The PGA will play at the Tiger Woods-designed course El Cardonal for the first time this November. (PGA Tour)
The PGA Tour announced Tuesday that the 2023 World Wide Technology Championship will be played in November this year, at El Cardonal Golf Course, located at Diamante Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur.
One hundred and thirty-two players will compete for 500 FedExCup points. The tournament will be one of the first to follow the FedExCup playoffs, which will conclude in August.
Previous host venue Mayakoba has defected to controversial rivals LIV. (Mayakoba)
“We are excited to build on our partnership with World Wide Technology as we continue to develop the growth of our sport in Mexico and across Latin America,” PGA Tour Executive Vice President Tyler Dennis said.
Opened in 2014, El Cardonal’s golf course was designed by 82-time PGA Tour event winner Tiger Woods and TGR Design. With dramatic views of the Pacific Ocean, its style draws influence from the Southern California courses where Woods grew up.
The WWT Championship is one of two FedExCup events in Mexico, along with the Mexico Open at Vidanta, which will be held in Puerto Vallarta, next month.
“We are certain that our customers, partners and everyone who comes to enjoy the championship at our new [Diamante] location will have an amazing experience,” Tournament Director Joe Mazzeo said.
The new venue will replace the Mayakoba golf course in the Riviera Maya, which recently held the controversial LIV Golf tournament, bankrolled by the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Visa costs for travellers and workers have been updated for the first time in nearly a decade. (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement)
The U.S. State Department has announced increases to some nonimmigrant visa application (NIV) processing fees and the Border Crossing Card (BCC) for Mexican citizens age 15 and above.
Effective May 30, visitor visa fees for business or tourism (B1, B2s and BCCs) and other non-petition-based NIVs such as student and exchange visitor visas, will increase from US $160 to US $185.
U.S. consulates in Mexico have made an effort to reduce waiting time for visa processing. (National Museum of American Diplomacy)
Some petition-based NIVs for temporary workers (categories H, L, O, P, Q, and R) will rise from $190 to $205, while trader and investor visas (category E) will increase from $205 to $315.
In its statement, the State Department explained that NIV fees are determined based on the costs of consular services. The fees for most non-petition-based NIVs were last updated in 2012 while others were updated in 2014.
Not all visas are affected by the new updates, the statement said, as is the case of the waiver to the two-year residency required fee for certain exchange visitors.
The State Department acknowledged that “visas for work and tourism are essential to President Biden’s foreign policy” and recognized “the critical role international travel plays in the U.S. economy.” It also reinforced its commitment to “facilitating legitimate travel to the United States for both immigrant and nonimmigrant travelers.”
In November 2022, the State Department announced that it had achieved a 32% reduction in wait times for visitor visa interviews in Mexico. The improvement came after delays caused by restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic which prevented in-person interviews.
As part of the U.S. efforts to address the backlog in visa processing, the U.S. Embassy in Mexico announced in February the opening of more than 320,000 additional B1/B2 visitor visa appointments at consular offices. Other strategies included an increase in staff and remote processing by the Department of State of interview waiver cases for applicants with previous U.S. visas.
According to official numbers, the U.S. Embassy and Consulates in Mexico granted over 1,800,000 NIVs in 2022, including record numbers of both student and employment visas.
President López Obrador has repeatedly called Mexicans who send money home from abroad via remittances "heroes" for supporting the economy. But a new study suggests that up to 7.5% of remittances may be linked to cartels trafficking money back to Mexico. (Cuartoscuro)
Around 7.5% of the more than US $58 billion in remittances sent to Mexico last year could be linked to drug trafficking, according to a Mexican think tank.
Central bank data shows that Mexicans living and working abroad, mainly in the United States, sent a record $58.5 billion home last year.
The think tank Signos Vitales said in a report that there is evidence that at least $4.4 billion of that amount is ill-gotten gains that was sent electronically to Mexico as part of a money laundering process.
Mexican criminal organizations ship large quantities of narcotics to the United States and therefore it is unsurprising that money is sent back to Mexico. While drug money undoubtedly flows into Mexico as cash, the Signos Vitales report indicates that significant amounts of ill-gotten gains may also make their way here electronically, as the vast majority of remittances are sent that way.
Among the evidence cited by Signos Vitales is that large amounts of money were sent to Mexico from U.S. states with small Mexican populations and that monthly remittances to over 200 municipalities exceeded the number of households located in them.
The U.S. state from which the third highest amount in remittances emanated in 2022 — about 8% of the total — was Minnesota, which ranked behind only California and Texas despite having a Mexican population of just 200,000, or 0.5% of the total number of Mexican-origin residents in the United States.
The think tank Signos Vitales found unexpected data when they investigated where remittances to Mexico are coming from in the U.S. This graph shows U.S. states with growing numbers of remittances yet relatively low Mexican populations. (Signos Vitales)
Entitled “Euforia de las remesas: éxodo, lavado de dinero y auge económico” (Remittance Euphoria: Exodus, Money Laundering and Economic Boom), the report also noted that the amount of money sent to Mexico from Minnesota increased 585% between 2018 and 2022.
“The most powerful reason to believe that it’s not Mexicans sending remittances from Minnesota is that the amount sent — some $4.7 billion — is equivalent to the gross annual income of all … Mexicans [in the state], making it financially impossible,” the report said.
The combined increase in remittances in the same period from that state as well as Idaho, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Tennessee and Utah — all of which have relatively small Mexican populations — was just under 279%, Signos Vitales said.
The data-focused think tank also said that remittances originating from unknown locations increased 332.5% between 2018 and 2022.
In addition, it said that 227 municipalities received more remittances than households on a monthly basis last year. The number of monetary transfers received by 32 of those municipalities was at least two times higher than the number of households, Signos Vitales said.
The $4.4 billion figure calculated by Signos Vitales is in fact based solely on “those municipalities … where 100% of the homes receive more than one [monetary] transfer per month,” Signos Vitales said.
Mexico’s high number of migrants — many of whom are likely receiving support from home — is one of likely legitimate explanations for the nation’s high number of remittances. (Cuartoscuro)
“… It’s an introduction to the magnitude of the [money laundering] problem, which we believe is enormous,” the think tank added.
InSight Crime, a think tank and media organization focused on researching organized crime in the Americas, said in 2021 that “organized crime groups in Mexico have shown a remarkable ability to adapt amid the global health crisis, and the record number of remittances sent back to the country from the United States presents a clear money laundering opportunity.”
“… Organized crime groups often use such transfers to launder money and hide its illicit origins,” InSight Crime said.
In its report, Signos Vitales also noted that the total monetary amount of remittances sent to Mexico has increased sharply in recent years.
“There has to be an explanation for the astounding increase in the past few years. It’s impressive that it’s gone from around $21 billion [a decade ago] to nearly $60 billion,” said the think tank’s president Enrique Cárdenas, an economics professor.
“There are parts that look strange, things that don’t happen in the rest of the country,” he said.
However, Cárdenas also said that the “enormous increase in remittances in recent years is the reflection of a very complex socioeconomic situation that got worse in the pandemic” and caused migration of Mexicans to the United States to “grow again.”
The United States government’s extensive support for the U.S. economy amid the coronavirus-induced downturn was cited by many analysts as the main reason for the record remittance levels during the pandemic.
Another factor cited by Signos Vitales is an increased presence of refugees, migrants and temporary workers (including digital nomads) in Mexico, at least some of whom presumably receive money transfers from their country of origin.
Cemex is a private Mexican multinational building materials company headquartered in San Pedro, near Monterrey, Mexico. (Cemex)
Building materials companies Cemex and Vulcan Materials have reached a temporary agreement that will allow the former to use the latter’s marine terminal in Quintana Roo.
Announced Monday, the agreement was struck almost two weeks after navy personnel, state police and Cemex employees seized control of Vulcan’s port facility south of Playa del Carmen.
According to the U.S. company Vulcan Materials, a group of soldiers, Cemex employees, police and “special investigation” officials arrived at the Punta Venado marine terminal of its subsidiary Sac Tun at around 5:30 a.m. on March 14. (Internet)
Cemex spokesperson Jorge Pérez said that the two companies had reached a “provisional agreement” and were working on a long-term pact.
Cemex used to have an agreement that allowed it to use Vulcan’s terminal, but it expired at the end of last year and negotiations for a new contract reportedly broke down.
Cemex said it subsequently obtained a court order that allowed it to use the facility but Vulcan countered that it never saw the document.
In light of the takeover of its asset, Vulcan also said that “a Mexican federal court ordered Cemex to vacate the property, and another Mexican federal court order requires military and police forces to leave the property immediately.”
Cemex and the security forces didn’t immediately comply with the orders, but have now vacated the marine terminal.
Senator Katie Britt – a member of a group of Alabama lawmakers who met with Mexico’s Ambassador to the United States, Esteban Moctezuma, on Monday – said that she was “happy to hear that Mexican governmental forces have now heeded our request to withdraw from Vulcan’s port facility, following a nearly two-week unlawful takeover.”
“There was never a legitimate reason for Mexican military and law enforcement personnel to forcibly occupy this Alabama company’s private property,” she said in a statement.
U.S. Senator Katie Britt and a Congressional delegation from Alabama met with Mexico’s ambassador, Esteban Moctezuma on Monday. (@SenKatieBritt/Twitter)
“I personally reiterated my objections to this unacceptable behavior to Ambassador Moctezuma today at the Mexican Embassy in Washington, D.C., and asked him to convey to President López Obrador that aggression towards American interests will not be tolerated.”
López Obrador indicated last week that he believed that the security forces and Cemex employees had done nothing wrong by entering Vulcan’s facility because judges had “authorized” its use by the building materials company.
The federal government last year shut down Vulcan’s limestone quarry in Quintana Roo, and López Obrador has repeatedly accused the company of committing “ecocide” on Mexico’s Caribbean coast.
Federal Environment Minister María Luisa Albores last year presented a complaint to the United Nations about the “environmental disaster” allegedly caused by Vulcan.
In 2018, Vulcan filed a case against the Mexican government with the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), alleging unfair treatment. That case has not yet been resolved.
Tourists film Zapatista National Liberation Army commanders on horseback at the 25th anniversary celebration of the 1994 uprising in Chiapas. (Photos by Mark Viales)
A soldier wearing a black balaclava took my passport and looked me over. He was guarding the only entrance to the village of Oventic, Chiapas, which remains under the control of the ultra-leftist revolutionary group known as the Zapatistas.
It took me about an hour through the misty mountains of the dense Lacandon jungle to get here from San Cristóbal de las Casas. I noticed a rifle hanging from the guard’s shoulder. Visitors were apparently welcome in this caracol (Zapatista-controlled town), albeit under close supervision from guides who provided little to no information about the militarized anti-capitalist group controlling it.
It was my first dose of ”Zapatourism”four years ago — just a few days before a gathering scheduled to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) uprising in the mid-1990s that eventually grew into a powerful political movement.
If you’re too young to remember, in 1994, Zapatista forces took over several towns in the state of Chiapas, including San Cristóbal, before Mexican troops retaliated, leading to a series of bloody battles.
Within 48 hours of occupying San Cristóbal, this group of indigenous farmers and laborers turned guerrilla fighters had declared war on the Mexican government from the balcony of the city’s municipal palace.
The armed conflict — centered on Indigenous grievances regarding centuries of inequality, racism and exploitation — lasted fewer than two weeks before a local bishop, Samuel Ruiz García, brokered a peace between the EZLN and the federal government. But it transformed the Zapatistas into a well-known social movement still influencing leftist organizations today.
Schools in autonomous Zapatista communities teach children to respect nature, their heritage and Zapatista values. It’s a social experiment that has attracted the interest of many leftist activists and organizers.
Once swaths of Chiapas ended up under the EZLN’s unofficial control, the group then turned its attention towards establishing an alternative autonomous system of governance and began to take on new values. Indigenous communities previously isolated from mainstream education, healthcare and justice have made huge strides under the Zapatista regime, and others have joined on the back of that success.
In these communities, women are leaders, soldiers and organizers alongside men, considered equals. Children are taught to take pride in their ancient Indigenous heritage. Each community works as a unit to keep people fed, clothed and educated and to keep their community safe. Zapatista communities work together to help each other thrive.
This was what I came to see. And I was not alone. The unique system has piqued the interest of thousands of tourists who flock to Chiapas to see how an alternative political model can function outside conventional governance.
I also came to see what the Zapatistas would have to say for themselves 25 years after their uprising.
When I arrived at Oventic, the guard questioned my intentions before ushering me and two other visitors through the community’s gate. The ground rules: no pictures of people; remain with the guide at all times; you may be moved without warning if there is trouble.
This town has a single straight road curling into a spiral at its base, to resemble a snail (caracol), an animal that has links to Mayan mythology. Wooden huts here are adorned with revolutionary murals depicting the teachings of residents’ ancestors, as well as abstract anti-capitalist propaganda.
The autonomous EZLN-controlled town of Oventic, Chiapas. The “Zapatourists” were given little information about what they were allowed to see.
Heroes of the movement such as Subcomandante Marcos or Subcommander Ramona are glorified in artistic images of liberation while industry and major corporations are demonized. I learned later that Zapatista schoolchildren are fed these ideologies alongside core subjects like mathematics, sciences and languages. I thought it bordered between enlightenment and indoctrination.
From Oventic, it was an eight-hour drive to La Realidad, another caracol deep inside the Lacandon jungle. The planned three-day Zapatista celebrations would conclude on New Year’s Day, the exact anniversary of the uprising two and a half decades ago.
It was clear they were planning something big for this celebration. Why else would they have invited foreigners into their normally closed-off experimental autonomous villages?
Curious, I hitched a ride with a group of Zapatista supporters staying at the same hostel, which included a mix of French and urban Mexican anarchists.
At a campsite several miles from La Realidad that was designated for several hundred Zapatista supporters and Zapatourists, I felt bemused by the festival atmosphere: despite the fact that unarmed EZLN soldiers in full uniform and black ski masks patrolled the periphery incessantly, I half-expected someone to start juggling among the colorful assortment of pitched tents.
The people in green in the plaza are a new generation of EZLN foot soldiers. At this event, they were joined by regiments that fought the Mexican military in 1994 in the takeover of San Cristóbal, Chiapas.
But once the meetings commenced, I saw how serious organizers were about the agendas at each table, or mesas, the name given to debate circles. A mesa exclusive to women caught my eye; it discussed progressive feminist topics and how they could be applied under the Zapatista regime.
It was surprising, however, the number of mainstream leftist arguments I found filtering into the discussions about topics affecting the lives of small Indigenous Mayan communities in Chiapas. Ideologies ranging from using inoffensive pronouns in speech to not drinking Coca-Cola because of a belief it embodies capitalism seemed of little use to the people in these Indigenous communities.
Then it was New Year’s Eve: it was time for visitors to pack up their things and to finally set up camp at La Realidad, where the celebratory grand revelation would occur the following day. It was the sole reason for most people to attend the gathering — to see what declaration the Zapatista leadership would make on the 25th anniversary of its uprising.
A call for all visitors to make their way to the main square blasted from loudspeakers attached to long wooden poles towering over the village. Soon we were surrounded by soldiers who formed a tight perimeter to box us in. The show was about to start.
The opening act was the legendary figure of the movement: Subcomandante Marcos, a university professor from Tamaulipas. Bearing his signature pipe and pot belly, he casually strolled toward the stage.
Regiments that had fought in the battle of San Cristóbal joined a new generation of foot soldiers who filled the plaza in a sea of the Zapatista colors: green, red and black. The ‘clack, clack’ sound of troops striking wooden batons as they marched into position must have felt like a single beating heart to the onlookers who stood in silent awe.
When it abruptly stopped, the audience seemed to hold its breath, as if waiting for the Zapatista declaration’s first words to enter the world.
Basically, we heard a warning that the ongoing construction of the Maya Train — and incursion into Zapatista territory — would be met with force; such incursion has not yet happened.
In the end, it appeared that the whole affair became an ideal exchange between the Zapatistas, the curious international media and Zapatourists, who pump plenty of dollars directly into the movement.
López-Gatell is already familiar with the mañanera after his work during the pandemic. (lopezobrador.org)
Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell has today been announced as the new addiction prevention “czar” by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
“Dr. Hugo López-Gatell will be with us every Tuesday,” the president announced during his mañanera, or morning press conference. The deputy minister rose to prominence when he was designated as the spokesperson for the Ministry of Health during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The new campaign will look to highlight the dangers of drug use, with compulsory classes in high schools. (SEP)
The president explained that López-Gatell will report on the new government addiction prevention campaign, which was also announced during the conference. Working with the Ministry of Public Education (SEP), the government is seeking to launch a public awareness campaign about the dangers of drug addiction. It will begin April 17.
The plan is to discuss the topic for at least 15 minutes, three times per week in high school and middle school classrooms, reaching 12 million students in classes ranging from civics and ethics to biology and health. Educators will receive a teaching guide with the program’s key concepts and materials.
In addition, the government will create short 30–60-second educational videos about the dangers of various drugs to be played on TV and social media.
Studies have suggested that many Mexicans first experiment with drug use around 13 years of age.
Using the tagline “If you take drugs, you will be damaged,” SEP hopes to reduce the number of synthetic drugs — such as methamphetamine and fentanyl — that are being consumed in Mexico.
Aside from drugs, the dangers of smoking, vaping and drinking will also be highlighted.
Students will be required to take examinations during workshops with titles such as; “Fentanyl: it will kill you the first time!” “Vaping: is it really toxic?,” and “Benzodiazepines: not a game!”
Mexico has come under increasing pressure from the United States to clamp down on the flow of drugs across the border.
The campaign will begin on April 17, according to SEP.
As part of its economic recovery plan, Aeromexico will invest in new aircraft, including 20 Boeing 787s. (Aeromexico)
The Mexican airline Aeroméxico plans to relist on the stock exchange in the US, and likely the Mexican stock exchange as well, in the second half of 2023 or early in 2024, Chief Executive Andrés Conesa said on Monday.
The airline will offer several new routes as part of plans for modernization and expansion. (Moisés Pablo Nava/Cuartoscuro)
The airline has yet to decide whether it will trade on the New York Stock Exchange or the Nasdaq, Conesa said.
“Listing gives you access to financing that is fundamental for the company,” Conesa told journalists at the Tianguis Turístico tourism exhibition in Mexico City. “The more lines of financing we have, the better.”
The move is tied with Aeroméxico’s new goals for its recovery from bankruptcy. The airline detailed a US $5 billion investment plan that includes fleet and technology upgrades and the rebranding of its loyalty program, among other projects.
Starting in April, the airline’s loyalty program Club Premier will now be called Aeroméxico Rewards. Points earned under the new program will no longer expire, and the cost of points to redeem a flight to Mexico, the U.S. and Canada will drop by 25%, Conesa explained.
He also said Aeroméxico’s fleet will add 150 aircraft by the end of the year, including 20 long-range Boeing 787 models. The new additions would turn Aeroméxico’s fleet into the largest one in the company’s history, Conesa stressed.
In May 2021, citing safety concerns, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) downgraded Mexico from the Category 1 aviation rating to the Category 2 rating, meaning that Mexican airlines were not allowed to establish new routes to the U.S.
Conesa acknowledged the downgrade as a continuous challenge, even as the FAA has authorized a new route to Houston from the Felipe Ángeles Airport in Mexico City. The new route will open on May 1.
Finally, the airline addressed the federal government’s cabotage initiative, which would allow foreign airlines to operate national routes.
While cabotage is currently prohibited in Mexico, the government is seeking to legalize it to promote foreign airline investment in the country.
“We are not afraid of competition […] But we don’t want them [the federal government] to make us compete with our hands tied,” Conesa said.
At the North American Leaders' Summit held in January, the "three amigos" reaffirmed their commitment to the USMCA free trade pact. (Galo Cañas Rodríguez/Cuartoscuro.com)
The United States intends to issue an ultimatum to Mexico in the coming weeks as it seeks to make progress in a dispute over the latter’s nationalistic energy policies, according to a Reuters report.
The U.S. and Canadian governments requested dispute settlement consultations with their Mexican counterpart under the USMCA (US-Mexico-Canda) free trade pact last July.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai (left) with Mexico’s Economy Minister Raquel Buenrostro (right) at a meeting in Washington D.C. last year. (@SE_MX/Twitter)
They claim that American and Canadian energy companies that operate in Mexico are being treated unfairly by the Mexican government, which has implemented policies that favor the state oil company Pemex and the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE).
More than seven months after the U.S. and Canada filed their requests, the disagreement remains unresolved.
Citing unnamed people familiar with discussions within the U.S. government, Reuters reported Monday that the Biden administration “plans to send Mexico an ‘act now or else’ message in an attempt to break a stalemate” in the dispute.
Three sources told the news agency that the Office of the United State Trade Representative (USTR) was expected to make what they described as a “final offer” to the Mexican government to open its markets to U.S. companies and agree to some additional oversight.
Mary Ng (center), Canada’s Minister of International Trade, at the North American Leaders’ Summit in January with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other Canadian officials. Canada joined the U.S. in requesting a dispute settlement with Mexico last year. (@Mary_Ng/Twitter)
If Mexico refuses to budge, the U.S. government will request that an independent panel settle the dispute under USMCA, the sources said.
The United States and Canada could impose hefty punitive tariffs on Mexican imports if an independent panel rules in their favor and Mexico doesn’t alter the policies in question.
Under USMCA rules, the U.S. could have requested the establishment of a panel just 75 days after it submitted its request for talks, but the White House, Reuters reported, “has hoped to avoid escalating trade tensions with Mexico as it sought help on immigration and drug trafficking.”
The news agency’s sources said that the U.S. government has run out of less-combative options as there has been little progress toward resolving the dispute despite months of talks.
“We want to see clear progress on this issue and address the concerns that have been raised by our negotiating teams,” a U.S. government official told Reuters.
The news agency said that a USTR spokesperson declined to comment on the talks with Mexico, but noted that the trade representative herself, Ambassador Katherine Tai, hinted last Thursday at a possible escalation of the dispute.
“We are engaging with Mexico on specific and concrete steps that Mexico must take to address the concerns set out in our consultations request. This is still very much a live issue,” Tai said at a U.S. Senate Finance Committee hearing.
“… We know that all the tools in the USMCA are there for a reason,” she added.
President López Obrador, a fierce critic of the 2014 reform that opened up Mexico’s energy sector to foreign and private companies, appears reluctant to change the government’s nationalistic policies.
President López Obrador, seen here visiting a Pemex refinery in Veracruz, has focused on promoting energy “sovereignty” by investing in Pemex and CFE. (Presidencia)
During a speech at a March 18 event to mark the 85th anniversary of the nationalization of Mexico’s oil industry, he alluded to his belief that the government has done nothing wrong in implementing policies that favor Pemex and the CFE.
A section of the USMCA, López Obrador noted, states that “the United States and Canada recognize that Mexico reserves its sovereign right to reform its constitution and its domestic legislation.”
According to reports, migrants set fire to mattresses after being informed they would be deported. (Juan Ortega/Cuartoscuro)
At least 39 migrants died in an apparently deliberate fire that occurred late Monday at a detention center in the northern border city of Ciudad Juárez.
Twenty-nine other migrants were injured in the blaze, which began just before 10 p.m. in the “accommodation area” of the facility, according to a National Immigration Institute (INM) statement. They were taken to four different Ciudad Juárez hospitals in “delicate-serious” condition, the institute said.
All the migrants in the center were either killed or injured in the ensuring blaze. (Juan Ortega/Cuartoscuro)
A total of 68 Central American and South American men were being held at the detention center in the Chihuahua city opposite El Paso, Texas.
All migrants in the facility were killed or injured in the fire.
The INM did not mention the nationalities of the victims, but Guatemala’s Foreign Ministry said that 28 of the deceased were believed to be from the country. A Mexican official told the Reuters news agency that Hondurans were also among the dead.
President López Obrador said Tuesday morning that it appeared that migrants set mattresses alight when they found out they were going to be deported.
“This has to do with a protest that we assume began when they found out they were going to be deported,” he told reporters at his regular morning news conference.
The detention center in 2019. (@CiberCuba/Twitter)
“They never imagined that this would cause this terrible misfortune,” said López Obrador, who noted that most of the migrants were from Central America and Venezuela.
According to local media organization La Verdad Juárez, the migrants were detained on Monday, locked up in the detention center and not given any water for several hours.
A spokesperson for the Guatemalan Foreign Ministry said that Mexican officials had informed them that Venezuelan migrants set the mattresses on fire. Without giving details, the INM said that it “vigorously rejects the actions that led to this tragedy.”
It also said that it filed a complaint with the relevant authorities “so that what happened is investigated.”
A witness told the Reuters news service that she saw bodies and body bags lined up outside the detention center.
“I was here since one in the afternoon waiting for the father of my children, and when 10 p.m. rolled around, smoke started coming out from everywhere,” said Viangly Infante, a 31-year-old Venezuelan woman.
She confirmed that the fire had been extinguished. Ambulances, firefighters and vans from a Ciudad Juárez morgue swarmed the detention center, according to an Associated Press report.
The U.S. government recently made announcements telling migrants to not “just show up” at the border without having applied, and has encouraged them to use a new Customs and Border Patrol application to do so. Adoption of the app by migrants has been high, but that has resulted in it being overwhelmed, resulting in spotty performance. (Google Play Store)
Infante said her 27-year-old husband survived by dousing himself in water and pressing against a door.
The fire is among the deadliest tragedies involving migrants in Mexico in recent decades. Two incidents in which more migrants died include a 2021 tractor-trailer crash in Chiapas that claimed the lives of 55 clandestine passengers and the massacre of 72 migrants by cartel gunmen in Tamaulipas in 2010.
The number of migrants in northern border cities has increased in recent weeks, Reuters reported, noting that United States authorities are currently attempting to process asylum requests using a new U.S. government app called CBP One.
The app has been “overloaded by huge demand and plagued with glitches since tens of thousands of migrants staying in shelters on the Mexican side of the border began using it,” according to a New York Times report.
President López Obrador, seen here at a press conference earlier this month, accused the Supreme Court justices of forming part of the "mafia of power" following the ruling on Saturday. ( Mario Jasso / Cuartoscuro.com)
The federal government has announced it will challenge a Supreme Court (SCJN) ruling against a major electoral reform package that passed Congress last month.
The SCJN announced Friday that Justice Javier Laynez Potisek had authorized the suspension of “Plan B” electoral reform laws, which took effect after the publication of a presidential decree on March 2.
Justice Javier Laynez in court in 2019. ( ISAAC ESQUIVEL /CUARTOSCURO.COM)
The suspension – which Laynez said was necessary to protect democracy and voters’ rights – was requested by the National Electoral Institute (INE), which is seeking to prevent a significant cut to its budget as well as measures that curtail its autonomy and diminish its capacity to sanction politicians who violate electoral laws.
The institute says the budget cut approved by the Congress will force it to dismiss some 6,000 employees, or about a third of its workforce, in the lead-up to next year’s presidential and congressional elections.
Laynez also ruled that the SCJN will “admit” an INE lawsuit that seeks to invalidate the “Plan B” reform package, which the ruling Morena party put forward after a more ambitious plan to overhaul Mexico’s electoral system was rejected late last year.
The suspension of the laws will remain in effect until the SCJN makes a definitive ruling on INE’s lawsuit. The case involves a “possible violation of citizens’ political-electoral rights,” the SCJN said in a statement.
The seat of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SJCN) in Mexico City. (ArturoZaldivar.com)
The court said that Laynez asked the Mexican Congress and the federal executive to present their defense “within the legal period.”
The office of President López Obrador published a statement on Sunday that asserted that Laynez had “ripped pages out of the constitution” in issuing a suspension of the electoral reform laws and accepting the INE’s lawsuit for consideration.
“The people of Mexico should know that it’s not common for the Supreme Court to announce, on Friday night and without formally notifying the authorities, a ruling that is so important,” the president’s office said.
The office asserted that the Mexican constitution “doesn’t allow” constitutional challenges on electoral matters, and said it is the first time in Mexican history that “a single constitutional judge” has ruled against “the totality of an electoral law legitimately approved by the legislative power and ordered the revival of repealed provisions.”
Such a ruling, the office added, can only be made via “a definitive decision approved by at least eight justices.”
It also said it’s “worrying” that Laynez suspended “the application of the entirety of the [electoral reform] decree … when the INE … didn’t challenge the entirety of the modified regulations, but rather only those it believes may affect the operating capacity of the institute.”
“In addition, it’s false that the fundamental rights of citizens and the organization of elections are placed at risk. … The rule of law has never been threatened by the approval of the electoral reform laws. On the contrary, their approval guarantees the efficient use of public resources in order to strengthen our democratic regime at a lower cost for taxpayers,” the office said.
“Faced with this series of arbitrary actions, … the federal executive, through its legal department, will challenge the decision of Justice Laynez Potisek,” it said.
The office said “the federal executive will not allow the constitution or the Mexican legal system to be violated,” and will ask the SCJN to revoke both the suspension of the electoral reform laws and Laynez’s admission of the INE’s lawsuit.
López Obrador said Saturday that the SCJN is “part of the mafia of power,” asserting that the court’s justices are “the same as the conservatives” who are opposed to his government and democracy in Mexico.
“That’s why they don’t want the electoral reform,” he said during a visit to Chetumal, Quintana Roo.
López Obrador is also a fierce critic of the electoral institute, which he claims was complicit with fraud that cost him the 2006 and 2012 presidential elections.
The statement issued by his office said that the objective of the electoral reform package is to “reduce the bureaucratic costs of elections and strengthen democratic principles so that the political-electoral rights of citizens are truly respected and more frauds, like those in the past, don’t occur.”
The national leaders of the main opposition parties – all of which opposed the electoral reform package – welcomed the SCJN’s decision to suspend the application of the laws and consider the INE’s lawsuit.
National Action Party leader Marko Cortés said that Plan B “violates the law and infringes on the autonomy of our electoral body,” while Democratic Revolution Party chief Jesús Zambrano said that the court’s decision is “a good sign that the division of powers and the democratic regime will prevail.”
Marko Cortés (with the hat, center) in attendance at the pro-INE protest in February. (@MarkoCortes/Twitter)
“Great day for Mexico, bad news for the [National] Palace autocrat,” Zambrano wrote on Twitter.
Alejandro Moreno, national president of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, said that the Supreme Court’s ruling was “another victory for Mexico’s democracy.”
Large protests against the electoral reform and in defense of the INE were held across Mexico on Feb. 26. The INE oversees the electoral system in Mexico, where the transition to a full multi-party democracy was completed just 23 years ago.
