Latest news with #CiudadDeMéxico
Forbes
a day ago
- Business
- Forbes
Organized Crime Affects Business Activity In Morelos, Mexico
Mexican marines guard the entrance of the building complex where the leader of the Beltran Leyva's ... More cartel, Arturo Beltran Leyva, was shot dead by security forces, in Cuernavaca on December 17, 2009. Arturo Beltran Leyva, a Mexican drug kingpin aka the "Boss of Bosses," has been killed in a dramatic shoot-out between cartel members and the military, at south of Mexico City, Navy said. Beltran Leyva was Mexico's third most wanted man, with a 1.5-million-dollar (one-million-euro) reward on offer for information leading to his capture. AFP PHOTO/Luis Acosta (Photo credit should read LUIS ACOSTA/AFP via Getty Images) The small state of Morelos, just outside of Mexico City, has quietly emerged as one of the worst hotspots for organized crime activity in Mexico. In 2024, Coca-Cola FEMSA decided to shutter one its facilities in Morelos due to threats from organized crime. The state's former governor, Cuauhtemoc Blanco, has faced widespread accusations of collusion with drug trafficking groups and is even accused of ordering the killing of a local businessman. Local business owners are complaining about threats and extortion from criminal groups in Morelos. If you look at the statistics on homicide totals, it's shocking to see just how much violence has increased over the last few years in Morelos. In 2024, the number of murders in Morelos was more than ten times higher than it was in 2007. The total annual tally of homicides has ridden steadily over time. Data from INEGI and press ... More sources. In particular, during the last six years during the '4T-era" of the presidencies of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Claudia Sheinbaum, the violence has reached a new high. I asked the Council on Foreign Relations' Will Freeman how he assesses the 4T-era security policies in Morelos. He gave Lopez Obrador and Sheinbaum an 'F.' In fact, in Morelos, in 2024 the violence reached the highest level ever recorded in Modern Mexico's history. The state as a whole is now more than three times as violent as the city of Chicago. In total, Morelos recorded over 1,300 homicides in 2024, making it one of the top ten most violent states in Mexico. Overall, in terms of population-adjusted homicide rate, Morelos is now the 2nd most violent state in Mexico. There is a major lag in the perception of the problem of violence in Morelos, particularly among foreign executives and tourists. Many of the shootouts in Morelos seem similar to scenes we see in Mexico's worst organized crime hotspots, but many visitors still perceive Cuernavaca to be safe. In Morelos, tortilla-makers are complaining about local organized crime groups threatening and extorting them. More broadly, politicians and police are struggling to deal with a splintering roster of organized crime groups that are diversifying away from drug trafficking into a vareity of new rackets including extorting local business owners, hijacking cargo trucks, and stealing lumber. One of the biggest challenges Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum will face is whether or not she can improve security and reduce violent crime in places such as Morelos. Security analysts speculate that right now there are over a dozen organized crime groups operating in Morelos. During a recent podcast discussion, Washington Post journalist Mary Beth Sheridan, who recently published an article about how organized crime groups are targeting tortilla-makers in Morelos, explained 'They prey on the local population. Extortion is one of the primary activities: thousands of tortillerias are being extorted.' When it comes to the risks foreign companies and executives face when investing in Morelos, I characterize the state as being low risk for targeted, high-impact crimes such as executive kidnappings, arson attacks, or extortion, but high risk for employees and operations from general, non-targeted violent crime such as shootings, armed robberies, carjackings, and cargo truck hijackings. Some tourists may be wondering whether Morelos is safe to visit. There is a real disconnect where the popular perception of Morelos and Cuernavaca among tourists and foreign executives has not caught up with the on-the-ground reality. Many foreign visitors still view Cuernavaca as a beautiful colonial city, the city of eternal spring or 'primavera eterna.' But, locals are acutely aware of the risks of shootouts, armed robberies, and carjackings and have referred to their city as the city 'la balacera eterna' or eternal shootout for over a decade and a half. The problems in Cuernavaca highlight the fact that while Mexico City is generally safe for foreign tourists to visit, many of the areas surrounding Mexico City in states including Puebla, Estado de Mexico, Morelos and Michoacan are affected by high levels of organized crime activity and violence, including violent carjackings on major highways. Part of the problem in Morelos is limited institutional capacity for policing. It's helpful to compare Morelos with Mexico City when it comes to police. Mexico City has by far the highest number of police patrols of any state in Mexico. There are more than 92,000 state police patrol officers in Mexico City. In contrast there are only 2,000 state police officers in Morelos. Overall, Morelos has around 2 percent as many state police as Mexico City. Furthermore, we know that around 99.8 percent of all murders in Morelos go unsolved. To put that differently, right now the police and prosecutors in Morelos are solving almost none of the murders that are happening in the state. So, foreign executives managing operations in Morelos need to be aware of the risks stemming from organized crime activity in the state. It's true that the problem of extortion in Morelos primarily affects local businesses, not large foreign-owned firms. But, the threats tortilla-makers in Morelos are dealing with highlight the fact that organized crime activity in Mexico affects the legal economy in significant ways. Check out the full conversation here.
The Independent
2 days ago
- General
- The Independent
Rescued giant moths emerge from cocoons in Mexico's sprawling capital
Two moths the size of a hand, their wings patterned with brown and pink around four translucent sections, mate for hours hanging from a line alongside cocoons like the ones they emerged from just hours earlier. 'When I get here and find this, I jump with delight,' said María Eugenia Díaz Batres, who has been caring for insects at the Museum of Natural History and Environmental Culture in Mexico City for nearly six decades. The mating pair of 'four mirrors' moths as they're popularly known in Mexico, or scientifically as Rothschildia orizaba, are evidence that the museum's efforts to save some 2,600 cocoons rescued from an empty lot were worth the trouble. The moths, whose numbers have fallen in Mexico City due to urbanization, have cultural relevance in Mexico. 'The Aztecs called them the 'butterfly of obsidian knives,' Itzpapalotl,' Díaz Batres said. 'And in northern Mexico they'd fill many of these cocoons with little stones and put them on their ankles for dances.' These cocoons arrived at the museum in late December. 'They gave them to us in a bag and in a box, all squeezed together with branches and leaves, so my first mission was to take them out, clean them,' Díaz Batres said. Mercedes Jiménez, director of the museum in the capital's Chapultepec park, said that's when the real adventure began since they had never received anything like this before. Díaz Batres had the cocoons hung in any place she thought they might do well, including her office where they hang from lines crisscrossing above her table. It has allowed her to watch each stage of their development closely. The moths only survive for a week or two as adults, but they give Díaz Batres tremendous satisfaction, especially when she arrives at her office and new moths 'are at the door, on the computer." So she tries to help them 'complete their mission' and little by little their species recovers.
Reuters
2 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
Bank of Mexico's rate decision marked by trade policy pressures, minutes show
MEXICO CITY, May 29 (Reuters) - All of the Bank of Mexico's five governing board members agreed in the monetary authority's most recent rate decision that the period has been marked by high uncertainty due to trade policy announcements worldwide, minutes published on Thursday showed. "Some activity indicators surprised to the downside partly due to the effects of trade uncertainty at the global level," said the Mexican central bank. Most board members also noted that changes in trade policy have added significant uncertainty to the global economic outlook. Adding to global concerns, a U.S. trade court on Wednesday blocked most of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs, arguing he had overstepped his authority. Banxico, as the central bank is known, slashed its growth forecast for Mexico's economy this year to 0.1%, from its previous estimate of 0.6%, citing sluggish domestic activity and uncertainty related to U.S. trade policy, according to its quarterly report published on Wednesday.
Washington Post
3 days ago
- General
- Washington Post
Will Mexico's judicial elections hurt democracy or make the courts accountable?
MEXICO CITY — Mexicans will vote in the country's first judicial elections Sunday. The fiercely debated question is whether electing judges will deepen democratic decay or purge courts of rampant corruption and impunity. The vote comes as power in Mexico has been increasingly concentrated in the popular president's office, and as organized crime wields significant political influence in many parts of the country. Critics worry that electing judges will weaken checks and balances on government and stack the courts in favor of the ruling party.
Associated Press
3 days ago
- Business
- Associated Press
Will Mexico's judicial elections hurt democracy or make the courts accountable?
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexicans will vote in the country's first judicial elections Sunday. The fiercely debated question is whether electing judges will deepen democratic decay or purge courts of rampant corruption and impunity. The vote comes as power in Mexico has been increasingly concentrated in the popular president's office, and as organized crime wields significant political influence in many parts of the country. Critics worry that electing judges will weaken checks and balances on government and stack the courts in favor of the ruling party. Judges and court staff previously earned their positions through merit and experience. Now the election has more than 7,700 candidates vying for more than 2,600 judicial positions, including on Mexico's Supreme Court. Hundreds more positions will be elected in 2027. 'We've never seen something like this before. What Mexico is doing is like an experiment, and we don't know what the outcome of it will be,' said Carin Zissis, director of the Council of the Americas' Washington office. Mexico's ruling party overhauls the courts Mexico's judicial elections will pick judges across every level of government, an unprecedented situation globally. Former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador led the push for the overhaul. The highly popular leader was long at odds with Mexican courts, which regularly struck down reform proposals and halted projects they called an overreach of executive power. López Obrador went as far as publicly criticizing judges in his press briefings. Last September, after dominating presidential and legislative elections, his Morena party jammed the constitutional reform through congress. His ally and successor, President Claudia Sheinbaum, has continued to champion it. The overhaul notably put limits on the Supreme Court's power to widely block presidential actions and laws, and set up a disciplinary tribunal for judges. 'The way I see it, the Supreme Court is going to once again become irrelevant, just like it was in the old days of authoritarian rule ... when its ability to monitor constitutionality was basically null,' said Rafael Estada, a constitutional historian. Sheinbaum and López Obrador have asserted that by popularly electing judges, they can root out corruption in the judiciary and bring the branch closer to the people. 'Who is going to choose the judges on the court now? The Mexican people. That's the big difference between what once was and what now is,' Sheinbaum said Monday as she called on Mexicans to vote. 'And that,' she added, 'is democracy.' Many on the ballot won a lottery after being screened by committees made up of people from the three branches of government — two of which are controlled by the president's party. To qualify, candidates need a law degree, five years of professional experience, an essay and letters of recommendation from friends and colleagues. Concerns about democratic decay The passage of the reform legislation sparked weeks of protests by judges and judicial staff, a sharp rebuke from the Biden administration and concerns by international investors, causing the Mexican peso to dip. Opponents have called on Mexicans to boycott the vote, and the election is projected to have low turnout. The opponents – former judges, legal experts, politicians and foreign observers -— say that battling corruption and impunity in the courts is not a bad idea. Most Mexicans agree that the judiciary is rife with corruption. 'The judiciary has a lot of scores to settle in this country,' said Georgina De la Fuente, election specialist with the Mexican consulting firm Strategia Electoral. But critics say the ruling party is simply politicizing the courts at an opportune moment, when Sheinbaum is highly popular. Judicial candidates are not allowed to announce their party affiliation and are unable to accept party funds or hold major campaign events. A number of former Morena government officials and allies, however, have posted lists on social media of which ones to elect. Mexico's electoral authority said Wednesday it also had investigated cases of physical guides handed out to potential voters in Mexico City and Nuevo Leon state, something it said could amount to 'coercion.' 'The way in which this reform was designed does not give people greater access to justice. It was designed to take control of the judiciary and blur the division of powers,' De la Fuente said. 'Opening a Pandora's box' Others warn that the overhaul could open the judiciary to questionable judges and allow organized crime to further influence Mexico's justice system. A number of candidates have raised eyebrows. Chief among them is Silvia Delgado García, a former lawyer for drug kingpin Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán, who is running to be a criminal court judge in the northern border state of Chihuahua. Critics 'speak out of ignorance because whether or not I've represented some person doesn't transform you into that person,' she told the AP as she handed out campaign flyers to people crossing the border from Ciudad Juarez to El Paso, Texas. 'What I can promise you is I'll be an impartial judge,' she told some voters. Watchdogs also say that last year's vote on the reform was rushed through, criteria for candidates wasn't always followed, the number of candidates was limited by a lottery and lower-court orders trying to keep the reforms from taking effect were ignored. Zissis, of Council of the Americas, said the reforms could increase instability in the region at a time of rapid political change. Mexico's government has been working furiously to talk U.S. President Donald Trump down from tariff threats and meet demands by his administration to crack down on organized crime. At the same time, Trump has been locked in political fights with courts trying to block various actions. The turmoil could hurt international investment in Mexico if investors believe their money is less secure, Zissis said. 'It feels like Mexico is opening a Pandora's box,' she said. ___ Associated Press journalists María Verza and Christian Chávez contributed to this report from Mexico City and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
