By RICARDO CASTILLO

Outsourcing Vote Postponed

The Mexican Chamber of Deputies postponed the vote on the outsourcing regulation bill, which was slated to take place on Thursday, Nov. 26.

Now, the debate over it will continue until sometime next week.

The decision came after there was an exponential increase of speakers taking the podium from 70, on Monday, Nov. 23, to 169, as of Thursday, Nov. 26.

The increase came after Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) held a meeting Monday with business organization representatives, who opened up the possibility of holding “permanent talks” to analyze the bill.

The president approved and the entrepreneurs swamped the Chamber of Deputies with added speakers who are proposing multiple changes to the bill.

Notwithstanding, AMLO asked that the bill be voted on no later than the end of this year.

Deputy Marco Antonio Andrade of the National Regeneration Movement (Morena) said the deputies will hear all programmed speakers and, in the end, possibly next week, “review the possibility of modifying the bill.”

Filibuster, Mexican style, anyone?

Rosario Wants Out (of Jail)

Thus far, three former officials have pointed to former Finance Secretary Luis Videgaray Caso as the mastermind behind the corruption that allegedly took place from 2012 through 2018 during the administration of former Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto.

In order of appearance, they are: former Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) Director Emilio Lozoya; former head of management at the Farming, Territorial and Urban Development Secretariat (Sedatu) Emilio Zebadúa; an former Sedatu Secretary Rosario Robles, who joined the pack this week.

They all seek protection under the recently coined “opportunity criteria” system, which translates into English as “protected witness,”

Robles wants to await her trial under house arrest and not from the ice-cold, covid-19-ridden Santa Marta Penitentiary, where she has been been held for nearly a year and a half.

The Treasury’s Financial Intelligence Unit Director Santiago Nieto Castillo said that his offices are now analyzing Vedegaray’s financial movements and alleged graft participation into the infamous “Master Fraud” scam to funnel social development money to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which the three claim Videgaray masterminded.

Videgaray, currently residing in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he is teaching at MIT, has denied the accusations, demanding the awesome threesome “prove their lies.”

Tremble, tremble, tremble, Luis!

Rail Blockade

The U.S. railroad concessionaire in Mexico, Kansas City Southern Industries (KCS-México) has now registered 56 consecutive days of the blockade by union teachers of its track that leads from the Lázaro Cárdenas Pacific deep-sea port to central Mexican states and Nuevo Laredo at the U.S. border.

KCS-México has reported an accumulation of 1,600 cars at the Automobiles Specialized Terminal and 4,777 containers waiting for delivery to auto industry customers.

The teachers union is maintaining its blockade at the township of Calzontzín, in the state of Michoacán, forcing KCS-Mexico to stall wage payment to thousands of workers, notwithstanding it millions of pesos in losses.

Normal traffic amounts to an average of 12 loaded trains per day.

Apparently, there is no intention on behalf of the municipal, state or federal government to remove the track-invading teachers, who demand peanuts compared to the losses being caused to affected industries.

Debt Services Paid

The Central Bank of Mexico (Banxico) paid in full the commission owed to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for year 2020.

Banxico reports it shelled out $169 billion for the annual commission on its Flexible Credit Line in mid-November.

Besides the payment to the IMF, Banxico President Alejandro Díaz de León said that the nation’s international reserves now stand at $194.4 billion, representing a rebound of $22 billion over the past two years.

When he took office in December 2018, the López Obrador administration received $173 billion in reserves from the former Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto’s administration.

Following the release of this information, the Fitch international credit ratings agency raised Mexico’s credit worthiness to BBB+.

Crime Blotter

Mexico’s Fiscal General of the Republic reported the arrest of Roberto González Montes, aka “El 32” or the “Mute,” who is accused of masterminding the heinous murder of nine members of the Mormon LeBaron-Langford families on Nov. 4, 2019, at the Bavispe municipality in Sonora.

González Montes is allegedly the head of a criminal gang that operates out of Nuevo Casas Grandes.

Thus far, the Fiscal General has reported the arrest of 17 participants in the killing of the unarmed women and children.

U.S. Ambassador Christopher Landau issued a tweet congratulating Mexican authorities “for the excellent cooperation between authorities of both nations.”

Meanwhile, Mexican drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero was declared the most-wanted Mexican criminal in the United States, ousting from the top of the list the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Nemesio Oseguera, aka “El Mencho.”

Caro Quintero, who served 28 years for the killing of Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) undercover agent Enrique Camarena in 1984, is now apparently running a drug trafficking out of Caborca, Sonora.

Empty Stadium

The Mexican Soccer League (Liga MX) home and away semis began Wednesday, Nov. 25, with Puebla defeating León 2-1 and the Guadalajara Goats beating América 1-0.

Now the teams move to the León and Azteca Stadium in Mexico City for the grand semifinal to be played on Saturday, Nov. 28.

During the Guadalajara match, authorities allowed the stadium to have up to 15 percent attendance. Thus far this season, all Liga-MX games were without happy soccer fans.

Ugh, I hate empty stadiums.

…Nov. 27, 2020