It’s unlikely Morena will muster the super-majority needed to pass the reform

by Mexico News Daily

Mexicans took to the streets in some 50 cities Sunday to protest against the federal government’s proposed electoral reform, legislation that would replace the National Electoral Institute (INE) and state-based electoral authorities with one centralized body.

Approximately 500,000 people including leaders of opposition parties participated in demonstrations in 15 federal entities, according to an El Economista newspaper report that cited statistics provided by protest organizers and media outlets.

However, the number of people who protested the proposed reform in Mexico City — where the nation’s largest march was held — is hotly contested.

Martí Batres, a high-ranking official in the Mexico City government, tweeted from the capital’s security camera monitoring center that between 10,000 and 12,000 people took to the streets, while former president Felipe Calderón cited a vastly different “conservative” estimate of 500,000.

Citing figures given by civil society organizations that organized the march, El Economista reported that between 150,000 and 200,000 people marched from the Angel of Independence on Reforma Avenue to the Monument to the Revolution, located just outside Mexico City’s historic center.

Among the other cities where protests were held were Monterrey, Guadalajara, Morelia, Querétaro, Culiacán and Cancún.

Via signs they carried and slogans they chanted, protesters declared that the INE — known as the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) prior to 2014 — mustn’t be “touched.”

They also asserted that the proposed reform — currently under consideration by the Chamber of Deputies — won’t pass Congress.

That outcome appears likely as no opposition party supports the proposal and the ruling Morena party and its allies don’t have the two-thirds majority required to pass constitutional bills.

The reform bill proposes replacing the INE with a centralized authority to be called the National Elections and Consultations Institute. The new authority’s electoral councilors, as well as electoral tribunal judges, would be directly elected by citizens if the bill passes Congress.

Exactly half of the respondents to a recent Reforma newspaper poll said that President López Obrador and his Morena party want to dismantle the INE in order to “appropriate the new institute to control elections.”

The IFE oversaw Mexico’s transition to full democracy after the once-omnipotent Institutional Revolutionary Party dominated politics in the 20th century, a period in which the party’s success at elections was virtually guaranteed due to its own control of the electoral system.

The reform bill proposes a range of other measures, including cutting the funding of political parties and electoral authorities, and reducing the number of lawmakers in both houses of Congress.

At a rally at the conclusion of Sunday’s march in Mexico City, former IFE president José Woldenberg declared that protesters were demonstrating their “profound commitment” to democracy and defending “an electoral system that protects all of us and allows the co-existence of diversity, and the replacement of governments via pacific and participative means.”

“Mexico doesn’t deserve a constitutional electoral reform driven by a single will,” he charged, referring to López Obrador.

“… Mexico … mustn’t transfer the electoral register to another institution because the INE has excelled in the formulation of a reliable list,” Woldenberg said.

The former electoral official also said that upcoming elections “must have the same guarantees” as the most recent ones: a trustworthy register, a level playing field for candidates, impartiality of the officials organizing them, meticulous counting of votes and the announcement of preliminary results on the night voters went to the polls.

He questioned whether a centralized electoral institute would have the capacity to organize elections to elect officials for the different levels of governments, saying that state-based electoral authorities registered over 275,000 candidates in 2021 alone.

“With such numbers I ask you: Is it desirable and possible to concentrate, centralize and administer that political universe in a single institution?” Woldenberg asked, prompting a resounding “no” from his fellow protesters.

In a video message posted to social media after Sunday’s protests, INE president Lorenzo Córdova noted that hundreds of thousands of people came out to defend “our democracy and our electoral system in the face of the risk of an anti-democratic regression.”

“… The democracy and electoral system we have today are a collective work and asset of all citizens,” he said. “… Mexican democracy wasn’t built in a day nor is it the work of just one man, one party or one political force. It’s the product of multiple civil struggles against a hegemonic party regime, struggles against electoral fraud that characterized the anti-democratic past.”

The INE chief added that that “we can’t allow” the electoral authority to lose its constitutional autonomy “if we don’t want to return to the authoritarian past that we fortunately left behind.”

Córdova also said that, “at INE we watch on with enthusiasm and satisfaction … [as] citizens value and defend … [Mexico’s] democracy.”

More than half a million people have also signed a Change.org petition that denounces the proposed disbandment of the INE.

López Obrador, the key proponent of the electoral reform bill, declared Monday that those who participated in Sunday’s protests are opposed to the transformation his government is carrying out in Mexico. They protested “in favor of the privileges they had before the government I represent [took office], in favor of corruption, in favor of racism, classism and discrimination,” he said.

The president asserted that “not a lot” of people participated in the Mexico City march, claiming that the protesters didn’t go to the zócalo as they “wouldn’t have filled even half” of the capital’s central square.

He described the protest as a “political [and] public striptease of conservatism in Mexico,” adding that “this is very good because if this doesn’t surface it remains hidden and does a lot of damage [to efforts] to have a better, fairer, more equal, more fraternal society.”

Former president Vicente Fox, who joined the Mexico City protest, highlighted on his Twitter account that López Obrador pledged in 2020 that he would quit if 100,000 people protested against him. AMLO said at the time another prerequisite to him leaving office early was opinion polls showing that he has lost support. However, polls have consistently shown that he retains the support of a majority of citizens.

With reports from El Economista, Reforma, El Financiero, Sin Embargo and Proceso.

The US utility signed a 20-year agreement to buy from a proposed wind farm in Mexico

by Mexico News Daily

The United States energy company Sempra intends to build a new wind farm in the Baja California municipality of Tecate, and already has a customer willing to buy the power it proposes to generate there.

Sempra Infrastructure (SI), a subsidiary of the San Diego-based firm, and Silicon Valley Power — a municipal electricity utility owned and operated by the city of Santa Clara, California — announced a 20-year power purchase agreement last Thursday.

The renewable energy is to be supplied to Santa Clara from “the proposed Cimarrón wind project, Sempra Infrastructure’s cross-border wind generation facility under development in Baja California,” SI said in a statement.

To be located less than 10 kilometers from the SI-operated Energía Sierra Juárez (ESJ) wind farm, “Cimarrón is expected to be a 300-megawatt (MW) wind generation facility,” the statement said, adding that clean energy would be delivered to a substation in San Diego County via Sempra Infrastructure’s existing cross-border high voltage transmission line.

“Cimarrón is being developed to include approximately 60 wind turbines with a capacity to produce enough energy equivalent to the annual energy consumption of more than 84,000 homes and is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 210,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year,” SI said.

“The construction of the new facility is expected to create more than 2,000 direct and indirect jobs in Mexico with additional local community investment under Sempra Infrastructure’s framework for corporate giving as part of the company’s commitment to the communities where it operates,” the company said.

It added that the development of the planned project “is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including securing all necessary commercial agreements and permits and other factors, including reaching a final investment decision.”

Construction of the wind farm hasn’t yet commenced, but SI believes it could start generating power by the end of 2024.

CEO Justin Bird said the company is “excited to work with the City of Santa Clara, home to some of the world’s largest technology companies, to provide access to renewable energy that can help meet their energy demands while supporting their sustainable energy goals.”

SI’s agreement with Silicon Valley Power “underscores our commitment to advancing the development of our North American clean energy portfolio as we continue to help create a cleaner energy future,” he said.

Manuel Pineda, chief electric utility officer of Silicon Valley Power, said that the utility is “excited to partner with Sempra Infrastructure to add clean energy resources to help meet our sustainability and climate goals.”

SI didn’t say how much it intended to invested in the new project, but the outlay will likely be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. A total of US $450 million was spent on the two phases of the nearby 263-MW ESJ facility, which has 73 turbines.

SI operates another large wind farm in the Nuevo León municipality of General Bravo and a natural gas storage terminal in Ensenada, Baja California. The latter facility intends to start exporting gas to tap into growing global demand for the fuel.

SI also has plans to build a battery storage facility of up to 500 MW in Mexicali, Baja California, and an liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility in Topolobampo, Sinaloa. The former is slated to serve California’s Imperial Valley, while the latter could ship gas to Asia.

The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that “export terminals on or near the Pacific are considered valuable because ships carrying LNG cargoes to natural gas-hungry markets in Asia can skip paying the tolls at the Panama Canal that facilities on the Gulf Coast must pay and can reach their destinations in about half the time.”

The federal government is planning to build a gas export hub in Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, but that facility is slated to ship LNG to Europe rather than Asia. President López Obrador is increasing the state’s involvement in the energy sector, and his government has pursued a range of policies that are hostile to foreign firms, many of which generate renewable energy here.

Despite that, 17 United States energy companies have committed to invest in solar and wind projects in Mexico, the president said in June. Citing remarks made by López Obrador at the U.S.-Mexico CEO Dialogue in Washington D.C. in July, Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard said that U.S. companies in general will invest $40 billion in Mexico over the next two years.

With reports from The San Diego Union-Tribune and El Financiero.

The restrictions also apply to three transportation companies that may have smuggled drugs

by Mexico News Daily

The United States government has imposed economic sanctions on a Sinaloa Cartel-affiliated drug trafficking organization (DTO), three of its alleged members and three companies.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury (UST) said in a statement Wednesday that its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) had designated the Valenzuela DTO and its presumed leader Juan Francisco Valenzuela Valenzuela in accordance with a 2021 executive order — “Imposing Sanctions on Foreign Persons Involved in the Global Illicit Drug Trade.”

OFAC also designated “two Mexican nationals and Valenzuela DTO members, Héctor Alfonso Araujo Peralta and Raúl Rivas Chaires, as well as three Mexico-based transportation companies …  for having engaged in, or attempted to engage in, activities or transactions that have materially contributed to, or pose a significant risk of materially contributing to, the international proliferation of illicit drugs or their means of production,” UST said.

The department said that the Valenzuela DTO was originally established as a transportation cell but evolved into a “sophistical network that became invaluable to Sinaloa Cartel leadership.”

It said the organization was run by three Valenzuela siblings but Juan Francisco is “the last remaining sibling involved” due to the arrest of his brother and sister by U.S. authorities in 2020 and 2021, respectively.

UST said that “under the umbrella of the Sinaloa Cartel, the Valenzuela DTO is involved in the importation and transport of multi-ton quantities of illicit drugs, including methamphetamine, heroin and fentanyl, from Mexico to the United States.”

Juan Francisco Valenzuela, Araujo and Rivas all face trafficking charges in the U.S. but remain at large.

As a result of the sanctions imposed Wednesday, “all property and interests in property of the designated individuals and entities that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons must be blocked and reported to OFAC,” UST said.

It also said that “persons that engage in certain transactions with the individuals and entities designated today may themselves be exposed to sanctions or subject to an enforcement action.”

“… Today’s action is part of a whole-of-government effort to counter the global threat posed by the trafficking of illicit drugs into the United States that causes the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans annually, as well as countless more non-fatal overdoses,” UST said.

Brian E. Nelson, undersecretary of UST’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said that the Valenzuela DTO “fuels the ongoing drug epidemic we face in the United States.”

“… Starving this network of resources will help deprive the Sinaloa Cartel of critical support it needs to traffic its dangerous illicit drugs,” he said.

Formerly led by imprisoned drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, the Sinaloa Cartel is one of Mexico’s two most powerful criminal organizations, the other being the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG)

Texas Governor Greg Abbott last month designated both cartels as terrorist organizations.

Mexico News Daily

In other news from Mexico:

Most Mexicans want military to remain involved in public security: poll

The poll also garnered opinions about the trustworthiness of Mexico’s different public security institutions

Almost three-quarters of Mexicans agree with the government’s plan to continue using the armed forces for public security tasks until 2028, a new poll indicates.

A constitutional bill extending the military’s involvement in public security by four years has already been approved by Congress and will become law once it has been ratified by a majority of Mexico’s state legislatures.

A survey conducted by the polling company Enkoll for the newspaper El País and broadcaster W Radio found that 73 percent of just over 1,000 respondents agreed with the plan to keep the military on the streets until 2028.

A similar number – 72 percent – said they agreed with the armed forces having control of customs, airports and border crossings, while 62 percent of those polled expressed support for the military’s construction of infrastructure projects such as the Felipe Ángeles International Airport and the Maya Train railroad.

The results are welcome news for President López Obrador, who has relied heavily on the military since taking office in late 2018  and seems intent on increasing the role it plays in public life.

Conducted face-to-face at people’s homes between October 14 and 17, the poll also garnered opinions about the trustworthiness of Mexico’s different public security institutions. As has traditionally been the case, the navy was deemed the most trustworthy security force, with 54 percent of respondents saying they trusted it a lot and an additional 16 percent expressing “some” confidence in the nation’s marines.

The army, National Guard and state police forces were all seen as less trustworthy, although a majority of respondents indicated they had a lot or at least some confidence in the first two institutions. However, only 13 percent of those polled said they trusted state police a lot while an additional 20 percent told Enkoll they maintained some confidence in their officers.

In a more telling revelation, two-thirds of respondents said they had little or no trust in their state police forces.

Asked whether they agreed with López Obrador’s assertion that corruption could be avoided by using the military to build public infrastructure projects, almost six in 10 respondents said they did. Just over one in 10 said they very much agreed with the claim while 47 percent indicated more restrained concurrence with the president.

Although Mexican newspapers have recently been filled with reports detailing the contents of a massive trove of emails and documents stolen from the Ministry of National Defense’s IT system by the Guacamaya hacking group, 71 percent of respondents said they hadn’t heard about the security breach and subsequent leak.

López Obrador downplayed the seriousness of the security breach, asserting that he didn’t expect any negative consequences from it, while Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval declined to meet with lawmakers to discuss the hacking incident. That response was neither particularly popular or unpopular among those polled, with 41 percent of respondents praising the government’s handling of the issue and 34 percent criticizing it. An additional 25 percent declined to comment on the government’s response or said they didn’t know anything about it.

A clear majority did, however, assert that the army’s digital security personnel “must assume responsibility” for the hacking of the army’s servers, a breach that resulted in the theft and subsequent leaking of six terabytes of data.

The media’s obtention of confidential and sensitive information has led to the publication of a huge number of revelatory reports, including ones on López Obrador’s health problems, the government’s plan to create an army-run commercial airline, a soldier’s sale of weapons to a criminal organization and the Mexican military’s planning and operational shortcomings.