By RICARDO CASTILLO

Economic Skid

Two of the basic economic indicators, demand and supply, plunged down by 19.4 percent in comparison to the same period last year, according to a quarterly report from the Mexican government official pollster, the National Institute of Geography and Statistic (Inegi).

The figures reflect statistics both for home and industry, which had been stable since their previous lowest drop in 2009, when the economy plunged by minus 6.2 percent.

Other negative figures in the Inegi second quarter report included a reduction of fixed gross investment, which was down by 29.8 percent compared to the first 2020 quarter.

Exports were also down, by 31.1 percent. and imports were down by 29.7 percent.

Individual savings also registered a negative downturn.

Chihuahua PANless Summit

Mexican Interior Secretary Olga Sánchez Cordero established a permanent dialogue forum with members of the Chihuahua +Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) to build up a consensus to find a solution to the Conchos River water problem.

In attended at the forum were the Foreign Relations Secretariat official for North America Roberto Belasco and National Water Commissioner Blanca Jiménez.

Besides federal authorities, the gathering was attended by 10 municipal mayors, who are interested in seeking a balance in water commitments to the United States and ending the ongoing conflict at the Boquilla dam.

Neither Chihuahua Governor Javier Corral nor any National Action Party (PAN) mayors were invited to join the forum.

The PAN is still maintaining guard of La Boquilla water reservoir, was invited to join the forum.

Several PRI state and federal deputies, specifically Omar Bazán and former Coahuila Governor Ruben Moreira, were present.

Bazán pledged his support for “a juridical path solution and not one of electioneering leadership,” in a clear reference to the posture taken by the ruling PAN politicians in the state.

Several other attending politicians accused Corral of struggling for “political survival” as he finishes his six-year term next year.

The governor’s seat will be up for grabs in the 2021 midterm elections.

The outcome of the gathering was that the participants agreed to work toward compliance with the 1944 Mexico-US International Water Treaty mandates, that is, Mexico paying off the water debt it has accumulated.

Anaya Returns to Politics

Former PAN presidential candidate Ricardo Anaya released a video on Facebook and YouTube announcing his “full return to political life” after spending two years absent from politics “caring for my family.”

Anaya talked about the past recognizing that “losing an election was a bitter lesson, but also a great opportunity to mature and test my character.”

He announced he will be traveling all over the nation to promote a book he wrote on his presidential experience.

He also took a moment to bash the administration of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) and present his views on “how to improve things” in Mexico.

Anaya called the AMLO administration “a disaster,” adding that “even before the covid-19 pandemic, Mexico registered it worst economy in more than a decade, and in terms of public safety, the number of homicides were higher than they had been in 20 years.”

He went on to criticize the president’s handling of the covid-19 pandemic, asking rhetorically, “How can he say that we are doing well when Mexico ranks fourth worldwide in terms of covid-19 deaths?”

Anaya did not mention, however, whether he would be returning to the National Action Party or if he was going to branch out on his own to explore politics.

Porfirio Bashes Ebrard

National Regeneration Movement (Morena) candidate for party president Porfirio Muñoz Ledo made a campaign promise that if he were elected Morena president, he would ask current Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard to “abandon party militancy,” in a much-talked-about interview with the Spanish international daily El País.

In his bid for the Morena presidency, Muñoz Ledo has gained ground against other competitors, particularly against Morena Chamber of Deputies Majority Leader Mario Delgado, who is known to be part of the so-called powerful “Ebrard Group.”

“My dear friend,” Porfirio told interviewer Juan Pablo Beauregard, “I say this with respect: Marcelo Ebrard is anxiously waiting for and preparing to be the president of the republic. He shows it in all his acts. But he had better watch out. Forgive me, Marcelo, but if I am elected you will have to leave the party if you go on like that. I pledge my word, you are out.”

The unabashed Muñoz Ledo, 86, has previously been president of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), for the moment, apparently has a slight lead over other contenders.

Morena will hold elections in October, at a date still to be set by the National Electoral Institute (INE).

New UN HRC Representative

Peruvian lawyer Guillermo Fernández-Maldonado Castro was appointed to lead the Mexico branch of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

Fernández-Maldonado held the office of head of the OHCHR in Colombia from 2014 through 2020.

Previously to that, he was a human rights representative in Ecuador from 2007 to 2014.

When taking office in Mexico, he vowed to follow pending human rights cases objectively, impartially and independently.

Anti-corruption Suits Welcome

Public Function Secretary Irma Eréndira Sandoval said that her secretariat on a daily basis receives without prejudice numerous corruption suits from current government opposition sources.

“They’ve staged a parade since the first day we arrived in office,” she said during the inauguration of a course to teach new employees how to process cases.

“We have received all sorts of complaints from (administration) opponents, and we have given them all equal treatment under the law.”

Coca-Cola CEO Visits AMLO

AMLO said Monday, Sept. 21, that the top world executive for the Coca-Cola Company, James Quincey, had visited him over the weekend.

During the meeting, AMLO said that they discussed different issues, such as the company’s support for small businesses, taxes and the ongoing orientation campaign in Mexico on product labeling regarding the nutritional value of goods, as well as the company’s future investments in Mexico.

Mexican Coca-Cola bottling company FEMSA also announced it had had filed a suit against but complied with new labeling in all of its bottle products with sugar contents, except for purified water.

…Sept. 23, 2020