Mexico News Roundup
By RICARDO CASTILLO
Mexico Pre-Purchases Covid Vaccines
Mexico clinched the purchase of 200 million anti-covid-19 vaccines to protect 100 million people (about 80 percent of the population), the Foreign Relations Secretariat (SRE) announced through Twitter on Friday, Nov. 27.
SRE Secretary Marcelo Ebrard and the secretariat’s team of vaccine procurement buyers for individual laboratories and the World Health Organization (WHO) made the acquisition.
SRE Multilateral Affairs Undersecretary Martha Delgado, on making the announcement, took issue with remarks made by the World Economic Forum (WEF) saying that only Canada, Japan, the United States and Britain had secured the double dosages needed to inoculate against the virus.
“Our nation signed agreements for the pre-purchase of developed vaccines from British laboratory AstraZeneca and Oxford University, along with the American pharmaceutical company Pfizer and with the Chinese company CanSino (Canada-China) Biologics, plus through the Covax protocol, involving nine more labs that are developing vaccines,” she said.
AMLO’s “20 Commandments”
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) introduced the 30-page “Ethical Guide for the Transformation of Mexico” on Thursday, Nov. 26.
The booklet covers 20 points on moral and honest behavior to discourage corruption.
It is based on a similar publication written by Mexican philosopher Alfonso Reyes in 1944 called “The Moral Primer,” underlining love and respect for ourselves, family, society, nation, humanity, nature and education.
The guide’s chapters codify ideal behavior to change the existing Mexican mentality that corruption is part of the culture or the belief that those who are born poor are condemned to die poor.
AMLO said that there would be 8 million copies of the guide printed, to be distributed among adults so that they can teach it to the younger generations.
Several renowned Mexican writers, including ideologist José Agustín Ortiz Pinchetti, philosopher Margarita Valdés, actress Verónica Velasco and columnists Enrique Galván Ochoa and Pedro Miguel, penned the booklet under the supervision of presidential press secretary Jesús Ramírez Cuevas.
Political Police Blotter
Military peers have visited Former Defense Secretary Salvador Cienfuegos three times since he was released by the U.S. Justice Department after having been detained for alleged drug trafficking involvement.
The Mexican military went to salute their former commander and check out what was the real reason for his arrest by U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents at the Los Angeles International Airport on Oct. 15.
Cienfuegos, according to the La Política Online web page, told peers his arrest was an act of vengeance against AMLO’s administration for releasing alleged fentanyl trafficker Ovidio Guzmán, son of the infamous drug lord “El Chapo” Guzmán, in October 2019.
AMLO admitted responsibility for Ovidio’s release to prevent a massacre from being perpetrated by his Sinaloa Cartel against the people of Culiacán.
U.S. Attorney General William Barr apparently released Cienfuegos because the DEA agents acting against the general allegedly did not have a legally sound case snice their espionage was mostly based on old-tech Blackberry phone tapping.
Also, rumors are that Barr struck a deal with Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard to arrest a top drug kingpin in exchange — that culprit allegedly being Rafael Caro Quintero, now on the lam, whose wanted reward just went up from $10 million to $20 million.
It’s Back to Jail for Gutiérrez
Former Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) Secretary General Alejandro Gutiérrez was ordered by a Chihuahua judge to return to jail, since he was declared guilty of peculation.
Gutiérrez is allegedly part of Mexico’s “Master Fraud,” concocted during the administration of former President Enrique Peña Nieto to supply the PRI with illegal government property funding to finance it election campaigns.
Gutiérrez is to finish serving a six-year sentence, out of which he already served three years before being released on a technicality.
American Woman Found Dead
Sonora state police found the body of U.S. citizen Candy Lee López, 39, in the desert near the border town of San Luis Río, Colorado.
López was wanted by the U.S. Marshalls for fentanyl trafficking but Mexican authorities say the she was victim of femicide.
Mexican Peso Remains Steady
After several weeks of gains against the U.S. dollar, the Mexican peso seems to have stabilized in the range of 20-+ to the greenback.
On Friday, Nov. 27, it closed at 20.08 in wholesale buys, according to the Central Bank of Mexico (Banxico).
The peso reached a sale price to the public of 20.52 to the dollar, according to Citibanamex bank.
Mexican Elections Coming Up
The rumblings of the 2021 electoral fray began sounding louder on Sunday, Nov. 29, with the announcement by majority National Regeneration Movement (Morena) President Mario Delgado that on Dec. 4 and Dec. 5, the party will receive applications for candidates who want to run for governor in each of the 15 states at stake in the June election.
Delgado said the candidacies would be received at Morena headquarters in Mexico City.
Morena is the first party to open up for registrations.
Soon others will follow suit.
…Nov. 30, 2020