Pop sensation Dua Lipa performs for 65,000 in Mexico City, ‘one of my fave cities in the world’

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September 23, 2022

Dua Lipa in concert for her current tour, Future Nostalgia. Flickr / Raph_PH / CC BY 2.0

British pop star Dua Lipa has declared that Mexico City is one of her favorite cities on the planet after performing in the capital’s Foro Sol venue on Wednesday night.

“QUÉ LOCURA!!! [What craziness!] Living on a cloud!” the 27-year-old singer-songwriter wrote on Twitter above a short clip of her concert at the open-air arena. “Our biggest show on our Future Nostalgia Tour!!! 65k people in Mexico City ~ one of my fave cities in the world. Thank you for the warmest welcome. Feeling very, very grateful for this journey.”

Lipa, one of the world’s most influential pop stars with 87 million followers on Instagram, will perform in Monterrey on Friday night, her second and final concert of her tour of Mexico. It’s her second trip here after performing at the 2017 Corona Capital music festival in Mexico City.

QUE LOCURA!!! 🫠❤️ Living on a cloud! Our biggest show on our Future Nostalgia Tour!!! 65k people in Mexico City ~ one of my fave cities in the world. Thank you for the warmest welcome. Feeling very very grateful for this journey 🌹 21.09.2022 pic.twitter.com/mexgYhYDnJ

— DUA LIPA (@DUALIPA) September 22, 2022

Lipa’s Mexico City concert was a crowd-pleaser, with the London native singing all her hits, including “Love Again” and “Break My Heart” from her 2020 release Future Nostalgia. She endeared herself even more to her excited fans by speaking in Spanish between songs.

The artist made good use of her time in Mexico City, visiting local tourist attractions and some of the capital’s top restaurants.

Photos posted to her Instagram account show her at Casa Luis Barragán – the former residence of noted architect Luis Barragán, as well as at the Nido de Quetzalcóatl – an architectural project that features a structure in the form of the feathered serpent of ancient Mexica mythology. She also visited the Frida Kahlo museum in the Coyoacán neighborhood.

Lipa dined at Máximo Bistrot, recently ranked the 89th best restaurant in the world, and Contramar, which is known for its fresh seafood dishes. Both restaurants are in Mexico City’s hip Roma neighborhood. The songstress gave the tick of approval to one of the tacos she tried, posting a photo of it to her Instagram stories with the simple and to-the-point caption of “yep.”

Another image posted to Lipa’s Instagram page showed that she also chowed down on takeout tacos from Taquería Orinoco, a popular restaurant for the quintessential Mexican food with several locations in the capital. She also went clubbing in the Zona Rosa, a nightlife district popular with Mexico City’s gay community, and even experienced an earthquake as Thursday morning’s 6.9 magnitude quake in the state of Michoacán was felt in Mexico City just hours after her concert finished.

The cultural and culinary offerings the pop sensation experienced in the capital apparently energized her for her concert in Monterrey.

“Loved every moment on tour this month,” tweeted Lipa, who was in South America before coming to Mexico. “Last show tonight in LatAm ~ Monterrey, Mexico! Vamonossssssss.”

With reports from Proceso, El Financiero and Glamour

Foreign Minister Ebrard to UN General Assembly: “It is time to act” in Russia-Ukraine war

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MND Staff

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September 23, 2022

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Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard speaks at the U.N. General Assembly. Facebook / SRE

Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard has presented Mexico’s proposal to end the Russia-Ukraine war to the United Nations.

Addressing the U.N. Security Council in New York on Thursday, Ebrard said that President López Obrador’s proposal to create a “committee for dialogue and peace in Ukraine” was aimed at “strengthening the mediation efforts” of U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres.

The committee – which would conduct “direct talks” with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin of Russia, according to López Obrador – should include “heads of state and government,” the foreign minister said.

He repeated López Obrador’s proposal for Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India and Pope Francis to participate in the proposed peace talks.

“The objective would be very clear – to generate new mechanisms for dialogue and create complementary spaces for mediation that promote trust, reduce tension and open the way to lasting peace,” Ebrard said.

He said Mexico hoped that the creation of the proposed committee would go ahead with the support of the United Nations’ member states. “As Secretary-General [Guterres] has said, it’s time to act, to make a commitment to peace,” Ebrard said.

He also spoke about Mexico’s peace proposal in an address to the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday. In that address Ebrard asserted that the Security Council – of which Mexico is currently a non-permanent member – “has been unable to fulfill the mandate conferred to it by the United Nations Charter” because it was unable to prevent the war in Ukraine and hasn’t been able to stop it since it began.

It has failed to initiate “any diplomatic process that seeks a solution [to the conflict] through dialogue and negotiation,” the foreign minister said.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine, left, and President Vladimir Putin of Russia, right. — Mexico’s proposal included direct talks between President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin of Russia, with mediation by other world leaders. CC BY 4.0

Mexico’s peace proposal – first outlined by López Obrador during an Independence Day address last Friday – was rejected by Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to President Zelenskyy, last Saturday. He took particular umbrage at the president’s call for a five-year “truce” in the Russia-Ukraine war and all other conflicts.

“’Peacemakers’ who use war as a topic for their own PR are causing only surprise. @lopezobrador_, is your plan to keep millions under occupation, increase the number of mass burials and give Russia time to renew reserves before the next offensive? Then your ‘plan’ is a [Russian] plan,” Podolyak wrote on Twitter.

Ebrard on Thursday acknowledged that both Ukraine and Russia have been critical of Mexico’s proposal, but defended the government’s decision to present it. “It’s not enough to [only] condemn [the war],” he told reporters.

The foreign minister had the opportunity to personally explain Mexico’s plan to the the foreign ministers of both warring countries in New York, meeting with Dmytro Kuleba of Ukraine Thursday and Sergei Lavrov of Russia Friday.

“I shared President López Obrador’s proposal in favor of peace as well as our ideas about the future of the Security Council,” he wrote on Twitter after the latter meeting.

Lavrov on Thursday defended Russia’s military operations in Ukraine during an address to the Security Council and described Ukraine as “a Nazi-style totalitarian state where standards of international humanitarian law are trampled underfoot with impunity.”

Russia appears to be planning for a long war in Ukraine given that President Vladimir Putin this week announced a “partial mobilization” of military reservists that could see an additional 300,000 Russian troops deployed for active service.

Mexico’s peace proposal appears doomed to remain just that – a proposal – with Putin, Zelenskyy, Modi, Guterres and Pope extremely unlikely to be seen around the same table, despite López Obrador’s apparent best intentions.

With reports from El Universal and AP

Reviving the cultivation of ‘green gold’: Mexican scientists create modified henequen agave

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MND Staff

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September 22, 2022

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Yucatan Scientific Research Center in Merida growing GMO henequen — The Mérida-based Yucatán Scientific Research Center developed the genetically improved plant, which matures much faster. It has given its henequen variety to some 100 growers across Yucatán. Photos: Conacyt

Farmers in Yucatán are reaping the rewards of a project that used genetic engineering to create a fast-growing and more productive henequen plant, a species of agave that can be processed to make textiles and a distilled spirit.

Scientists from the Mérida-based Yucatán Scientific Research Center (CICY) developed the improved plant, which has been dubbed “elite henequen.”

According to a report by the news agency EFE, the scientists visited henequen (Agave fourcroydes) plantations years ago and selected the most robust, resistant and leafiest plants. They removed the plants, took them to CICY labs and used in vitro genetic engineering processes to create “elite henequen” from them.

Since 2017, CICY has distributed more than 700,000 of the “elite henequen” plants to some 100 growers across Yucatán.

Yucatan Scientific Research Center in Merida — Researchers developed the genetically improved plant, which matures in nearly half the time of unmodified henequen.

“Now we’re seeing the results,” Javier García, director of technological management at CICY told the news agency EFE. “The producers recognize that the elite species grows more quickly, with more and longer leaves [yielding] a greater content of fiber,” García said.

According to García, the genetically enhanced plants grow to maturity in just three years, whereas an unmodified henequen plant takes five or six years to reach a point at which its leaves can be used to extract fiber, from which textiles can be made.

Bernardino Martín Chan, president of a Yucatán farmers association and manager of a plant where henequen is processed, gave a similarly glowing assessment of the “elite henequen.”

“CICY’s new henequen plants do grow quickly and they’re bigger,” he said. “If they distributed them across the whole state, we would once again have the splendor of yesteryear because the best henequen in the world is from Yucatán.”

genetically modified henequen plant — One of the center’s mature henequen plants.

Chan was referring to henequen’s historic reputation as Yucatán’s “green gold” because of the prosperity its production and exportation brought to the state during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The plant was grown on large henequen haciendas, and some estate owners used their wealth to build opulent homes in Mérida, such as those located on the state capital’s emblematic boulevard, Paseo de Montejo.

Yucatán’s henequen industry declined as the 20th century progressed, partially due to the development of synthetic fibers. But it could now be on the verge of a renaissance thanks to the development of the “elite henequen.”

“Our mission is to promote the cultivation of henequen in the state,” García said before waxing lyrical about the “undeniable quality” of the genetically modified plant. He also said that CICY is working “hand in hand” with producers.

García added that the cultivation of the modified species will “rescue” henequen processing plants in Yucatán because they will have more plants to process. He noted that henequen can be used to produce a variety of products, including licor de henequén, a spirit similar to tequila.

“We’re no longer in the previous centuries when only rope and sacks were made [with henequen],” he said. “Now we’re looking to other kinds of products like … rugs, carpets, handicrafts, clothing accessories and an alcoholic beverage.”

He also talked up henequen’s environmental credentials — it doesn’t require much water. The market is increasingly demanding products made with natural raw materials to avoid contaminating the planet, García said.

Chan, the farmers association president, said that the federal government should partner with CICY to distribute “elite henequen” free of charge to growers across all 106 of Yucatán’s municipalities. “It can be achieved with the Sowing Life program,” he said, referring to the government’s reforestation and employment program in which saplings of fruit and timber-yielding trees are distributed to landowners.

With reports from EFE

Cañada de la Virgen site in Guanajuato declared national archaeological monument

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Sarah DeVries

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September 22, 2022

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Cañada de la Virgen archaeological site in Guanajuato. — Cañada de la Virgen in Guanajuato was one of the eight sites where DNA from ancient remains was collected for the study. (Kate Bohné)

Meet Mexico’s newest officially designated archaeological monument: Cañada de la Virgen, located near the iconic town of San Miguel de Allende in the state of Guanajuato.

The first archaeological zone to be declared a national monument by the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) during López Obrador’s presidency so far, the site is more than 1,000 years old and researchers believe it served as an Otomí ceremonial center. The protection, granted by presidential decree, ensures that the site will protected from future residential or commercial development.

Archaeologists believe that what is known today as Cañada de la Virgen was most active from 600-900 B.C., long before the Mexica (also known as Aztecs) conquered the Otomí peoples who occupied the present-day states of Puebla, Guanajuato, and Hidalgo, in the 14th century.

A unique site situated on a symmetrical axis, it is oriented toward the sunrise in front, unusual when compared to similar sites in the area, and the moonrise in back. It was built in accordance with the sun’s daily path through the sky, and its temples are aligned with the heavenly bodies.

An aerial view of Cañada de la Virgen. INAH / Mauricio Marat

There are several major areas of Cañada de la Virgen: Complex A, called House of the 13 Skies, serves as an observatory; Complex B, the House of the Longest Night, references its connection to the Winter Solstice. Other areas include the House of the Wind and a 900-meter-long road, and still other areas of the site continue to be explored.

Cultural material found in the area indicates that priests lived on the site, and a wide variety of artifacts from other urban centers show evidence that it was an important stop along a long trade route.

Another notable feature is the site’s amanilli, a kind of reservoir that served to store water for the area. Also called a jagüey, it is evidence of the Otomí’s sophisticated hydraulic engineering system.

When archaeological work began at the site, only a point of a pyramid was visible; most of it was buried underground, and the excavation of Cañada de la Virgen took ten years. Luckily, work has been able to continue and has culminated in its designation as a protected monument despite widely criticized budget cuts for governmental entities dedicated to archaeological excavation and preservation.

With reports from El Universal and Reuters

A letter to readers from our new executive editor

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MND Staff

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September 22, 2022

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Mexico News Daily new executive editor, Kate Bohné — Our new executive editor, Kate Bohné.

I am excited to introduce myself to you as the new executive editor of Mexico News Daily and to give you a preview of my vision for the publication, in collaboration with our dedicated team of writers and editors.

I first visited Mexico at age 9, but the country had a large presence in my family’s life already: my maternal grandparents’ home in suburban Denver held artifacts of another world: a stern Olmec head in the garden, cobalt blue Talavera tiles in the kitchen above the Formica countertops, heavy wooden furniture carved by carpenters from Michoacán.

Originally from Minnesota, my grandparents arrived in Mexico City in 1960 with their two toddling daughters and stayed for 25 years. My mother grew up as a chilanga, and though she went to college in the United States and started her family there, Mexico pulled her back – with her daughters in tow.

I have lived here full-time since 2005 and have written about Mexico’s political landscape, judicial system, economy and also the complexities of a culture that has long held my imagination captive. I often find myself in the space in between, a good vantage point for observing the borders – visible and invisible – that we navigate as immigrants and expatriates.

My primary goal as I take on this new and exciting responsibility is to inform our readers and to expand their knowledge of Mexico and its people, inspiring their curiosity and providing context for the news of the day.

Mexico News Daily is essential reading for anyone who wishes to be “in the know” about Mexico, as the premier English-language news source covering current events. In this next phase, I hope to make Mexico News Daily the essential companion to your experience of Mexico.

I want to take you beyond the headlines and the postcards, to bring you stories that enrich your perspective and open your eyes to the many worlds contained within this ancient country.

You will hear from me more in the email newsletters very soon, with further details on the fresh content coming to Mexico News Daily. You can learn more about my background and writing at The Mexpatriate.

To crossing borders together,

Kate Bohné

Surge in growth of remittances from abroad projected to continue

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MND Staff

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September 22, 2022

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Pesos and dollar bills mixed together. — The peso was considered one of the best-performing global currencies in 2022 and has also strengthened rapidly so far this year against the US dollar. Depositphotos

Remittances sent to Mexico by family and friends abroad will total US $58.5 billion by the end of this year, an increase of 13.4% over 2021, according to a report from the financial institution BBVA México.

And in 2023, the figure will only go higher: an expected $62.6 billion being sent home by Mexicans living abroad, says the report, titled “Yearbook of Migration and Remittances 2022.”

The BBVA report says this surge of remittances indicates that currently there is a greater dependence on this money from abroad than there was before the COVID-19 pandemic — both in Mexico and other Latin American countries.

In fact, in some states in Mexico, the total of remittances received by families is larger than that state’s spending on items for the public such as education, health, payroll for public officials, infrastructure, social programs and social assistance.

For example, data from BBVA and the federal Bank of México (Banxico) shows that state government spending in Michoacán in 2020 was US $3.85 billion, while incoming remittances there amounted to US $4.56 billion.

Similar dynamics exist in Guanajuato, Zacatecas, Jalisco and five other states, and the figures are expected to be lopsided again for 2022. What this shows, in these states in particular, is that money flowing in from remittances is of huge importance for the state’s economy, the newspaper Reforma concluded.

“In those states, households and the local economy depend a lot on remittances,” said Jesús Cervantes, director of economic statistics and coordinator of the Forum on Latin American and Caribbean Remittances, a program of the Center for Latin American Monetary Studies (CEMLA). “In households that do receive them, the weight that remittances have on household income is gigantic.”

“The local economy of those states also depends a lot on remittances because that household income is going to be spent in stores [and] different establishments,” he added. “And some [government] income depends on that household spending. Local and even federal public revenues benefit, for example, if [the person spending money from abroad] buys a product that pays VAT (value-added tax).”

Clients wait in line at Western Union, a popular money transfer service.

According to CEMLA, it is estimated that in Mexico there are 4.9 million households and 11.1 million adults who receive remittances from relatives abroad. The incoming money benefits women the most, according to data from the BBVA report.

Remittances increase the income of Mexican households that receive them by at least 30%, Cervantes noted.

In the first half of 2022, remittances across Mexico totaled US $27.6 billion, an increase of 16.6% compared to the first half of 2021, a year when Mexico was the second largest recipient of remittances in the world (behind only India, and ahead of No. 3 China).

The above is a six-month figure from the BBVA study. According to the federal entity Banxico, the influx of remittances in the first seven months of 2022 totaled US $32.8 billion, with most of the money coming from friends and family living in the United States. This figure is a 16.4% increase over the US $28.2 billion received during the same period in 2021.

Looking just at July of this year, the amount of remittances sent to Mexico was US $5.7 billion, according to Banxico, which was the highest amount in a month since 1995, the year statistics started being kept. The July 2022 figure was 4.4% higher than June 2022, and 16.5% higher than July 2021.

Moreover, July marked the third consecutive month that more than US $5 billion per month had been sent to families in Mexico.

A big part of the story in all of this is that sending money from abroad to Mexico is cheaper than sending it to any other country in Latin America and the Caribbean, except for El Salvador, according to the BBVA report.

For example, at this time last year, the average cost to wire US $200 to Mexico was 4.4% of that figure, or US $8.80. El Salvador was the cheapest at 3.9% of the amount sent, with Honduras, Ecuador and Paraguay all at 4.5%, according to BBVA. The average global cost last year, the report added, was 6.3%.

In addition, the average remittance sent to Mexico has increased from $295 in 2016 to $370 this year, according to one report, and $389 according to another.

With reports from Infobae and Reforma

Vote on military’s domestic role postponed as Morena musters support

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MND Staff

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September 22, 2022

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The Senate building in Mexico City. Haakon S. Krohn / CC BY-SA 3.0

A constitutional bill that if approved would allow the use of the military for public security tasks until 2028 is in limbo after the ruling Morena party used its majority in the Senate to block a vote that would have killed off the proposal.

The bill, put forward by an Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) deputy, passed the Chamber of Deputies last week with the support of Morena, the Labor Party, the Green Party (both allies of the ruling party) and the PRI.

The bill would pass the upper house if all senators with Morena, its allies and PRI supported it, but several who represent the PRI indicated they would vote against it.

Constitutional bills require support from two-thirds of legislators to become law. Considering that level of support wasn’t forthcoming in the upper house, Morena and its allies used their simple majority on Wednesday to postpone the vote and return the bill to Senate committees where it could be modified to make it more palatable to the PRI lawmakers who currently oppose it.

Had a vote been held Wednesday, the proposal would likely have received support just short of the two-thirds majority required for it to pass.

Senator Ricardo Monreal, Morena’s leader in the Senate, said on Twitter that the vote was postponed to “broaden the debate and reach agreements.”

In an article published on his personal website, Monreal charged that there was currently no “real possibility” to return members of the armed forces to their barracks due to the levels of violence “between cartels and against the civilian population.”

“… Pacifying the country is a titanic task. It is not possible to predict an exact date [when it will be possible] to withdraw the armed forces from public security, but the debate must focus on the conditions needed for that. State and municipal governments have to professionalize their police and guarantee their trustworthiness with strict mechanisms. It is also necessary to stop the trafficking of weapons to our country,” he wrote.

Morena's Senate leader, Ricardo Monreal. — Morena’s Senate leader, Ricardo Monreal. morena.senado.gob.mx

Monreal also said that combating poverty and inequality is crucial because organized crime groups find support and new recruits among disadvantaged people. He called on all political parties to “deepen the debate” about the proposal to keep the military on the streets until 2028 and “offer certainty to the actions of the army and navy.”

Morena Senator Eduardo Ramírez acknowledged that the bill would have to be modified to find the required two-thirds support, but it remains to be seen what changes will be made. He said dialogue with the PRI, “which has shown interest [in supporting the bill]” is required in order to reach the level of support needed.

“This is what follows in the coming days, we have to give ground if we want to approve the reform,” he said.

The National Action Party and the Democratic Revolution Party are vehemently opposed to the bill, arguing that it would further perpetuate a long-running militarized public security strategy that has failed. Their alliance with the PRI is at risk of breaking up due to that party’s support of the bill in the lower house.

The Senate is required to vote on the proposal within the next 10 working days. As things stand, the government has authorization to continue using the military for public security tasks until 2024.

Before taking office, President López Obrador pledged to remove the armed forces from the nation’s streets, but now argues that their presence is essential to guarantee peace.

With reports from Milenio and El País

Homicide numbers down 8.4% so far this year, security minister reports

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MND Staff

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September 22, 2022

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Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez reports on public security at Tuesday's presidential press conference. Presidencia de la República

Homicides declined 8.4% in the first eight months of the year compared to the same period of 2021, the federal government reported Tuesday.

Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez presented data that showed there were 20,722 homicides between January and August, 1,909 fewer than in the first eight months of last year. On average, there were 85.6 murders per day between January 1 and August 31.

Last month, there were 2,624 murders, a 7% decline compared to August 2021. Rodríguez highlighted that it was the least violent August of the past five years in terms of the total number of homicides. She also emphasized that murders were down 14.6% in August compared to the most violent month on record – July 2018 – when 3,074 homicides were recorded.

“We have advanced in the tasks of peace-building and security in the country,” the security minister told President López Obrador’s morning press conference.

“… Today we live in better conditions of peace and it’s clear that the national security strategy is working,” Rodríguez declared, even though cartels ran riot in four states in August and this six-year period of government is likely to be the most violent in decades.

“Every government … does its work, with challenges, but also with clear advances,” she said, referring to federal, state and municipal authorities.

“It’s a collective achievement that benefits the population. The heart of the national security strategy is attention to the causes that generate violence,” Rodríguez said, alluding to the federal government’s so-called “hugs, not bullets” security approach.

“… We continue to coordinate actions to combat all criminal structures so that there is zero impunity and zero corruption.”

The security minister reported that 48.7% of all homicides in the first eight months of the year occurred in just six states. Guanajuato was the most violent with 2,115 murders between January and August, followed by Baja California, Michoacán, México state, Jalisco and Chihuahua.

Rodríguez also reported statistics for various other crimes. Among those that declined in the first eight months of the year compared to the same period of 2021 were cattle theft, vehicle theft, burglaries and drug trafficking. Among those that increased were firearms offenses and property crimes.

Mexico News Daily

Kavak, Mexican ‘unicorn’ startup, to receive US $810 million in debt financing

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MND Staff

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September 22, 2022

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Kavak.com used car company — The used-car sales company isn't yet profitable, but claims it now will be within six months. Kavak/Facebook

Mexico’s first “unicorn” company – a startup valued at more than US $1 billion – has secured US $810 million in additional funding.

Kavak, which runs online used-car marketplaces in seven countries, said Tuesday that it had secured $675 million in funding from the bank HSBC.

Kavak – Latin America’s largest unlisted company – previously announced that it had reached credit line deals with Goldman Sachs and Santander bank for US $100 million and US $35 million, respectively.

The HSBC financing will allow Kavak to increase its car loan offerings, while the funds provided by Goldman Sachs and Santander are for business development and to increase inventory.

Kavak, which was founded in Mexico City in 2016 and operates in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Turkey, said that its agreement with HSBC will increase the number of drivers in Latin America, where only 1.5 in 10 residents have a car according to Kavak’s research team. The funding is in the form of a forward flow agreement in which HSBC will buy collection rights for Kavak’s loans.

“My understanding is that this had never been done with a portfolio like this, for cars,” Moises Flores, Kavak’s chief financial officer, told the news agency Reuters.

Kavak is aiming to lower barriers for access to car loans in Latin America, where many people don’t have bank accounts and are unable to access traditional lines of credit.

Flores indicated that the company – which says it’s worth more than $8.7 billion – had little trouble securing the additional funding. “The risk of lending to Kavak is low,” he said. “[The banks are] also looking at our portfolio, our financing, and they say, ‘Looks good.’”

Flores told Reuters that the company could have access to a total of $1.2 billion in additional funding by the end of the year and hinted it could move into more markets. “We’ve financed ourselves pretty cheaply. Our debt is cheap,” he said.

Despite its high valuation, Kavak is not yet profitable, but Flores said that should change soon. “[The first profitable month] is going to be in the next six months for Mexico for sure,” Flores told Bloomberg. “And then, in the other countries, we will need a bit more scale.”

The CFO claimed that Kavak is “revolutionizing” the used-car market in Latin America, adding that “these kinds of credit lines help us to deepen the change.”

“In Latin America today, 90% of used car transactions are between private individuals,” he said. “In general, it tends to be a very stressful time with several risks. … That’s why for us, there’s an opportunity to offer a completely innovative experience that … eliminates mechanical and documentation frauds that usually occur in these kinds of transactions and also provides financing, mechanical guarantees and post-sale services that are unique in the market.”

With reports from El Financiero, Infobae, Reuters and Bloomberg

Texas governor designates Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations

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MND Staff

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September 22, 2022

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Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Wednesday designated Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations and ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) to establish a Mexican cartel division.

In an executive order, Abbott said that Mexican cartels are responsible for trafficking hundreds of millions of lethal doses of fentanyl into Texas and the United States and that 1,600 Texans were fatally poisoned by drugs containing fentanyl in 2021, “an increase of more than 680% since 2018.”

The governor also said that Mexican cartels smuggle humans across the Texas-Mexico border and generate “deadly violence.”

Citing powers vested in him by the U.S. constitution and laws of the state of Texas, Abbott designated the Sinaloa Cartel, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and “any similarly situated Mexican drug cartels who may be identified in subsequent proclamations” as “foreign terrorist organizations.”

In one incident last month, U.S. border authorities seized US $11.5 million worth of cocaine in Laredo, Texas. According to CBP South Texas officials, fentanyl seizures increased by 1,066% and cocaine seizures increased 98% in fiscal year 2021. CBP South Texas/Twitter

He said that the designation would “target [cartels] for enhanced apprehension, prosecution, and disruption, while heightening awareness of their deadly activities for our citizens and the international community.”

Abbott ordered the DPS to “establish a Mexican Cartel Division within the Texas Fusion Center to collect and analyze intelligence that will enable further apprehension, prosecution, and disruption of these foreign terrorist organizations.”

Among six other orders, he directed the DPS to “identify, arrest, and impede the gangs in Texas that support the drug and human smuggling operations of these foreign terrorist organizations.”

The Texas Tribune described the governor’s designation as “largely symbolic” because Texas doesn’t have terrorism-related statutes.

Abbott also wrote to U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to urge them to designate Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations.

“Mexican drug cartels terrorize the United States and its citizens every day, leaving thousands of dead bodies in their wake. Their latest weapons of choice are the millions of tiny pills laced with fentanyl that they pour across our southern border. As a result, it is necessary, now more than ever, for you to designate the Sinaloa Cartel, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, and any similarly situated Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act,” he wrote.

“This move would help us fight back against these terrorists and disrupt their deadly attacks on America.”

At a roundtable discussion with DPS Director Steve McCraw and other officials, Abbott declared that “cartels are terrorists, and it’s time we treated them that way.”

Activist Adrian LeBaron, whose nine family members were slain in 2019 by an organized crime group, said he agreed with Abbot’s declaration of cartels as terrorist groups.

“In fact, more Americans died from fentanyl poisoning in the past year than all terrorist attacks across the globe in the past 100 years. In order to save our country, particularly our next generation, we must do more to get fentanyl off our streets,” he said.

The Sinaloa Cartel and the CJNG are considered Mexico’s largest and most powerful criminal organizations. The United States Congressional Research Service said in a recent report that the CJNG operates in Mexico City and 27 states, while the Sinaloa Cartel is believed to have a presence in about half of Mexico’s 32 federal entities.

Adrian LeBaron, an anti-violence activist who lost nine members of his extended family in an armed attack near the Sonora-Chihuahua border in November 2019, indicated he agreed with Abbott’s designation of Mexican cartels, writing on Twitter that they are indeed terrorists.

With reports from Reforma and The Texas Tribune