Tag: Mexico

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Mexico sues U.S. gun producers, alleging they trigger huge harm to nation

Mexico sues U.S. gun manufacturers, alleging they cause massive damage to country

Mexican soldiers guard a crime scene.

Guillermo arias | AFP | Getty Images

The Mexican government on Wednesday sued several US arms manufacturers for contributing to the illegal arms trade in Mexico.

The lawsuit was filed in US federal court in Boston. Among the defendants named in the lawsuit are Smith & Wesson, Barrett Firearms, Beretta USA, and Colt’s Manufacturing Company.

The companies did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment.

The arms manufacturers are accused of negligent business practices that facilitate the smuggling of arms to Mexico and cause “massive damage” to the country. The lawsuit alleges that they knowingly supply the criminal arms market in Mexico. Military-style companies’ weapons often end up in the hands of drug cartels and other criminals who harm civilians and government personnel.

Mexico has reported historically high murder rates in recent years, some of which in the lawsuit are attributable to the arms trade from the United States in violation of Mexican gun laws.

“The consequences in Mexico were dire. In addition to the exponential increase in the murder rate, the behavior of the defendants has had an overall destabilizing effect on Mexican society,” the lawsuit said.

The Mexican government is demanding compensation for the financial toll and bloodshed caused by the alleged wrongful conduct of the defendants. Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said at a press conference on Wednesday that the government is targeting an estimated $ 10 billion, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

Mexico’s Secretary of State Marcelo Ebrard watches during a press conference to announce that Mexico has sued several arms manufacturers in a U.S. federal court accusing them of negligent business practices that resulted in the illegal arms trade that took place in Mexico in Mexico City, Mexico, on 4th, 2021.

Luis Cortes | Reuters

“For decades, the government and its citizens have been the victims of a deadly flood of military and other particularly lethal weapons that have passed from the United States across the border into criminal hands into Mexico,” the lawsuit said.

“This flood is not a natural phenomenon or an inevitable consequence of the gun business or US gun laws. It is the predictable result of the willful acts and business practices of the defendants, ”it said.

The compensation would cover, among other things, the cost of deaths and injuries to Mexican police and military personnel, social services for victims of gun crimes and their families, and strengthening law enforcement to prevent the gun trade, the lawsuit said.

Laws in Mexico severely restrict the sale of firearms, and the Mexican government issues fewer than 50 gun permits each year, according to the lawsuit.

But the defendants are undermining these laws, the lawsuit says. An estimated half a million weapons are smuggled into Mexico from the United States each year, and the defendants produce over 68% of them, the lawsuit said.

That means they sell more than 340,000 firearms to criminals annually, which flow across the U.S.-Mexico border, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit states that the defendants do not regulate their gun distribution practices. They sell guns to any distributor or dealer with a US license, regardless of whether they illegally sold guns to Mexico, the lawsuit says.

The defendants are also charged with marketing their weapons in a way that attracts transnational criminal organizations such as Mexican drug cartels. Barrett Firearms, for example, markets one of its rifles as a “weapon of war,” but sells it to the general public without restrictions, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit alleges that it enabled criminals to attack the Mexican military and police, and increased extortion and kidnapping.

Ebrard on Wednesday urged U.S. arms manufacturers to end their business practices which he believes are contributing to violence and deaths in his country, Reuters reported. He said he believed the US government, not mentioned in the lawsuit, was ready to work with Mexico to curb the illegal arms trade.

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World News

U.S. Reaffirms Land Border Restrictions with Canada and Mexico

U.S. Reaffirms Land Border Restrictions with Canada and Mexico

Nonessential travel restrictions from Canada and Mexico do not apply to air, freight rail or sea, and traveling by land is still allowed for many reasons, including business, medical purposes and education. All international air travelers into the United States have to present a negative coronavirus test taken within three days of departure or proof of recovery from the virus within 90 days.

Canada made the decision to reopen its border based on its vaccination progress — more than three quarters of the country has received at least one dose of vaccine, according to governmental data, a far higher percentage than the United States, where a little more than 56 percent of the population has received at least one dose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Residents within the United States and across its land borders have pressed for reopening, and more than 2,800 people have joined a private Facebook group organized by Let Us Reunite, an advocacy group.

One of the group’s members is Heather Kienle, a U.S. citizen who lives in Montreal. Crossing the border has not been a problem for Ms. Kienle, but her husband, a Canadian, cannot.

So Ms. Kienle, who is six months pregnant, often drives alone or with her 4-year-old daughter more than eight hours to West Babylon, N.Y., to care for her mother, who has endometrial cancer.

“It was just very stressful because I had to travel by myself, without my husband, and I had to take care of my daughter in the back seat,” Ms. Kienle said on Wednesday.

U.S. politicians from both parties have also objected to the restrictions.

Brian Higgins, a congressman who represents a district in Western New York that borders Canada, said in a statement on Wednesday that “today’s decision by the Biden administration harms economic recovery and hurts families all across America’s northern border; this is completely unnecessary.”

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Health

People Are Flocking to Mexico, Regardless of Rising Covid Instances

Americans Are Flocking to Mexico, Despite Rising Covid Cases

“During Covid, bookings never slowed down,” she said, noting that some resorts are planning to begin charging for the tests later this month, with rates running from $50 to $150.

In Los Cabos, Mr. Chung paid $40 for his Covid test.

Lynda Hower, a travel adviser based in Pittsburgh, was vacationing in the Cancún area with her family earlier this month. She said the airport customs lines were crowded with several flights landing at the same time, resulting in little social distancing. To reach the resort, she opted for a private transfer. A few days before returning home, the family was tested for free at the resort and able to receive their negative results via text at the pool.

“It was very professional,” she said, noting she got the results in 20 minutes.

The state of Jalisco, home to Puerto Vallarta, is green on the stoplight system, and it’s not hard to spot a tourist in town, especially as travel has picked up this year.

“The majority are still masked down here and if someone is not masked, you can assume they are probably a tourist,” said Robert Nelson, a California native who lives in Puerto Vallarta and runs the subscription website Expats in Mexico. “We are working hard to get more people vaccinated, but we need a little help from the folks visiting to abide by the local regulations.”

But even compliant travelers will find the experience changed, because of fewer visitors or safety protocols.

“Don’t expect bars to allow you to stay until 4 or 5 in the morning doing shots,” Mr. Nelson added.

In San Miguel de Allende, the popular colonial town in Guanajuato in central Mexico, public statues are dressed in masks and anyone entering the central plaza must pass through an arch that mists sanitizer. Local police admonish visitors to wear or pull up their masks and have been known to take scofflaws to jail for flouting the rules.

Ann Kuffner, an American retiree who has been living in San Miguel de Allende for the past three years, is telling friends who want to visit to wait until fall when vaccination rates will be higher and the events for which San Miguel is known, such as Day of the Dead festivities, may safely return.

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Business

U.S. Asks Mexico to Examine Labor Points at G.M. Facility

U.S. Asks Mexico to Investigate Labor Issues at G.M. Facility

WASHINGTON – The Biden government on Wednesday asked Mexico to investigate whether there have been labor violations at a General Motors plant in the country. This is an important step in using a new labor enforcement tool in the revised North American trade agreement.

The Mexican government said later that day it would begin a review as requested.

The Biden administration moved to review the novel “rapid response” mechanism in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement and came into force last summer. The mechanism allows penalties to be imposed on a specific factory for violating workers’ rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining.

The government “received information indicative of serious labor rights violations” at the GM facility in Silao, central Guanajuato, in connection with a recent vote on its collective agreement, the United States sales representative’s office said.

The vote was canceled last month on allegations that the union at the facility had tampered with it, according to news reports. The Mexican Ministry of Labor said Tuesday that it had found “serious irregularities” in the vote and ordered the vote to take place again within 30 days.

The updated North American trade agreement called for Mexico to overhaul its labor system, and the country revised its labor laws in 2019. Bogus collective bargaining agreements, so-called protection agreements, that are made with employer-dominated unions and that have a shortage of workers are widespread Country. As part of a new legitimation process, the unions hold votes for workers to confirm existing agreements.

In a statement, Katherine Tai, the US trade representative, said the request for a review “shows the Biden Harris government’s serious commitment to workers and worker-centered trade policies.”

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May 12, 2021, 4:56 p.m. ET

“Using USMCA to protect freedom of association and collective bargaining rights in Mexico is helping workers both at home and in Mexico by stopping a race to the bottom,” she said, using the initials for the trade deal. “It also supports Mexico’s efforts to implement recent labor law reforms.”

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said on Wednesday: “If there is abuse of workers in a company that exports to the US, if there are no fair wages, if there is no democracy, we need to intervene and a dialogue from government to government. “

GM said in a statement that it believed it had no role in the alleged labor violations and that it had asked a third party company to look into the matter. The company, which makes Chevrolet Silverado, Chevrolet Cheyenne and GMC Sierra pickups at its Silao plant, said it will work with the Mexican Department of Labor and the US government.

“General Motors supports the USMCA’s labor regulations, including the rapid response process,” the statement said. “As a company, we respect and support the right of our employees to make a personal decision about union representation and collective bargaining on their behalf. GM condemns labor law violations and measures to restrict collective bargaining. “

By announcing its request for a Mexican review, the Biden government avoided finding a controversial tone with the Mexican government.

Ms. Tai commended the government for “stepping in to suspend the vote when it became aware of voting irregularities,” adding: “Today’s action will complement Mexico’s efforts to ensure these workers get theirs.” Unrestricted exercise of collective bargaining rights. “

On Monday, the AFL-CIO and other groups filed a Rapid Reaction Mechanism complaint alleging alleged labor violations at Tridonex auto parts plants in the Mexican city of Matamoros across the border with Brownsville, Texas.

The Biden administration will look into the complaint, said an official in the agent’s office. It could then ask Mexico to conduct a review of the matter similar to the one it is seeking for the GM facility.

Oscar Lopez contributed to coverage from Mexico City.

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Politics

U.S. Strikes Agreements with Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala on Migration Enforcement

U.S. Strikes Agreements with Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala on Migration Enforcement

The government of Biden announced on Monday that it had reached agreements with the governments of Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala that these countries should step up the enforcement of migration against the border with the United States.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the three countries had increased their numbers of police officers and troops to deter migrants, including families with children, from making a dangerous journey north.

Mexico has told the United States that it will maintain 10,000 soldiers on its own southern border to double the number of migrants preventing it from traveling north, Ms Psaki said. Guatemala has added 1,500 soldiers to its border with Honduras and has set up a series of a dozen checkpoints along the route that many migrants take on their way to the United States.

She also said that Honduras recently “increased” 7,000 police and troops to disperse a contingent of migrants who had gathered to travel north in search of refuge.

“The aim is to make the journey more difficult and to make it more difficult to cross the border,” said Ms. Psaki.

The announcement of the agreements reflected several made by the Trump administration. In the summer of 2019, President Donald J. Trump agreed to drop his threat to impose tariffs on Mexico after the country agreed to send thousands of troops to intercept migrants making their way north to the United States border Find.

Ms. Psaki recognized the work of Roberta Jacobson, a former US ambassador to Mexico who served as senior border advisor on the National Security Council. Ms. Jacobson said last week that she intended to leave the administration by the end of the month as originally planned.

The Biden government has repeatedly stated that part of combating illegal immigration from Central American countries is to work diplomatically to reduce the crime, corruption and poverty that often drive people to leave their homes, to seek refuge.

President Biden last month appointed Vice President Kamala Harris with long-term efforts to improve conditions in the region. The agreements with the countries are an early test of the cooperation Ms. Harris needs to carry out this mission.

“These discussions last for a period of time and take place at different levels of government both here and in these countries,” Ms Psaki said.

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Health

New Mexico Is Set to Legalize Leisure Marijuana

New Mexico Is Set to Legalize Recreational Marijuana

New Mexico was set to be the 16th state to legalize recreational marijuana after lawmakers passed a bill on Wednesday that joined a national movement to reconsider anti-drug laws that are increasingly seen as obstacles to racial justice and the economy.

Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, said she would sign the bill, which would also clear criminal records of people who owned marijuana for personal use. She said in a statement that workers, entrepreneurs and the government will benefit from the new industry, creating jobs and tax revenue.

“And those harmed by this country’s failed drug war, disproportionate color communities, will benefit from our state’s smart, fair and equitable new approach to previous low-level convictions,” she said.

The bill was passed the same day that New York State legalized recreational marijuana. Lawmakers in both states said they were motivated to create a legal, tax-revenue-generating industry that used to run underground and end the arrests for low-level crimes.

New Mexico law allows people over 21 to ingest up to two ounces of marijuana, and individuals can have six plants at home, or up to 12 per household. The sale would begin in April 2022 at the latest and be taxed at 12 percent, eventually at 18 percent plus gross income taxes.

According to a tax analysis quoted by the Albuquerque Journal, the industry is government regulated and will generate estimated revenues of $ 20 million for the state and $ 10 million for local governments in 2023.

The New Mexico move is part of a growing consensus in the United States in favor of decriminalizing marijuana. According to the Pew Research Center, 91 percent of Americans support legal medical or recreational use in 2019. Voters in Arizona, Montana, New Jersey and South Dakota voted to legalize recreational marijuana in November, while Mississippi and South Dakota became the 34th and 35th states to allow medicinal marijuana.

New Mexico law ignored Republican objections, but not all opposed legalization. Some only argued over the details, including how the industry would be taxed, licensed, and regulated.

Supporters including Emily Kaltenbach, Senior Director for States of Residence and New Mexico for the Drug Policy Alliance, welcomed the passage of the bill.

“Today’s adoption of the cannabis legalization and expulsion package will ensure equitable opportunities and long overdue justice – including automatic expulsion – for farmers and other small businesses – for those with previous cannabis arrests or convictions,” she said in a statement.

According to The Associated Press, around 100 prisoners will have their sentences reconsidered under the new law.

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World News

‘Mommy, I Have Dangerous Information’: For Younger Migrants, Mexico Can Be the Finish of the Street

‘Mommy, I Have Bad News’: For Young Migrants, Mexico Can Be the End of the Road

Thousands of young migrants, mostly from Central America, make their way to the border, many hoping to meet parents in the United States. But for those caught in Mexico, there is only one near-safe deportation.

CIUDAD JUÁREZ, Mexico – The children rushed out of a white van, dazed and tired, rubbing the sleep from their eyes.

They had been heading north without their parents, hoping to cross the border into the United States.

You never made it.

Arrested by Mexican immigration officials, they were taken to a shelter for unaccompanied minors in Ciudad Juarez, marched in a single file, and lined up on a wall for processing. For them, this facility is the closest to the United States about a mile from the border.

“‘Mom, I have bad news for you,'” one of the girls at the shelter, Elizabeth, 13, from Honduras, recalled telling her mother over the phone. “‘Don’t cry, but Mexican immigration got me.'”

The minors at the shelter are part of a growing wave of migrants hoping for a way to the United States, also because they see President Biden as more tolerant of immigration issues than his predecessor Donald J. Trump. Border officials encountered more than 170,000 migrants in March, according to the New York Times. This is an increase of almost 70 percent compared to February and the highest monthly total since 2006.

Of these migrants, more than 18,700 unaccompanied minors were detained at border crossings, almost twice as many as in February and more than five times as many as 3,490 in February 2020, the documents showed.

If they make it across the border, unaccompanied minors can try to take their case to the American authorities, go to school and one day find work and help relatives at home. Some can reunite with the parents waiting there.

But for those caught before crossing the border, the long road north ends in Mexico.

If they are from other parts of the country, as a growing number is due to the economic burden of the pandemic, a relative can pick them up and take them home.

But most of them are from Central America, fueled by lives that have become unsustainable through poverty, violence, natural disasters, and the pandemic, and encouraged by the promise of the Biden government to take a more generous approach to immigration.

They will often wait months in shelters in Mexico for precautions to be taken. Then they are deported.

The journey north is not easy and the young migrants who face it have to grow up quickly.

At the shelter, most are teenagers, but some are only 5 years old. When traveling alone, without parents – in groups of children or with a relative or family friend – they may come across criminal networks that often take advantage of migrants and border officials determined to stop them. But they keep trying by the thousands.

“For economic reasons, there is a great flow and it will not stop until people’s lives in these countries improve,” said José Alfredo Villa, director of the Nohemí Álvarez Quillay shelter for unaccompanied minors in Ciudad Juárez.

In 2018, 1,318 children were admitted to emergency shelters for unaccompanied minors in Ciudad Juárez, local authorities said. By 2019, the number had risen to 1,510, although it had dropped to 928 last year due to the pandemic.

In the first two and a half months of this year, however, the number rose to 572 – a rate that, if left, would far exceed the total achieved in 2019, the highest year ever recorded.

When minors enter the shelter, their schooling stops and staff cannot provide instruction for so many from different countries and with different educational backgrounds. Instead, the minors fill their days with art classes, in which they often draw or paint photos of their home countries. They watch TV, play in the yard or do the housework so that the shelter runs like laundry.

The scene in Ciudad Juarez, across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas, tells only part of a story that takes place along the nearly 2,000 mile border.

Elizabeth, the 13-year-old from Villanueva, Honduras, said when Mexican authorities arrested her in early March, she thought of her mother in Maryland and how disappointed she would be.

When she called from the shelter, her mother was delighted at first and thought she had crossed, Elizabeth said; When she heard the news, her mother burst into tears.

“I told her not to cry,” Elizabeth said. “We’d meet again.”

The New York Times agreed to use the middle names of all unaccompanied minors surveyed to protect their identities. Her family circumstances and the outline of her cases have been confirmed by officials at the shelter who are in contact with her relatives and the authorities in their countries to arrange for their deportation.

If Elizabeth had made it across the river to Texas, her life would be different now. Even if she had been arrested by United States Customs and Border Protection, she would have been released by her mother and given a court hearing to present her asylum application.

The success of her asylum application would not be a given. In 2019, 71 percent of all cases involving unaccompanied minors led to deportation orders. But many never come to their hearings; They evade the authorities and slip into the population in order to lead a life of flight.

For the majority of minors in the shelter, being caught in Mexico means only one thing: deportation to their home country in Central America.

According to Mr Villa, the director of the shelter, around 460 minors were deported from emergency shelters in Juárez in the first three months of the year. And they often wait for months while Mexican officials routinely struggle to win cooperation from Central American countries to coordinate deportations, he said.

Elizabeth has no idea who will take care of her when she is sent back to Honduras. Her father left the family when she was born, she said, and the grandmother she lived with is dying.

When Elizabeth’s mom left in 2017, she broke it, she said.

The mother had taken out loans to help Elizabeth. When loan sharks came after the family requesting the repayment, they went to the United States to look for work, Elizabeth said.

“When my mother left, I felt my heart go, my soul,” she said and cried.

Elizabeth’s mother got a good job landscaping in Maryland and wanted to spare her daughter the treacherous trip to the United States. But when the grandmother was no longer able to take care of Elizabeth due to her health, it was the girl’s turn to say goodbye.

Elizabeth said she doubted if she would ever see her grandmother again.

In early March, Elizabeth reached the Rio Grande on Mexico’s northern border. She began wading towards Texas when local authorities caught her and pulled her out of the water.

Mexican immigration officials took her to the Nohemí Álvarez Quillay shelter, named after an Ecuadorian girl who died of suicide in 2014 after being imprisoned at another shelter in Juarez. She was 12 years old and on her way to reuniting with parents who had lived in the Bronx since childhood.

In mid-March, two weeks after her arrival, Elizabeth celebrated her 13th birthday at the shelter.

When the shelter’s staff were cutting the cake for Elizabeth – minors are prohibited from handling sharp objects – three other children were dropped off by immigration authorities just hours after the eight that had arrived that morning. They watched cartoons while waiting for the shelter officials to register them.

Elizabeth’s best friend since arriving, Yuliana, 15, had been by her side and was arrested by Mexican authorities in December when she tried to cross the border with her 2-year-old cousin and pull by the hand of her 4-year-old . old cousin. Yuliana is from San Pedro Sula, Honduras, one of the most violent cities in the world.

Both girls said they saw parents struggle to put food on the table before making the tough decision to immigrate to the United States. And both felt that their failure to cross them had raised the enormous expectations that had been placed of them: reuniting with a lonely parent, going to work, and sending money to family members left behind.

Home is no place for girls – Honduras or the United States. Home is where their families are. They want to be there.

“My dream is to get ahead and raise my family,” said Yuliana. “It is the first to help my mother and my brothers. My family.”

The day she left San Pedro Sula to join her father in Florida, she said her mother made a promise to her.

“She asked me never to forget her,” said Yuliana. “And I replied that I never could because I would go for her.”

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US to Ship Thousands and thousands of Covid-19 Vaccine Doses to Mexico and Canada

US to Send Millions of Covid-19 Vaccine Doses to Mexico and Canada

Die Vereinigten Staaten planen, Millionen Dosen des AstraZeneca-Impfstoffs nach Mexiko und Kanada zu schicken, sagte das Weiße Haus am Donnerstag, ein bemerkenswerter Schritt in die Impfstoffdiplomatie, gerade als die Biden-Regierung Mexiko stillschweigend drängt, den Strom von Migranten, die an die Grenze kommen, einzudämmen.

Jen Psaki, Pressesprecherin des Weißen Hauses, sagte, die Vereinigten Staaten planten, 2,5 Millionen Dosen des Impfstoffs mit Mexiko und 1,5 Millionen mit Kanada zu teilen, und fügte hinzu, dass der Impfstoff “noch nicht fertiggestellt, aber das ist unser Ziel”.

Dutzende Millionen Dosen des Impfstoffs wurden in amerikanischen Produktionsstätten eingesetzt. Während ihre Verwendung bereits in Dutzenden von Ländern, einschließlich Mexiko und Kanada, zugelassen wurde, wurde der Impfstoff noch nicht von den amerikanischen Aufsichtsbehörden zugelassen. Frau Psaki sagte, dass die Lieferungen nach Mexiko und Kanada im Wesentlichen ein Darlehen sein würden, wobei die Vereinigten Staaten in Zukunft Dosen von AstraZeneca oder anderen Impfstoffen erhalten würden.

Die Ankündigung der Impfstoffverteilung erfolgte zu einem kritischen Zeitpunkt in den Verhandlungen mit Mexiko. Präsident Biden ist schnell vorgegangen, um einige der von Präsident Trump unterzeichneten Einwanderungsrichtlinien abzubauen, den Bau einer Grenzmauer zu stoppen, die rasche Vertreibung von Kindern an der Grenze zu stoppen und einen Weg zur Staatsbürgerschaft für Millionen von Einwanderern in den Vereinigten Staaten vorzuschlagen.

Aber er hält an einem zentralen Element der Agenda von Herrn Trump fest: sich darauf zu verlassen, dass Mexiko eine Welle von Menschen auf ihrem Weg in die Vereinigten Staaten zurückhält.

In Erwartung eines Anstiegs von Migranten und der größten Besorgnis amerikanischer Agenten an der Grenze seit zwei Jahrzehnten fragte Biden den mexikanischen Präsidenten Andrés Manuel López Obrador in einem Videoanruf in diesem Monat, ob laut Mexikaner mehr getan werden könne, um das Problem zu lösen Beamte und eine andere Person informierten über das Gespräch.

Die beiden Präsidenten diskutierten auch die Möglichkeit, dass die Vereinigten Staaten Mexiko einen Teil ihrer überschüssigen Impfstoffversorgung schicken, sagte ein hochrangiger mexikanischer Beamter. Mexiko hat die Biden-Regierung öffentlich gebeten, ihm Dosen des AstraZeneca-Impfstoffs zuzusenden.

Bei einer Pressekonferenz am Donnerstag sagte Frau Psaki, dass die Diskussionen über Impfstoffe und Grenzsicherheit zwischen den Vereinigten Staaten und Mexiko “nicht miteinander verbunden”, aber auch “überlappend” seien.

Auf die Frage eines Reporters, ob die Vereinigten Staaten mit ihrem Angebot, Mexiko Impfstoffe zu verleihen, „Bedingungen“ verbunden hätten, antwortete Frau Psaki, dass in den Diskussionen „mehrere diplomatische Gespräche – parallele Gespräche – viele Gesprächsebenen“ im Spiel seien.

“Es gibt selten nur ein Thema, das Sie mit einem Land gleichzeitig besprechen”, sagte Frau Psaki. „Sicher ist das in Mexiko nicht der Fall. Dies ist in keinem Land der Welt der Fall. Und deshalb würde ich nicht mehr darüber lesen als über unsere Fähigkeit, Impfstoffdosen bereitzustellen – zu verleihen -. “

Mexikanische Beamte sagen auch, dass die Bemühungen um die Sicherung von Impfstoffen von den Verhandlungen über Migration getrennt sind, und lehnten die Vorstellung ab, dass es sich um eine Gegenleistung handele.

“Dies sind zwei getrennte Themen”, sagte Roberto Velasco, Generaldirektor für die Region Nordamerika im mexikanischen Außenministerium, in einer Erklärung, in der er sich auf das Engagement der beiden Länder in Bezug auf Migration und Impfstoffe bezog.

Aber mexikanische Beamte erkennen an, dass die Beziehungen zwischen den Vereinigten Staaten und Mexiko, das eine der tödlichsten Coronavirus-Epidemien der Welt erlitten hat, durch eine Lieferung von Dosen nach Süden gestärkt würden.

“Wir suchen nach einem humaneren Migrationssystem und einer verstärkten Zusammenarbeit gegen COVID-19 zum Nutzen unserer beiden Länder und der Region”, fügte Velasco hinzu.

Mehrere europäische Länder haben diese Woche die Verwendung des AstraZeneca-Impfstoffs ausgesetzt, eine Vorsichtsmaßnahme, da einige Personen, die den Schuss erhalten hatten, später Blutgerinnsel und starke Blutungen entwickelten. Am Donnerstag erklärte die europäische Arzneimittelbehörde den Impfstoff für sicher. AstraZeneca sagte auch, dass eine Überprüfung von 17 Millionen Menschen, die den Impfstoff erhielten, ergab, dass sie weniger wahrscheinlich als andere gefährliche Gerinnsel entwickeln.

Ein Beamter der Biden-Regierung lehnte es ab, sich weiter zu den Verhandlungen mit Mexiko zu äußern, stellte jedoch fest, dass beide Länder ein gemeinsames Ziel hatten, die Migration durch die Bekämpfung ihrer Grundursachen zu verringern, und sagte, sie arbeiteten eng zusammen, um den Zustrom von Menschen zur Grenze einzudämmen.

Die Regierung von Biden steht unter starkem Druck und bemüht sich, Schutz für eine wachsende Anzahl von Migrantenkindern und -jugendlichen zu finden, die in amerikanischen Haftanstalten entlang der Grenze festgehalten werden.

Mehr als 4.500 von ihnen saßen am Donnerstag in Haftanstalten fest. Die Regierung von Biden arbeitete daran, sie in ein Kongresszentrum in Dallas, ein ehemaliges Lager für Ölarbeiter in Midland, Texas, und möglicherweise einen NASA-Standort in Kalifornien zu bringen.

Die Regierung hat außerdem fast ein Dutzend anderer Standorte identifiziert, einschließlich Einrichtungen des Verteidigungsministeriums, an denen Kinder und Jugendliche möglicherweise untergebracht werden können, bis sie bei einem Sponsor untergebracht werden können. Dies geht aus einem Regierungsdokument der New York Times vom März hervor. Einer der Standorte – in Pecos, Texas – könnte 2.000 Betten aufnehmen.

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18. März 2021, 15:22 Uhr ET

Mexiko hat sich bereit erklärt, seine Präsenz an der südlichen Grenze zu Guatemala zu erhöhen, um die Migration aus Mittelamerika zu verhindern, sagte einer der Regierungsbeamten, und lokale mexikanische Beamte sagten, ihr Land habe kürzlich seine Bemühungen verstärkt, Migranten an der Nordgrenze zu den Vereinigten Staaten zu stoppen auch.

Es gibt aber auch Anzeichen dafür, dass Mexikos Engagement für die Überwachung der Migration – eine zentrale Forderung von Herrn Trump, der die Drohung von Zöllen auf alle mexikanischen Waren ausübte, sofern die Migration nicht gebremst wurde – in den schwindenden Monaten der Trump-Regierung nachgelassen haben könnte.

Von Oktober bis Dezember letzten Jahres ging die Zahl der von Mexiko festgenommenen Zentralamerikaner zurück, während die Inhaftierungen amerikanischer Agenten nach Angaben der mexikanischen Regierung und Daten des Washington Office on Latin America, einer Forschungsorganisation, die sich für Menschenrechte einsetzt, zunahmen.

“Die Wahrscheinlichkeit, dass die scheidende Trump-Regierung erneut Zölle droht, war gering, so dass Mexiko einen Anreiz hatte, zu seinem Standardzustand geringer Besorgnis zurückzukehren”, sagte Adam Isacson, Experte für Grenzsicherheit im Washingtoner Büro für Lateinamerika.

Der Appell der Biden-Regierung, mehr gegen die Migration zu tun, hat Mexiko in eine schwierige Lage gebracht. Während Herr Trump Mexiko stark bewaffnet hat, um die Grenze zu militarisieren, argumentieren einige mexikanische Beamte, dass seine strenge Politik zuweilen dazu beigetragen haben könnte, ihre Last zu verringern, indem sie Migranten davon abhielten, die Reise nach Norden anzutreten.

Es ist weniger wahrscheinlich, dass Herr Biden auf Zolldrohungen zurückgreift, um sich durchzusetzen, sagen Beamte und Analysten. Aber jetzt wird Mexiko gebeten, die Linie gegen einen Anstieg von Migranten zu halten – während die Biden-Regierung signalisiert, dass die Vereinigten Staaten Migranten willkommener sind.

“Sie sehen aus wie die Guten und die Mexikaner wie die Bösen”, sagte Cris Ramón, ein Einwanderungsberater aus Washington, DC

“Alle positiven humanitären Maßnahmen werden von der Biden-Regierung durchgeführt.” Herr Ramón fügte hinzu: “Und dann bleiben die Mexikaner mit der Drecksarbeit zurück.”

In Bezug auf Kanada drängten ihn mehrere politische Gegner von Premierminister Justin Trudeau wiederholt, sich bei der neuen Biden-Regierung für die Freigabe von Impfstoffen einzusetzen. Viele Kanadier haben Bestürzung darüber zum Ausdruck gebracht, dass die Vereinigten Staaten keine Lieferungen mit Kanada geteilt haben, wo keine Coronavirus-Impfstoffe hergestellt werden.

Bis Donnerstag stammte die gesamte kanadische Impfstoffversorgung aus Europa oder Indien, und die Einführung Kanadas verlief im Vergleich zu den USA und vielen anderen Ländern nur schleppend.

“Gott segne Amerika, sie kommen zu unserer Rettung”, sagte Doug Ford, der Premierminister von Ontario, Kanadas bevölkerungsreichster Provinz, einer Pressekonferenz.

Während sich die Biden-Regierung verpflichtet hat, einem großen Impfstoffhersteller in Indien zu helfen, sind die Vereinigten Staaten im Wettlauf um die Verwendung von Impfstoffen als diplomatisches Instrument weit hinter China, Indien und Russland zurückgefallen.

Peking liefert Impfstoffe in Dutzende von Ländern, darunter einige in Afrika und Lateinamerika. Russland hat seinen Impfstoff nach Ungarn und in die Slowakei geliefert. Herr Biden hat auch Kritik daran geübt, dass es ärmeren Ländern nicht leichter fällt, Zugang zu generischen Versionen von Coronavirus-Impfstoffen und -Behandlungen zu erhalten.

Mit Mexiko hat die Biden-Regierung das Land aufgefordert, mehr von den amerikanischen Behörden vertriebene Familien aufzunehmen und die Durchsetzung an der südlichen Grenze Mexikos zu Guatemala zu verstärken, so zwei mexikanische Beamte und zwei weitere, die über die Diskussionen informiert wurden.

Herr López Obrador versucht auch, einen Weg zu finden, um die Kapazität für die Unterbringung von Migranten in Notunterkünften zu erhöhen, die aus allen Nähten platzen. In einer Erklärung vom Dienstag sagte der Sekretär für innere Sicherheit, Alejandro Mayorkas, er arbeite mit Mexiko zusammen, um dies zu tun.

“Die Unterkünfte stehen kurz vor dem Zusammenbruch”, sagte Enrique Valenzuela, leitender Koordinator der Migrationsbemühungen der Regierung des Bundesstaates Chihuahua.

Lokale Regierungsbeamte in Ciudad Juárez und Betreiber von Notunterkünften sagen, Mexiko wähle Operationen aus, um Migranten entlang der Nordgrenze zu fangen und zu deportieren. Fast täglich, so zwei von ihnen, halten die mexikanischen Behörden mit Familien gefüllte Lieferwagen und Kleintransporter mit Vieh an – zusammen mit Migranten, die auf dem Boden hocken, um nicht entdeckt zu werden.

Ein Grund dafür, dass Mexiko bereit ist, weiter vorzugehen, ist, dass es, obwohl es ein Land ist, das seit langem Menschen nach Norden schickt, viel Ressentiments gegen zentralamerikanische Migranten gibt.

“Die negative Einstellung gegenüber Migrantenströmen ist gestiegen, sodass keine politischen Kosten entstehen”, sagte Tonatiuh Guillén, der im ersten Halbjahr 2019 das mexikanische Nationale Migrationsinstitut leitete. Aber mit Trump haben wir nichts verhandelt – wir haben ihnen viel gegeben und sie haben uns nichts zurückgegeben “, fügte er hinzu und argumentierte, dass die Strategie bei Mr. Biden anders sein sollte.

Trotz der sehr öffentlichen Spannungen mit Mexiko unter Herrn Trump war Herr López Obrador der Biden-Regierung gegenüber besorgt, weil sie eher bereit sein könnte, sich in innerstaatliche Fragen wie Arbeitsrechte oder Umwelt einzumischen.

Stattdessen, so sagen mehrere mexikanische Beamte, hat seine Regierung die Vereinigten Staaten dazu gedrängt, Mittelamerikaner von der Migration abzuhalten, indem sie nach zwei Hurrikanen, die diese Länder verwüsteten, humanitäre Hilfe nach Honduras und Guatemala schickten und nach Ansicht vieler Experten noch mehr Menschen zur Migration drängten .

Mexikanische Beamte haben die Vereinigten Staaten auch gebeten, mehr in den Vereinigten Staaten festgenommene Honduraner und Guatemalteken direkt in ihre Heimatländer zu schicken, anstatt sie nach Mexiko freizulassen, was es für sie noch schwieriger macht, erneut zu versuchen, die Grenze zu überschreiten.

Der Bedarf an Impfstoffen in Mexiko ist klar. Ungefähr 200.000 Menschen sind im Land an dem Virus gestorben – der dritthöchsten Zahl der Todesopfer der Welt – und die Impfung der Bevölkerung war relativ langsam. Dies stellt ein potenzielles politisches Risiko für Herrn López Obrador dar, dessen Partei im Juni vor entscheidenden Wahlen steht, die bestimmen, ob der Präsident an der Kontrolle des Gesetzgebers festhält.

“Mexiko braucht die Zusammenarbeit der USA, um seine Wirtschaft anzukurbeln und Impfstoffe zu erhalten, um aus der Gesundheitskrise herauszukommen”, sagte Andrew Selee, Präsident des Instituts für Migrationspolitik in Washington. “Es gibt also Raum für die beiden Länder, Vereinbarungen zu treffen, die auf abgestimmten Interessen und nicht auf offensichtlichen Bedrohungen beruhen.”

Michael D. Shear, Ian Austen, Noah Weiland, Sharon LaFraniere und Eileen Sullivan trugen zur Berichterstattung bei.

Categories
Business

Mexico Set to Reshape Energy Sector to Favor the State

Mexico Set to Reshape Power Sector to Favor the State

MEXICO CITY – President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has never lacked criticism of his predecessor’s legacy. But he reserved a particular disdain for the major overhaul that opened Mexico’s strained energy industry to the private sector.

He has called the changes a form of legalized “looting,” the product of corruption and resounding failure. He has suggested that some foreign energy investors are “looting” the nation and that Mexican lawyers who work for them are guilty of treason.

He is now formalizing his most aggressive attack on the measures to date.

A bill is expected to be passed in the next few days to strengthen the dominance of the Mexican state-owned electricity company. The measure, recently approved by the Mexican Congress with the firm support of Mr López Obrador, would also limit the participation of private investors in the energy sector. Both effects are of central importance for his long-term goal of restoring energy self-sufficiency and securing Mexican sovereignty.

Mexico’s reliance on foreign hydrocarbons was highlighted last month when a winter storm in Texas disrupted supplies of natural gas from the United States, the source of most of the natural gas used in Mexico. Mr López Obrador pointed to the resulting blackouts as evidence of the need to reduce dependence on foreign energy.

However, the legislation, hastened by the Mexican Congress by Mr López Obrador’s party, has been criticized by opposition lawmakers, environmentalists, industry analysts, Mexican and international corporate groups, and even Mexico’s antitrust watchdog almost everywhere.

Many critics see the bill as a political move to excite the president’s grassroots ahead of the June midterm elections, through which Mr López Obrador hopes to turn his party’s congressional majority into the super-majority required to amend the constitution.

Opponents of the legislation say that not only would it not revitalize the energy sector or help achieve energy independence, it would violate Mexico’s international commitments to reduce carbon emissions, violate trade deals, and further cool foreign investment in Mexico struggles to regain economic dynamism amid the pandemic.

Legislation also threatens to re-grasp the relationship between Mr López Obrador’s administrations and President Biden, which got off to a rocky start when the Mexican President became one of the last world leaders to congratulate Mr Biden on his election victory.

“I think the effects of this reform are a big reversal,” said Lourdes Melgar, who was a senior energy official in the administration of Enrique Peña Nieto, the predecessor of Mr López Obrador. The Mexican president, she said, “had a very nationalist view of resource management.”

She added, “He wants to bring private producers to their knees, and we see it in the most absurd way.”

Jeremy M. Martin, vice president of energy and sustainability at the Institute of the Americas, a public order think tank in San Diego, said the legislation is likely to resonate with supporters of Mr López Obrador, who have been made feel like it finally have a president who puts the Mexican people first.

“It doesn’t make economic sense, but it makes a lot of sense for people who feel like they’ve been screwed in Mexico for years,” he said. “It’s pure ideology, it’s political.”

The legislation would rewrite the rules for the electricity sector. Among other things, this would change the so-called shipping rules, which regulate the order in which plants feed their electricity into the national grid, and give higher priority to the plants of the state electricity company, the Federal Electricity Commission.

The energy market liberalization approved by Mexican legislators in 2014 gave priority to low-cost power generation, with increasing preference for solar and wind power plants, which led to an increase in private investments from Mexico and abroad in the renewable energy sector.

However, the new legislation restores preferences for government fossil fuel plants, which generate electricity at higher costs and cause higher CO2 emissions.

Mr López Obrador and his allies have argued that the bill seeks to correct a trend in the 2014 overhaul that gave private companies an unfair advantage.

“We level the ground, we establish clear rules, we prioritize national security,” said Rocío Abreu Artiñano, Senator of the ruling Morena Party and President of the Energy Commission of the Mexican Senate.

The current system, she said, “stifles” the Federal Electricity Commission.

When more than 4.5 million homes and businesses in northern Mexico lost electricity last month after Arctic weather froze cross-border pipelines and the Texas governor issued an order restricting natural gas exports, López Obrador said it was a lesson the need for energy independence.

Gas-fired power plants generate more than half of Mexico’s electricity. According to the Mexican government, the vast majority of natural gas is imported, with the majority coming from the United States.

“We always have to look for self-sufficiency and produce what we consume in Mexico: food, energy,” said López Obrador in mid-February when Mexico was recovering from the blackouts.

However, analysts and industry leaders say that although Mr López Obrador insists on moving Mexico to greater energy independence, the new legislation could actually make the nation more dependent on foreign energy sources by increasing reliance on fossil fuels, which it has to import .

While household energy bills are likely to remain isolated from price increases from government subsidies, industrial users could see an increase in electricity bills that they would likely pass on to their customers, analysts said.

“This has no economic logic,” said Víctor Ramírez Cabrera, spokesman for the Mexico, Climate and Energy Platform, a research group in Mexico City. He called the new model for power sourcing “absurd”.

Environmentalists and other critics have also devastated the legislation, saying it will undo hard-fought gains in cutting carbon emissions and put Mexico on a course that contradicts global efforts to combat climate change and goes against its international treaties and possibly his violates own laws.

Mr López Obrador said the government was planning to upgrade its hydropower plants, which will be given a higher priority under the new energy supply system, to help meet its climate change commitments. However, critics of the legislation are deeply skeptical.

“Under these conditions there is no way to keep the Paris Agreement,” said Ramírez. “Just give it up for dead.”

Equally worrying, critics say, is the negative impact of the legislation on FDI in Mexico. The law would essentially hamper many private renewable energy companies that have invested since the energy sector opened up and cripple their chances of making a profit.

“It’s going to hit them big and hard,” said Gonzalo Monroy, a Mexico City-based energy consultant.

Investors “came to invest in the country, trusting the rules and the law,” said Xóchitl Gálvez Ruiz, senator of the opposition National Action Party. “Overnight they are told, ‘You know what? I don’t like that, I’ll change the rules. ‘”

Analysts and industry experts say litigation against the law is inevitable, including potential challenges on the grounds that doing so may violate clauses in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada deal that replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The legislation is just the latest what analysts say is a string of foreign investment violations by Mr Lopez Obrador, including the cancellation of a $ 13 billion airport project in 2018 and the lockdown of a partially built brewery in northern Mexico last year .

After the Senate approved the new law last week, the peso fell to a four-month low against the dollar. And a Reuters poll found the currency could be unpredictable for a few months, partly due to energy transition concerns.

“Investment levels are falling and nobody wants to invest here,” said Israel Tello, a legal analyst at Integralia, a Mexico City-based advisory group. “Legal uncertainty is the deadliest weapon against investment.”

Categories
Health

How Midwives Have Stepped in in Mexico as Covid-19 Overshadows Childbirth

Sunset over the home of indigenous woman Nellys Palomo Sánchez in San Luis Acatlán, Guerrero.

Rafaela López Juárez was determined that if she ever had another child, she would try to give birth at home with a trusted midwife who is surrounded by family. Her first hospital birth had been a traumatic ordeal, and her perspective changed drastically afterwards when she trained as a professional midwife.

“What women want is a birthing experience that is centered on respect and dignity,” she said. She believes low risk births should take place outside of hospitals, at home, or in dedicated birthing centers where women can choose how to give birth.

In late February, Ms. López and her family awaited the arrival of their second child at their home in Xalapa, Mexico as they followed the threatening news of the coronavirus pandemic invading. She gave birth to Joshua, a healthy boy, on February 28, the day Mexico confirmed its first case of Covid-19. Ms. López wondered how the pandemic would affect her job.

About 96 percent of births in Mexico occur in hospitals, which are often overcrowded and poorly equipped. Many women describe being treated badly or disrespectfully. The pandemic outbreak raised concerns that pregnant women in hospitals could be exposed to the virus, and women’s health advocates in Mexico expressed hope around the world that the crisis could become a catalyst for lasting changes to the system.

A national movement has made determined but uneven progress in integrating midwives into Mexico’s public health system. Some authorities argue that well-trained midwives would be of great value, particularly in rural areas, but also in small non-surgical clinics across the country. However, until now there has not been enough political will to provide the regulation, infrastructure and budgets necessary to employ enough midwives to make a significant difference.

In the first few months of the pandemic, there was isolated evidence that midwives were gaining importance in the country. Midwives across Mexico have been inundated with requests for home births. The government encouraged state agencies to set up alternative health centers that focus exclusively on childbirth and could be staffed with nurses and midwives.

As the outbreaks of Covid spread, health officials across the country saw a sharp drop in prenatal consultations and hospital births. At Acapulco General Hospital in the Mexican state of Guerrero, Dr. Juan Carlos Luna, the director of maternal health, found a 50 percent decrease in births. Since skeleton workers sometimes worked in double shifts, doctors and nurses were enforced under difficult conditions. “Almost everyone on my team has tested positive for the virus at some point,” said Dr. Luna.

In the intensive care unit Covid-19 in Acapulco General, doctors treated María de Jesús Maroquín Hernández. She had developed breathing problems in the 36th week of pregnancy and asked her family to drive her to the hospital for four hours. Doctors isolated Ms. Maroquín while her family waited outside as funeral directors carried away the dead Covid patients, worrying that she would be next. She was released five days later and soon gave birth via a caesarean section in a hospital near her home. She and her husband decided to name their little girl Milagro – miracle.

In Mexico’s indigenous communities, women have long relied on traditional midwives, who are becoming even more important today. In Guerrero, some women have given birth to midwives in special indigenous women’s centers called CAMIs (Casas de la Mujer Indígena o Afromexicana), where women can also seek help with domestic violence, which according to CAMI staff has increased. However, austerity measures in connection with the pandemic have deprived the centers of essential funds from the federal government.

Other women have chosen to quarantine themselves in their communities for help from midwives like Isabel Vicario Natividad, 57, who continues to work despite their own health conditions making them vulnerable to the virus.

As Covid-19 cases in Guerrero increased, state health officials reached out to women and midwives in remote areas with potentially high maternal and child mortality rates.

Updated

Apr. 24, 2020, 8:33 am ET

“If the women are too scared to come to our hospitals, we should look for them where they are,” said Dr. Rodolfo Orozco, director of reproductive health in Guerrero. With the support of a handful of international organizations, his team recently started visiting traditional midwives for workshops and handing out personal protective equipment.

In the capital Chilpancingo, many women discovered the Alameda Midwifery Center, which opened in December 2017. In the early stages of the pandemic, the center’s birth rate doubled. In October, Anayeli Rojas Esteban, 27, traveled to the center for two hours after her local hospital was unable to admit her. She was pleasantly surprised to find a place with midwives who actually allowed her to give birth in the company of her husband, José Luis Morales.

“We’re especially grateful that they weren’t cut like they were when they were first born in the hospital,” said Morales, referring to an episiotomy, a surgical procedure that is routine in hospital settings but is increasingly viewed as unnecessary.

While Mexico’s state health authorities battled to contain the virus, the situation in the country’s capital highlighted the dangers and frustrations women felt.

In the spring, health officials in Iztapalapa, Mexico City’s most densely populated neighborhood, got mixed up as the area became the center of the country’s coronavirus outbreak. The city government converted several large public hospitals in Iztapalapa into treatment facilities for Covid-19 patients, leaving thousands of pregnant women desperate for alternatives. According to Marisol del Campo Martínez, the clinic’s manager, many have sought refuge in maternity clinics such as Cimigen, where the number of births doubled and the number of prenatal visits quadrupled.

Other expectant mothers joined the growing number of women seeking a home delivery experience for safety reasons and to avoid potentially unnecessary cesarean sections. In Mexico, around 50 percent of babies are delivered by caesarean section, and pregnant women are pressured by their peers, family members and doctors to perform the procedure.

In July, 30-year-old Nayeli Balderas, who lived near Iztapalapa, reached out to Guadalupe Hernández Ramírez, an experienced perinatal nurse and president of the Association of Professional Midwives in Mexico. “When I started doing research on humanized childbirth, breastfeeding, etc., a whole new world opened up to me,” said Ms. Balderas. “But when we told our gynecologist about our plan, her whole face changed and she tried to scare us.” Undaunted, Mrs. Balderas proceeded with her birth plan.

Their work was long and increasingly difficult. After 12 hours, Ms. Balderas and her husband discussed with Ms. Hernández and decided to activate their plan B. At 3 a.m., they rushed to Dr. Fernando Jiménez, a gynecologist and colleague of Ms. Hernández, where it was decided that a caesarean section was needed.

Across Mexico City, 26-year-old Maira Itzel Reyes Ferrer had also screened home births in September and found María Del Pilar Grajeda Mejía, a 92-year-old certified traditional midwife who works with her granddaughter Elva Carolina Díaz Ruiz, 37 , trained obstetrician. They guided Ms. Reyes through a successful home birth.

“My family admitted that sometimes they were concerned during childbirth,” Ms. Reyes said. “But in the end they loved the experience so much that my sister is now taking a midwifery course. She has already paid and started! “

At the start of winter, Mexico faces a devastating second wave of the coronavirus. The hospitals in Mexico City are quickly running out of space. The much-discussed birth centers run by state midwives have not yet come into being, and medical staff in renowned hospitals such as the National Institute of Perinatology or INPer work around the clock.

At the beginning of the pandemic, INPer employees found that around a quarter of all women admitted to the hospital tested positive for the coronavirus. The administrators set up a separate Covid-19 ward, and Dr. Isabel Villegas Mota, head of the hospital’s epidemiology and infectious diseases department, managed to ensure adequate personal protective equipment for staff. Not all front-line workers in Mexico were so lucky. The Covid-19 death rate for medical workers in Mexico is among the highest in the world.

When Grecia Denise Espinosa learned that she was pregnant with twins, she planned to give birth in a well-known private clinic. But she was shocked at the high cost and decided to see doctors at INPer instead. To her surprise, when she got to the hospital in November, she tested positive for the virus and was sent to the Covid-19 department, where doctors performed a c-section.

Maternal health advocates have long said that Mexico’s model of obstetrics needs to change to focus on women. If ever there was a moment for health officials to dedicate themselves fully to the midwife, now is the time to argue that the thousands of midwives across the country could help ease the pressure on an overburdened and often suspicious healthcare system and provide quality care to women.

“The model we have in Mexico is an outdated model,” said Dr. David Meléndez, technical director of the Safe Motherhood Committee Mexico, a non-profit organization. “It’s a model where we all lose. The women lose, lose the land, and lose the health system and medical staff. We are stuck in the middle of a global pandemic with a bad model at the worst possible moment. “

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Janet Jarman is a Mexico-based photojournalist and documentary filmmaker and director of the documentary “Birth Wars”. It is represented by Redux Pictures.