After the holiday season, Mexico City is expecting a critical situation with a high demand for hospital beds but also a local business sector outraged with the lockdown measures. We will also talk about the film that has Monterrey’s (classist) elite mad about and discuss a potential new fight between AMLO and digital platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
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A Terrible Start to 2021 for Mexico City
Reuters / Bloomberg
If you are having a bad week, just look at Mexico City’s Mayor Clauda Sheinbaum, who on top of the pandemic also had to face a major incident with the subway system.
What happened? Last Saturday, a fire in one of the capital’s subway offices caused the death of one police officer, and the shutdown of six lines. Although three lines restarted operations last Monday, the other three could remain close at least until February. Additional city buses have been added to try to accommodate the passengers of an already saturated subway system. How bad is this situation? Go to to the bottom of this email to find out.
On Tuesday, a subway car derailed and smoke was found in another car, causing the complete evacuation of a subway station - no passengers were hurt in either incident.
And the city is running out of hospital beds - On Wednesday, Mexico City reported that only 9% of hospital beds and 13% of ICU units were available. Even though the city implemented additional lockdown measures since December 19th, the holiday season has kept up the numbers.
Amid the pandemic, a local government official decided to have a wedding … Sheinbaum wasn’t too happy about it (to be fair, she probably didn’t get invited)
Restaurant owners: Let us open or we’ll die out. After the lockdown measures were expanded for a fourth week, several restaurateurs, including popular chains like Sonora Grill and Fisher’s, decided to reopen. In an open letter to Mayor Sheinbaum they stated that they are suffering a “slow and painful death” and that the measures have been unfair as they just target food establishments but not the thousands of food stands around the city.
The city government provided one time 2,200 MXN ($110 USD) paychecks to restaurant workers and agreed to forgive some payroll taxes but many restaurant owners have deemed the aid insufficient.
What to expect in the upcoming days? Although we are no medical experts ourselves, the sustained limited availability of hospital beds will most likely push the city government to maintain the lockdown measures for another week. Mayor Sheinbaum might provide further tax cuts, distancing herself even more with the President’s agenda who has left businesses out to dry.
💉 Covid-19 Vaccines: The biggest challenge for the government so far
… with some arithmetic problems too
Mexico is seeking to vaccinate its entire population (both citizens and non-citizens) by the first quarter of 2022; however, certain factors like delivery rates, the President’s ideology, and basic math errors might hinder the government’s targets. For ideological reasons, AMLO preferred to first vaccinate older adults located in remote areas, a population historically neglected. However, the only vaccine currently available is Pfizer’s, which requires extreme low temperature refrigeration and two doses. By not waiting for a vaccine that is easier to transport, the President might have created significant obstacles for his government.
And... there has been some confusion over how many people over 60 are in Mexico. In the same week, AMLO said there were 15 million one day and 12.4 million the other day… Again, we are no health experts, but this info seems kind of important to get it right. Reuters
📰 Government seeks to eliminate Autonomous Watchdogs
During the last three decades, autonomous institutions have emerged with the objective of keeping certain matters away from the executive branch. Although far from perfect, Mexico now has institutions that oversee citizen’s transparency requests, break up monopolies, measure poverty levels, and organize elections, among other tasks. Naming some of their shortcomings and calling them unnecessary, the President said he will seek to eliminate the Transparency Institute (INAI), the Economic Competition Regulator (Cofece) and the Telecom Watchdog (IFT), and transfer their functions to the executive. Although AMLO frames this as a way of reducing government’s expenditure, less than 0.05% of the 2021 federal budget would be saved, but journalists could have a harder time investigating corruption inside the government. Reuters
🗳️ Electoral authorities and AMLO trash talk each other just 5 months before elections
Talking about autonomous institutes, the head of the National Electoral Institute (INE), Lorenzo Córdova, commented on Monday that the President’s daily presser could not be aired on TV for two months starting in April as Mexico is holding elections next June. Cordova explained that the President’s press conference is government propaganda and should not be fully broadcasted - he did clarify that media organizations can reproduce its content partially. AMLO called the suspension a form of censorship, and said his conferences are not electoral propaganda as he is not telling people who to vote for.
In 2019, INE suspended the broadcast of the President’s “mañanera” on social media channels, TV and radio stations in six states with elections. However, in 2020, the Electoral Court rejected an order to block the transmission in two states with elections. For the 2021 elections, the Court has instructed INE’s full council to decide whether to suspend the broadcast or not. Bloomberg
🎬 ‘Ya no estoy aquí’ Mexico’s Oscar hopeful draws criticism from MTY elite
Fernando Frias de la Parra’s latest film portrays the culture of northern Monterrey’s violent street gangs, referred to as cholombianos or kolombias. They are known for their cholo style dress, spiky hair, cumbia rebajada music, and elaborate dance moves. The film, set in the violent years of 2010-11, has received acclaim from audiences and Mexico’s most famous directors. However, not from Monterrey’s clasist elite who are concerned that the film will cast their city in a negative light. Spurring regiomontanos everywhere to proclaim - “Did you know that Monterrey is actually a very safe city?!” Los Angeles Times
🔫 Cartels clash leaves 9 dead in Guanajuato
Nine people were killed in Celaya, Guanajuato in what was the result of a clash between two drug cartels: the local Santa Rosa de Lima cartel and the notoriously viscous Jalisco Nueva Generación. Guanajuato, home to San Miguel de Allende, has become the most dangerous state in all of Mexico. Just in 2020, it averaged 9 homicides per day. The New York Times
👨💻 Should Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg be worried about AMLO?
After saying that most Mexicans do not know that their phones are microphones, AMLO said his government will analyze the collection of data by private companies through cell phones. He has also criticized Facebook and Twitter’s decision to ban Trump’s calling it a “Holy Inquisition” and defended everyone’s freedom of expression. Reuters
What else we’ve been reading:
Border travel restrictions extended yet again, now in place through Feb. 21 (Border Report)
Doritos ad in Mexico about father and gay son goes viral (NY Daily News)
Low cost airline Interjet might be gone for good; AMLO blames poor management and rejects rescuing them (Reuters)
When you find out that there will be no subway services for months (Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard)
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Matraquero: Someone that “plays” la matraca, a loud instrument once used in the UK during both World Wars to warn of the presence of poisonous gas.
I was even saddened that someone who had acted or had served as UNAM’s dean ended up as a PRI supporter*