At the start of her Friday morning press conference, President Claudia Sheinbaum noted that the day she was speaking, Sept. 19, was the 40th anniversary of the 1985 earthquake that devastated Mexico City and the eighth anniversary of the 2017 Puebla earthquake that claimed hundreds of lives in the capital and other parts of central Mexico
“Our affection, a hug, to all those who lost a family member in the earthquakes of ’85 and ’17,” she said.
Sheinbaum also noted that an earthquake drill would take place at midday Friday.
Foreign minister: Mexicans detained at Alligator Alcatraz have reported mistreatment
Foreign Affairs Minister Juan Ramón de la Fuente told reporters that Mexican consular officials have met with a total of 198 Mexicans who have been detained at Alligator Alcatraz, an immigration detention facility in south Florida.
“That doesn’t mean that they’re still there,” he said, explaining that detainees usually only spend a “brief” time at the recently opened but already notorious facility.
“The numbers change every day, a lot of people come and go,” De la Fuente said.
The foreign minister said that a “good number” of Mexicans who were detained at Alligator Alcatraz decided to return to Mexico, while others were transferred to other detention centers in the United States.
Asked whether any of the 198 Mexicans detained at the facility had reported violations of their human rights, De la Fuente said that Mexican officials have registered cases of “malos tratos” — mistreatment or abuse.
“All that is being recorded, and that’s where legal advice comes in,” he said.
De la Fuente didn’t specify the kind of mistreatment Mexicans have reported suffering at Alligator Alcatraz.
In July, the Associated Press reported that “at the brand new Everglades immigration detention center that officials have dubbed ‘Alligator Alcatraz,’ people held there say worms turn up in the food.”
“Toilets don’t flush, flooding floors with fecal waste, and mosquitoes and other insects are everywhere,” the news agency reported.
Abandonment of babies, a growing problem in Mexico
A reporter noted that “various cases” of abandoned babies have been reported in states across Mexico in recent months.
“Are you analyzing this situation?” asked the reporter. “… Have you detected anything [that explains] … why this phenomenon is occurring more and more frequently?”
Sheinbaum pointed out that state authorities are responsible for responding to and investigating such cases.
“That doesn’t mean that we’re not concerned or dealing with the situation,” she said.
“But who has the legal responsibility to attend to the baby, the infant, who has been abandoned are the state Attorney General’s Offices and also the state DIF family service agencies,” Sheinbaum said.
“The national DIF organizes and coordinates all the work of the DIF agencies in each of the federal entities,” she added.
Asked whether anything would be done to “prevent these kinds of situations,” Sheinbaum said that the Ministry of Women, in collaboration with the IMSS Bienestar health care agency, has a program designed to assist teenage girls and young women who are pregnant and who may be at risk of abandoning their baby.
In some cases, young mothers and fathers “don’t have the possibility of looking after the baby and unfortunately choose a situation of this type,” she said.
Sheinbaum defends Morena’s top senator
A reporter asked the president whether Senator Adán Augusto López Hernández’s leadership of the Morena party in the Senate is “sustainable” given the accusations faced by the man who served as his security minister when he was governor of Tabasco.
That man, Hernán Bermúdez Requena, was arrested in Paraguay last Friday and is now in a federal prison in México state. Bermúdez is accused of leading a crime organization called La Barredora and faces charges of criminal association, extortion and express kidnapping.
Sheinbaum pointed out that López Hernández, who relinquished his position as governor to serve as federal interior minister between 2021 and 2023, doesn’t currently face any criminal charges.
“There is nothing, at this time, that incriminates him,” she said.
López Hernández has said that he is willing to speak to authorities about the case against his former security minister.
In July, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) formally requested that the Federal Attorney General’s Office investigate the senator for criminal association. The PRI also demanded, unsuccessfully, that he resign.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies (peter.davies@mexiconewsdaily.com)
