Mexico says anti-trust probe opened in telecoms sector

5/6/2019 – Reuters

Wikicommons

Mexico’s telecommunications regulator has opened an anti-trust probe into “relative monopolistic practices” in the sector, the government said in its official gazette on Monday.

The Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT) probe centers on denial of access, and discriminatory access to an “essential input” in the market for “wholesale disaggregated services of the predominant economic agent’s local network in the telecommunications sector,” the government said.

“The aim of the procedure is to investigate the commission of relative monopolistic practices that have or may have as their object or effect, to unduly displace other economic actors, substantially impede their access, or to establish exclusive advantages in favor of one or more economic agents in the relevant market, or in a related market,” it added.

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Mexico health officials stalled medical imports since 2007

1/29/2019 – The Washington Post

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s health regulatory agency says it has cleared about 13,000 requests for permits for medical devices and medicines, some of which had been awaiting approval since 2007.

The agency says that since its new team of officials took office Dec. 3, the agency has worked to reduce a mammoth backlog of permit requests. The agency said Monday that the previous administration left a total backlog of 22,000 applications.

Before President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took office Dec.1, investigators uncovered a scheme in which regulators would hide or fail to deliver approvals. The officials reportedly took money for processing documents.

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Mexican lawmakers, mining sector to discuss controversial bill

11/26/2018 – Reuters

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

MEXICO CITY, Nov 26 (Reuters) – Mexican lawmakers will meet with mining sector leaders this week before seeking Congress’s approval of a bill that analysts have said could hinder mining operations and that was partly responsible for a massive selloff in mining shares last week.

A lawmaker from leftist President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) party presented the bill in the Senate on Tuesday that would change mining regulations and require the consent of indigenous communities before granting mining concessions on their land.

The bill is one of a handful up for consideration that would regulate the mining sector. It also could lead to the cancellation of mining concessions if firms do not present an annual report on the social impact of their projects.

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Party of Mexico’s president elect wants legalized marijuana

MEXICO CITY — The party of Mexico’s president-elect has submitted legislation to legalize marijuana possession, public use, growing and sales.

Sen. Olga Sanchez Cordero presented the measure Thursday, saying that “every person has the right to carry up to 30 grams (one ounce) of cannabis.”

Cordero has been picked as interior secretary by President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who takes office Dec. 1.

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Mexico’s Pemex likely to launch McDermott offshore platform in April

11/2/2018 – Reuters

REUTERS/Daniel Becerril

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico’s state-run Pemex is expected to start operating in April the largest offshore oil platform built in the country in a decade, which was constructed by McDermott International, an executive of the engineering firm said on Thursday.

Pemex is trying to reverse a 14-year crude output decline by boosting its offshore operations, especially in shallow waters along the southern Gulf of Mexico. Pemex has long been focused on the area, which is expected to see more activity from private producers that have won development rights there since 2015.

The new platform will replace a similar one that was damaged by a large fire in 2016 that killed three workers.

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Mexico Supreme Court Says Ban on Recreational Marijuana Unconstitutional

11/01/2018 – The New York Times

By Reuters

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that an absolute ban on recreational use of marijuana was unconstitutional, effectively leaving it to lawmakers to regulate consumption of the drug.

Announcing it had found in favor of two legal challenges filed against prohibition of recreational marijuana use, Mexico’s top court crossed the threshold needed to create jurisprudence: five similar rulings on the matter.

That creates a precedent other Mexican courts will have to follow.

“This is a historic day,” Fernando Belaunzaran, an advocate of drug reform and member of the opposition leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), said.

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Mexico’s National University Admits 12-Year-Old for Physics

08/02/2018 The New York Times

Mexico’s National Autonomous University says it has admitted a 12-year-old student to its undergraduate degree program in biomedical physics.

The university, better known by its Spanish initials as the UNAM, said Thursday that Carlos Santamaria Diaz is the youngest such student in the university’s roughly century-long history.

Santamaria Diaz passed the entrance exam and has already done preparatory study at the university’s school of chemistry in its genetics sciences center.

At the age of nine, he participated in university programs in analytical chemistry, biochemistry and biology.

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