There was an average of 307 COVID deaths reported every day over the past week. Reuters said the daily average has declined by more than 230 over the past three weeks and is currently just 18% of its pandemic peak.
Mexico’s accumulated case tally rose to 3.76 million on Tuesday while the official death toll increased to 284,925. There are 32,816 estimated active cases across the country.
Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said Tuesday that case numbers have been on the wane for 11 weeks.
“… The incidence of cases is now lower than at the lowest point between the first and second waves,” he said, adding that if the reduction in case numbers is maintained, Mexico will reach the “absolute lowest point of the epidemic” next week, even though infections will presumably still be higher than in the early days of the pandemic.
“Less than 1% of estimated [total] cases are active cases,” the coronavirus point man said.
He also said hospitalizations have decreased, adding that the number of patients currently in hospital is 81% lower than the pandemic peak. While case numbers were higher during the third wave than during the second, hospitalizations were much lower, the deputy minister said.
The majority of cases during the delta variant-driven third wave were among younger people who were less likely to be vaccinated but also less susceptible to serious disease. Most young people have now had at least one shot as Mexico nears the conclusion of its vaccine rollout.
The Health Ministry reported Tuesday that 77% of adults have had at least one shot. A total of 69.3 million people have been vaccinated, it said, adding that 51.5 million are fully vaccinated.
Mexico’s approach contrasts sharply with that of the United States, where vaccines are available to youths 12 and over and the Biden administration intends to offer the Pfizer shot to children aged 5 to 11 if it’s approved by U.S. drug regulators.
The White House said Wednesday that it will make vaccination convenient, easily accessible and free for kids aged 5 to 11 if the Pfizer shot is authorized by the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Mexico's pavilion in Dubai seen as opportunity to show off Mexico's cultural wealth.
One of Mexico’s objectives at the world expo currently being held in Dubai is to broaden people’s perception of the country, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said Tuesday.
He lamented that Mexico is best known internationally for its portrayal in television series that focus on the lives of drug traffickers such as Narcos México and El Chapo.
But Mexico’s participation at Expo 2020 Dubai, which began October 1 and will run through March 31, gives the country the opportunity to show off its cultural wealth, Ebrard told an event at which the program of events to take place at the Mexican Pavilion was presented.
“We can go to the other stands and defend, promote and publicize the interests of Mexico. What are they? First, its image,” he added.
Ebrard claimed that out of every 3,000 people who visit the Mexican pavilion, 2,900 or “maybe more” will only know about Mexico through “narco series.”
“They have no idea what Mexico [really] is,” the foreign minister said. “… The Dubai World Expo represents a unique opportunity to promote Mexico to faraway countries,” he said.
“We’re going to be able to be in contact with 100 countries where we don’t even have an embassy, … a lot can be achieved for Mexico.”
It wasn’t the first time that Ebrard has bemoaned the negative portrayal of Mexico by narco-related television series.
“Today the image of Mexico that is seen in almost the whole world is from narco series or similar [shows],” Ebrard said in 2019.
“I tell you this because prime ministers, high-ranking officials and representatives from the whole world have spoken to me about it and that [image] doesn’t do us justice.”
The Foreign Ministry said in a press release just before the start of the Dubai Expo that the Mexico Pavilion – known as the Weaving Life Pavilion because its exterior design was inspired by Mexican fabrics – “will have spaces that connect history, modern times and a proposal for the future of the country.”
“The pavilion has an area of 900 square meters divided into three levels to carry out cultural activities, and promote SMEs [small and medium-sized enterprises] investment and Mexican cuisine,” it said.
Numerous artists will present their work in the pavilion and singers such as Lila Downs, Natalia Lafourcade and Javier Camarena will offer performances.
The president issued a warning to parents about video games and violence. deposit photos
The strategy employed by a cartel to recruit teenagers through a video game was explained at President López Obrador’s Wednesday morning news conference where, for the second time this week, the president warned of the dangers of allowing children to play with Nintendo games.
Three 11 to 14-year-old boys were rescued on October 9 in Oaxaca after being taken hostage by affiliates of the Tamaulipas based Northeast Cartel. They had been lured by offers of lucrative work via the shooter video game Free Fire.
The cartel planned to send the boys from Tlacolula de Matamoros, about 30 kilometers from Oaxaca city, to Monterrey, Nuevo León, to employ them as “hawks,” or cartel lookouts. One of the boys left a letter to his parents telling them not to worry because he had gone to work in Monterrey and would send lots of money.
Deputy Security Minister Ricardo Mejía Berdeja explained the pertinence of the case. “This case is important … it intertwines the virtual world with the real world because criminals carried out their criminal activities through online multiplayer games and social networks,” he said.
Mejía detailed how the events unfolded: a cartel affiliate acting under the name “Rafael” communicated with one of the youths through Free Fire in August. He pretended to be the same age and to share the same interests. The youth added him on Facebook, and later gave him his cell phone number.
After the pair continued to communicate through Facebook and WhatsApp “Rafael” offered the youth 8,000 pesos per fortnight (about US $400) to work as a hawk in Monterrey. He credited the offer with the youth’s obvious fondness for weapons, and assured him that he would earn a lot of money.
The youth accepted the offer and invited two school friends to join him, informing “Rafael” that they would like to replicate the deal. They were told to contact a woman and were sent money for their bus tickets to Oaxaca city.
On arrival, they were bought bus tickets with false identity numbers and taken to an address in the east of Oaxaca city, where they were later rescued.
Mejía provided a warning, due to the ease with which Free Fire can be accessed: “It is … downloaded from any mobile device for free and has a high content of violence … currently this game has 80 million users worldwide … without any real restrictions.”
He added that the internet offers a host of dangers, which need to be negotiated. “These are the risks of the internet, the accessibility to a series of platforms without any control … criminal infiltration, the attempted recruitment or recruitment, imposing stereotypes such as narcoculture, addiction to easy money, overvaluation of economic capacity, normalization of violence, bullying, xenophobia, the risk of cyberbullying, early sexualization, anxiety disorders and neuropsychiatric implications,” he said.
President López Obrador criticized parents for entertaining their children with Nintendo and other video games, warning exposure to them could lead to violence and calling them harmful.
Still from the film Prayers for the Stolen. Lenke Szilagyi/Pimienta Films
Mexico’s shot at glory at next year’s Academy Awards rests on the shoulders of a film that tells a story about cartel violence in Guerrero.
Tatiana Huezo’s Prayers For The Stolen (Noche de Fuego in Spanish) was selected by the Mexican Academy of Arts and Cinematographic Science as the candidate for nomination in the best foreign film category.
If chosen as a nominee, it would be the 10th Mexican film to compete for the prize: in 2019, Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma became the first Mexican film to win the award.
Prayers For The Stolen tells the story of three girls in the Guerrero Sierra who live amid a backdrop of gunshots and narcos while they battle to maintain their innocence.
The 110-minute film has already taken honors: it won the best film award in the Latin Horizons section of the San Sebastián Film Festival in Spain and secured the special mention in the un certain regard (from another angle) category at the Cannes Film Festival, where 20 films with unusual styles and non-traditional stories are presented.
Director Tatiana Huezo’s film has already been recognized this year at Spain’s San Sebastián Film Festival and at the Cannes Film Festival. Pimienta Films
Huezo, who is of Salvadoran and Mexican heritage, dedicated her Cannes recognition to Latin American women who are “teaching [their daughters] that they can be free.”
Mayra Batalla, Norma Pablo and Alejandra Camacho star in the film.
Prayers For The Stolen was chosen by the Mexican film academy’s selection committee ahead of Arturo Ripstein’s Devil Between The Legs (El Diablo Entre Las Piernas), Samuel Kishi’s The Wolves (Los Lobos), Fernanda Valadez’s Identifying Features (Sin Señas Particulares), Alonso Ruizpalacios’ Netflix original film A Cop Movie (Una Película De Policías) and Yulene Olaizola’s Traffic Jungle (Selva Trágica).
The Mexican film academy chose The Wolves to represent Mexico in Spain at next year’s Goya Awards in the Ibero-American film category.
The 94th edition of the Oscars will take place on March 27. The 36th Goya Awards will be broadcast from Valencia on February 12.
Prayers For The Stolen (2021) | Trailer | Tatiana Huezo
The CanSino and Sputnik vaccines are not on the WHO's approved list.
President López Obrador chastised the World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday for its tardiness in approving some COVID-19 vaccines.
Two vaccines used in Mexico – the Sputnik V and CanSino shots – have not been approved by the WHO and people inoculated with them will not be permitted to enter the United States under new rules set to take effect November 8.
Speaking at his regular news conference, López Obrador questioned why the vaccines haven’t already been approved given that it’s known they are safe and offer protection against COVID-19.
“I understand that things move slowly in [the National] Palace but I don’t accept it anywhere else. Besides, things aren’t moving so slowly here, we’re now pushing the elephant,” the president said, comparing the federal government to the world’s largest land mammal.
“But in the World Health Organization, … with all respect, it’s inefficiency, we’ve been saying it for a week but there’s no response,” he said.
López Obrador said he asked Health Minister Jorge Alcocer and Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell to prepare a letter asking the WHO to expedite its approval process, adding that he intended to sign and send it on Tuesday.
He conceded that the WHO might not approve the Sputnik V and CanSino shots but described that outcome as “very unlikely because we’re talking about health, not political or ideological matters.”
“… The bottleneck’s in the World Health Organization. We hope they resolve [the issue] soon, they can do it in 72 hours. They’ve been [considering approval] for a very long time,” López Obrador said before claiming that the delay was caused by “indolence.”
If the WHO hasn’t approved the Sputnik and CanSino shots by the time the United States vaccination requirement takes effect early next month, there is some possibility that Mexicans inoculated with those vaccines will still be able to enter the U.S.
Roberto Velasco, head of the Foreign Affairs Ministry’s North America department, said in an interview Tuesday that Mexican authorities were speaking to their U.S. counterparts about the possibility of people vaccinated with those shots being able to cross the border.
“We’re exchanging information to see if there is a bilateral solution,” he told Milenio Television.
An artisan in Metepec, México state, makes a ceramic cazuela, used in cooking, Many artisans here use lead glazes on their creations. Ppalex1994/Creative Commons
You might think that at this point, everyone knows the danger of lead and that nothing you buy anymore contains it. But in Mexico, that is not quite the case.
Here, the main concern about lead comes not from paint or plumbing, but rather from glazed pottery.
Before the conquest, pottery in Mexico was unglazed. Mesoamericans burnished pieces before firing instead. European lead glaze has both practical and aesthetic qualities, but the making and the use of it over time can have serious health consequences.
Before I continue, let me stress here that the problem is with lead-glazed pottery, especially for wares related to the cooking, storage and serving of food. Unglazed pottery does not contain significant quantities of lead, if any, and those products that have lead glazes strictly for decorative purposes do not pose significant risks for the consumer since they do not eat or drink out of them.
Despite efforts to eliminate lead glazes, they are still widespread on traditional pottery. Any glazed piece bought in Mexico proper that is not certified as lead-free almost certainly has it. Pure Earth México, an NGO whose mission is to eliminate lead poisoning in the country, estimates that two of every 10 Mexican children have toxic levels in their blood because of the use of cooking and serving wares containing the substance.
Serving café de olla, Mexico’s spiced coffee, made in a glazed pot and served in a glazed cup. Marlo Canez/Creative Commons
Lead glazes are dangerous to both artisans and to those whose food touches the final product. For artisans, the danger comes from the fine powder that the glaze comes in, which is easy to inhale and stays in the environment long after it is mixed and applied.
The firing of the glazed piece also puts contaminants into the workshop’s air, which is often part of the artisan’s house, meaning that lead is all over where people work, sleep and eat. Studies in pottery towns such as Santa Fe la Laguna, Michoacán, show high blood-lead levels in the population, especially in women and children, as well as high rates of miscarriages and other health issues.
For the end user, the problem is the leaching of lead into food or beverages. This is particularly problematic for hot foods, acidic foods — think limes, tomatoes and tamarind — and foods stored for long periods.
Officially, Mexico banned lead use in most consumer goods in 1993, but enforcement is spotty at best. Both artisans and the domestic market still demand lead glaze; it is usually cheaper than non-lead counterparts.
Lead-free glazes need higher firing temperatures, requiring artists to replace or retrofit their kilns. Wares made with non-lead glaze often do not have the same shine or color brilliance that their customers are used to. Small potters work on very thin profit margins and do not have the resources to learn new skills, buy new equipment or look for new markets, even if they are significantly more profitable in the long run.
In addition, many Mexicans are not convinced that lead poses health risks. Its negative effects build up imperceptibly over time, and artisans here have used leaded glazes for centuries with no sudden, dramatic problems. For this reason, Mexican authorities (and to be fair, the rest of the world) did not take lead seriously until the later 20th century.
Set of glazed pitcher and cups from Capula, Michoacán. Alejandro Linares García
Finally, much of Mexico’s population is strongly traditional. In a June 2021 interview, Emma Yanes Rizo, director of the federal handcraft agency Fonart, said the main problem is “… the resistance to changing customs, such as [the use of] cazuelas [clay pots] to cook mole and other foods,” as well as the way artisans have worked for generations.
Fonart reports that even with grants and other support to use lead-free glazes, a number of artisans return to the leaded ones, especially if sales suffer. Today, still over half of the pottery produced in Mexico has dangerous levels of lead, with 10%–20% capable of inducing lead poisoning over time.
But the health problems associated with traditional glazed pottery are not the only reasons to get artisans to switch. Mexico’s exports of pottery have effectively been shut off since the adoption of NAFTA and other trade agreements meant that Mexico cannot meet regulatory requirements in the United States and other countries.
Domestically, markets have been squeezed more recently by the importation of cheaper and lead-free Asian ceramics. Given the cultural and economic importance of Mexico’s traditional pottery, the federal government and NGOs have worked on helping artisans make the switch to lead-free glazes.
These efforts began with the Group of One Hundred in 1991, an organization of intellectuals and artists who campaigned against the use of products with lead, especially traditional pottery. Fonart began its efforts soon afterward by developing non-lead glazes with adhesion temperatures as low as possible so that artisans would only need to make minimal modifications to existing kilns.
Later, the agency added programs to train artisans to work with new materials and new firing techniques, as well as acquire the needed equipment and supplies.
Colonial-period talavera pitcher from Puebla on display at the Franz Mayer Museum in Mexico City. Alejandro Linares García
In 2003, Barro Sin Plomo, a Mexican NGO dedicated to helping pottery makers transition away from lead use, began operations, working extensively with Michoacán artisans by the end of the decade. They helped reconstruct or replace old kilns so that they could not only accommodate lead-free glazes but also be more energy efficient. A similar Mexican organization, Barro Aprobado, was begun in 2009 by culinary professionals concerned about lead issues in pottery.
Both organizations have worked to create markets for those artisans who change over to non-lead glazes. In the case of Barro Aprobado, it certifies that pieces are free of lead and that restaurants are using lead-free wares.
Slowly, traditional pottery with unleaded glazes is becoming more common as knowledge of their use spreads and new glazes are easier to use with acceptable results.
According to Mexican regulations, a piece is “lead-free” if the amount of glaze used on the product contains less than 0.5 milligrams of lead per liter. These regulations are enforced by the health and consumer agencies Cofepris and Profeco.
Such pottery is still not easy to find, but it is easier in upscale shops, Fonart outlets and the fanciest tourist areas. If you already own glazed cookware and want to know if it contains lead, there are simple tests you can do on the pieces, using vinegar or easy-to-buy chemicals. However, be aware that the test may damage the piece.
Both Barro Sin Plomo and Barro Aprobado have a presence online, and it is possible to buy pottery through them. Barro Aprobado just opened its first in-person store in Mexico City in 2021 and lists artisans making lead-free wares by state.
Leigh Thelmadatter arrived in Mexico 18 years ago and fell in love with the land and the culture in particular its handcrafts and art. She is the author of Mexican Cartonería: Paper, Paste and Fiesta (Schiffer 2019). Her culture column appears regularly on Mexico News Daily.
Security Minister Rodríguez at Wednesday's press conference.
Homicides declined 3.4% in the first nine months of the year compared to the same period of 2020, Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez reported Wednesday.
There were 25,392 homicides between January and September, 887 fewer than in the first nine months of last year, while in September murders declined almost 2% to 2,770 compared to 2,819 in August.
Just over 50% of all homicides in the first nine months occurred in just six states. As always, Guanajuato was the most violent with 2,655 followed by Baja California, with 2,368; Michoacán, 1,982; México state, 1,946; Chihuahua, 1,884; and Jalisco, 1,884.
In contrast, the five least violent states all recorded fewer than 100 homicides during the period. They were Yucatán, Baja California Sur, Aguascalientes, Campeche and Tlaxcala. Mexico City was the 13th most violent entity with 779 recorded homicides.
Just under 40% of all homicides in September occurred in Mexico’s 50 most violent municipalities, where the federal government bolstered security efforts in July. Rodríguez said homicides in those locations declined 8.4% in September to 1,098 from 1,199 the month before.
The security minister asserted that femicides – murders of women and girls on account of their gender – declined 63% in September compared to August, but data she presented didn’t back up that claim. There were 68 femicides in September, a 37% drop compared to the 108 in August.
The September homicide and femicide numbers lifted the total number of murders since President López Obrador took office to above 100,000. Official data shows there were 97,532 homicides and 2,812 femicides between December 2018 and September 2021 for a total of 100,344 murders.
The figure is 16% higher than the total for the last three years of the Enrique Peña Nieto administratin.
Rodríguez also presented data for a range of other crimes at López Obrador’s regular news conference.
Among those that decreased in the first nine months of the year compared to the same period of 2020 were tax crimes, organized crime offenses, firearms offenses, kidnappings, carjackings, cattle theft, business robberies, vehicle theft and home burglaries.
Among those that increased were human trafficking, electoral offenses, robberies on public transit, muggings, extortion and rape.
The security minister also presented data that showed that fuel theft declined 94% from 74,000 barrels per day in December 2018 to just 4,300 barrels per day in the first 10 days of October 2021.
The reduction in the incidence of the crime known colloquially as huachicoleo has generated savings of almost 172.3 billion pesos (US $8.5 billion) pesos over the past 34 months, the government claims.
In a quarterly survey by Mexico's statistics agency, 94.3% of residents of Fresnillo, Zacatecas, said they felt their city was unsafe.
The percentage of Mexican adults who feel unsafe in the city where they live is at its lowest point in eight years, according to a new security survey that found that Fresnillo, Zacatecas, is seen by its residents as the least safe city in the country.
Conducted by the national statistics agency INEGI in September, the 32nd National Survey on Urban Public Security found that 64.5% of respondents believe the city where they live is unsafe, a 2.1% decline compared to the previous survey.
The figure is the lowest recorded since INEGI first conducted the quarterly survey in 2013. The percentage of adults who consider their city unsafe has declined 9.2% in the almost three years since President López Obrador took office in December 2018, even as homicides were at or near record levels.
The most recent survey found that 69.1% of women and 58.8% of men feel unsafe in their city. Three-quarters of respondents said they feel unsafe when using automated teller machines in the street, while 68.7% said the same about public transport. Banks and streets they regularly use were identified as unsafe places by 61.4% and 56.2% of respondents, respectively.
Highways, markets, parks, shopping centers, one’s own vehicle, workplaces, one’s own home and schools were also identified as unsafe places, but by less than 50% of respondents.
The Los Venados playground in the Mexico City borough of Benito Juárez, where only 21% of residents said they felt unsafe. Thelmadatter/Creative Commons
Fresnillo, a medium-sized city 60 kilometers north of Zacatecas that is notorious for violent crime, was identified as unsafe by 94.3% of residents who participated in the survey. It was one of just three cities identified as unsafe by more than nine in 10 residents.
The other two were Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, and Irapuato, Guanajuato, where 92.5% and 91.7% of residents feel unsafe.
More than 80% of respondents said they feel unsafe living in eight other cities. They were Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz (89%); Naucalpan, México state (88.3%); Zacatecas city (86.1%); Ecatepec, México state (85.1%); Tlalnepantla, México state (85.1%); Cancún, Quintana Roo (84.7%); Uruapan, Michoacán (81.6%); and Cuernavaca, Morelos (80.4%).
Tijuana, Baja California, and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, were the most violent cities in Mexico in the first five months of the year in terms of homicides but only 78.1% and 59.9% of residents, respectively, rated them as unsafe.
The cities identified as unsafe by the lowest percentage of survey respondents were San Pedro Garza García, Nuevo León (14.5%); Benito Juárez, Mexico City (21.8%); Los Cabos, Baja California Sur (22.2%); San Nicolás de los Garza, Nuevo León (28.6%); and Saltillo, Coahuila (29.5%).
Members of 27,000 households in 90 cities, including the 16 boroughs of Mexico City, were surveyed by INEGI. Just under a quarter of those polled said they expected the security situation in their city to deteriorate in the next 12 months, while 34.6% predicted it would remain the same.
Black market cigarettes cost the federal treasury around 13.5 billion pesos a year.
The percentage of contraband cigarettes smoked in Mexico has skyrocketed in the last decade: from 2% in 2011 to almost 19% of the market in 2021, the Confederation of Industrial Chambers of Mexico (Concamin) said in a report.
“Illegal cigarettes in Mexico, 10 years lost” was presented on Monday to coincide with the national day for combating contraband and crime.
The report says 18.8% of the country’s cigarettes are contraband, quoting data from Oxford Economics, and explains that while some of the contraband is illegally imported, the majority is produced in Mexico. Domestic production has grown in the last three years and now represents two thirds of the contraband market, the report said.
The black market for cigarettes costs the treasury around 13.5 billion pesos (about US $670 million) per year due to tax evasion, the report claimed. It highlighted unfair competition for legitimate sellers and said the black market was helping to fund criminal activities which negatively effect public security. However, it said the illegal cigarettes do comply with some health regulations.
Concamin explained that two thirds of illegal cigarettes do not carry the security code which proves compliance with tax regulations. “Illegal cigarettes are a multidimensional problem that has become sophisticated in recent years. Although before there was no local production of illegal cigarettes, today we can see in the market many brands do not have the security code that the government requires through the [tax regulator] SAT. This dynamic represents two thirds of the problem,” it said.
According to the latest health alert issued by the Federal Commission for Protection Against Health Risks (Cofepris), there are more than 245 brands of illegal cigarettes in Mexico, mainly of Chinese origin. The brands Win and Brass stand out as leaders in the contraband market, with 6.7% of total cigarette sales.
According to federal attorneys in New York, Iván Reyes agreed to help the El Seguimiento 39 cartel ship cocaine from Mexico to the US. File photo
A former Federal Police commander who collaborated closely with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and other United States authorities has pleaded guilty to drug trafficking conspiracy in a U.S. federal court.
The United States Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York said Tuesday that Iván Reyes Arzate, former commander of the Federal Police’s Sensitive Investigative Unit (SIU) – comprised of personnel vetted by the DEA, pleaded guilty in federal court in Brooklyn to cocaine trafficking conspiracy.
It said that Reyes, nicknamed “La Reina” (The Queen), received a US $290,000 bribe in 2016 in exchange for agreeing to assist the El Seguimiento 39 cartel ship cocaine from Mexico to the United States. That organization has links to the Sinaloa Cartel, the Beltrán Leyva cartel and other Mexican cartels, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
United States Attorney Breon Peace said that Reyes, who turned himself into U.S. authorities in 2017 and was convicted and jailed on a separate conspiracy charge in 2018, “forged a deplorable alliance with drug traffickers and betrayed not only the people of Mexico he was sworn to protect but also his law enforcement partners who put themselves at risk to disrupt the [El Seguimiento 39] cartel.”
“Reyes Arzate turned a blind eye toward drug traffickers, enabling criminal enterprises to operate with impunity, while serving as a commander in the Mexican Federal Police,” said Ray Donovan, the DEA special agent in charge of the criminal investigation.
If Reyes cooperates in the US case against former federal security minister Genaro García Luna, above, Reyes could receive a more lenient sentence.
“DEA and our law enforcement partners worked tirelessly to isolate and identify this bad seed and bring him to justice.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office noted that SIU officers in Mexico routinely work with U.S. law enforcement authorities to combat narcotics trafficking, money laundering and other criminal activities.
Reyes was assigned to the SIU in 2003 and became its commander in 2008, a role he held until 2016. It made him the principal point of contact for information sharing between U.S. and Mexican law enforcement personnel assigned to the investigative unit.
Before and during his tenure as an SIU officer and commander, he completed numerous law enforcement training courses offered by organizations such as the DEA, the Organization of American States, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Department of Defense.
When he is sentenced in January, Reyes faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison but could be jailed for up to 40 years.
The former commander could receive a more lenient sentence in exchange for cooperating with U.S. authorities in their case against former federal security minister and Federal Police chief Genaro García Luna, who is accused of taking multimillion-dollar bribes from the Sinaloa Cartel.
The trial of García, security minister in the government led by former president Felipe Calderón, is scheduled to commence in the United States next week.
