Schizophrenic mexican elections

[Ca.]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1016858447906779136

AMLO's austerity plan includes 50% pay cut for lawmakers
Thursday, July 12, 2018
President's salary to be halved as well; many benefits will be eliminated
President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador has begun outlining a strict austerity plan that Mexico’s next government intends to implement when it takes office later this year.

Slashing the upper levels of government bureaucracy by 50%, eliminating undersecretaries as well as state branches of federal offices and some parliamentary committees, reducing politicians’ salaries and cutting a range of other government expenses are all on the incoming administration’s agenda.

After meeting yesterday with a group of lawmakers from the three parties that make up the coalition that swept him to a landslide victory on July 1, López Obrador told a press conference that the next Congress will propose a 50% reduction to the wages paid to federal deputies and senators.

If approved, members of the lower house in the next Congress will earn a gross monthly salary of 37,336 pesos (US $1,983) while senators will be paid 58,700 pesos (US $3,120).

López Obrador also said that the gross salary he will receive as president will be halved from its current monthly level of 209,135 pesos (US $11,090) and that perks and benefits for all politicians — such as health insurance covering major medical expenses — will be eliminated.

The president-elect said that pensions for former presidents are also on the chopping block because having worked in the public service they are already entitled to ISSTE state workers’ pensions.

In addition, if they are over 65, they can claim old-age pensions, which López Obrador has said he will double.

The political veteran, who made stamping out corruption central to his bid for the presidency, said that whether the Morena party he leads decides to accept the 1.5 billion pesos (US $80 million) it will be entitled to next year due to the high percentage of votes it won on July 1 will be subject to analysis.

López Obrador also presented a plan to the lawmakers elected under his Together We Will Make History coalition entitled Considerations for deputies and senators.

The president-elect said that he and his team believe that the changes proposed in the plan “will be sufficient to fulfill [the government’s] commitments and to carry out the . . . transformation of the country.”

The Morena-led coalition will have a majority in both houses of federal Congress, although it will likely need to negotiate with opposition parties in order to pass constitutional reforms that require two-thirds support.

The Considerations document, which serves to set priorities for the government’s legislative agenda and instruct Congress, proposes 12 “possible reforms to the legal framework” that López Obrador read out at yesterday’s press conference. They are:

• Changing article 127 of the constitution, which currently stipulates that no public official can earn a higher salary than the president.
• Establishing a federal Secretariat of Public Security.
• Eliminating political immunity known as the fuero and other privileges currently afforded to government officials.
• Including corruption, petroleum theft and electoral fraud on the list of serious crimes for which there is no right to bail.
• Transferring responsibility for preparing the federal budget to the Secretariat of Finance.
• Incorporating the Estado Mayor Presidencial — the institution charged with protecting the president of Mexico — into the Secretariat of Defense.
• Overturning the recent decree which privatizes water.
• Modifying or repealing the 2013 educational reform.
• Establishing the right to free, public education at all school levels in article 3 of the constitution.
• Establishing a legally-binding consultation mechanism that enables the presidential term to be revoked.
• Reviewing the need to increase the minimum salary in the northern border region.
• Carrying out the changes to laws, regulations, decrees and agreements to adjust the administrative structure of the government in accordance with the federal austerity plan.

Source: El Universal (sp), Milenio (sp)

Meanwhile:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1017595730100273153

Watch: Fierce Gun Battle Erupts Between Mexican Troops And Cartel Gunmen Near Texas Border

https://twitter.com/x/status/1016559555822616577

 

[irjO]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1016858447906779136

• Changing article 127 of the constitution, which currently stipulates that no public official can earn a higher salary than the president.
• Establishing a federal Secretariat of Public Security.
• Eliminating political immunity known as the fuero and other privileges currently afforded to government officials.
• Including corruption, petroleum theft and electoral fraud on the list of serious crimes for which there is no right to bail.
• Transferring responsibility for preparing the federal budget to the Secretariat of Finance.
• Incorporating the Estado Mayor Presidencial — the institution charged with protecting the president of Mexico — into the Secretariat of Defense.
• Overturning the recent decree which privatizes water.
• Modifying or repealing the 2013 educational reform.
• Establishing the right to free, public education at all school levels in article 3 of the constitution.
• Establishing a legally-binding consultation mechanism that enables the presidential term to be revoked.
• Reviewing the need to increase the minimum salary in the northern border region.
• Carrying out the changes to laws, regulations, decrees and agreements to adjust the administrative structure of the government in accordance with the federal austerity plan.

Source: El Universal (sp), Milenio (sp)

Meanwhile:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1017595730100273153

Watch: Fierce Gun Battle Erupts Between Mexican Troops And Cartel Gunmen Near Texas Border

https://twitter.com/x/status/1016559555822616577

Love this! is a good start. A lot of people in power there don't gonna like these measurements for sure

 

[mabar]

Love this! is a good start. A lot of people in power there don't gonna like these measurements for sure

I am not that enthusiastic, he (they) are not pointing out how they are going to (not end) but lessen the insecurity (at any level) that pretty much the whole country suffers and, today Kushner, Pompeo and Nielsen are going to have a visit to AMLO ... it figures to me, like point out to him the points of the i's ... we will have to wait and see the outcome ...

Pompeo arrives in Mexico to meet with president-elect
Mexico City (AFP) - Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled to Mexico City Friday to meet president-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, an anti-establishment leftist who arrives at a point when the two countries' relations are deeply strained.

Pompeo arrived with a team of high-ranking officials including President Donald Trump's son-in-law, senior presidential adviser Jared Kushner; Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen; and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

"This delegation is noteworthy and a testament to the importance the administration and the United States place on the bilateral relationship," a senior US State Department official said Thursday in a background briefing on the trip.

"This is an important trip scheduled at a key moment in our bilateral relationship."

The officials will also meet with outgoing Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, who hands power to Lopez Obrador on December 1, and Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray.

All issues in the neighboring countries' relationship will be on the table, including trade, migration, security and the border, the State Department official said.

US-Mexican relations have been strained since Trump won election in 2016 after a campaign laced with anti-Mexican insults, attacks on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and promises to build a border wall and make Mexico pay for it.

US tariffs on Mexican steel and aluminum, Trump's "zero-tolerance" policy on undocumented immigrants, separation of migrant families and two abruptly canceled visits to Washington by President Pena Nieto have only added to the tension.

Lopez Obrador, widely known as "AMLO," had vowed during the campaign to "put (Trump) in his place."

But the two men appear to have hit it off in a phone call the day after Mexico's July 1 election, which Lopez Obrador won in a landslide, with more than 53 percent of the vote -- more than 30 points clear of his nearest rival.

Lopez Obrador said he had offered to help reduce US-bound migration -- an issue close to Trump's heart -- while the US president called it a "great talk."

Some commentators have drawn parallels between the two leaders: both are free-trade skeptics with populist tendencies who mobilized a disgruntled base with anti-establishment campaigns.

Trump has even reportedly taken to calling Lopez Obrador "Juan Trump" in private.

[/quote]

 

[Ca.]

So I wounder what the Kushner, connection could be?

Published on Feb 21, 2017

Flashback:

1 MONTH AFTER 9/11 MOSSAD CAUGHT ATTEMPTING TO BLOW UP THE MEXICAN CONGRESS 2001 – The Nate Max Project

 

[Ca.]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1016403339104407552

Analysis Written byParker Asmann July 6, 2018
Español
A relatively new party in Mexico won big in a recent election, while the long-dominant political force suffered a crushing defeat. This new balance of power could bring sweeping change to the country’s approach to fighting organized crime, but the promised radical reforms may not root out deep-seated criminality.

In the July 1 election, the National Regeneration Movement (Movimiento Regeneración Nacional – MORENA), founded in 2014 and headed by now President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador, won control of several key governorships and the government of the capital Mexico City.

MORENA’s victory came at the expense of a drubbing for current President Enrique Peña Nieto’s Institutional Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario Institucional – PRI). The PRI failed to win any governorships, lost significant power in Congress, and its presidential candidate José Antonio Meade secured less than 20 percent of the national vote.

An analysis by the Spanish news outlet El País found that the PRI’s losses were particularly significant in areas most affected by the record levels of violence Mexico has experienced during Peña Nieto’s six-year term.

PRI spokesman Ramiro Hernández admitted that the party’s defeat stemmed from its inability to stop rising insecurity and the damage its reputation has suffered due to accusations of corruption and ties to organized crime.

InSight Crime Analysis

The PRI’s retreat from power at the local and national level in Mexico could pave the way for big changes to the country’s strategy for tackling crime. Whether those policies will be successful is another question entirely.

The state of Jalisco, the base of operations for Mexico’s biggest organized crime threat, the Jalisco Cartel New Generation (Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación – CJNG), provides an example of how things could play out more broadly.

Jalisco has felt the weight of rising violence and insecurity that followed the emergence of the CJNG in 2010 after leaders of other powerful crime groups were killed or captured. Over the past several years, the local approach to combating organized crime in the Pacific state has mirrored the broader militarized approach used at the national level, which has proven unsuccessful time and again.

SEE ALSO: Jalisco Cartel – New Generation Profile

While MORENA won several governorships, Jalisco was not among them. Instead, the state will be governed by Enrique Alfaro of the Citizen’s Movement (Movimiento Ciudadano) party.

Alfaro, the current mayor of Guadalajara, is reportedly under investigation by the United States for having links to the CJNG and allowing the group to expand on his watch. He has vehemently denied these allegations, but if they are true, it does not bode well for López Obrador’s policies to succeed in a crucial area.

Whether or not Alfaro has ties to organized crime, as a member of a different political party, he will have some independence in terms of choosing whether to follow López Obrador’s lead on security policy. While López Obrador did win a plurality of the vote in Jalisco, he only narrowly outperformed second-place finisher Ricardo Anaya from the National Action Party (Partido Acción Nacional – PAN), suggesting that voters weren’t completely sold on his ambitious proposals to reduce criminal violence, such as granting amnesty to drug traffickers.

SEE ALSO: Mexico News and Profiles

Even if López Obrador is successful in implementing the policies he has proposed, it’s not clear that they will actually work.

Jaime López, a security policy consultant and former Mexican police officer, told InSight Crime that López Obrador’s proposals may sound impressive on paper, but in practice they could fall short of their lofty promises.

“There are a lot of factors at play in Mexico’s homicide and security crises,” López said. “I’m not sure he’ll be able to come up with a single strategy or policy that will get to the root of these issues.”

“I don’t think López Obrador will be able to make any major changes to Mexico’s fight against organized crime,” he added. “These are structural issues, and it’s going to take more than just a good attitude.”

 

[Luis Miguel]

I wanted to share a couple of things that I have been thinking since the last election.

To be honest I have never had a true sense of patriotism... but this changed -at least a little bit - after the last elections. Since I was born, the same corrupted gang has been in power, and the only thing they have cared is filling their pockets with drug money, the taxpayer’s money, and by selling most of Mexico's sovereign resources to the highest bidder. They have been puppets of rampant globalists interests, and the country as a whole has paid the consequences, and they have left deep scars. How to be proud of this?

The usual gang, PRI/PAN maintained themselves in power for decades thanks to impunity, fraud, violence, lies, and fearmongering, and we Mexicans never gave the right steps to enable true change... protests and complaining with each other endlessly about the wrongdoings of the powers that be never worked. Over the years, we grew more and more accustomed to the usual corruption, bloodshed and theft, to a point that, at least for me, felt it was a lost cause. The corruption/ponerization reached very deep levels in the Mexican state structure.

Then, this guy AMLO, that was part of the usual gang when he started his political career, appeared in the political arena with another political party with different political ideas. He tried to appeal those Mexicans that still had some sense of nationalism and appetite for a change along the years, but with no real effect. Most politicians since said he was too naive and that things were not going to change in Mexico.

In 1997, he won the election for governor of Mexico City when he was part of the PRD political party, and the results of his administration were decent: infrastructure development, lower crime rates, incentives for Mexican businesses while at the same time opened the door to foreign investment to healthy degree. Some complained that it was a populist (whatever they mean by that) and an assistanceist government, but it was nothing over the top, it was actually productive in the particular context of the city at that time. There were not big corruption scandals among his team during his administration, but some complained a lot about his approval of the fusion of private Mexican banks with bigger foreign ones, that at the end had good results for the Mexican banking institutions.

Of course, he could not fulfill some of the promises of his campaign, but in general it was positive for the city... far from being perfect, but decent overall. Then, another guy from AMLO's political party, Marcelo Ebrard got elected as the city governor and continued the same line. It has been one of the best governments for Mexico City so far.

At the beginning I doubted that AMLO would be elected president, I didn't even voted. He run for president for 2 terms before and lost thanks to evident frauds from the usual gang. I thought it was to be the same spectacle again were the same political party (PRI) wins miraculously again against all odds. But to my surprise (and of many others), 53% of the Mexican people voted for him, and the participation was high; it was a appalling victory. The second place (PAN) got 22.5%, and the usual gang (PRI) got 15%... that's an historical low for them. This have shown that the population was very tired of the usual BS and did something effective to instill change... mass voting. Mass voting that left the usual gang tied in their hands to perpetrate the habitual elections frauds.

Morena's (AMLO's new political party) coalition also won majority in congress, they have a decent team, a positive agenda that has the best interests of Mexico in mind (or so they say), support from most of the Mexican population... so they really have a good advantage to start.

Now, we need to be realistic, there are indeed some serious challenges to overcome for this new political party now that they managed to get to power. They will need to deal with widespread corruption, some unhappy elements in the economic elite, narcotraffic, crime, ingrained bureaucracy, the now debilitated opposition... etc. It's healthy to be skeptic, but the first step for a change started since the elections.

Mexicans have to be aware that Morena is not going to be able to fulfill all the promises during one presidential term, and there might be some disappointment for some people if they do not deliver political miracles, but well, we need to be realistic. This administration will have all the eyes on them and they will need to be congruent to the best of their ability, in part because the Mexicans are tired of the same old corruption and theft, and they are very emotionally invested with this new administration. I don't think that the population would forgive a big mistake or corruption scandal... something that could be used against them by the opposition. But they would not be able to use the "the opposition is blocking our agenda" pretext, they have everything in their favor so far.

Some of his campaign promises are doable, some are doable to medium-long term, some are too high, but the first step to a divergent line in Mexican political/social history has been lay out. What would be the outcome? Who knows, but there is positive potential IMO.

Moreover, if they make a somewhat decent job, the Mexican people will definitely perceive the contrast with the usual political and social environment in Mexico. This will also play to their benefit as political party as they will continue to have support from most Mexicans for the next elections.

The usual gang will need to change strategy if they want to represent a decent opposition for the next elections, but I really think that it will be very difficult to get on their feet again after this defeat.

Also, there some members from the other political parties that changed banners and moved to Morena (AMLO's political party), and some have had corruption allegations. Some of us fear that these elements can be insiders that will try to sabotage progress, some that they just went along with the winning party to continue with their "business", others that they changed their mind and want something better for Mexico... who knows, just time will tell. However, if AMLO and Morena are going to be congruent with their anti-corruption axis, they will have to keep them in check.

On another topic, some say that it is a leftish government; some even said that he was like Chavez and that Mexico would end like Venezuela, which is just nonsense, the context is very different, and well, most don't know about foreign players wreaking havoc in Venzuela. And if it's true that he's considered as being from the left (nothing compared to the crazy liberals in the US, for example), it has some conservative aspects that IMO add up to a healthy balance.

Thanks to Wikileaks, now we know that even Hillary and the liberal gang was spying on him, I think that this is mainly because it was bad news for them to have a nationalist/protectionist administration with the interest of Mexico in mind.

And another funny thing, we can see now that some massive media are highlighting the bad stuff going on in Mexico just before the presidential inauguration, this in contrast to we saw that during the last one with Peña Nieto (PRI) where most of them were watering things down.

At least for now, call me an optimism, a cautious one though; I see potential for positive change but some serious obstacles too. In addition, a radical change may not be possible during one presidential term, but at least it was one step that also showed usual gang and those behind them that things can get out of their hands.

Just some thoughts here.

 

[Ca.]

Dam, this is a good read for SOTT IMHO. Thank You logos5x5.

 

[Nienna]

Dam, this is a good read for SOTT IMHO. Thank You logos5x5.

I was thinking the same thing!

 

[Ca.]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1021832425477996544

PDF Mexico City July 12, 2018 / Estimado Presidente Trump

https://twitter.com/x/status/1022214879753715713

https://twitter.com/x/status/1021815606113460224

https://twitter.com/x/status/1021485676947283968

Side Note:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1021795104179150850

Mugshots of Abdul Majid (left) and Haseeb Malik courtesy White Pine County Sheriff's Office ELY, Nev (Blow Helmets)
Updated: Tue 9:30 AM, Jul 24, 2018

Borderland Beat: Mexicali BC: 37 Detained w Arsenal and Drugs
Monday, July 23, 2018

InSight Crime on Twitter
InSight Crime ‏Verified account @ InSightCrime
A new criminal group, the alleged perpetrator of the murder of three Jalisco students, is challenging the powerful CJNG and its control over Guadalajara. We examine the origins of the Carte Nueva Plaza: http://bit.ly/2uZ9TUj

 

[Ca.]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1026055099003613184

Mexico is now covered with projects engaging in the exploitation of the country’s natural resources.
These projects occupy at least 18% of Mexico’s territory, yet 75% of the companies involved in these extractions are from Canada.

In the period between 2001 and 2017 alone, transnational corporations in Mexico exploited a volume of gold that is twice as large as the Spaniards took from Mexico over 300 years of colonization, and half of the silver explored by colonists, according to a new book by journalist Jesús Lemus, México a cielo abierto (“Mexico under the Open Sky”), published earlier this year.

The growth and nature of these operations has to do with the fact that on January 1, 1994, the three North American countries of Mexico, USA and Canada, signed the free trade agreement, NAFTA.

“Along with NAFTA, a law came into effect that gave mining companies full freedom and preferences over any other production,” Mexican activist Ivette Lacaba explained.

From that moment on, 22,000 concessions were granted to 1,400 mining projects.

Lacaba explained that in this respect a change took place in the form of mining exploration. Now they are not tunnels, but open pit mines. The open form of exploration means that the earth is dynamited and a crater opens, from where the ore is extracted in low concentrations.

“A lot of gold and silver are mined, but the mines were exhausted even in times of colonialism…A tunnel mine is not the same as the open pit: the latter has a much greater impact on the environment, since it uses a lot of water and cyanide or mercury for the leaching of gold and silver,” he explained.

Leaching is a highly toxic chemical process that helps metal to separate itself from the rock.

“There are data that more ore was extracted over the past years than in the colonial period, which may be correct because of the way of exploiting the deposits. However, this cannot be proven in practice, because today who extracted what and how much is not controlled,” the activist said.

The mechanism installed in Mexico for the purpose of controlling mining companies consists of the following: their own statement on the volume of the ore extracted calculates how much money they must pay. But in fact nobody controls the veracity of these statements.
Since 2014, this production has been taxed with 7.5% tax on the extracted material. In addition, companies can deduct their operating expenses from it, so the final value is not very high.

“We say that this is an open robbery, because it is so cheap that it is advantageous to get 0.4 or 0.3 grams of precious metal per one ton of broken rock,” summarizes Lacaba.

When López Obrador became Mexico’s new president, there was hope that the problem could be addressed. However, Alfonso Romo, the coordinator of the future Mexican cabinet, has said that Mexico remains set on becoming a “haven for private investment,” a line which has once again lowered the heads of activists and suggests that Mexico’s natural resources will continue to be exploited by uncontrolled, monopolistic foreign companies at an intensity greater than that of earlier historical colonialism.
In the near future, however, it is nevertheless possible that Mexico will gravitate towards seeking alternatives, especially as one of US President Trump’s policy points has been renegotiating NAFTA, a transformation which might open up a window of opportunity or, in the very least, breathing space.

China has sought to develop its trade ties with Mexico, and in 2015 the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union and Mexico launched a memorandum initiative devoted to deepening economic cooperation. Overall, the decline of US hegemony and the rise of the Eurasian powers championing multipolarity presents a number of opportunities for countries such as Mexico to expand their sovereignty in international relations.

If increased Mexican ties with the rising Eurasian powers of multipolarity and related, popular multipolar initiatives in Latin America are not in the cards, then FRN’s own Joaquin Flores has analyzed an intriguing scenario in which US imperial reform might be channeled into further integration with North and South America, a strategic switch from the “Pax Americana” of Atlanticist globalism to a “Pan Americana” of the Western hemisphere.

While Obrador’s election as president has been interpreted as a sign of changing winds in Mexican politics, as things stand, Mexico’s natural resources continue to remain in the clutches of the NAFTA scheme, the sustainability of which, judging by these newly available statistics, is highly doubtful.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1025850266262953985

https://twitter.com/x/status/1025825280752078848

https://twitter.com/x/status/1025456775628238848

https://twitter.com/x/status/1025805064395472896

 

[Ca.]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1026975799524642818

President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador pledged yesterday that a new federal Public Security Secretariat (SSP) will be in place when he starts his presidency on December 1, and reiterated today that all options are on the table in the quest to achieve national peace.

Speaking upon his arrival in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, where he presided today over the first of a series of security forums, López Obrador also said that a new attorney general and anti-corruption and electoral prosecutors will have been appointed by the time he is sworn in.

To achieve the goals, the president-elect said he was certain that he will have the support of President Enrique Peña Nieto, adding that he hoped to meet with him soon to formalize his request.

Between 2000 and 2013, Mexico had a federal SSP but Peña Nieto dissolved the department in 2013 and replaced it with the National Security Commission, which was incorporated into the Secretariat of the Interior.

After an initial drop in violent crime, homicides increased in the second half of Peña Nieto’s six-year term and 2017 saw more murders than any other year in the past two decades.

This year is on track to be even more violent, with homicide numbers for the first six months of the year up 15% compared to the same period last year.

López Obrador, or AMLO as he is commonly known, and his prospective cabinet have signaled that they plan to change course on security. Under consideration are drug legalization and an amnesty law that could pardon those forcibly recruited by organized crime.

Alfonso Durazo, who AMLO has tapped to head up the new SSP, has also said that the incoming government plans to gradually withdraw the military from public security duties on the nation’s streets, a strategy adopted by former president Felipe Calderón in 2006 and continued during the current administration.

“We believe that we’re not going to resolve the problems of insecurity in this country with more force or more military support,” Durazo told Al Jazeera in an interview published today.

To refine its security strategy, the incoming government plans to hold 19 security forums and 25 public consultations across the country at which victims, civil society groups, local politicians, religious leaders and academics, among others, will be invited to tell their stories and express their opinions and ideas about how to restore peace.

At today’s first town hall-style meeting in Ciudad Juárez, López Obrador said that nothing will be off limits during the scheduled forums, whose aim is to develop a security strategy that takes into account a broad range of perspectives.

“. . . We have to debate and not leave any issue aside. There shouldn’t be any taboos, we mustn’t self-censor, we’re free. Everything that is in the interest of the people of Mexico will be carried out. We don’t have commitments with interest groups, our only masters are the people of Mexico,” he said.

“You have complete freedom to analyze all the options. It’s not a matter of not being able to do something because a foreign government doesn’t like it. We don’t care! If it’s good for Mexico, it’s going to be put into practice.”

Durazo, who also attended the forum, said the new government will propose a “process of pacification and national reconciliation” and stressed that there will not be a pact with organized crime.

“. . . We propose building a Mexican recipe for the pacification of our country. As difficult as it seems, we will seek and we will find understanding among all Mexicans as a way to build peace,” he said.

Prospective interior secretary Olga Sánchez Cordero, who said last month that AMLO had given her a “blank check” to explore all measures that could help restore peace to Mexico, said that a comprehensive strategy that combined a range of measures will be needed to bring about peace.

“. . . To achieve pacification in a country like Mexico requires thinking of a complex mechanism, necessarily [one that considers] the perspective of civil society, places victims at the center and makes us walk together towards reconciliation and peace,” she said.

“The reconciliation and pacification of Mexico won’t be achieved just with amnesties or reduction of sentences or the decriminalization of certain drugs nor will investigation commissions and truth commissions achieve it on their own,” Sánchez added.

“We need a comprehensive, complete and complex policy [that is] unique to Mexico.”

As the next government works to define the security strategy it will adopt, the Mexican Employers Federation (Coparmex) has called on Peña Nieto to do all he can in his final months in office to reduce violence in the country.

“Mexicans can’t wait for the arrival of the new head of the national executive power to gain access to security and peace,” Coparmex president Gustavo de Hoyos said.

“It’s urgent that in the four months that remain in the current administration that they [the government] take pertinent measures to reduce the rates of intentional homicides, extortion, kidnappings . . . and many common-order crimes.”

https://twitter.com/x/status/1026630759900229632

https://twitter.com/x/status/1025517921957801984

Other related news:
Borderland Beat: Jalisco, the battlefield of the cartels
Tuesday, August 7, 2018
Translated by El Profe for Borderland Beat from El Siglo De Torreon

In Baja California, 18 victims of homicide found in 24 hours
Tuesday, August 7, 2018
Police were busy yesterday in the northern border state of Baja California, where at least 18 bodies were found, the victims of homicide.

The assassinations were reported in the municipalities of Tecate, Ensenada and Tijuana, and also cost the life of a seven-year-old child.

In Tecate, an anonymous call informed the 911 emergency response service of five decomposed corpses on the Lombardo Toledano road.

Mayor Nereida Fuentes blamed the clashes on warring criminal gangs, adding that the federal government and its judicial branch were also to blame for not prosecuting crime and releasing dangerous criminals.

In Ensenada, the bodies of a man, woman and a child were found on a ranch in the Guadalupe district. A firearm was used in the three killings.

The situation was worse in Tijuana, where 12 homicides were reported.

Two bodies were found in a vehicle abandoned on the 2000 boulevard, while two more were found in the Paseos del Vergel neighborhood.

Two more were found in a ravine in the Sánchez Taboada neighborhood; both had been shot.

Three corpses were found half buried in a landfill in the Valle de las Palmas neighborhood, while three men were executed inside a home in the El Pípila neighborhood.

Tijuana police chief Marco Antonio Sotomayor declared that municipal police “are going to work to give citizens control of the city. We won’t allow this unfortunate situation to continue and this we shall do with the work of police.”

A public security citizens’ council wasn’t quite as optimistic. It criticized the absence of a clear strategy in the face of operations by three drug cartels in the state.

Violence in the state has cost the lives of as many as 1,476 people between January and June, with 60% of the violent murders being reported in the border city of Tijuana. The year is shaping up to beat last year’s homicide total, which was a record 2,114.
Source: El Universal (sp), Telemundo (sp)

Borderland Beat: Coahuila: Zetas financial boss is sentenced to 36 years
Tuesday, August 7, 2018
Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat from Milenio

https://twitter.com/x/status/1026591521296900096

 

[Ca.]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1056968351375937536

Mexico to cancel new airport under construction
Published date: 29 October 2018
Mexico's incoming government will cancel construction of the Mexico City airport following an informal public referendum in favor of instead building two runways at the Santa Lucia military base, president-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said today.

"Our decision is to obey the people's mandate," said Lopez Obrador during a press conference today.

An informal four-day public consultation, in which 1pc of the population voted, returned a 70pc vote yesterday in favor of cancelling the new airport under construction in Texcoco. The new option includes the two new runways in the former Santa Lucia military airport to the north of the city and improving the current airport and Toluca airport located in Mexico State.

When completed, the new airport in Texcoco would have been one of the biggest, more modern airports in the world with a 100mn/yr passenger capacity.

Contracts totaling Ps154bn ($7.7bn) have so far been awarded and works are currently 31pc complete, according to the majority state-owned Mexico City airport group (GACM). According to Lopez Obrador's team, the current airport is 20pc complete and required Ps285bn ($14.3bn), of which close to Ps60bn have been invested.

The new projects to substitute the construction of the new airport will be ready in three years and will cost Ps70bn, an amount funded by existing airport taxes, Lopez Obrador said. That includes a new passenger train to Toluca and a special lane from the current airport, Benito Juarez, to the military base in Santa Lucia, as well as the two new airstrips.

Contracts with national and international contractors will be respected, Lopez Obrador said.
"If companies and businessmen want to present complaints or suits they are fully entitled to that," he said. "I think is an exaggeration that companies will go to international courts, but they can."

Despite Lopez Obrador's assurances, legally there is no clarity on how the cancellation of the contracts will be handled.
International investors have been watching the development of this decision process as it might give several clues on how AMLO's administration will behave. The incoming administration takes power on 1 December.

"Given the large investment commitments that have already been sunk into Texcoco, abandoning this project at this stage would not only be extremely costly, it would also put all future investment at risk more generally," Swiss banking group UBS said.
Mexico's Business Chamber (CCE) has said cancelling the construction and building the two new strips in Santa Lucia has a Ps120bn ($6bn) cost.

Yet Lopez Obrador said that "the federal government will save — with this smart, wise decision — close to Ps100bn ($50bn)."

While aviation safety experts from MITRE, a US non-profit that advises the US government on airspace development, advised the current Mexican administration that simultaneous operations between the existing airport and Santa Lucia were not viable, AMLO said today that they are.

"The French government supports our decision," he said, without providing further details.

The peso rapidly depreciated against the dollar following the announcement, crossing the Ps20/$1 mark at 12pm ET, a level not seen since the election of US president Donald Trump. Lopez Obrador ruled out a link between the depreciation and the airport decision.

Juan Pablo Castanon, president of CCE business chamber, said he regrets the decision as well as the form in which it was done.

"This was a consult done outside of the legal framework, clearly not representative," he said. "Many polls done by serious groups favored the Texcoco option. The major cost will be in investors' confidence."

The Mexican jet fuel industry is in the midst of a liberalization by opening the market to non-government suppliers.

Consulta 'tira' a Texcoco; va Santa Lucía
En Español

 

[Ca.]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1060982292624105473

Yesterday was “black Thursday” on the Mexican stock market when bank stocks plummeted after senators from president-elect López Obrador’s Morena party unexpectedly presented a proposal to curb bank charges.

The Mexican Stock Exchange’s benchmark IPC index fell 5.81% due to the bank losses, its biggest single-day decline since August 2011.

Senator Bertha Alicia Caraveo, who presented the legislative initiative on behalf of Morena upper house coordinator Ricardo Monreal, said that bank charges generated income of more than 108 billion pesos (US $5.3 billion) for Mexican banks last year, 8% more than in 2016.

The proposal to stop banks from charging certain commissions, she explained, seeks a “fairer” relationship between the banking sector and Mexican families.

Shares in Banorte suffered the biggest drop, down 11.9% at the close of trading, while Gentera and Inbursa saw 10.23% and 10.08% wiped off their market value respectively.

The Mexico subsidiary of Spanish bank Santander slumped 8%.

According to Bloomberg, the combined losses of Banorte, Inbursa, Santander, BanBajío, Gentera and Regional totaled more than 85.4 billion pesos (US $4.2 billion).

The FTSE index of Mexico’s new stock exchange BIVA also took a hit yesterday, closing trade down 5.66%.

The Banks of Mexico Association (ABM) said in a statement that it would analyze the content of the Morena proposal in order to identify its reach and determine the impact it would have on its members.

The bill referenced a study by financial consumer protection agency Condusef that said that, on average, 30% of Mexican banks’ revenue comes from commissions.

That percentage, Morena argued in its proposal, is more than banks in other countries earn from those charges.

If approved, the legislation would prohibit banks from charging customers for checking their account balances, withdrawing cash, requesting past statements and issuing replacement cards among other services.

Gabriela Siller, a director at Banco Base, said that the initiative is a sign that the soon-to-be ruling party will promote policies that could have an adverse effect on the private sector.

Several bankers told the news agency Reuters that the proposal caught them by surprise while the move also served to further stir fears about López Obrador’s economic plans.

The private sector is already concerned about the impact that canceling the Mexico City International Airport project will have on the economy.

Prominent business leaders last week slammed the cancellation decision, which came after a public consultation on the future of the project was held.

“All of this is by the book of what every other leftist government has done in Latin America: governing by referendum, then going after the financial conglomerates,” said Santiago Arias, a portfolio manager at Credicorp Capital Asset Management.

“There was a hope that Lopez Obrador would be a little more conscious about how he would approach the private sector,” he told Reuters.

Following the market reaction to the bank charges proposal, Senator Monreal stressed that lawmakers would take business concerns into account.

“We are not going to pass [the law] in an abrupt, fast, hasty way,” he told reporters. “We are going to listen and we will take enough time to be able to listen to all sectors.”

Future finance secretary Carlos Urzúa also sought to calm markets, calling on lawmakers in both houses of Congress to review the financial impact of their proposals.

“While we recognize the aim [of these initiatives] is to try to improve the living conditions of Mexicans, this objective will not necessarily be achieved unless impacts on public finances and stability in the financial sector are taken into account,” he said.

UPDATE November 9, 6:46pm CT:

Bank stocks recovered today after president-elect López Obrador offered an assurance there would be no fiscal reforms during the first three years of the new government.

“We are not going to make any modifications to the legal framework with regard to economic, financial or fiscal matters,” he told a press conference.

Mario Delgado, the head of the soon-to-be-governing Morena party in the lower house, promised there would be no more “surprises” such as yesterday’s proposal.

Source: El Financiero (sp), Reuters (en), El Economista (sp)

https://twitter.com/x/status/1060944634984235008

 

[Ca.]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1062148405152096256

Translated from Spanish by Microsoft
On 24 and 25 November there will be consultation on the construction of the Mayan train, refinery, development of the isthmus and social programs. Project by project on the same ballot. In this I do pronounce in favor because I offered in campaign; I'll argue it in the media.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1062030567787638784

Business leader concedes there have been irregularities but suggests they are not grounds for killing it
Around 5,500 people marched in Mexico City yesterday to protest the decision to cancel the new airport project at Texcoco, México state.

Protesters argued that the public consultation that led to the cancellation decision was unconstitutional and warned that president-elect López Obrador would hold more illegitimate referendums on other issues.

“What’s going to happen is that he’s going to want to have consultations for everything and they will be unconstitutional. That’s why we’re marching, to stop this man who wants to do a lot of damage to Mexico,” said protester Josefina Ruiz.

The demonstrators also contended that cancelling the new airport would cost thousands of jobs and halt Mexico’s economic development.

Late last month, 70% of people who participated in the consultation voted in favor of building two new runways at an air force base in México state and upgrading the existing Mexico City airport and that in Toluca over continuing with the US $14-billion project at Texcoco.

López Obrador has long criticized the project, charging that it is corrupt, too expensive and not needed.

Prominent private sector leaders slammed the decision to cancel the new airport which was announced by the president-elect the day after the consultation ended.

Mexican Employers Federation (Coparmex) president Gustavo de Hoyos said cancelling the project would be “the biggest waste of public resources in the history of the country” and described the public vote as a “Mickey Mouse consultation” and a “flagrant violation of the rule of law.”

Those sentiments were echoed by demonstrators yesterday during the protest, which many social media users dismissed as a marcha fifí, or snob’s march.

Many of the participants appeared to be of a social class that seldom takes to the streets to protest.

Following the march, the president of the influential Business Coordinating Council (CCE) again added his voice to the opposition against the decision, although he conceded that the project was not squeaky clean.

“I don’t deny that there were a lot, a few or some contracts that were awarded directly with elevated prices beyond those of the market [but] . . . it’s not justification to cancel a large-scale airport. What there has to be is transparency and punishment,” Juan Pablo Castañón said.

“All the contracts have to be analyzed and technically studied to see if there were bad decision-making processes or not but that doesn’t mean that [the next government] should cancel an infrastructure project that Mexico needs for the next 40, 50 years,” he charged.

The Federal Auditor’s Office (ASF) said last month that it had detected irregularities of 328 million pesos (US $16.1 million) in airport construction contracts.

Castañón said it doesn’t matter where the new airport is being built, those responsible for the irregularities should be held accountable.

“Shelving [the airport project] and saying, ‘nothing happened here, we’ll give your money back and forget about the money you stole’ is not the Mexico we want.”

López Obrador, who takes office on December 1, met with airport contractors last week and declared that the companies that have been building the project would not take legal action against the incoming government over the cancellation decision.

The contractors would have the opportunity to work on the project to adapt the air force base, upgrade the existing airports and rehabilitate the Texcoco site, he said.

Source: Milenio (sp), El Financiero (sp)

AMLO’s fourth transformation is just a new phase of the PRI: Calderón

https://twitter.com/x/status/1060679165941288961

Former president may launch a new political party next year
A former president describes Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s fourth transformation of Mexico as little more than a new face of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.

Felipe Calderón Hinojosa said the phrase “fourth transformation” was “pretentious.”

” . . . It looks more like the fourth transformation of PRI . . . it’s the fourth transformation of a regime that has done a lot of damage to Mexico,” said the ex-president, who escalated the war on drugs, one of the bloodiest chapters in the nation’s history, during his term between 2006 and 2012.

Mexico’s first three transformations were independence from Spain, the 19th-century liberal reform known as La Reforma and the Mexican Revolution.

Calderón made the comments during an interview with broadcaster Grupo Fórmula, at which he confirmed he might seek to create a new political party next year that would act as a counterweight to the new government.

A longtime member of the conservative National Action Party (PAN), his loyalty — and that of many other party members — was shaken by the party’s election campaign alliance with the leftist Democratic Revolution Party. The coalition was engineered by former PAN president Ricardo Anaya, who went on to become its presidential candidate, placing a distant second behind López Obrador.

Calderón said the PAN has been “completely destroyed” and incapable of confronting the new government.

“There are citizens asking the question, ‘What are we going to do now?’ and they have no place to go.” A new political party with a commitment to ethical standards and not just politics is required, he said.

However, he said the party could remedy the situation by choosing veteran politician Manuel Gómez Morín as its new president because it is currently controlled “by the group that destroyed it.” Whether he goes ahead with the launch of a new party will be decided in large measure by the choice the PAN makes, Calderón said.

Calderón also brought up the highly-criticized invitation to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to attend López Obrador’s inauguration on December 1. Calderón observed that Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chávez, was a guest at his own swearing-in ceremony but pointed out that “the current human rights crisis did not exist” in that country at the time.

“At present Maduro is a symbol for authoritarianism. For the sake of democratic consistency he should not be at the inauguration.”

Source: El Financiero (sp)

 

[Ca.]

Reformas prioritarias de AMLO enfrentan trabas en el Senado
Ciudad de México / 19.11.2018 04:53:01

Less than two weeks before Andrés Manuel López Obrador takes office, the reforms of his decalogue of priorities face difficulties for approval in the Senate, since those related to preventive detention in serious crimes, revocation of mandate and arraigo, among others, stand still. .

Although this House advanced last week in two issues that Morena placed as preferential (general prosecution and more severe sanctions to carry weapons, electoral crimes and theft of hydrocarbons), the discussion of constitutional reforms is pending to give them preventive detention.

Regarding the serious crimes, which the UN asked to stop because they go against the international trend of protection of human rights, the president of the Commission of Constitutional Points, the Moreno Eduardo Ramirez, said there was a legal argument that violates the principle of presumption of innocence.

"There are other crimes such as corruption, we do not want that not even one corrupt person has the possibility of facing his process in freedom, and rather that there are serious consequences. The same Constitution establishes in the first article that human rights must be respected and can only be restricted in those that the Magna Carta indicates. "Then it gives us the possibility of states of exception and we are going to make a legal, academic, constitutional decision that allows us to keep those balances, but also listen to the claims that exist in society as a whole," he said.

However, Ramírez stressed that Morena has decided to leave with more prudence regarding serious crimes, because although it is a priority of the legislative agenda, a deeper analysis is required to avoid incurring in irresponsibility or behavior that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights may sanction. Human rights.

He said he did not have a clear idea of what would happen then and anticipated that, if the reform does not happen, "we could go to an extraordinary one". He also noted that this week will advance the issue of rooting, based on the minutes sent by the deputies.

Regarding the revocation of the mandate, members of the ruling commissions indicated that the proper formula has to be found, because international legislation implies that it can only be granted by the electors who voted for the ruler, so that there are also complications.

On the issue of preventive detention for those who carry weapons, the PRD coordinator Miguel Angel Mancera described as sensitive that the UN opposes pretrial detention, because it involves letting the so-called "revolving door" that has allowed a criminal to commit crimes with firearms and you can immediately get out of prison.

"There is a very high degree of impunity, we are talking about the increase of homicides with firearms in the country last year from 40 to 70 percent; we have to approve it in this period, there is consensus, "he said. Reformas prioritarias de AMLO enfrentan trabas en el Senado

https://twitter.com/x/status/1064573451598536704

Translated from Spanish by Microsoft
#ENVIVO| #AMLO leads the initiative "Historical and Cultural memory #México" Follow him for #Periscope

https://twitter.com/x/status/1064292800479600641

Translated from Spanish by Microsoft
More than 20,000 souls in #LosMochis lit a light, for Mexico, for the world, by Don Pepe Mujica... give my lecture and close with this gift touches my heart forever I love Sinaloa! @sHumana_AC #SomosUno #CiudadanosConCiudadanos