Tesla’s bi-polar lithium treatment
On 28 August Fortune published the news about Tesla Motors entering into a deal with two Sonoran mining operations, Bancora Metals and Rare Earth Metals, to supply the electric car manufacturer with lithium at below market prices. As reported, “The companies estimate that it will be able to produce 35,000 tons of lithium compounds, with a potential to grow that to 50,000 tons, when fully constructed.”
That “fully constructed” part depends on the two operations raising 117 million dollars to exploit and process the essential metal needed by Tesla for batteries, and was something of a shock to the Nevada legislature, which had just offered Tesla a billion dollars in tax incentives to locate their car factory in that state. Nevada claims to be the “lithium capital of the world” and just ASSUMED that Tesla would be buying raw materials locally as well.
Tesla’s Elon Musk weighed in, saying he was “definitely” pursuing sources in Nevada… but then again, he’s also pursuing them in Sonora. Maybe he’s of two minds about it.
Katie Fehrenbacher, “Tesla agrees to buy lithium from Mexican mine for its Gigafactory”, Fortune: 28 August 2015.
Daniel Rothenburg, “Tesla lithium deal catches state lawmakers off guard. ” Las Vegas Sun: 2 September 2015.
Be careful what you ask for… Zenli Ye Gon
If he names names…
Zenli Ye Gon… whose explanation for the 205.6 million U.S. dollars, 200,000 Euros and 157,500 Pesos found sitting around his house back in March of 2007 has always been he was just holding the money for various politicians (mostly PAN) … may be coming back to Mexico. Reluctantly, at best.
Accused of running a meth ring, money laundering, and the always popular “possession of arms reserved to the military”, Ye Gon fled to the United States. Although taken into custody in the United States, the U.S. Attorney has been unable to prove any violations of U.S. laws (while attempting to hold him on drug smuggling charges, the most anyone could prove is that Ye Gon imported pseudoephenidrine — a key ingredient in meth production — into Mexico… not a crime in either in Mexico or the United States, at the time). Ye Gon would not cooperate with the D.E.A. — arguing that he doesn’t have any information to give them — and has been held in federal prison under one pretext or another for the last eight years.
There has always been suspicion that Ye Gon might talk about his claims that he was a bagman for the Calderón campaign of 2006, and that he was paying off politicians from all the major parties. If the United States deports him back to Mexico, whether he goes before a court is a dicey proposition. Disappearing him, or arranging an “accident” might be a bit too obvious an attempt to cover up the coming scandal to all but the stupidest of political operatives, and may not be an option. If his story is at all credible and the various pols likely to be named aren’t prepared with a good counter-narrative about the “Chinese drug kingpin”. Otherwise, if he does stand trial and is allowed to start naming names (as he threatened in a recent Univision interview) the government may be sorry they ever began extradition proceedings.
Aristegui Noticias: “Yo di dinero a políticos, partido PRI, partido PAN, todos los partidos”: Zhenli Ye Gon en Univision (7 September 2015).
Proceso: “La voy a pasar muy mal” si denuncio a políticos mexicanos: Zhenli Ye Gon (7 September 2015)
Bullet trains for the US? Thanks, AMLO!
According to journalist Anabel Hernández, the impetus for bringing high-speed rail service to North America came from Andrés Manuel López Obrador, whose 2012 election platform included developing high-speed railway connections throughout Mexico as a stimulus not just for the tourism industry, but as part of an overall transportation plan that included new highways (and expanding the Mexico City airport, not… as is presently being considered… in the biologically sensitive water-shed chosen by the Peña Nieto administration).
The López Obrador plan called for building a bullet train route from Cancun to Palenque, with stations at Chichen Itza, Uxmal and Merida for the tourist trade, as well as passenger service routs from Mexico City to Nuevo Laredo, Queretaro, San Luis Potosi, Saltillo and Monterrey.
The Monterrey terminus particularly caught the attention of Texas and Nuevo Leon political and business leaders, leading US Secretary of Transportation, Anthony Foxx to push for a connection from Monterrey to San Antonio, with possible later expansion to Los Angeles and Oklahoma. Of course, in the United States, the idea of state development is taboo, and there was concern that if the Mexican federal government were to go ahead and build their own bullet-trains first … they would be the obvious main stakeholder in any US development project.
So… without explicitly saying so… Hernández wonders why it is that the Peña Nieto administration “borrowed” AMLO’s project to announce the private-public development of the least important, and least cost-effective line (Mexico City to Queretaro, which already enjoys excellent surface road connections, as well as freight rail connections) … only to cancel the project when questions were immediately raised about the contracts and give US businesses a head start on a 21st century rail transit system.
Emma Martínez, “Tren bala de AMLO atentaba contra intereses de EE.UU por eso Peña tiró el proyecto: expertos” Revolucion Tres punto cero, 22 January 2015
Cuba, 1959… Mexico, 201?: Chronicle of a revolt mis-told
If many Americans, including sections of the American liberal and radical left, saw casino gambling, the Mafia, and prostitution as defining characteristics of what was wrong with the Cuba of the 1950s, the Cuban opposition on the island had bigger fish to fry — dictatorship, widespread corruption of public officials, the evils of the one-crop economy and extreme rural poverty, high unemployment (particularly among young people, in both urban and rural Cuba), and in the case of the Communist opposition to Batista, US imperialism. (Fidel Castro made no public mention of imperialism until after the revolutionary victory.)
Samuel Farber, “Cuba Before the Revolution” (Jacobin, 6 September 2015)
Much as some foreigners were looking forward to a repeat of the 1810 and 1910 social revolutions in Mexico a few years back, I never expected any cataclysmic change, nor do I think those romantic wannabe revolutionary tourists had really looked at what happened as a result of those revolutions, nor … other than a vague idea that Mexicans see their history as circular (as on the Aztec and Mayan calendars), did they notice that the revolutions and major upheaveals in Mexico usually end in a compromise, and even then, take about 15 years to work out. The 1810 Independence uprising ended in the Three Guarantees (equality under the law but preserving the existing social class structure, the supremacy of the Roman Catholic Church, and an independent monarchy), while the Revolution didn’t really end until the mid -1920s, with Obregón’s formulation of the Revolutionary Family: incorporating — or coopting — every faction from anarchists to capitalists, peasant traditionalist to intellectuals, into a single “Revolutionary Party”.
More importantly, and something I couldn’t really put my finger on, was the sense that those foreign commentators (and they are legion) who expect a major upheaval in Mexico were looking at the wrong “ills”… as were and are those who read into the Cuban Revolution their own perceptions of the country’s needs and wants.
For “Casino gambling, the Mafia and prostitution”… read in “narcotics exports”: for foreign observers, there is a belief from both the left and the right that absent narcotic exports, that much of the country’s ills would disappear. The only difference among foreign observers is HOW to make that industry disappear. However, as in 1950s Cuba, it’s not the vehicle for corruption (Casinos and the Mafia), but the corruption itself that is seen as undermining the country.
While the problems perceived by the opposition are less blatant than those seen in Cuba (“…dictatorship, widespread corruption of public officials, the evils of the one-crop economy and extreme rural poverty, high unemployment […] and … US imperialism) the Mexican left (and many on the right as well) are uneasy for those issues. The “perfect dictatorship” is seen by the Mexican opposition as being maintained both through ballot manipulation and outright corruption. Although Mexico’s has a much broader economy than Cuba, there is worry about the over-dependence on a few exports (notably oil and minerals) and a self-limited export destination (the NAFTA zone). Extreme poverty (not just rural poverty) has risen during the Peña Nieto administration, and the high unemployment rate (particularly among young people, in both urban and rural Mexico), exacerbate the problems, and — much as one hates to admit it — often justify the “investments” in exactly what the outside commentators see as our root problem. That is, narcotics exports at least provide employment and growing opium poppies and marijuana (as well as meth production) are almost justified (if not openly) as a way of relieving rural poverty and providing some opportunities to otherwise idle urban youth.
True, less is said (except by the extreme left and the nationalists) about U.S. imperialism, though over-penetration by US businesses in the Mexican market is mentioned as a growing problem. So far, the veritable flood of gringos moving to Mexico to retire (and demand “special rights”) has only been a sporadic and local issue, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see that raised as an “imperialist” provocation.
With traditional parties losing their appeal for the voters, and a wholesale rejection of party politics, whether the new parties (mostly on the left) and the traditional rightist opposition (PAN) can channel dissatisfaction into into a relatively pacific form I don’t pretend to know. For now, repression seems to be the answer to calls for change outside the political system which itself seen as corrupted. Treating the symptoms MAY be possible through legislation. Treating the disease may require a more radical solution.
Mexico Medical Tourism Update: Mexican Government Changes Rules on Controlled Pain Medications
Sept. 5, 2015
The Mexican government now requires that every prescription for controlled pain medications (like barbituates and opiates) include the patient’s CURP number. As has happened with Immigration & visas and Customs & importing vehicles, the Mex. Gob. now tracks prescriptions with a new national computer data-base system.
This presents significant problems for Visitors in Mexico on Visitante / Tourist visas, because they have no CURP number. CURP numbers mostly equivalent to having a US Social Security number – so temporary visitors to Mexico do not get CURPs with their visas. Residents, as Residente Temporal and Residente Permanente, do get CURPs as a part of their visa.
Specifically, medical tourists who come to Mexico for economical treatments cannot get controlled pain medications under this new policy.
We will provide updates, if there are changes in the law/rules, or if an amparo is filed.
Feel free to copy while giving…
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The stars of the stars
Going back to the Olmecs, Mexicans have always had great astronomers.
Two of recent note:
Silvia Torres Pembert, an expert on the “stuff” within the stars (specifically, the helium composition of nebulae) is the first Latin American woman to preside over the International Astronomical Union.
Julieta Fierro Grossmann, also a UNAM astronomer, like Dr. Torres, has been highly critical of the under-funding of basic scientific research within Mexico, but Fierro… while not well known outside the country … has — when not peering through a telescope — been searching for innovative ways to bring more science education to the public. As “Agenta Julieta” the 67 year old academic has become the star of a children’s program “Sofía Luna, agente especial” produced by Canal Onze. Dr. Fierro lectures throughout the country, exorting young women to take up scientific careers, and — like Dr. Torres, lobbying for more educational and research funds for Mexican universities.
The Dawn of the dead Don
Juan Manuel Diez Francos, the Presidente Municipal of Orizaba has a few statues of his heroes, Agustín Pinochet and Francisco Franco, around his house, he’s not one to keep his enthusiasm for military caudillos from the community. At his own expense (one presumes… the municipal books not having been audited lately) Diez Francos recently gifted the Vercruz city with a half-ton (500 Kg), three meter bronze statute of the man his honor calls “mí heroé”, Porfirio Díaz.
Unveiled Monday before a 500 invited guests, which included a unknown number of undercover police officers, Don Porfirio is portrayed as he appeared in his later years, in full dress uniform, replete with his medals and miscellaneous bling.
Among the accomplishments of the Don memorialized on the statues’ plianth (adding another two meters to the monument) is having referred to Orizaba as the “best educated city in Mexico”. One of those well-educated Orizabans was invited guest, public accountant Norma Edith Colohua Sáenz. She graciously took to the microphone to share the thoughts of young, well-educated Mexicans like herself on the Don… shouting “¡asesino! ¡asesino! ¡asesino!” as what the press described as “robust women” (presumably those undercover cops) tried to drag her from the platform, impeded by a phalanx of “invited guests”.
Ms. Colohua, joined by her mother retired teacher, Diana Graciela Sáenz Vallejo, have vowed to return to pull down the statue.
Photo: Luz María Rivera, Cronica Veracruz (27 Agosto 2015)
Sources: Julio Hernández López, “Astillro” (Jornada, 2 Septiembre 2015)
Luz María Rivera, “Develan estatua de Porfirio Díaz en Orizaba; irrumpe joven en acto” (Jornada, 2 Septiembre 2015)
Bésame … ¡NO!
One of the weirder stories I’ve seen in the Mexican media lately… and for a change, one where police chiefs come out half-way decently (and no one gets killed). AND, as a bonus, a nice riff off the last post on Bésame Mucho.
Two men arrested in Chihuahua for public intoxication were handcuffed and taken in the back of a police truck to the local lock-up. Where some not so bright officer told the two that they would be let go, if they kissed each other for the camera. Which one of the dimwit officers thought was cute to record on her cellphone and send around for the amusement of… I donno… somebody, I guess.
Chihuahua’s police director, Horacio Salcido, didn’t find it quite so funny… the two arresting officers, and three more who were involved, were summarily fired.
Diario de Chihuahua, El Informador (Guadalajara)
Curses…. foiled again: three dimensional chess at San Lazaro
With Enrique Peña Nieto calling Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador a “demagogue”, and PRD’s Jésus Ortega (one of the leaders of the current within the still leftist PRD which has favored collaborating with the far right if it means an electoral victory) claiming López Obrador is not a leftist at all, but a “mere” populist, it can only mean one thing… even though the next presidential election is three years away, the establishment is already hard at work to prevent AMLO from reaching Los Pinos… again.
Although last July’s election still left the three main parties in control of the legislature, and the PRI continues to dominate the country (together with its yuppie division, the fake Green Party, PVEM) holding half the seats in the incoming Chamber of Deputies, the three major rivals are now worried that if they don’t cooperate, it will be the upstart minor parties — led by AMLO’s Morena — that will be driving the legislative agenda, and dominating the news cycles, during the 2018 election season.
Although the Mexican left has always tended to form circular firing squads, the PRD’s woes come mostly from its willingness to be co-opted into the neo-liberal “mainstream” in return for a better shot at second-tier offices (municipal presidencies and state legislatures), selecting candidates of less that ideal backgrounds. The party included probably no more than its share of crooks than either of the other two main parties as it become less and less distinct in its policies than the two widely derided on the left as “PRIAN” was making itself irrelevant. And, in last July’s election, it showed.
With no party having a majority in the Chamber of Deputies, the presidency of the lower house (equivalent to the U.S. Speaker of the House) will rotate among the leaders of the three top factions within the Chamber. That is, PRI (and the Greens) will get a two year run, PAN, two years… and the third force the two years just before the election.
PRD is the third force… maybe.
The Legislative session opens today… minus one PRD deputy. Ariadna Montiel Reyes, a Federal District representative from one of the more traditionally socialist PRD factions, quit the party. Although Montiel will be in a caucus with conservative Sinaloan businesman and the only other independent in the Chamber, Jesús Clouthier, this means PRD is NOT the third force… IF Morena forms a legislative caucus with the Citizens’ Movement, or is able to convince Ms. Montiel to join their party (or… within the realm of plausiblity… convinces Clouthier — who has been pushing for honesty in government over any particular economic issue, captures the entire independent caucus), the Chamber will find itself having to deal with whatever legislative initiatives AMLO wishes to have being discussed while he is a presidential candidate. This would put the mainstream parties in a pickle… having to defend something like their own high salaries, as AMLO is going around denouncing over-paid electoral officials.
On the other hand… don’t be surprised if PRD (or PAN) is able to pick off a few deputies from one of the other parties, and the dance goes on. Or… PRI pushes a bill to change the way the chamber selects their leader… or…
Jesusa Cervantes, “Sufre PRD primer descalabro en la Cámara de Diputados; renuncia Ariadna Montiel“, Proceso, 31 Augusto 2015.
Remember the Alamo?*
* You know, where General Santa Ana found a bunch of illegal alien law-breakers and illegal border crossers who refused to self-deport and he had to resort of more direct methods in 1836.
Our woman in Novorossiysk
It’s a footnote, to a footnote, to history, but Mexico made an important contribution to Russian culture, and played perhaps a more important role in the “Great Patriotic War” of 1941-45, when the Soviet Union lost 11,000,000 soldiers and perhaps 20,000,000 civilians.
Bleak days, indeed, but what kept the home fires burning was the voice of Ruzhena Sikora. IN May 1941, as a singer with the Soviet Radio Jazz Orchestra she was an instant hit, bringing Russianized versions of new music to Soviet audiences. At the start of the German invasion, she worked as an air-raid warden in Moscow, but soon volunteered to entertain both on the front lines and in military hospitals.
18 year old Mexican budding songwriter Consuela Velásquez’ “Besame Mucho” perfectly captured the feelings of the Soviets (and the other allies) who never knew if their loved ones would return or not perfectly. Sikora’s Russian styling made Песня Сердца one of the most popular songs in the Soviet Union, and would become her and became her signature piece over her 40 year career.
Back later
I’ve taken a few weeks off before, and decided to do so again.
mexfiles.net 