Mexican lawmakers, mining sector to discuss controversial bill

11/26/2018 – Reuters

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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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Mexico City’s first woman mayor wants car firms’ help to end smog

08/01/2018 Reuters

Mexico City’s first woman mayor plans to significantly improve air quality in the smoggy capital, one of the world’s largest cities, by consulting with car manufacturers on a plan for stricter emissions standards, she said in an interview.

Environmental scientist Claudia Sheinbaum, 56, who won the election with a large margin and takes office in December, said a top priority was to reduce particulate contamination by 40 percent in her six year term.

The city of some 21 million people, known for its deathly smog in the 1980s, made strides towards cleaner air at the turn of the century with measures that restricted the use of older vehicles and moved major industry out of town.

While its air remains far better than smoke-choked Asian capitals such as Delhi, India, in 2016 the city government issued for the first time in 14 years an air quality contingency warning, a measure taken when pollution reaches levels that seriously threaten health.

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Mexican President-Elect Vows to Improve Public Health Care

07/31/2018 The New York Times

President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Tuesday he plans to direct spending in the public health system so Mexicans can enjoy European-quality free health care.

Mexico has near-universal health coverage through a network of public clinics and hospitals. However, the facilities are often understaffed or lack medicine.

“We’re going to guarantee that medical attention and medicine are free,” Lopez Obrador told reporters. “There will be good attention, and doctors, in health centers.”

He said he will stamp out corruption and free up public funds by consolidating medicine purchases at the federal level. There’s enough money in the budget to cover medication, he said.

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