Long rumored, Attorney General Chávez tenders resignation

President Calderón proposes Marisela Morales, currently the special prosecutor for organized crime, to take over as top prosecutor

By Bronson Pettitt

Mexico Weekly / March 31, 2011

After 18 months as attorney general, Arturo Chávez resigned his post as the country's top prosecutor on Thursday.

At a Los Pinos press conference, Chávez told reporters is decision is based “strictly on personal reasons.” President Calderón said Chávez's tenure as attorney general had been critical “to ensure the security of Mexican communities.”

“I deeply and personally appreciate the great job he has done and the dedication he demonstrated as attorney general,” Calderón said.

The president also praised Chávez's efforts to fight drug trafficking organizations and his long-term vision to modernize and transform the Attorney General's Office (PGR).

At the same press conference, Calderón presented Marisela Morales as his nomination to succeed Chávez.

Morales is the PGR's special prosecutor for organized crime. She must go through a confirmation process in the Senate. In the meantime, Jorge Lara, assistant legal prosecutor for international matters, will serve as interim attorney general.

If the Senate confirms Morales, she would become the first female attorney general in Mexico's history. She was the first woman ever appointed as a special prosecutor for organized crime.

Morales boasts a 23-year career in legal circles and was instrumental in creating Mexico's first witness protection program and in prosecuting the first federal human-trafficking case.

“She has a long career in the PGR … and has national and international prestige,” Calderón said.

On March 8, Morales became the first Mexican woman to be awarded the International Woman of Courage Award presented by the U.S. State Department.

Morales will become the third attorney general in Calderón's administration.

Chávez took over as top prosecutor in September 2009, when his predecessor, Eduardo Medina Mora, resigned to become Mexico's ambassador to the United Kingdom.

In a 2009 diplomatic cable made public by WikiLeaks earlier this month, U.S. Embassy officials in Mexico City credited Medina for his efforts to modernize the PGR and maintain positive relations with the U.S., but his relations with Federal Police Chief Genaro García Luna were said to be an obstacle to cooperation between the two offices.

In contrast, when Chávez took office there was fierce criticism from opposition parties and human rights organizations.

Critics said Chávez had done little to solve or prevent femicides during his role as Chihuahua attorney general (1996-98).

In another cable leaked on March 9, U.S. Embassy officials termed Chávez's appointment “totally unexpected and politically inexplicable.”

“Chávez has strong detractors within the Mexican human rights community because of his perceived failings in dealing with the murder of a large number of women in Ciudad Juárez, at a time when he was ratcheting up the fight against drug cartels,” U.S. diplomats wrote.

Drug-related violence prompts tens of thousands to flee

Geneva-based organization claims more than 100,000 people have left their homes in 2010 as a result of drug-related violence

By Bronson Pettitt

Mexico Weekly / March 30, 2011

The number of people in Mexico displaced due to drug-related violence marked an all-time high last year, a new report suggests.

According to a report released last week by the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC), last year about 115,000 Mexicans living in violent areas decided to move elsewhere within the country as a direct result of increased violence.

In total, more than 230,000 people have decided to relocate since President Calderón launched an armed offensive against drug trafficking organizations in December 2006.

As opposed to refugees, who look for shelter in other countries, internally displaced people are forced to live elsewhere within their home countries due to violence, wars or disasters, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

Most people being forced to leave their homes due to drug-related violence are from Chihuahua and Tamaulipas (most have moved to the neighboring Durango, Coahuila and Veracruz), the report says.

In 2010, there were 571 execution-style killings related to drug-trafficking in Tamaulipas and 4,246 in Chihuahua, according to official figures.

Ciudad Juárez is the city in Chihuahua most battered by drug-related violence while in Tamaulipas the most violent municipalities are Guerrero, Mier, Miguel Alemán, Camargo and Díaz Ordaz.

Back in November, as many as 400 people fled Ciudad Mier after the Zetas cartel threatened to kill everyone there, according to the IDMC. There were 93 homicides in the city of the same name last year and 21 in November, the federal government says.

In Ciudad Juárez, where there were 2,661 execution-style slayings last year, there are as many as 116,000 empty homes, according to local authorities.

'Government Has Done Little to Help'

“There have been few attempts to define the scale of displacement in small rural towns in Tamaulipas and Chihuahua, even though the violence is believed to be even more intense in those rural areas,” the report says. “Furthermore, forced displacement has taken place alongside strong economic migration flows, making it harder to identify and document.”

The report also says the Mexican government has done little to help internally displaced people.

“In 2010, federal authorities did not acknowledge, assess or document the needs of the people displaced, instead focusing their efforts on fighting the drug cartels,” the report says.

In the Americas, Colombia has the highest number of internally displaced people with between 3.6 million and 5.2 million, the report says.

The report also states that the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti displaced more than 1.5 million people, 800,000 of whom were still in shelter camps in late 2010.

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Mexico City drivers face 'ghost' fines

More than 13,000 drivers have challenged tickets, claiming they did not commit infraction

By Bronson Pettitt

Mexico Weekly / March 30, 2011

Thousands of Mexico City residents are complaining they have been mistakenly slapped with baseless or arbitrary driving fines.

So far in March, 13,028 drivers have challenged fines they say are incorrect, Reforma reported Wednesday.

The Federal District Public Security Secretariat (SSP-DF) says 12,886 of these fines were in fact valid, and only 142 (0.91 percent) were wrongly issued, El Universal reported Wednesday.

Drivers who feel they were unfairly fined have gone to SSP-DF offices, where in many cases city officials search on a database and pull up a photograph of the driver speeding or having illegally parked, authorities told Excélsior.

But that is not always the case.

Reforma published an article Wednesday detailing the story of a taxi driver named Bernardo Olvera, who discovered he had been fined for making an illegal left turn across a Metrobús lane in southwestern Mexico City. The only problem is that there is no Metrobús lane in that part of the city.

Olvera must first pay the 2,298-peso fine ($192) before he can challenge it in administrative court.

Other drivers told Reforma they were issued fines for cars that were not even theirs.

“I was issued a fine for 4,597 pesos ($383), supposedly for stopping and letting people get into my car in a no-parking place. The only thing accurate [on the infraction] is my license plate number, but the make, model and color [of my car] are wrong, and the place where the infraction supposedly took place is not identified,” said Mexico City resident Víctor Oropeza.

The process to challenge a driving infraction is complicated.

Drivers must first enter their license plate numbers into the SSP-DF website to check if they have been issued any fines. If a driver discovers he was issued a fine and wants to challenge it, he must go to one of the two SSP-DF offices in Mexico City or call a hotline, where city officials offer more details or photos of the infraction in question.

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Higher water fees frustrate Mexico City residents

City officials offer 70 percent discounts to residents whose water bills have risen sixfold

By Bronson Pettitt

Mexico Weekly / March 29, 2011

Thousands of Mexico City residents have recently received water bills that are six times higher than usual.

Last week, residents started receiving their first water bills of 2011 (for January and February) that include new rates. City officials decided last year to increase water rates to encourage residents in high-consumption areas to install water meters.

In addition, water usage for those residents without a water meter will now be estimated using an average of consumption in nearby areas. Rates will then be calculated based on what the water is used for (residential or non-residential), how much is used and the area's socio-economic status (marginalized, low-, middle- or high-income.)

Bills for January and February in several central neighborhoods were reportedly as high as 1,369 pesos ($114), a drastic increase from the approximately 250 pesos ($21) typically charged before the fee hikes.

The unusually high water bills have prompted thousands of residents to seek a reduction at the city's water system main offices. Water system officials have had to extend business hours to deal with people's demands.

“I've spent five hours inside the [city's water system offices] and I'm still waiting. There are 115 people before me in line!” wrote Adita De Aguirre, a Del Valle neighborhood resident, on her Twitter account Monday.

To quell residents' frustration, city officials announced Friday they would offer immediate discounts on lofty bills. The head of the city's water system, Fernando Núñez, said in various radio interviews Tuesday that people without water meters who were charged the fixed-rate fee of 1,369 pesos would only have to pay 410 pesos ($34), and would be able to pay off their bill over a six-month period.

In addition, he said residents can now buy water meters at a discounted price of 1,800 pesos ($150).

Water Meter Installation Surges

Of the 20,000 people who on Monday visited the city's water system offices or who called the offices' customer service hotline, about 900 of them requested that water meters be installed in their homes, Reforma reported Tuesday.

“It might seem like a small number, but if we consider that in all of last year 5,000 meters were purchased, that's an historic number for one day,” Núñez said, according to Reforma.

“Having a [water] meter is extremely important, and it keeps people from paying too little or too much,” Núñez said Tuesday on a radio interview.

For its part, city government officials are working on a list of people and areas affected by the water rate hike.

On Tuesday, Reforma published a poll on its front page asking readers if they would favor an increase in water fees if the quality of the service was improved. Fifty-seven percent said “yes” and 40 percent said “no”.

The water fee fiasco comes as Mexico City enters its dry, hot season, when many parts of the city suffer from water shortages due to a lack of rain.

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Lucha libre movie dropped from film festival line-up

Screening of El Santo film with scenes of topless women canceled at bequest of iconic wrestler's son

By Bronson Pettitt

Mexico Weekly / March 29, 2011

“El Vampiro y el Sexo” (The Vampire and the Sex) will not be shown at this week's Guadalajara International Film Festival, after the son of Rodolfo Guzmán (aka El Santo) argued that restored scenes in the movie feature scenes of topless female vampires.

The film is a director's cut from the 1968 film “Santo in the Treasure of Dracula.” The nude scenes were originally shot for the film's release in Europe, but were omitted from the Mexican version, Milenio reported.

In his arguments for not screening the director's cut, the son of El Santo (who is also a masked wrestler who goes by the name Son of Santo) claimed he only wanted to protect the image of his father, Milenio reported Tuesday.

“My father left a legacy to my brothers and me, and his only request was that we defend it,” Son of Santo told Milenio.

In a press release, Cinematográfica Calderón, the film's production company, argues that the director's cut should be screened given that “the value of the film as a historical document is more important than a gentleman's agreement made between [Santo] and producer Guillermo Calderón.”

The gentleman's agreement referred to a deal made by El Santo and the film's director, René Cardona, to shoot the nude scenes for the European release but not to show them in Mexico.

The director's cut was locked away by Calderón because of concerns it would taint the wrestler's family-friendly image at a time when even miniskirts raised eyebrows in conservative Mexico, Reuters reported last week.

The son of El Santo says his father made only one other movie (“Operación 67”) in which he appears with topless women.

At Stake

The head of Guadalajara's International Film Festival, Iván Trujillo, told El Universal the disagreement between El Santo's son and the production company also has to do with copyright issues and money.

“More than censorship, I think this has to do with an economic arrangement,” Trujillo said. “There are movies that have never been released due to money issues.”

However, El Santo's son insists his reluctance to give the go-ahead to the screening has nothing to do with profit or distribution rights.

“It isn't a question of money … I'm not going to sell out El Santo or whore him around. I haven't done it before, nor will I do it now,” he told Milenio.

Son of Santo owns and manages a chain of gift shops in the Condesa neighborhood and at the Mexico City airport where he sells products featuring his father, including t-shirts and action figures.

In his four-decade career as a “luchador,” El Santo appeared in more than 50 films, many of which were box office hits and have become cult classics.

El Santo's legend began in 1952 when he appeared in the comic book called “Santo, el Enmascarado de Plata” (Santo, the Man in the Silver Mask). By the end of that decade, El Santo began starring in films in which he was often pitted against zombies, vampires, mummies, demons, monsters and other beasts.

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Carpinteyro cleared of breaking privacy laws

Former top SCT officially had been accused of illegally taping boss' phone, leaking conversations to media

By Bronson Pettitt

Mexico Weekly / March 25, 2011

On Thursday, a federal judge ruled there is not enough evidence to charge Purificación Carpinteyro of breaking privacy laws by leaking illegally tapped phone conversations of her former boss in 2009.

“I'm exonerated and the scandal that has damaged my credibility [is over],” Carpinteyro said Friday in a radio interview with MVS News anchor Carmen Aristegui.

Carpinteyro served as deputy secretary at the Communications and Transportation Secretariat (SCT) from September 2008 to February 2009. She was fired two years ago amid revelations of a series of phone conversations in which then-SCT chief Luis Téllez spoke harshly of federal government officials and accused a former president of stealing billions of pesos.

Alejandro Caballero, a judge at a Mexico City prison, also canceled an arrest warrant issued against Carpinteyro last year, El Universal reported.

On March 22, 2010, a federal judge ordered a criminal investigation over Carpinteyro's alleged role in leaking the phone conversations.

“The PGR is probably going to fight this decision,” Carpinteyro said Friday in an interview with Ciro Gómez Leyva on Radio Fórmula.

Last month, an important part of the case against Carpinteyro wherein the Mexico City Attorney General's Office determined she had not written a letter attempting to blackmail Téllez, threatening to leak the phone conversations to the press.

In one of the leaked phone conversations, Téllez could be heard dropping President Calderón's name to manipulate conflicts between the SCT and the Federal Telecommunications Commission, El Universal reported back in 2009.

However, the conversation that generated the most attention was one in which Téllez said former President Carlos Salinas de Gortari “stole half of the secret presidential fund,” referring to a discretionary presidential fund.

The fund was eliminated at the end of former President Ernesto Zedillo's term (1994-2000).

Téllez eventually confirmed the authenticity of the conversations, initially broadcast by Aristegui and published by the online magazine Reporte Índigo in early 2009.

As a result of the leaked phone conversations, Téllez was forced to resign from his Cabinet post, becoming an adviser to President Calderón. He is currently the head of the Mexican Stock Exchange.

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ALDF cracks down on truants

Mexico City lawmakers agreed to enforce fines on lawmakers who fail to attend committee meetings

By BRONSON PETTITT

Mexico Weekly / March 24, 2011

The Mexico City Legislative Assembly (ALDF) agreed on Wednesday to enforce fines on lawmakers who fail to attend committee meetings amid a mountain of bills that have not been debated.

The sanctions include a 50-percent deduction from the offending legislator's daily food stipend (approximately $96) for each committee meeting missed. The fines have never been enforced since the assembly was established back in 1997, Milenio reported Thursday.

As of Wednesday night, 24 of the 36 committees in the ALDF submitted attendance lists, Milenio reported. The lists also include tardy arrivals and specify if absences were justified (due to illness, or if committee meetings coincide with other committee meetings to which a legislators belongs).

ALDF bylaws say that any member who misses three consecutive committee meetings without permission or justification will be removed from that particular committee.

The ALDF president, Alejandra Barrales of the PRD, said the fines are meant to increase productivity and efficiency. ALDF leadership will even consider removing committee presidents and changing committee structure if attendance does not improve, Barrales told Milenio.

Earlier this week, the ALDF fined 18 lawmakers a total of 50,521 pesos ($4,210) for missing one or more of the seven floor sessions that took place in December. This was the first time such fines have ever been handed out in ALDF history, Milenio reported Tuesday.

PRD members accumulated the most absences in December, followed by PAN, PRI and Labor Party members.

In an attempt to tackle the two-year backlog of 347 bills still waiting to be debated in various committees, the ALDF announced earlier this month it would increase its weekly sessions from two to three. The Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, with lawmakers from every state in the country, only meet twice a week.

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