By RICARDO CASTILLO

Former Presidents to Lose Legal Protection

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) sent a petition to the Senate on Monday, Sept. 14, asking lawmakers to carry out a citizens’ consultation over whether to bring the five past presidents to trial, if charged.

With this final request, there have now been three different attempts to bring one or more of Mexico’s past presidents — namely, in order of governance, Carlos Salinas de Gortari (1988-1994), Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León (1994-2000), Vicente Fox Quesada (2000-2006), Felipe Calderón Hinojosa (2006-2012) and Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018) — to face justice.

The other two attempts to legislate potential trials against the former heads of state were a proposal by the Senate itself and another one carried out by National Regeneration Movement (Morena), militants who managed to meet the Sept. 14 deadline to turn in enough signatures to give validity to their demand. Any of the three petitions can be used as the basis to carry out the consultation.

AMLO’s petition to the Senate contains only one question, which he read aloud Tuesday, Sept. 15,  during his daily press conference at the National Palace.

The question to voters is: “Are you in agreement, or not, to have competent authorities, in compliance with the laws and applicable procedures, investigate and, in its case, sanction the alleged commission of crimes by former presidents?”

AMLO said that carrying out these legal procedures against former presidents is viable and “a much needed precedent” to prevent a repeat of alleged improper conduct behavior while in power and a break from impunity.

Regarding the Senate’s proposition, it was drafted by Senator Pablo Gómez and placed forward under the name of “Amnesty for Former Presidents,” which also provides voters the choice to say yes or no.

The groups of Morena militants gathered the needed 2 million signatures to give legality to the petition.

After the Senate votes on the petition, it will be sent to the National Electoral Institute (which will organize the voting process) and relay it to the Supreme Court of Justice for approval both of the consultation and the wording of the question.

Morena Internal Election

The National Electoral Institute (INE) announced that it had approved 35 out of 51 candidates running for the presidency of the National Regeneration Movement (Morena) political party.

The INE also notified participants that its Commission for Prerogatives and Political Parties had approved 36 out of 54 candidacies for the post of secretary general.

The 71 candidacies will appear in a recognition poll that will precede the final poll, which will only have the names of six candidates.

150 Sea Lions Found Dead

The finding of 150 corpses of sea lions along the long shore of the Ulloa Gulf in Baja California Sur Pacific Ocean side Comondú municipality has environmental authorities baffled.

The animals present many different signs of potential causes of death, including either food (algae) poisoning, poisoning by a domoic acid (a kainic acid-type neurotoxin that causes amnesic shellfish poisoning) intoxication and suspicion that the reproductive organs of males had been stripped for sale to the Chinese black market, where these organs have a high value.

It is also possible the sea lions were tangled in fishing nets and drowned.

Nevertheless, the absence of their sex organs in many of the males makes the death of the Zalophus Californius breed of sea lions look extremely fishy.

Authorities are carrying out forensic and lab studies to unravel the mystery, since this is not the first incident of sea lion deaths in the past few years, according to the Federal Environment Protection Agency (Profepa), which is in charge of the investigation.

Sustainable Bond

The Mexican government placed 750 million euro ($889.7 million) sustainable bond that will mature in 2027 and pays a coupon rate of 1.35 percent, the Treasury Secretariat announced on Monday, Sept. 14..

The bond is the first of a kind promoted by the United Nations.

It had exceptionally good reception, with a demand of 4.8 billion euros, 6.4 times the original offering.

“Today Mexico becomes the first nation to issue a sovereign sustainable bond linked to objectives of the UN’s Sustainable Development Objectives,” said a Treasury press release.

“The resources will be used in line with the 2030 agenda of Sustainable Development Objectives.”

Economic Reactivation Plan

Business organizations leaders Carlos Salazar Lomelín of the Business Coordinating Council and Antonio del Valle of the National Business Council announced that in October they would make public an economic reactivation plan on behalf of AMLO.

Both organization presidents held a meeting with the president at the National Palace and pointed out that theirs is a joint venture between the nation’s entrepreneurial sector and the presidency.

“What matters most now is to advance on a reactivation as soon as possible so that we can foster consumption and initiate infrastructure investment projects to create new jobs to replace the lost ones due to the pandemic,” Antonio del Valle said.

CCE’s Salazar added he “felt optimist the projects we’re coming up with will contribute to a speedy economic recovery of the nation.“

Bank Income Slump

Banking profits in Mexico at large dropped by 35.6 percent, equivalent to 32 billion pesos, during the month of July as compared to the same month last year, said a report by the National Banking and Value Commission (CNBV).

Still, the banks at large showed a 65 billion-peso profit for the same period.

Banks informed the CNBV that they were forced to create added reserves, given the imminent growth of overdue loan portfolios, which grew from 81 billion last year to 117 billion in 2020.

Peso-Dollar Exchange Rate

The Mexican peso continued to gain strength leading into the Sept. 15 Independence Day holiday. quoting at an average of 21.03 pesos per dollar.

The downward move is seen as the immediate result of the $5 billion swap loan dollar sale carried out on Monday, Sept. 13, by the Central Bank of Mexico (Banxico) and the U.S. Federal Reserve.

…Sept. 16, 2020