by the El Reportero’s wire services
The exodus of politicians and legislators from various Mexican parties to the Movement of National Regeneration (MORENA) continues today, when that organization will proclaim the candidacy for the Presidency of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The last of a long list that changed party was senator Miguel Ángel Chico Herrera, who resigned from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI, in the government), after over 40 years of political militancy.
Chico Herrera decided to join MORENA and support López Obrador’s project, amidst criticism of the PRI’s national leader, Enrique Ochoa, whom he accused of privileging ‘simulation and personal interests’
The legislator had expressed for several weeks his dissatisfaction with the way in which the internal process was carried out in the PRI to elect the candidate of such party to the governorship of Guanajuato in the elections of July 1, when there will also be elected President of the Republic and other positions of popular election.
MORENA’s number has grown up with legislators and politicians from the PRI, National Action Party, Citizen Movement and most of all from the Party of the Democratic Revolution.
Agri-food trade grows between Mexico and China
Agricultural exports from Mexico to China has reached a commercial value of $321 million USD in 2017, according to the Customs of the Asian country consigned by the Secretariat of Agriculture.
Exports from that sector increased 54 percent compared to 2016, as part of the diversification policy of the Mexican government, said a statement from the Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA).
The best conditions to have access to Mexican products in the market of the Asian nation took place in 2017, thanks to the early negotiation of several health protocols including blackberries and raspberries, beef, white corn, dairy products (milk powder and milk-based infant formula), tobacco leaves, blueberry, fish meal and pork by-products, the statement said.
Imports of agricultural products from China to Mexico increased nine percent in 2017, representing a 19.6 percent advance in the bilateral agro-food trade.
Freedom for Argentinean Milagro Sala demanded on her birthday
Political figures and social organizations demanded through the social network Twitter the freedom of Argentinean social leader Milagro Sala, who turns 55 today in preventive detention.
Under the hashtag #3ercumplepresa, ordinary citizens also demanded her immediate release while unions such as the Association of State Workers (ATE) pay tribute to the also member of Parlasur.
‘Today is Milagro’s birthday. It is the third she passes deprived of her freedom. While there are prisoners and political prisoners in Argentina there will be nothing to celebrate. We demand the state to comply with the ruling of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation,’ published on social networks the committee for her release, which convened a national tweet in her honor.
The Jujeña leader was arrested on Jan. 16, 2016, on the alleged incitement to violence for leading a protest in Jujuy against the changes imposed by Governor Gerardo Morales in the cooperative system and program.
During the subsequent months to that cause, there were added others such as the alleged irregularity of administration of funds destined to housing construction and also the authorship of the crimes of illicit association, fraud to the public administration and extortion.
Five international organizations, including the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention of the United Nations and the Organization of American States, have asked the government for her release.
Violence and quakes affected tourism in Mexico
The consumption of both foreign and domestic tourists in Mexico fell 1.9 % from July to September 2017, reported today the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI).
The organization also indicated that the Quarterly Indicator of Tourism Gross Domestic Product decreased by 2.23 percent, the most pronounced drop since the second quarter of 2009.
These indicators were caused by the wave of violence generated in Mexico last year along with the September earthquakes, which provoked that tourism, one of the three main economic activities and source of currencies of the country, decreased in the third quarter of 2017.
In August, the US Department of State updated the Travel Alert for its citizens and added restrictions regarding security conditions in Baja California, Baja California Sur, Chiapas, Colima, Guerrero, Quintana Roo and Veracruz.
The year 2017 was the most violent in Mexico in a decade, according to data from the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System.
However, Mexico is currently the eighth most visited country to register 35,000,000 international travelers in 2016, according to the list of the World Tourism Organization.
In terms of foreign exchange tourism entered 19,571,000,000 dollars, according to official data.
