US Senate says Mexico’s war on drugs precluded by ineffective military and corruption. But isn’t prohibition the problem in the first place?

(Mexico to go) - 12 July. 

Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron thinks prohibition equals corruption

Mexico’s army has failed to root out drug cartels and may have stimulated increased violence in the country by breaking up large criminal organizations into smaller fighting groups, Mural newspaper reported on Thursday, using as source a Washington Post news item based on a US Congressional report. The cited report suggested that the country’s anti-drug effort should be based on strong policing and competent federal and state prosecutors. Training the police and the attorneys in charge of taking criminals to justice would however take several years and “perhaps a generation”. 

The Senate´s report may be right in its assessment. Unfortunately, it should go further and question drug prohibition as a whole, which is purely en element of American policy which promotes corruption and economic losses with a minimum of benefits, according to the analysis of well reputed economists.

Mexico’s army joins nature in recovery of fire-stricken forest La Primavera

(Mexico to go) – 7 July

The on-going rain season is speeding up the recovery of La Primavera forest in the state of Jalisco, three months after a wildfire that destroyed some 270,000 trees, Agustín del Castillo reported Saturday on Milenio newspaper.

New infrastructure projects pose a threat to such species as

Puma in La Primavera, the main eco-reserve near Mexico's

second largest city (Source: Aura Jaguar)

La Primavera is the most important ecological reserve near Guadalajara, Mexico’s second largest city, but in the last 30 years it has lost 25% of its surface due to urban development. New infrastructure projects such as the so called “macrolibramiento”, a highway which would be built across the forest, would threaten a variety of animal species such as the Puma.

Most of the 8,300 hectares damaged by the fire three months ago will recover naturally within three years. However, an area of 2% of the involved territory might take up to 15 years to return to normality, according to estimates of forest authorities interviewed by Milenio.

Large portions of greenery and a variety of flora are sprouting up across La Primavera due to the rain, along the displacement of ashes and other materials which provoke erosion and mudslides that threaten urban settlements such as Santa Ana Tepetitlán.

At the time, some 100 hundred members of Mexico’s army are stationed at La Primavera, repairing roads, building damns and ditching pits in order to contain landslides.

Every year thousands of hectares of forests, woods, and grasslands are lost to wildfires that cause death and environmental destruction.  

As urban development makes its way into virgin territories, wildfires have become a major source of economic losses. In the US alone, these amount to $10 billion in the last 25 years, according to Air Worldwide, a consulting firm developing risk models involving natural and human-made disasters.

In Mexico, communities such as CAMAFU, integrated by social, academic and government organizations, are moving towards collaborative schemes to produce knowledge and solutions for the management of wildfires.

Scientific developments in software are also being used to speed up the recovery of wildfire stricken areas and to address erosion and sedimentation. Firms like North American Green have developed biodegradable filtration systems which enable forest fire rehabilitation.

Some international initiatives to fend off the impact of wildfires include the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Fire management strategy, which relies on the Global Fire Information Management  System to help countries around the world to deal with wildfire related risks.

Mexico raises egg imports cap to curb bird flu speculation

Mural newspaper also reported Guatemala 

banned imports of egg from Mexico. (Source: 

Agencia EFE, via terratv)

(Mexico to go) - 6 July

Federal and state-level authorities will seek to increase egg imports into Mexico to fend off prices increases of up to 40% provoked by hoarders and speculators in the face of a bird flu outbreak, wrote Fernando Paniagua in Mural newspaper.

The government response considers raising a cap to egg imports by up to 211,000 tonnes, thus fuelling an oversupply that would counter the effects of price manipulation.

The initiative is an example of effective collaboration between the country's Ministry of Economic Affairs and state governments represented by the so-called National Conference of Governors or CONAGO.

The Ministry of Agriculture said late in June more than 200,000 chickens had died in the cities of Tepatitlán and Acatic, in Jalisco’s highlands, due to the bird flu H7N3 virus, which is harmless to humans according to the World Health Organization. The agency has nonetheless implemented elaborate measures to keep the virus from spreading to other regions in the country.

In 2009, Mexican authorities faced a country-wide health crisis triggered by the A H1N1 virus, a source of swine flu, which lead to a plummeting in the demand of pork meat.

In contrast, the recent case of bird flu has driven up poultry prices as result of hoarding and speculation. One way to counter this practice includes reporting it to authorities such as the federal consumer attorney office, or PROFECO.

Poultry-based products are a key component of eating habits in Mexico, as well as part of an influential industry which includes Bachoco, one of the world’s top ten poultry producers.

Bachoco operates 82 poultry farms in the state of Jalisco and 186 in neighbouring Guanajuato. Its sales amounted to 9,338 million pesos ($693 million dollars) in the first quarter of 2012. 20% of Bachoco’s revenue came from its US-based operations (see Bachoco’s results). 

New concrete roads in the east of Guadalajara: ¿should cement makers contribute to urban sustainability?

(Mexico to go) – 5 July

Cemex plant in Nicaragua: should cement makers 

engage more  deeply with the urban development

of countries where the make their profits? 

El Informador newspaper reports that Guadalajara’s authorities are about to conclude a program involving the refurbishing of 34 key roads in the east of the city. Totalling an investment of 1,100 million pesos (81.5 million dollars) financed with public debentures, the project should improve traffic on avenues such as Calzada Independencia, Río Nilo, 5 de Febrero y Dr. R. Michel.

Concrete roads are the norm in most advanced economies but have not always been the choice of local administrations in Mexico, where many important roads have long been traced with the cheaper and less durable tar-based blacktop.

Guadalajara’s concrete-based paving program is thus welcome, and should translate into safer roads that will require little maintenance, less lighting, keeping streets cooler and less likely to flooding. According to El Informador, paving works are set to end two months ahead of schedule with savings that will be used to fix roads that had not originally been included for repairs.

Sustainability policy needed

One should celebrate the rather unusual efficiency of the public works agency (known as Secretaría de Servicios Públicos Municipales) in charge of the paving program in Guadalajara. However, next to keeping roads fit for use some funds could have gone towards much needed projects such as improving downtrodden sidewalks (pavements) and planting trees.

The point is spending money in infrastructure for motor vehicles should be accompanied by investment in more friendly environments for people, especially so in an area known by its traffic jams, air pollution, high levels of noise and insecurity, amongst other ailments which are characteristic of Guadalajara’s eastern side.

A policy of sustainability is an area of opportunity that could trigger collaboration between public institutions and the citizenry. It is equally important to call concrete makers to involve more deeply in the urban sustainability of countries where they generate large portions of their incomes.

Mexico, which population concentrates in urban areas, is one of the world’s largest producers of cement (the key constituent of concrete). Major cement makers such as Cemex, Holcim Apasco, Cementos Cruz Azul, Cementos Moctezuma, Grupo Cementos Chihuahua and LaFarge Cementos have plants all over the country.

As an example, Cemex, the world’s third largest cement maker, generated in Mexico 22% of its more than $15 billion dollars of revenue in 2011. As a matter of fact, Cemex’s sales of concrete in Mexico exceeded those made in countries like the US and France (See page 48 of Cemex’s 2011 annual report).