Headlines from Mexico

1. AMLO announced on Thursday the establishment of the Consejo Asesor de Empresarios (Business Advisory Council), a group of advisors to the president that will be made up of high profile Mexican business people. The purpose of the Consejo is to support economic growth in Mexico.

El Universal, Excelsior

2. AMLO presented the Plan Nacional de Paz y Seguridad 2018-2024 (National Plan for Peace and Security) this week. The plan is based on eight main objectives, which include guaranteeing education, health and employment, promoting human rights, eradicating corruption, etc. It will also create a National Guard and establish more regional security coordination.

Excelsior, La Jornada, El Universal

3. On Friday, Mexico’s Supreme Court declared the controversial Homeland Security Law unconstitutional. According to the Supreme Court, Congress violated several legislative procedures during the lawmaking process, did not consult indigenous communities, did not make a proper distinction between homeland security and public security, and ignored national legislation and international accords that protect human rights by promoting the normalization of the use of the Armed Forces in public security keeping.

La Jornada, El Universal, Reforma

4. On Tuesday, the so-called “trial of the century” against Joaquín “EL Chapo” Guzmán Loera began in a Brooklyn federal court under strict security measures. Guzmán has declared himself innocent of the charges of international drug trafficking, conspiracy to murder rivals, money laundering and possession of weapons. If found guilty, El Chapo will face life in prison.

La Jornada, Reforma, Excelsior

5. President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced a new round of consultations to determine the future of a train project in Southern Mexico, an oil refinery and ten social programs. The new consultation will take place on November 24 and 25.

El Universal, La Jornada, El Financiero

Advertisements

The trial of El Chapo and the crime-fighting plan of AMLO

11/16/2018 – The Economist

Source: The Economist

CHIEF AMONG the signs that not all is well in Mexican law enforcement is the trial of the country’s most wanted man. It began this week in New York, because each time Mexican authorities locked up Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, allegedly the boss of the Sinaloa drug gang, he escaped. After his third capture, in 2016, Mexico extradited him to the United States. That has not reduced bloodshed in Mexico. As the accused kingpin stood in the dock, Mexico’s president-elect, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, known as AMLO, unveiled a plan that he said would end a misguided, decade-long war on drugs.

The subject of ballads and gory television series, El Chapo provokes fear even in New York. A juror broke down in tears upon learning of her selection for the trial. Prosecutors accused him of smuggling 150,000kg (330,000 pounds) of cocaine into the United States. But his lawyer insisted that there had been a mix-up. Mr Guzmán was never in charge of Mexico’s biggest drug-trafficking gang, he said.

Read more…

 

Incoming Mexican government has little room for error: adviser

11/16/2018 – Reuters

REUTERS/Henry Romero

NEW YORK (Reuters) – An adviser to Mexican president-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador sought on Thursday to reassure investors in New York, following weeks of upheaval in Mexican financial markets and doubts about the policies of the incoming left-leaning government.

Abel Hibert, an economic adviser to Lopez Obrador, acknowledged that financial markets were watching closely.

“We recognize that we have one opportunity to show responsibility in the elaboration of the next budget,” Hibert said to a crowd of investors at a business forum in New York.

“The design of the public budget will be very careful,” he said. “We don’t have room for mistakes.”

Markets were shook in recent weeks by announcements from the incoming administration that it would cancel a partly-built $13 billion Mexico City airport and limit bank commissions.

Read more…

 

Mexico central bank sends warning over incoming leftist government

11/16/2018 – Reuters

Photo by Negative Space on Pexels.com

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico’s central bank raised its benchmark interest rate on Thursday on concerns over inflation, and said the incoming government’s policies risked fanning inflation in a strongly worded warning to President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

The bank said another rate hike was possible.

The Bank of Mexico lifted its overnight interbank rate MXCBIR=ECI by 25 basis points to a nearly 10-year high of 8.0 percent, as expected by economists. It was a divided decision, with one member calling for a 50-point hike.

Mexico’s peso and the stock market have been rattled by concerns Lopez Obrador’s administration will move away from the orthodox fiscal policies advocated by the central bank.

Read more…

 

El Chapo Trial Turns to Tales of Greed and Gore

11/16/2018 – New York Times

Stephanie Keith for The New York Times

The assassin’s bullet whizzed past Jesus Zambada García’s ear and knocked him to the ground. He wasn’t dead, just wounded. The gunshot sliced a deep, red groove into his head.

Ambushed by his attackers at a Mexico City store, Mr. Zambada stumbled to his feet and came up shooting. With a panicked spray of gunfire, he hit one of them. The other ran away.

“I’m alive,” he told a jury on Thursday, “because the bullet did not penetrate my skull.”

This tale of an attempted hit came on Mr. Zambada’s second day as a witness against his former boss in the Sinaloa drug cartel, Joaquín Guzmán Loera, the Mexican crime lord known as El Chapo.

Read more…

Migrants Streaming Into Tijuana, but Now Face Long Stay

11/16/2018 – New York Times

Source: CNN

TIJUANA, Mexico — About 2,000 Central American migrants had already reached the Mexican border city of Tijuana and another 1,200 from a second caravan set out from Mexico City toward the border Friday.

With shelters already full, authorities in Tijuana opened a gymnasium and gated sport complex for up to 1,000 migrants, with a potential to expand to 3,000.

But at least that many migrants were still on the road or trickling into the city aboard buses, and a third caravan was still waiting in Mexico City. Tijuana faced a potential influx of as many as 10,000 in all. The city’s privately run shelters are meant to have a capacity of 700.

Read more…

Mexico’s President Elect Reaches Out to Business Elite

11/15/2018 – New York Times

Photo by rawpixel.com on Pexels.com

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has reached out to the country’s business elite, announcing the formation of a business advisory council including big names, especially in media.

Lopez Obrador said in a pre-recorded video circulated Thursday that he would meet with the council every couple months.

Lopez Obrador, who takes office Dec. 1, says Mexico needs the private sector’s support to generate jobs and grow the economy.

The leftist politician quickly moved to meet with business leaders to calm markets after his victory in July. Last month, Lopez Obrador roiled markets again by announcing the cancellation of the capital’s $13 billion airport project.

Read more…