Campeche Daily News

Categoría: Mexico

ENVIRONMENTALISTS CHALLENGE LIMITS ON RENEWABLE ENERGY FIRMS

Several companies have already won suspension orders, which federal agency intends to challenge

Two environmental groups have initiated legal action against federal measures that seek to limit the participation of private renewable energy companies in the electricity market.

The Mexican Center for Environmental Law (Cemda) and Greenpeace filed complaints against measures announced by the National Energy Control Center (Cenace) that suspended national grid trials for wind and solar projects.

Renewable energy companies are required to complete the trials before they can sell power to the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE).

According to federal judiciary records, injunction requests filed by Cemda and Greenpeace also challenge a new energy policy published by the federal Energy Ministry (Sener) on May 15. The policy imposes restrictive measures for the renewable energy sector that could effectively prevent its expansion in Mexico and consolidate control of electrical power in the state-owned CFE.

Several private energy companies have already successfully challenged the Cenace measures, winning more than a dozen suspension orders against them, but none have yet taken legal action against the Sener policy.

Cemda and Greenpeace argue that Sener does not have the legal authority to enforce a policy related to regulations and reliability of the national electricity system. They say that the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) may have improperly delegated the responsibility to the Energy Ministry.

An administrative court judge said today that she was unable to make a ruling on the requests and referred them to a court that specializes in economic competition matters.

Earlier this week, a federal court judge granted 13 definitive suspension orders against the Cenace measures to an equal number of companies.

In his rulings, Judge Rodrigo de la Peza López Figueroa said that delaying or preventing the entry into operation of renewable energy projects would have a serious adverse effect on society. He said that the Cenace measures alter the functioning of the electricity market, pushing it more towards a monopoly than one in which there is free competition.

That could cause electricity rates to go up and make the system less efficient, de la Peza said.

As things now stand, the companies that successfully challenged the measures – among which are Kenergreen, FV Mexsolar XI y Dolores Wind – will be able to carry out pre-operational national grid trials.

However, Cenace said last week that it would challenge all of the suspension orders granted against its measures, which also include ramping up energy generation at old CFE plants using surplus fuel oil produced by Pemex in order “to improve the reliability of the electricity system” during the coronavirus crisis.

Cenace on Monday filed its first challenge against one provisional suspension order that was issued last week but a federal court said it wouldn’t consider it because it didn’t receive it before the established deadline.

The legal battles between Cenace and renewable energy companies, and between the environmental groups and the federal government more broadly, are likely to last for months.

The director of the Federal Electricity Commission has vowed to put an end to “simulation and fraud” committed by renewable energy firms at the expense of the state-owned company.

Manuel Bartlett said the CFE has filed complaints against renewable energy firms with the CRE because they don’t pay for using the state-owned company’s transmission lines and backup power and have entered into “simulated” partnerships with other private companies.

In response to his remarks, the Confederation of Industrial Chambers denied that private energy companies are getting a free ride.

The Cenace measures and Sener policy are part of President López Obrador’s broader plan to “rescue” the CFE and the state oil company, Pemex, by increasing the participation of the state in the energy sector and limiting that of private and foreign companies that were allowed in as a result of the former government’s 2014 energy reform.

Source: Reforma (sp), El Sol de México (sp), Milenio (sp) Mexico News Daily (sp)

29 mayo 2020
GOVERNORS DIVIDED OVER POST-VIRUS REACTIVATION SCHEDULE—AS VIRUS WORSENS

Federal government insists it will decide when states can begin reopening

The federal government’s plan to reopen the economy gradually on a state by state basis starting June 1 — even as the coronavirus pandemic worsens — has divided governors, with some supporting the move and others saying it is too soon.

The state leaders have largely split along party lines, the newspaper El Economista reported, noting that all 10 National Action Party (PAN) governors are in favor of a gradual reopening starting on Monday.

In contrast, most of the 12 Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) governors and six Morena party leaders are planning to wait longer to reopen the economies in their states, which include those with the largest active outbreaks of Covid-19: Mexico City, México state, Veracruz, Tabasco, Baja California and Puebla.

Morelos’ Social Encounter Party governor, Cuauhtémoc Blanco, also believes that a gradual reopening on June 1 is too soon but Citizens Movement Governor Enrique Alfaro of Jalisco, Democratic Revolution Party Governor Silvano Aureoles of Michoacán and independent Governor Jaime Rodríguez of Nuevo León share the same view as the PAN leaders.

‘We’re on our own path, we have our own stoplight system,’ said Jalisco’s Alfaro, left.

After a virtual meeting with the governors on Tuesday, Interior Minister Olga Sánchez stressed that it will be the federal government – not state authorities – that decides when economic and everyday activities can resume in each federal entity.

The federal government’s stoplight system will guide the reopening process for each state, she said.

“We cannot have … local stoplight systems because there would be a complete lack of coordination. We have to have federal coordination,” Sánchez said, emphasizing that there will be constant dialogue with the governors so that everyone’s on the same page.

Her remarks came after Guanajuato’s PAN governor, Diego Sinhué, presented his own stoplight system to guide the reactivation of the economy in that state. Governor Alfaro of Jalisco also said that his state will follow its own reopening plan, although he added that his administration will take the federal government’s view into account.

“What I think is curious is that they’re talking about coordination from the [federal] government when there wasn’t any for 2 1/2 months. … We’re on our [own] path, we have our own stoplight system. … We’ll take the federal one into account … but we’ll continue with the route we’ve planned,” he said.

Alfaro said that all the indicators in Jalisco – where there are currently 400 active coronavirus cases, according to official statistics – are “on green” but stressed that the economic reopening will be gradual and that residents will not be free to roam the streets as they please from Monday on.

Alfaro and Sinhué along with the PAN governors of Aguascalientes, Baja California Sur, Chihuahua, Durango, Nayarit, Querétaro, Quintana Roo, Tamaulipas and Yucatán as well as Colima’s PRI Governor José Ignacio Peralta all support a gradual reopening of the economy starting Monday.

Sánchez acknowledged that some governors are “chomping at the bit” to reopen their economies and want to do so according to their own timetable but reiterated that that the federal government’s position is non-negotiable. “The stoplight system is federal,” she declared.

Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell, the federal government’s coronavirus point man, also made it clear that states will not be permitted to ease restrictions as they see fit.

“We’ve made it very clear, … there is one national stoplight system, one sole instrument,” he told reporters at Tuesday night’s coronavirus press briefing.

“Every federal entity will obviously have a different color according to their [local] epidemic. … The risk rating given to each state will be variable in each state each week,” López-Gatell said.

He explained that the federal government will inform state governments of the color they will be allocated for the following week on Tuesdays after which there will be an opportunity for dialogue between the parties.

The stoplight color allocated to each state will be publicly announced on Fridays and the restrictions that apply to each color will take effect the following Monday, López-Gatell said.

Stoplight colors allocated to the states will be announced on Fridays, said López-Gatell.

He said that the states will have the option of implementing stricter coronavirus mitigation measures than those stipulated by the stoplight color they are allocated but cannot relax measures before the federal government gives them the authority to do so.

The federal government has not yet publicly announced what factors will be taken into consideration to determine whether a state is allocated a red, orange, yellow or green light but Yucatán Governor Mauricio Vila said Tuesday night that the criteria had been explained in private to the state leaders.

He said in an interview that four factors will be taken into account to determine each state’s readiness to return to what has been dubbed “the new normal”: the number of beds available for patients with serious respiratory symptoms, hospital admission trends for Covid-19 patients, the coronavirus reproduction rate (the number of people each infected person infects) and the positivity rate (the percentage of people tested who are confirmed to have Covid-19).

In “red” states, only essential economic activities will be permitted including the newly-designated sectors of construction, mining and automotive. Other sectors will be permitted to resume operations once the stoplight switches to orange but with a reduced capacity and/or workforce and with restrictions in place to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Public spaces will also be reopened but at a reduced capacity.

Businesses will be able to increase their workforces and capacity once their state has been allocated a yellow light and there will be fewer restrictions in open-air public spaces. However, stricter restrictions will remain in force in indoor spaces such as restaurants, cinemas and theaters.

Once a state is given a green light, students will return to school and other educational institutions and all remaining restrictions on economic and everyday activities will be lifted.

There are currently almost 15,000 active Covid-19 cases in Mexico, the highest level since it was first detected in Mexico at the end of February.

The federal Health Ministry reported a record 3,455 new confirmed cases on Tuesday, increasing the total number of accumulated cases to 74,560, and a new daily high of 510 fatalities, lifting the death toll to 8,134.

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

28 mayo 2020
LÓPEZ OBRADOR, ON A WORKING TOUR IN MÉRIDA, CANCÚN AND CAMPECHE NEXT WEEK

It will give the starting signal to the works of the Maya Train

MEXICO CITY.- Next week President Andrés Manuel López Obrador will resume his tours of the country, still in the midst of the coronavirus epidemic.

«It is very likely that starting Monday, with all the care, he will start a tour of the country,» he said this morning at his press conference.

The president explained that on Tuesday he will go to Cancun, Quintana Roo, to give the starting signal of the Maya Train. He will also go to Mérida and Campeche.

By road most of the tour

The president indicated that he will travel by plane and, if necessary, will use face masks, although the recommendation is that most of the tour be done by road.

He indicated that the events will not be attended by more than 50 people.

After that tour he will travel to the north of the country. However, he asked «to continue taking care of ourselves, it has been shown that Sana Distancia is the best because we do not have a vaccine.»

27 mayo 2020
TULUM MANSION ALLEGEDLY BUILT IN NATIONAL PARK, PROTECTED AREA

Owner claims to have the necessary permits, but no agency is authorized to grant them

Although the area in and around Tulum National Park (PNT) has been an area protected by presidential decree since 1981 and construction is prohibited, a mega-mansion has been built next to the park’s walls in the last six months.

This despite complaints lodged with government agencies, including the environmental protection agency Profepa, dating back to November 2019 when construction first began, park director Fernando Orozco Ojeda said.

Orozco reported that a few weeks ago when park rangers returned to the area, they realized that the mansion had been completed and found it guarded by armed security forces. The PNT has been closed since April due to the coronavirus.

“We recently returned to the area, which is difficult to access and — oh, surprise! The house is finished,” he said.

The 692-hectare park protects the ecology of the area, as well as important Mayan ruins such as El Castillo, a temple once used as a lighthouse which dates back to the sixth century.

According to Orozco, the owner of the residence, identified as Rogeiro Dos Santos, claims to have “all the permits in order,” which would constitute another illegality as no municipal agency has the authority to issue such permits in an area that is not only protected but belongs to the federal government.

The home is also said to violate a December 15, 2007 ruling that confers the administration of 184,409 square meters of the federal maritime-terrestrial zone, adjacent to the PNT, to the Natural Protected Areas Commission (Conanp).

Further, the mansion allegedly violates the provisions of a December 7, 2016 decree which recognizes the area as part of the mega reserve of the Mexican Caribbean Natural Protected Area (ANP), a zone not suitable for urban development.

Over the past five years 27 complaints about illegal construction within the park have been filed, yet between 1990 and 2007 the Quintana Roo government issued 14 property titles without the legal authority to do so.

Margarito Molina Rendón of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) in Quintana Roo is preparing to visit the mansion to conduct a physical inspection of the property.

The beachfront mansion is located next to the park’s ancient limestone wall which surrounds important archaeological ruins, and part of the inspection will be to determine if its construction has damaged the park’s pre-Hispanic edifices.

Molina’s office will also be reviewing the permit process, and he admits that there is a lot to unravel.

“We are working in a coordinated manner with park authorities to enforce the presidential decrees and reestablish order,” Molina says.

Source: El Universal (sp), Quinta Fuerza (sp)

27 mayo 2020
PRIVATE SPORTS CLUBS AND GYMS IN YUCATAN, AS WELL AS PUBLIC SPORTS UNITS WILL HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL SEPTEMBER FOR A POSSIBLE REOPENING OF ACTIVITIES.

Many have already closed their doors definitively

MÉRIDA, Yuc.- The sports clubs and private gyms in the entity, as well as public sports units will have to wait until September for a possible reopening of activities.

Carlos Sáenz Castillo, director of the State Sports Institute (IDEY) spoke with Novedades Yucatán about the situation that sport is going through, specifically the spaces to carry out a discipline or physical conditioning.

He assured that he knows the environment through which gym owners pass and that he even regretted the closure of 25 percent of those places, due to the health contingency that since March 16 has changed the way of living of all.

He explained that this data was provided by the regional head of the National Federation of Gyms, Jacobo Abraham and the secretary of the local Association of physical-constructivism, Evangelina Cimé.

«They told me that there are little more than 60 gyms that are desperate and we understand it, many of them live daily, paying the user fees and have been closed for two months,» said Sáenz Castillo.

He added that he knows that the closing of many gyms is imminent, because “they have even sold their equipment. The situation of that union is serious, but it is not up to the Institute to authorize them or not and they understood it, what was achieved was that they had a place and voice in a meeting that was held last week with the Planning Secretariat, where did one of the work tables, ”he said.

He specified that gyms «are somehow a primary focus of contagion, if they are reopened, it would be with strict hygiene measures.»

He specified that these measures could be «perhaps not to arrive with a towel but to carry two, or that the gym would be obliged for a company with a contract in hand to be passing by and sanitize the machines every time.»

He added that the distance between devices will be a very important point, because “there are some next to each other and maybe it would not be like that, putting them at a certain distance; but we must understand that in June it is not a priority to open the gyms, ”he explained.

Sport clubs
Regarding sports clubs, “they still had a voice and joined those work tables, such as the Country Club, where they expressed that golf would already take action in the matter, such as the transfer of carts (caddy) that would no longer carry 4 people ; but the main concern today is not only the issue of health, but economic revival. «

He recalled that it is the Planning Secretariat that carries out the reopening protocols in the entity together with the Secretariats of Health and Economic Development.

«The sports units are going to be the last to open,» he concluded.

Source: Novedades Yucatan

26 mayo 2020
AMLO BELIEVES CHINA’S ECONOMIC SLOWDOWN MAY BE MEXICO’S GAIN

China’s economy could post its weakest growth in years in 2020, according to analysts.

A slowdown in China’s economy this year should allow Mexico to attract more investment, lure companies and create jobs, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Monday.

Speaking at a regular government news conference, Lopez Obrador pointed to forecasters’ expectations that China’s economy will post its weakest growth in years in 2020 amid disruptions caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

«That means this big factory, the biggest factory in the world, will reduce its output,» he said, referring to China. «And this gives us the opportunity, Mexico, for more investment to arrive, for companies to set up, for jobs to be created.»

Lopez Obrador noted that the sealing of the new North American trade deal, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), would help spur business with the US.

Mexican business leaders hope the USMCA, which goes into effect on July 1, as well as continuing tensions between the US and China, will spur more investment inside the North American region, benefitting Mexico.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

25 mayo 2020
REMAINS OF MORE THAN 60 MAMMOTHS UNCOVERED AT AIRPORT SITE

They will eventually be displayed in a museum at the Santa Lucía airport

Mammoth bones are cleaned at the construction site.

Archaeologists have found the remains of more than 60 mammoths at the site of the new Mexico City airport, located about 40 kilometers northeast of the capital in México state.

Scientists with the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) discovered the bones during recent months but didn’t report the findings until Thursday.

They were found in the area where the control tower and runways of the new airport – currently under construction at the Santa Lucía Air Force Base site – will be located.

INAH experts will treat the bones to conserve them and they will eventually be put on display at a museum planned for the airport site, said chief archaeologist Pedro Francisco Sánchez Nava.

The remains are of Columbian mammoths and correspond to adult males and females as well as their young. Columbian mammoths were abundant in the Pleistocene era, which concluded about 12,000 years ago.

Bones of at least 60 mammoths have been located.

Sánchez said the mammoths probably died naturally after getting stuck in the mud of an ancient lake that subsequently disappeared.

However, he said that it is possible that the giant herbivores were steered into the mud by hunters who might have killed them and stripped off their flesh after they became stuck. INAH archaeologists found two mammoth traps late last year in Tultepec, a México state municipality just 10 kilometers from the new airport site, demonstrating that hunters in the late Pleistocene era used more sophisticated hunting methods than previously thought.

Sánchez said that the recently-discovered bones will be subjected to tests to try to find out more about how the extinct mammals lived and died.

He said that it is possible that more mammoth remains will be found at the airport site as exploration continues. Some 30 archaeologists are working there as construction of the the Felipe Ángeles International Airport – scheduled to open in 2022 – takes place.

“We’re in the exploration stage but there are also curators and restorers who are helping us with the cleaning of the remains,” Sánchez said.

He stressed that the discovery of the mammoth bones and the ongoing exploration will not cause any delays to the construction of the new airport, one of the federal government’s signature infrastructure projects.

Archaeologists have also found remains of other Pleistocene era animals in the area, including those of now-extinct bison and camel species, as well as 15 burial pits where it is believed pre-Hispanic farmers were laid to rest.

The erstwhile agriculturalists were buried with ceramic pots and bowls as well as mud figurines. Sánchez said that the human remains probably dated from around 500 to 1,000 years ago, several millennia after the mammoths became extinct.

Source: Reforma (sp)

24 mayo 2020
THE STATE OF CAMPECHE, HIGHEST NATIONAL SCORE

CAMPECHE OBTAINS A GRADE OF 100 FOR TRANSPARENT EXERCISE OF FEDERAL RESOURCES TRANSFERRED

The Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP) gave Campeche a rating of 100 in its performance of federalized spending during the first quarter of 2020.

According to the January-March report of the Information Quality Index (ICI), published on the Budget Transparency portal, Campeche and Aguascalientes were the two entities throughout the country that achieved the highest scores in the application, destination and results obtained by the exercise of transferred federal resources.

The report also gives Campeche a rating of 100 in project management, consistency of transferred resources, and indicators.

At the peninsula level, the ICI placed Quintana Roo in fifth place with a score of 98.98, and Yucatan in 17th with 77.93 points.

By law, the federal entities are obliged to send reports to the federal government on the exercise of the resources that are transferred to them. The Federal Transferred Resources System (SRFT) evaluates the information provided and then the SHCP discloses, through the Information Quality Index, the degree of performance of federalized spending.

24 mayo 2020
MAGNITUDE-6.1 EARTHQUAKE HITS IN OCEAN WEST OF MEXICO

The U.S. Geological Survey says a relatively strong earthquake has been recorded in the Pacific Ocean west of Mexico

By The Associated Press

MEXICO CITY — The U.S. Geological Survey says a relatively strong earthquake has been recorded in the Pacific Ocean west of Mexico.

The quake, with a preliminary magnitude of 6.1, hit at 3:46 a.m. local time Friday at a shallow depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles). The epicenter was 173 km (108 miles) east southeast of the resort city of San Jose del Cabo, on the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula.

No tsunami warning was issued.

22 mayo 2020
MAINTAIN SAFE DISTANCE MEASURES, MINISTER URGES AFTER 57 DAYS OF ISOLATION

As another 2,400 cases are recorded, these are ‘extremely important days’

Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell has urged Mexicans not to ease up on safe distance measures during the last 13 days of the national social distancing initiative.

Appearing alongside President López Obrador at his morning news conference on Tuesday, López-Gatell called on citizens to remain in their homes to help stop the spread of the virus, which has infected more than 50,000 people in Mexico and claimed the lives of more than 5,000.

The health official said that it is not appropriate for private citizens nor businesses to relax social distancing measures at this time.

“We’ve now been through 57 days [of social distancing recommendations and restrictions], we’ve got 13 left, 13 extraordinarily important days. That’s the length of two incubation periods, the average length of the isolation period for a person with Covid, the time that the contagiousness of the disease lasts,” López-Gatell said.

“From now until May 30, … stay at home, stay at home, stay at home,” he said.

Covid-19 cases as of Monday evening. MILENIO

The deputy minister told Monday night’s coronavirus press briefing that life will not immediately return to normal after the conclusion of the national social distancing initiative.

“Citizens shouldn’t think that we’ll return to normality on June 1, it’s not going to be like that,” he said, reiterating that each state’s readiness to lift restrictions will be determined via a color-coded “stoplight” system.

Presenting the daily technical report on the development of the Covid-19 pandemic, López-Gatell said that confirmed cases had increased to 51,633 after 2,414 new cases were detected on Monday and that deaths had risen to 5,332 with the reporting of 155 additional fatalities.

He said that there are 26,933 suspected coronavirus cases across the country and that more than 177,000 people have now been tested.

About one in five of the confirmed cases – 11,300 – are currently active, while more than 35,000 people have recovered.

Just under 45% of all confirmed cases since the beginning of the pandemic were detected in Mexico City and México state.

Coronavirus deaths as reported Monday by federal health authorities. MILENIO

There are 2,958 active cases in Mexico City, 713 of which are in Iztapalapa, a sprawling, densely populated borough in the capital’s east that has been hit hard by the pandemic. The borough has more active cases than 30 of Mexico’s 31 states, with only México state, where there are 1,421 active cases, reporting a higher number.

After Mexico City and México state, Tabasco has the third largest outbreak followed by Veracruz and Baja California.

Mexico City also has the highest coronavirus death toll, with 1,381 confirmed fatalities as of Monday.

Twelve states have triple-figure death tolls: Baja California (566); México state (484); Tabasco (310); Sinaloa (299); Quintana Roo (253); Veracruz (243); Chihuahua (193); Puebla (191); Hidalgo (163); Morelos (150); Guerrero (112); and Tlaxcala (101).

In addition to the 5,332 confirmed Covid-19 deaths, 656 are suspected of having been caused by the disease. Mexico’s fatality rate is currently 10.3 per 100 cases based on confirmed cases and deaths, well above the global rate of 6.6.

Only one-third of general and intensive care hospital beds set aside for patients with serious and severe respiratory symptoms are currently occupied in Mexico but in Mexico City, the country’s coronavirus epicenter, 77% of the former and 66% of the latter are in use.

Source: Milenio (sp), Reforma (sp)

19 mayo 2020