Group that sweeps Arizona desert for migrants’ remains makes a lucky find

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October 5, 2021

Members of the Arizona volunteer group Battalion Search and Rescue aid a migrant they found near death in the desert. Photos courtesy of Battalion Search and Rescue

On Saturday morning, our group, Battalion Search and Rescue, gathered at a small market in southern Arizona. Our mission for the day was that of a “general search” in an extremely remote area of the Sonoran desert. The search area bordered the Tohono O’Odham Nation, which has seen a massive increase in migrant traffic.

Battalion Search and Rescue is a self-trained group of unpaid volunteers from a wide range of backgrounds that searches the desert on average twice a month, looking for lost and missing migrants. Our mission is to save lives and/or provide closure for families and loved ones of people who have been lost while crossing into the United States. We regularly receive search requests from migrants’ families. We coordinate with park rangers, military, Border Patrol, reservations, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and local law enforcement.

The battalion has located over 20 human remains in the last 12 months, but today, things would go differently.

On this day, our group consisted of a dozen residents of Arizona, many from small towns like Nogales and Patagonia. At 7 a.m., we exchanged fist bumps, parked sedans and loaded into a variety of 4×4 vehicles to begin our journey.

After driving more than an hour off-road, we reached a remote desert location and quickly prepared by loading packs with fluids, snacks and medical supplies. The battalion members all wear rugged footwear, high-visibility hats and carry at least one trekking pole. Snakes are always a hazard, as well as scorpions and a wide variety of spiky desert plant life.

After forming a search line and confirming everyone’s readiness, the volunteers headed out, our two-way radios buzzing with a range of chatter. To keep our spirits up, there was, as always, a healthy dose of good-natured ribbing.

A new volunteer held down the left flank today. Terry Stanford and two of her good friends were new to the battalion and considering making a commitment as long-term volunteers. Their decision would soon be solidified.

“There is someone here!” she suddenly announced.

Another volunteer warrior, as the group likes to call their members, instructed them to wait for backup and approach slowly. Their discovery was a barely 19-year-old youth from Central America who had dragged himself over a mile to the shade of a small tree, where he had remained for several days and was now clinging to life.

In a soft and cracking voice, he explained how he was left behind by his group due to blisters and other injuries. He had been robbed of his possessions except for his cell phone, which was similarly clinging to life, showing only 2% battery life on its sun-bleached screen.

Mostly without speaking, volunteers fell into their respective roles. A motivated pair were chosen to run several miles for one of the vehicles with more water and supplies. Others combed the surrounding area, while those with medical training attended to the young man’s wounds and other needs.

A few battalion members with law experience discussed the legal concerns regarding attending to and potentially transporting the young man. After a failed attempt to contact Border Patrol due to a lack of cell phone service in this remote part of the desert, the decision was made to transport him ourselves.

The drive out of the desert was slow and painful for the young man, but he successfully arrived at an emergency room near Tucson. With his phone partially charged during the drive, he tearfully reached worried family thousands of miles away.

He spoke to us of only making a few dollars a day back home and yet still being extorted by criminal gangs. His plan was to somehow get to Kentucky, where he possibly had family, work and “a new future” waiting.

After getting this young man the help he needed, the battalion utilized a network of contacts and alerted nearby shelters like the Kino Border Initiative Migrant Outreach Center — which is located just across the border from Nogales, Arizona, in Nogales, Sonora — to be on the lookout for him. They will carefully monitor his movements and progress.

Extreme conditions in the Arizona desert can range from freezing weather to 120 F temperatures, and the terrain is often rough and rugged. Our group’s searches locate an average of two human remains every month; they can range from skeletal to a few hours old. The sooner these remains are found, the better the chance for identification, repatriation and proper burial.

We are the Battalion Search and Rescue.

And we search for the lost but not forgotten.

James R. Holeman is the founder of Battalion Search and Rescue. For more information on the organization, visit their website or reach them by email at battalionsar@yahoo.com.

Priest estimates 22,000 people, abandoned by the state, have fled Michoacán

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MND Staff

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October 5, 2021

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Michoacan priest Gregorio Lopez — 'There is a state of war, of terrorism, in Michoacán,' says Gregorio López, an Apatzingán-based priest who operates shelters for displaced people.

More than 22,000 people have fled violence in Michoacán since President López Obrador took office in late 2018, according to an activist Catholic priest.

“The Tierra Caliente of Michoacán is the territory of cartels and terrorism,” said Gregorio López, an Apatzingán-based priest and founder of El Buen Samaritano (The Good Samaritan), a civil society organization that operates shelters for displaced people.

“… They use drones to throw bombs at the civilian population, they kidnap the poorest people, … the sicarios [cartel hitmen] murder, kidnap and rape,” he told the newspaper El Universal.

“In the three years of the López Obrador government, more than 22,000 residents have fled that area [Tierra Caliente]; half of them sought asylum in the United States,” said the priest widely known as Padre Goyo.

“… Half of them already crossed into the United States, and some others are waiting in cities such as Tijuana while their asylum paperwork [is processed],” he clarified.

One of those displaced persons is a woman El Universal identified only as Lupita. Her husband was killed, one of her sons was abducted and she was raped before members of a cartel that operates in Coalcomán – a Tierra Caliente municipality — arrived at her ranch in June. They threatened to kill her and her other three children if she didn’t leave within three hours, El Universal said.

Lupita fled to Aguililla – another Tierra Caliente municipality plagued by the violence generated by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and the Cárteles Unidos – leaving behind her home, belongings, car, cattle and farm machinery. From Aguililla she traveled to Tijuana, Baja California, where the group Dreamers Moms and other organizations helped her seek asylum in the United States, where she now lives.

The organization López founded has also helped displaced michoacanos seek asylum in the U.S., providing them with letters of recommendation and other documents to strengthen their cases.

The priest told El Universal that Michoacán is a “state without law” apart from that established by organized crime. The federal and state government abandoned thousands of residents who were forced to flee to northern border cities or the United States, he said.

“There is a state of war, of terrorism, in Michoacán. That’s the way United States authorities are considering several municipalities such as Coalcomán and Aguililla,” López said.

“The Biden administration is documenting the violence – the massacres that are occurring in the face of the passivity and complicity of the Mexican government and the Michoacán government,” he said.

One community that has become a virtual ghost town due to the large number of residents who have left is El Aguaje, where the CJNG paraded a “narco-tank” through the streets earlier this year.

Some 2,300 people formerly lived in the town, but the current population doesn’t exceed 200 because most residents have fled to Mexico’s north or the United States, López said.

Large numbers of people have also fled communities such as Barranca Seca in Coalcomán and El Cajón in Apatzingán, he said.

“In a single week, 3,500 people were displaced from the municipality of Tepalcatepec due to violence in that area of Tierra Caliente. Communities such as Las Truchas, Colomos, El Bejuco and San Isidro … were practically abandoned out of fear of the cartels that operate there,” López added.

“This is no longer a war between cartels or against the population. It’s well-systematized terrorism in Tierra Caliente,” he said.

“… There is no presence of the National Guard. The discourse of [President López Obrador’s] morning press conferences is a complete lie here. That ‘hugs, not bullets’ [security strategy] is nonsense,” the priest said, referring to the government’s strategy of addressing the root causes of violence with social programs rather than confronting cartels with force.

“It’s a lack of respect for the families who have suffered massacres and rapes. President López Obrador should come here and hug a sicario and a criminal who’s dropping bombs with drones. It’s an insult.”

The priest also took aim at Silvano Aureoles, who finished his six-year term as governor of Michoacán last Saturday.

“The biggest criminal of this state is Silvano Aureoles; he sold himself to a cartel. There have never been so many missing persons in this state as there were in [his] government. The name of the most powerful criminal boss Michoacán has had is Silvano Aueroles.”

With reports from El Universal

Cuban baseball players defect during U23 World Cup in Sonora

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MND Staff

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October 5, 2021

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Cuban baseball players — Cuban players at a game in Ciudad Obregón in August.

At least 11 members of the U-23 Cuban baseball team defected in Mexico before, during and after the World Cup in Sonora.

According to varying reports, 11 or 12 of 24 players abandoned the team, which finished fourth at the September 23-October 2 event held in Hermosillo and Ciudad Obregón.

It is one of Cuba’s largest defections in recent years and seen as a great embarrassment for the island nation. Mass defections of Cuban athletes were common during the 1990s when Cuba was in a so-called “special period” following the collapse of the Soviet Union but have been less frequent in more recent years.

Cuba’s National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (INDER) excoriated the defectors, asserting they have “weak morals and ethics.”

“Is it so difficult to learn, from the cradle, that one doesn’t pursue dreams or personal projects by putting universal values such as commitment, responsibility and patriotism to one side?” INDER asked in its official magazine.

Cuban officials apportioned blame to the United States, noting that the U.S. has restrictions that force Cuban baseball players to defect in order to qualify to play in the major leagues. At least one young Cuban ballplayer, Luía Mejías, has already entered the United States, according to media reports.

Players who remain in Mexico could also seek asylum in the United States to pursue a professional baseball career. Their teammates who remain loyal to their homeland left Mexico on Monday.

With reports from El País and CNN

Mayor defends conservative community against disparaging remarks by AMLO

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MND Staff

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October 5, 2021

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santiago taboada and amlo — Mayor Taboada of Benito Juárez offers defense of conservative citizens to counter president's criticisms.

The mayor of a Mexico City borough has defended the residents of one neighborhood he represents after President López Obrador declared that conservatism flourishes there.

Speaking at his regular news conference on Monday, López Obrador asserted that “there is more conservative thought in Colonia Del Valle than in Las Lomas.”

Del Valle is a middle class neighborhood on Mexico City’s south side while Las Lomas is an affluent district in the capital’s west side.

“[Conservative thought] is not exclusive to … [former president Felipe] Calderón … or [former president Vicente] Fox … or any other person. It’s not just them, there are millions who think like that in our country. … It’s a way of thinking and being, it’s conservatism … and they’re not a small group, there are 10 or 20 million of them. Conservative thought has always existed,” López Obrador said.

The president said that people who are conservative – a word he frequently uses to deride his critics – follow a “doctrine of hypocrisy” and are “not necessarily the richest” citizens of Mexico.

There is also conservatism in “sectors of the aspirational middle class,” he said before citing residents of Del Valle as an example.

Although there are millions of conservatives, the majority of Mexicans don’t agree with conservative thought, the president added, declaring that such thought is a synonym of selfishness, individualism, corruption, classism and racism.

In response to the president’s remarks, the mayor of Benito Juárez, the borough in which Del Valle is located, posted a video message to Twitter filmed in the neighborhood in question.

“Mr. President, don’t be mistaken, this neighborhood, like many in Mexico City, is aspirational and [the residents] are aspirational; they aspire to have better urban services, greater security, better work, better schools and quality health care. That’s legitimate aspiration and as a government we’re obliged to provide it,” said Santiago Taboada, who represents the conservative National Action Party.

He said that Del Valle residents enjoy “enviable” levels of human development – a remark supported by a United Nations report that found that Benito Juárez has higher levels of development than Switzerland – and that all Mexicans have the right to enjoy a similar quality of life.

Del Valle residents are “organized, informed and demand from authorities the quality of life to which they are entitled,” Taboada said.

“They’re also very critical of poor government decisions and they’ve always expressed that, [including] at every election. But above all Del Valle is a neighborhood of hard-working people. If getting up early every day to work to pay the rent, school fees or the market makes them conservative then I wish the country had more people like that,” he said.

“Mr. President, what really characterizes Colonia Del Valle is the generosity of its residents and never the selfishness you talk about,” the mayor said, citing humanitarian aid they provided for victims of Hurricane Grace and a powerful earthquake that struck the capital in 2017.

With reports from El Universal

Stoplight risk map down to just one orange state

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MND Staff

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October 4, 2021

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The coronavirus stoplight map that took effect on Monday.

Medium risk yellow is the dominant color on the federal government’s new coronavirus stoplight map, which took effect Monday.

There are 22 yellow states, nine low risk green states and just one high risk orange one – Baja California.

The biggest changes on the current map compared to that in effect for the past two weeks are the increase in the number of green states from four to nine and the decrease in the number of orange states from four to one. The number of yellow states declined from 24 to 22, while the number of maximum risk red states remains at zero.

The map reflects the improved coronavirus situation in Mexico after the third wave of the pandemic peaked in August. Reported case numbers declined 38% in September compared to August, although deaths decreased by just 1.3%.

Yellow states are:

Aguascalientes
Campeche
Coahuila
Colima
Guanajuato
Hidalgo
Jalisco
Mexico City
México state
Michoacán
Morelos
Nayarit
Nuevo León
Puebla
Querétaro
San Luis Potosí
Sonora
Tabasco
Tamaulipas
Tlaxcala
Veracruz
Yucatán

Painted green on the new map are:

Baja California Sur
Chiapas
Chihuahua
Durango
Guerrero
Oaxaca
Quintana Roo
Sinaloa
Zacatecas

Meanwhile, the Health Ministry reported 2,282 new confirmed coronavirus cases on Monday and 301 additional COVID-19 deaths.

Mexico’s accumulated case tally stands at 3.68 million while the official death toll is 279,104. There are 46,748 estimated active cases, a 25% decline compared to Friday.

Tabasco has the highest number of active cases on a per capita basis with about 130 per 100,000 people. Mexico City ranks second followed by Colima, Yucatán and Guanajuato.

More than 102.6 million vaccine doses have been administered, according to the most recent data. The Health Ministry said Sunday that 72% of the adult population has had at least one shot.

Mexico News Daily

New Guanajuato spirits contest highlights Mexico’s mezcals

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Diana Serratos

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October 4, 2021

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Guanajuato Spirits Competition opening — Opening of the Guanajuato Spirits Competition.

Despite the challenge of putting on large-scale events during a pandemic, Guanajuato’s wine and spirits competitions are carrying on with upcoming events like the Catando México wine competition on November 26–27 in Guanajuato city and the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles Mexico Selection competition for wines and spirits, starting November 29 in Mineral de Pozos. And a new pioneering competition, focusing on spirits, also made its debut in the state this year.

In August, the Guanajuato Spirits Competition brought together high-quality distillate makers from all over Mexico.

Particularly notable at this event was the performance of the country’s independent mezcal producers.

Diana Landin Campos, a Guanajuato native, and her husband José Antonio Castellanos Cardosa, who have promoted mezcal in the region for a combined 15 years, founded the pioneering event in the hopes of positioning mezcal as an important local product on the national and international level.

Thirty judges — including producers, professional tasters, sommeliers, and other experts drawn from all over Mexico — evaluated 800 brands of spirits during the two-day event, guided by criteria set by four of the country’s mezcal and spirit certifiers. Also in attendance was Abelina Cohetero Villegas, the current president of the Mexican Council for the Regulation of Mezcal (Comercam).

Mujeres de Mezcal group at Guanajuato Spirits Competition — Women of Mezcal, a group of female mezcal producers across Mexico, hosts an event at the Guanajuato Spirits Competition.

Also of note, various chapters of the Mujeres del Mezcal (Women of Mezcal) participated in the event as both organizers and competitors, coming from places like Michoacán, Jalisco, Guerrero and Puebla. A new Guanajuato chapter of the association for Mexico’s female mezcal producers was formed at the event, promising commitment to the women producers, distributors, and marketers of mezcal.

Mezcal from every region, tequila, sotol, bacanora, charanda and other spirits with Destination of Origin competed at the event on a points system that considered each spirit’s look, nose, mouthfeel and the overall balance of its flavor. Each one- to three-minute tasting was blind, meaning that the judges had no idea which brand they were given.

When results were announced a week later, there were few surprises: during the tastings it was very obvious which products far outshone others. In the category of mezcals, Cata Decano from Michoacán, a gold medal winner, was truly delicious, sweet and herbal. Other winners included Designation of Origin gold medals for mezcals Mis Agaves (Aguascalientes) and La Querencia (Guerrero).

Personally, I was impressed with Finca Robles, a Oaxaca producer that for more than four years has positioned itself as a maker of one of the area’s best mezcals, with consistently good products. You can find their mezcal across the country and in the United States. In Mexico City, it’s available at the Mercado Roma in Roma and at the Mercado Roma and the Plaza Frida, both in Coyoacán.

Another standout was Paola Cisneros, a master distiller of Sotol Triple XXX, an incredible sotol made in Chihuahua that I recommend you try if you get the chance.

As a side note, Mexican gins also did well at the competition, with gold medals awarded in the spirits category, including Guanajuato’s Alicia brand, Solferino Native from Quintana Roo, Ginebra de Juanita of Jalisco, Bruja de Agua of Mexico City and Gin Maniobra, also of Jalisco.

Silver medal winner Finca Robles mezcal was one of the writer’s favorites at the competition.

Next year’s competition will surely be even better all-around for those of us fortunate to attend in 2022.

Salud!

• To see a list of all the winners in the Guanajuato Spirits Competition, see the competition’s website.

Sommelier Diana Serratos writes from Mexico City.

More civilians take up arms in northeastern Chiapas

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MND Staff

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October 4, 2021

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No drug traffickers, no cantinas, declares self-defense group. — No drug traffickers, no cantinas in Simojovel, declares self-defense group.

Another self-defense force has emerged in the northeast of Chiapas.

Three months after the “El Machete” force was created in Pantelhó, the Armed Force of Simojovel has appeared in the neighboring municipality.

About 12 armed and masked members of the group appeared in a video posted to social media on Sunday.

“Today we have formed the armed group of the people with the aim of demanding respect for human rights. Out of respect we haven’t entered the town … but we’ll soon take action if our demands aren’t met,” said a spokesman for the group.

In a message directed to the incoming mayor of Simojovel and “the groups he heads,” the spokesman demanded respect for “our indigenous brothers” and an end to the embezzlement of the town’s resources.

He also said the self-defense group won’t allow the presence of drug traffickers or the operation of cantinas. In addition, he called for an end to murders in the streets of Simojovel and for “decent medical care for the people.”

“Public security should be for the people, not for the criminals,” the spokesman declared. “If these demands aren’t met, we’ll act against the bad municipal government.”

The orator also said that the armed group is an independent force and not affiliated with any political party.

The publication of the video coincided with the departure of Simojovel priest Marcelo Pérez Pérez, who officiated at his final mass on Saturday after spending 10 years in the town, located 90 kilometers north of San Cristóbal de las Casas.

Pérez was the subject of death threats, according to two bishops from the diocese of San Cristóbal.

“With surprise the news of death threats against the priest Marcelo Pérez Pérez reached us,” Rodrigo Aguilar Martínez and Luis Manuel López Alfaro said in a statement last month without specifying where the threat came from.

“People or groups that make threats against him or any … [priest] are threatening the church of Jesus Christ and this diocese.”

With reports from Milenio, La Jornada and Prensa Libre

Accusations against Mexico’s former top cop grow in US courts

By

Parker Asmann

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October 4, 2021

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genaro garcia luna — Mexican officials allege Genaro García Luna was the 'principal architect' of a vast money laundering empire.

Evidence and accusations are piling up against Mexico’s former top security official, Genaro García Luna, as U.S. prosecutors proffer new records in their case alleging he pocketed bribes from drug traffickers and Mexico demands the return of millions of alleged illegal assets.

In a September 29 filing in a New York federal court, prosecutors said they would provide García’s defense lawyers with new evidence to be used in the trial against him, including Mexican government documents, U.S. State Department records, photos and bank records. García, who served as Mexico’s minister of public security from 2006 to 2012 under then-president Felipe Calderón, is accused of accepting multimillion-dollar bribes from the Sinaloa Cartel in exchange for letting the group traffic multi-ton loads of cocaine into the United States.

The filing comes a little more than a week after Mexico’s Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) announced its “first civil lawsuit abroad to recover assets related to illegal financial operations carried out by Genaro García Luna.”

After leaving office, García — along with a former high-ranking Mexican government official, several business associates, a network of companies and his wife — illegally obtained at least $250 million from the Mexican government between 2012 and 2018 through a “complicated unlawful government-contracting scheme,” officials alleged in the lawsuit filed in a Florida court on September 21. Those funds were then allegedly transferred out of Mexico using an “extensive” network in order to “hide the stolen funds in numerous assets” located in the United States.

US authorities arrested García in the state of Texas in December 2019 on cocaine trafficking conspiracy charges and making false statements. He pleaded not guilty to the charges last year.

Shortly after his arrest, UIF head Santiago Nieto filed two complaints against García with anti-corruption prosecutors in Mexico. The agency alleged he used tax havens around the world – including the United States, Barbados and Hong Kong – to conceal more than $50 million in bribes he is suspected of accepting from drug traffickers.

InSight Crime analysis

As the evidence in García’s drug case mounts, the latest allegations levied by the Mexican government point at suspected criminal activity exceeding what occurred during his time as a security official.

While U.S. prosecutors allege García used his role atop Mexico’s security forces to act as a key conduit for one of Latin America’s most powerful organized crime groups, Mexican officials said his misconduct extended to being the “principal architect” and one of the “ultimate beneficiaries” of a vast “money laundering empire” they dubbed “the Enterprise.”

Through suspected bribery, bid tampering and corruption in Mexico, officials allege he “used his influence with the Mexican government to override Mexican government contract and bidding procedures, and to ensure selection of his co-conspirators for multiple government contracts,” according to the lawsuit.

Between 2015 and 2019, Mexican authorities identified at least 30 transfers totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars of allegedly stolen government funds deposited by the network into accounts in the United States that were then routed to accounts in Barbados. All of those accounts, according to the complaint, were supposedly controlled by García and his associates.

What’s more, the group engaged in additional racketeering activity by using the stolen funds to manage and maintain the money laundering network through “international wire transfers, property tax payments, fee payments, and other payments to maintain, upkeep, and manage the Enterprise,” officials said.

García was never charged with any wrongdoing in Mexico during or immediately after his time as a top security official. Only after almost a year of being detained in the United States did Mexican authorities even issue an arrest warrant for him on illicit enrichment charges.

The scale of alleged corruption, if proven, is not only egregious – it is shocking for a man once entrusted with designing and executing Mexico’s assault on organized crime and drug trafficking.

Reprinted from InSight Crime. Parker Asmann is a writer with InSight Crime, a foundation dedicated to the study of organized crime.

Mixed martial arts fighter from Guadalajara to face top-ranked US opponent

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Tom Taylor

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October 4, 2021

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Claressa Shields, left, and Abigail Montes at the PFL championship press conference in Hollywood, Florida. Professional Fighters League

Guadalajara’s Abigail Montes is only two fights into her mixed martial arts (MMA) career, but she’s already preparing for the kind of monumental challenge typically reserved for experienced pros. On October 27, the 21-year-old will step into the Professional Fighters League (PFL) cage for a showdown with Claressa Shields.

Shields, for those unfamiliar, is widely considered the greatest female boxer alive today, with two Olympic gold medals and an expansive collection of championship belts crowding her trophy case. The unbeaten boxing star announced her plans to transition into MMA last year and, in June, shut the lights out on Brittney Elkins in her debut.

Montes will serve as Shields’ second opponent in MMA. If the Mexican fighter is daunted by the challenge ahead, she’s hiding it well.

“I’m very confident heading into this fight,” Montes told Mexico News Daily during a recent visit to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. “I’m ecstatic to get such a big opportunity. I’m at my mental and physical peak and getting such a big fight is the perfect opportunity for me to seize.”

Montes started learning MMA when she was 14, encouraged by her mother, and inspired by her brother, who is also a professional fighter.

“My mom put me in classes when I was 14,” Montes recounted. “She wanted me to learn some kind of self defense because I was a girl. I ended up falling in love with mixed martial arts and training.

“My brother was also a fighter,” she added. “Eventually it became something that I pursued too, and I became a professional.”

In the years since her training began, Montes has honed a versatile skillset that will serve her well as her career continues. Against Shields, however, she’ll need to exercise extreme caution for every second of the fight.

The American will only need to land one good punch to win.

Montes is well aware of the danger ahead. While her best course of action would seemingly be to drag the fight to the ground, where Shields’ boxing skill will be all but useless, the Mexican says she’s preparing for every scenario.

“Her boxing is world-class, and I know she’s going to be dangerous standing up,” Montes said. “But we have a strategy going into this fight. I’m going to be prepared for everything she throws at me.

Abigail Montes says she has ‘Mexican heart.’

“In [MMA], the fight can go anywhere from standing to grappling,” she added. “We’re going into the fight very prepared for the striking and the grappling department.”

Needless to say, Montes is confident in her skills. Yet she also believes she’ll be able to lean on some of the traits frequently associated with Mexican fighters: intangibles like grit and heart.

“The ability for Mexican fighters to go into a ring or a cage and leave everything in there, 100%, I have that in me,” Montes said. “[The toughness] is just the cherry on top. I’m very confident in my boxing, my striking, my wrestling, my jiu jitsu. The additional toughness and grit to leave everything in the cage, the Mexican heart, those are just the bonuses that come with my skillset.”

If Montes’ skill and heart carry her to an upset victory over Shields, she can look forward to more huge opportunities inside the PFL cage.

The PFL presents MMA in a unique, seasonal format, with playoffs, finals and US $1 million in prizes for the champions of each weight division. Montes didn’t compete in the league’s 2021 season, but she’s hoping a win over Shields will be her ticket into 2022.

“Absolutely, that’s what I’m looking forward to following this fight,” Montes said when asked about competing in the 2022 season.

The PFL’s 155-pound women’s division — the division Montes calls home — has been the domain of Kayla Harrison since its inception. The American, a two-time Olympic gold medalist in judo, has won all 11 of her fights in the PFL cage — a streak that has turned her into one of the most intimidating figures in MMA.

If Montes joins the 2022 season, she anticipates a meeting with Harrison and believes that, with the right game plan, she can usurp the dominant American’s throne.

“I don’t like to look ahead,” she said. “I like to focus on the next challenge, which is Claressa. Eventually I’m sure [Harrison and I] will square off. When that time comes, my team and I will dissect her game and we’ll approach the fight with the best strategy.”

As Montes implies, looking past Shields would be a grave error. Her spot in the 2022 season and a potential fight with Kayla Harrison both seem to hinge on her beating the boxing champ. She believes she’s well positioned to accomplish that feat.

“I visualize the moment of victory often,” she said. “I foresee a potential ground-and-pound or submission victory.”

Mexico News Daily

80 politicians and families among 3,000 Mexicans who used foreign tax havens

By

MND Staff

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October 4, 2021

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Political figures and members of their families are among more than 3,000 Mexicans who appear in the Pandora Papers, the biggest ever trove of leaked data exposing tax haven secrecy.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists obtained more than 11.9 million confidential files and led a team of more than 600 journalists from 150 news outlets who spent two years sifting through them. Many of their findings were published Sunday.

Journalists from four media outlets contributed to reports that focused on Mexicans who shifted some of their wealth to tax havens such as the Bahamas, Belize, the British Virgin Islands, Panama and the U.S. state of Delaware.

A report published by Quinto Elemento Lab said journalists from that investigative news website as well as news magagine Proceso, the newspaper El País and the broadcaster Univisión reviewed the Pandora Papers over a period of many months and found that 3,047 Mexicans or residents of Mexico have interests in almost 2,000 “hard to trace” offshore companies, trusts and foundations located in 22 different jurisdictions.

Among them are more than 80 people who are political figures or members of their families.

The president's former legal counsel, Julio Scherer — The president’s former legal counsel, Julio Scherer, has an interest in a US $1.5-million Miami apartment.

“The Pandora Papers investigation discovers that Mexicans have created shell companies to buy luxurious properties, private jets and yachts, to pay less tax, to manage fortunes and inheritances, … to manage investments, open bank accounts and to put aside profits from their businesses,” the Quinto Elemento Lab report said.

Transferring wealth into offshore entities is not a crime in itself, the report said. However, “in many cases their opacity allows the commission of crimes such as money laundering, corruption and tax evasion.”

“In Mexico it is not illegal to have front companies to … store wealth outside the country … but the use of offshore companies can be particularly controversial in the case of politicians and public officials because they can use them to hide money and assets from bribes or the diversion of public resources. This is of particular interest in nations such as Mexico where corruption is rampant and the government has done a bad job preventing these abuses,” the report said.

“… Twenty of the 80 politicians and families who appear in the Pandora Papers moved in recent decades about US $30 million to jurisdictions that offer tax privileges.”

The political figures/family members named in the report are:

Julio Scherer Ibarra, President López Obrador’s former legal counsel.
Jorge Arganis Díaz Leal, federal communications and transportation minister.
Armando Guadiana Tijerina, a federal senator for the ruling Morena party.
Julia Elena Abdala Lemus, a businesswoman and partner of Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) chief Manuel Bartlett.
Enrique Martinez y Martinez, former Institutional Revolutionary (PRI) governor of Coahuila and an ex-federal agriculture minister.
Arturo Montiel Yañez, son of former PRI governor of México state Arturo Montiel Rojas.
Jesús Murillo Ortega, son of former PRI governor of Hidalgo and ex-attorney general Jesús Murillo Karam.
Francisco Labastida Gómez de la Torre, son of former PRI governor of Sinaloa and ex-interior minister Francisco Labastida Ochoa.
Marcelo and Carlos de los Santos, sons of former National Action Party governor of San Luis Potosí Jesús Marcelo de los Santos Fraga.
Fernanda Castillo Cuevas, wife of current PRI governor of México state Alfredo del Mazo.
Paulina Díaz Ordaz, granddaughter of former president Gustavo Díaz Ordaz and wife of Green party politician Jesús Sesma.
Juan Ignacio García Zalvidea, a former federal deputy and mayor of Cancún.

Other people partially identified but not named include the Coahuila government secretary, the head of the office of Morelos Governor Cuahtémoc Blanco and the brother of a former governor of Yucatán.

Scherer, who resigned as the president’s legal adviser last month, is a large shareholder in a company domiciled in the British Virgin Islands that controls another company that owns a US $1.5 million apartment in Miami, the Quinta Elemento Lab report said.

He told the investigative journalists he has always acted in accordance with the law and would continue to do so.

The journalists determined that the other political figures had interests in companies, trusts or other entities in jurisdictions including the British Virgin Islands, the Bahamas and Panama.

Arganis, who became communications and transportation minister last year, denied any wrongdoing and asserted that he had in fact lost money he invested because he was defrauded. He invested 3 million pesos (US $146,000) in a Ponzi scheme run by Texan financier Allen Stanford, who was convicted of fraud and sentenced in 2012 to 110 years in jail.

Senator Armando Guadiana said he lost money in his offshore investment.

Senator Guadiana also said he had lost money via a trust apparently set up to fund a coal mine project in Colombia.

Abdala, who owns 10,000 shares in a Panamanian shell company, didn’t respond to requests for comment. Her husband, a former interior minister and governor of Puebla, has been accused of corruption but the Ministry of Public Administration determined that the current CFE director has no case to answer.

The total number of Mexicans and Mexico residents who appear in the Pandora Papers is 10 times higher than the number who appear in the Panama Papers, a similar trove of more than 11 million documents published in 2016.

President López Obrador said Monday he was in favor of Mexicans named in the Pandora Papers being investigated. The government’s Financial Intelligence Unit said Sunday it had launched an investigation in light of their publication.

With reports from Quinto Elemento Lab and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists