caution in all other states with the exception of Campeche and Yucatán where normal precautions are recommended.

The State Department’s advisory for Mexico as a whole is reconsider travel due to COVID-19.

“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a Level 3 Travel Health Notice for Mexico due to COVID-19, indicating a high level of COVID-19 in the country,” it said.

Mexico News Daily

Anti-corruption assessment sees lack of political will to implement strategies

By

MND Staff

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March 17, 2022

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President Peña Nieto and other officials celebrate a new anti-corruption system in 2016.

Mexico’s score in a regional anti-corruption assessment has improved slightly compared to last year, but “insufficient political will” for the implementation of the country’s legal anti-corruption framework was identified as a problem, even as President López Obrador cites combating corruption as his top priority.

The 2021-22 edition of the Latin America Anti-Corruption Assessment, completed by the New York City Bar Association’s Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice, also stated that the fight against corruption is being used for political purposes.

The assessment evaluated legal efforts to prevent and combat corruption in 17 countries, ranking Mexico ninth with a score of 5.64 out of 10. In the first edition of the study last year, it ranked sixth out of eight countries with a slightly lower score of 5.51.

Uruguay ranked first in the latest assessment with a score of 8.36, followed by Chile, Costa Rica, Brazil and Argentina. Venezuela ranked last behind Guatemala and Honduras.

The scores for each nation are based on information obtained via questionnaires completed by lawyers from member firms of the Vance Center’s Lawyers Council for Civil and Economic Rights — which is made up of private practice lawyers from across the Americas — and other members of the legal communities in the countries assessed.

Mexico’s overall score was formulated from its scores of 9.3 out of 10 for anti-corruption legislation, up from 9.05 last year; 4.83 for implementation of that legislation, up from 4; and 3.5 for its anti-corruption authorities, down from 4.

It ranked first among the 17 countries for the strength of its anti-corruption legislation, but 10th for implementation and 12th for anti-corruption authorities.

The report said that Mexico has a comprehensive anti-corruption legal system that was revised and reformulated in 2016-2017 to create a National Anti-Corruption System (SNA).

“According to the majority of the legal community consulted, this legal framework is generally sufficient, although it could be improved,” the report said.

“… Despite the strength of the legal framework,” it continued, “the consulted legal community emphasizes that the main challenges for the applicability of the legal framework include insufficient political will for its implementation (despite being one of the priorities of the current president), inadequate economic and human resources for anticorruption agencies, insufficient judicial independence and/or judicial procuring bodies and inadequate training of public officials.”

The report added that the consequences of some of these challenges are “selective justice and impunity.”

The Ministry of Public Administration (SFP), the government's internal watchdog, was identified as one of the least effective anti-corruption authorities. — The Ministry of Public Administration (SFP), the government’s internal watchdog, was identified as one of the least effective anti-corruption authorities.

It also said that people in poverty and in vulnerable sectors of the population were identified as those most affected by corruption, “with special mention of women for lack of a gender-sensitive anti-corruption policy and migrants.”

The report identified eight federal authorities with powers to prevent, investigate and punish corruption.

But those authorities – among which are the Ministry of Public Administration (SFP), the Federal Auditor’s Office, the Finance Ministry’s Financial Intelligence Unit and the anti-corruption unit of the federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) – don’t have the independence needed to effectively fulfill those tasks, according to those consulted.

The institutional capacity of administrative authorities empowered to prevent, investigate, and prosecute acts of corruption is low, as is that of criminal authorities empowered to investigate acts of corruption, the report said.

“The consulted legal community had difficulty identifying the most effective authority,” it added, while the FGR’s anti-corruption unit and the SFP, the government’s internal corruption watchdog, were identified as the least effective.

“The consulted legal community identifies that the anti-corruption fight is being used for political purposes, as the necessary support is not provided to SNA and other entities, on the contrary, they are attacked from the executive branch. In addition, there is a lot of interest in prosecuting corruption cases from past administrations, but not current cases, including the recent case of possible corruption to benefit one of the president’s children,” it said.

The publication of the Latin America Anti-Corruption Assessment comes two months after Transparency International’s 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index was released. The index, touted as “the most widely-used global corruption ranking in the world,” showed that Mexico’s position – 124th out of 180 countries – and score – 31 out of 100 – were unchanged compared to the previous year.

Mexico News Daily

As war in their homeland rages, Mexico’s Ukrainians try to help from afar

By

Joseph Sorrentino

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March 16, 2022

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Mexican protest of invasion of Ukraine — A boy holds a sign expressing solidarity between Mexico and Ukraine at a protest at the Museum of Memory and Tolerance in Mexico City. Photos by Joseph Sorrentino

When Russia invaded Ukraine, Aliona Starostenko, who moved from Ukraine to Mexico with her parents when she was eight years old, knew she had to do something.

“The war comes, and you forget everything,” she said. “It is scary to wake up and look at the news to see if the Russians have bombed another city. You can’t just sleep and cry, you need to put your energy into helping.”

Starostenko done just that: she collects humanitarian supplies and monetary donations to send to Ukraine. She sells items to raise more funds. She’s also worked with friends in Ukraine to get four people out of that country. Recently, she drove to Mexico City to deliver the supplies she’d collected and attend a protest.

She knows of humanitarian supplies being collected in Puebla, Mexico City and Querétaro. In Puebla, Starostenko estimates that around 40 people have made donations.

“We were specifically asked to collect things for babies and children,” she said. “Medicine, diapers, formula — things like that.”

Mexican Ukrainian Aliona Starostenko — Aliona Starostenko says her mother went in 2020 to care for her own sick mother in Lviv, in Western Ukraine, and is now “stuck there.”

Among the four people Starostenko has managed to evacuate from Ukraine are an uncle and niece. However, she’s been unable to get her mother — who has been in Ukraine since December 2020 — out of the Eastern European country.

Her mother returned there to care for Starostenko’s sick grandmother, who lives in Lviv.

“Now she is stuck,” Starostenko said. “She cannot move my grandmother.” And even if Starostenko finds a way to get her mother out of Ukraine, she says, her mom refuses to leave without her own mother.

The items Starostenko collects are shipped to Mexico City, where Elisa Irene Sotelo Schmelkes takes over, coordinating collections, classifying and packing everything, getting them ready to ship.

Sotelo, who is Mexican, said she got hands-on training for this when she volunteered in the aftermath of her country’s 2017 earthquake. She has no formal connection to Ukraine but, “I couldn’t not do anything,” she said.

“I’m good at organizing people,” she said. “They weren’t organized before. They needed someone who knew how to do stuff. I know how to do stuff.”

About 3.5 tons of supplies have been collected so far, she said. Unfortunately, there have been a couple of delays, meaning the supplies haven’t left Mexico yet. “We are waiting for a donor to pay to transport the humanitarian aid,” Starostenko said

Her husband Jorge Trejo said that they hoped supplies would soon be flown to Holland or Romania, and from there on to Ukraine.

Knowing that some people like to purchase items to show their support for Ukrainians, Starostenko is selling bright yellow T-shirts with the words Paz Ucrania (Peace Ukraine) printed on them for 250 pesos (US $12.50) and bumper stickers with the same slogan for 50 pesos (US $2.50). She’s also been collaborating with Cholula-based jewelry designer Martha Angélica Cabrera Figueroa.

Cabrera is making bracelets with a small Ukrainian coat of arms attached that Starostenko sells for 100 pesos. “I typically make 10 bracelets a week,” said Cabrera. “Now I am making 60.”

She’s selling them to Starostenko for just a few pesos above cost. “I make much more money when I sell them in my store, but I am doing this to help the cause,” she said.

On Sunday, Starostenko and Trejo could be found emptying a carful of supplies into a Mexico City office and then meeting up with Sotelo and Sofya Dolutskaya, a friend who was born in Russia but is a naturalized Mexican citizen, for a quick bite and some coffee.

Dolutskaya said he has lived in Mexico for 11 years. She began protesting against Russian aggression when the country’s military invaded Crimea in 2014. She found a Ukrainian group on Facebook and joined their protests.

She said that Ukrainians were impressed that a Russian would protest against her own country.

“Russian and Ukrainian people have lived side by side for so long,” Dolutskaya said. “It is not a matter of blood but a complete rejection of the imperialist mindset. I’m doing this because I think Putin and the government … have a Cold War and imperialist mentality.”

Dolutskaya and others have put together a news site on the cell phone application Telegram, where articles from a variety of sources are translated into Spanish. She said that Russians protesting against the war could be charged with high treason and given a prison sentence of 15 years.

“For the news site, I could get 20,” she said.

After a short break, the four friends headed to a protest scheduled by the Ukrainian Embassy and taking place in front of the Museum of Memory and Tolerance.

When they arrived, around 350 people, the majority wearing yellow and blue — the colors of the Ukrainian flag — gathered here to take part in “Elevamos Nuestras Voces” (We Elevate Our Voices) — the name of the protest. “I protest to get people to know the truth,” said Starostenko. “Protesting is effective because you make news and people become more aware. Maybe they will help.”

She said it was also a way to connect with other Ukrainians, “to help each other and to help families in Ukraine.”

Olena Strembitska, a Ukrainian at the protest who has also lived in Mexico for 11 years, said her parents and friends are still in Olexandria, a city in the center of Ukraine.

“[The Russians] are not attacking the center yet,” she said. “They want to capture cities and kidnap the government. I love Mexico for my husband and my children, but my soul is in Ukraine with my family.”

She said that many of her Russian friends don’t understand what’s really happening in her country. “They are captured by Putin,” she said, referring to the jailing of people who attempt to speak against the government. “It is not that the majority of news there is false. All news in Russia is false.”

As the protest geared up, demonstrators sat on the ground with pieces of yellow or blue cardboard that they held aloft to form an image of the Ukrainian flag as they sang Ukraine’s national anthem. Around them, others waved Ukrainian flags. For a couple of hours, people protested, networked and commiserated.

Afterward, Starostenko’s group headed to a restaurant for some more food.

“Today was a complete experience,” she said in the car after she’d finally had a few minutes to rest. “The struggle, the networking, the food and the tears.”

While Starostenko will gratefully accept any donated supplies, she said it’s better if people donate money since shipping the supplies is very expensive. She’s coordinating with NGOs to facilitate the collection and distribution of money. If you’d like to contribute, contact her at [email protected] or on Instagram

Joseph Sorrentino, a writer, photographer and author of the book San Gregorio Atlapulco: Cosmvisiones and of Stinky Island Tales: Some Stories from an Italian-American Childhood, is a regular contributor to Mexico News Daily. More examples of his photographs and links to other articles may be found at www.sorrentinophotography.com He currently lives in Chipilo, Puebla.