By RICARDO CASTILLO

Coverage Stops Peso, Oil Skids

The Mexican government took several emergency measures to contain the downslide of the peso against the U.S. dollar over the weekend.

The peso that got wobbled with a jaw punch but did not hit the canvas. It just showed shaky knees.

Both the Central Bank of Mexico (Banxico) and the Treasury Secretariat immediately opted for raising from $20 to $30 billion the exchange coverage to shield the peso from significant damage due to the fall of oil prices.

The effect of the $10 billion increase came almost immediately.

On Monday, March 9, the peso was nearing the 22 to a dollar mark.

By Tuesday, March 10, however, stabilization began to set in and the peso was selling at about 21.28 per dollar, down from the high 21.46 registered by several banks the day before, a number which threatened to continue moving upwards.

The volatility of the peso eased when the announcement of the exchange coverage came.

Also helping to boost the peso, as well as the fall of Mexican oil prices, was the announcement made Tuesday morning by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) that “we have a 150 billion peso fund ($7.4 billion) to stabilize the budget,” which is a shield in times of international financial turbulence.

Banxico Governor Alejandro Díaz de León said that the extra $10 billion in exchange coverage will permit international reserves to go untouched.

AMLO also announced that in his shift reserves had reached $182.8 billion, an increase of more $10 billion as of December 2018, when AMLO took power.

Washington Bans High-Cal Gulf Fish

On Sunday, March 9, immediately after a group of about 80 fishermen on the northern side of the High Gulf of California region netted about 500 totoaba fish, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a ban on the export of various species in the area, blaming “the rodeo-style gillnet fishing” of curvina and totoaba fish.

Gillnet nets are the largest threat to the nearly extinct porpoise known as maritime vaquita, or little cow. (The mammal is unique to the area and has no English-language name.)

Banned trawl, gillnet and hook fishery in the Upper Gulf of California include the suripera shrimp, the sierra, the sardine/curvina and the chano, among others.

The notice of revocation of comparability findings and implementation of import restrictions for certain fish and fish products from Mexico is restricted to the northern Gulf of California area, where the Río Colorado has its sea basin.

Compliance with the import restrictions and certification of admissibility described in an export document is required beginning April 3, 2020, and will remain in effect until notice is published in the Federal Register indicating otherwise.

The Mexican Fisheries Secretariat has not yet responded to the ban, but reports have it that the there was no official surveillance of the predator fishing style of the fishermen from the area, all of which was filmed by a drone.

Mexican Tourist Tianguis Is a Go

Despite hearsay rumors about a cancellation, Mexico’s yearly hospitality and travel industries show known as the Tourist Tianguis (market) will definitely be held from March 22 through March 25 in the Yucatán city of Mérida.

Tourism Secretary Miguel Torruco Marqués denied that potential international buyers had postponed their participation due to the international coronavirus threat.

“On the contrary,” Torruco Marqués said, “four more nations have been added to the list of attendees to Mexico’s most-important fair.”

Women’s Days

Attendance results from the two women’s days in Mexico was put by police authorities as somewhere around 130,000, with 80,000 in Mexico City and 50,000 in Monterrey and Guadalajara.

There were also many minor marches in state capital cities, gathering between 3,000 to 4,000 participants each.

Their total number of participants in smaller cities has not been tallied.

The marches on Sunday, March 8 (International Women’s Day), contrasted sharply with the those on Monday, March 9, #adaywithout women.

Most of the marches were noisy, with lots of shouting and protesting against Mexican machismo.

The Monday stay-at-home-and-do-nothing demonstration was the opposite.

Streets everywhere were empty, with no women in sight.

Indeed. the marches presented a sharp contrast between doing and not doing.

Sports: Mexican Soccer Stars in LA

Mexico has exported to Los Angeles – if you can export a Mexican to “Little Mexico” in Los Angeles, California – its two best soccer strikers to play, starting with Carlos Vela, who plays for the LA Soccer Club.

And two weeks ago, the nation’s biggest international star, Javier “Chicharito” Hernández, joined the top Major League Soccer club, Los Angeles Galaxy.

Vela has had two seasons with the LAFC to establish himself as not just Mexico’s, but also one of the MLS’ best players and is definitely a leading striker.

On the other hand, Chicharito, who has played for top European teams such as England’s Manchester United and Germany’s Leverkeusen, is having a rough time, not only because he is unknown to U.S. fans, but also because in his first two weeks of play for the LAG. he has not shone the way he has in the past.

He is both the central striker and team captain, but leads in no show.

LAG fans have already started bashing Chicharito for lack of results, and for them, his non-performance thus far brings to an end a short lived honeymoon.

He’s also being outshined by Vela, who is playing with confidence and has scored goals.