President Claudia Sheinbaum held her final morning press conference of the week in Acapulco, where she presented details of a new hurricane recovery plan on Thursday.
The plan was a major focus of the president’s mañanera, but Sheinbaum responded to questions on other issues including the decade-old Ayotzinapa case.
Speaking in a city that is home to some of Mexico’s most popular beaches, the president also declared that the nation’s beaches are not private but rather belong to the people.
Resolving Ayotzinapapa case remains a government priority, Sheinbaum says
Sheinbaum told reporters that a “new team” is reviewing the Ayotzinapa case — the abduction and presumed murder of 43 Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers College students in Guerrero in September 2014.
“We already met with the fathers and mothers of [the] Ayotzinapa [students]. We have a team working on a review of all the investigation files and some evidence that wasn’t [previously] considered,” she said.
“… It’s good that there is a new team reviewing the case again,” Sheinbaum said.
Just two days after he was sworn in as president in December 2018, Andrés Manuel López Obrador signed a decree to create a super commission to conduct a new investigation into the case. He pledged to get to the bottom of the case and hold those responsible to account. But no one has yet been convicted of the crime and the remains of the vast majority of the students haven’t been found.
Sheinbaum said that the Army continues to collaborate on the Ayotzinapa investigation and noted that some soldiers have been detained in connection with the crime.
“We’re going to continue working,” she said. “This case will continue to be one of our priorities.”
‘The beaches belong to the people’
After Deputy Tourism Minister Sebastián Ramírez Mendoza noted that the government will “rehabilitate” entrances to beaches in Acapulco this year, Sheinbaum highlighted that “the beaches belong to the people.”
Citizens must have access to them, she said, stressing that “beaches are not private.”
In late 2020, López Obrador signed into law a guarantee of free access and transit on beaches throughout Mexico and established sanctions for those who prohibit access with fines of up to 1 million pesos.
Mexico News Daily reported at the time that fines can be issued if fences, barriers or buildings prevent entry to a beach or if property owners, hotel security staff or other hotel personnel block access when there is not an alternative public path.
Sheinbaum noted that she was recently in coastal Nayarit and easy public access to beaches “was one of the demands” of the people she spoke to there.
“There has to be access to the beaches,” she said.
‘Los Chapitos’ and ‘La Mayiza’ have both been weakened, says security minister
A reporter asked Security Minister Omar García Harfuch about the extent to which the federal government has been able to weaken the Sinaloa Cartel since taking office at the start of October.
“More than anything else the criminal cells that generate the most violence have been weakened,” García Harfuch said.
The reporter sought to clarify whether the security minister was saying that the “Los Chapitos” and “La Mayiza” (or “Los Mayos”) factions of the Sinaloa Cartel had been weakened.
“Yes, of course,” García Harfuch said.
A long-running dispute between “Los Chapitos” and “La Mayiza” escalated after the arrest in the United States of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada last July. Zambada alleges he was kidnapped by Joaquín Guzmán López — one of the leaders of “Los Chapitos” — and forced onto a U.S.-bound plane before his arrest at an airport in New Mexico.
The war between the rival Sinaloa Cartel factions has claimed hundreds of lives in recent months.
García Harfuch said that “almost 50 priority targets” have been arrested in Sinaloa since Oct. 1 and 400 vehicles and over 600 firearms have been seized.
“The number of homicides at the beginning [of this term of government] is not the same as the number now. There have been days in Sinaloa with zero homicides. … Unfortunately there were five yesterday, but the day before yesterday there was only one,” he said.
“… Progress has definitely been made, but … we’re going to continue advancing with the strengthening of the security strategy,” García Harfuch said.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies ([email protected])
