The Environmental and Political Reasons Behind the Decision to Halt the Dragon Mart Project

Transnational project  in Quintana Roo Photo: Jake Sandler

The Dragon Mart megaproject in Quintana Roo state is on life support.  A couple of weeks ago, the federal environmental protection agency (Procuraduría Federal de Protección al Ambiente, PROFEPA) determined that the project--funded largely by Chinese interests--was causing too much damage to the fragile ecosystem of the area.  In addition to halting the project, developers were ordered to pay a fine and restitution 20 million pesos.  Read more in the most recent issue of SourceMex.

Quintana Roo’s Endangered Deciduous Jungle
The actual environmental transgressions cited by PROFEPA have mostly to do with violations of NORMA 059, which protects native Mexican species of flora and fauna. In particular, the Dragon Mart developers have been cited for violating the law’s ‘Anthropogenic’ clause, which evaluates changes in the use of soil and their impacts on human settlement.

The wetlands, mangroves and swamps most affected on the property known as “El Tucán” are not heavily populated. However, they contain some of the region’s most important and endangered ‘deciduous jungle’ species and ecosystems. Despite the heavy handed environmental protection policies on the part of the federal government, many critics speculate whether or not there is more behind the recent decision to halt Dragon Mart’s development; as articles such as this one in El Economista show, Quintana Roo is the same state where transnational interests in planting transgenic soy have superseded legitimate opposition. Others have sought to prove that a political dispute between Peña Nieto and Vicente Fox is actually what is behind the recent decision.

A Mexican-owned development?
Juan Carlos López Rodríguez, director of the Dragon Mart Cancun megaproject, has repeatedly stated that the company behind this project, Real Estate Dragon Mart Cancun SA de CV, is a Mexican company, founded in Monterrey and funded by 90% Mexican capital. A recent article in the daily business newspaper El Economista explains the company’s ownership in more detail: 45% is actually owned by Real Estate Dragon Mart Cancun, while another 45% is owned by Monterrey-Cancun Mart (of which Lopez Rodriguez is partner). Finally, the other 10% is accounted for by Chinese magnate Hao Feng, president of Chinamex, a company interested in introducing Chinese products throughout the world, and the same company that brought the first Dragon Mart to Dubai in 2003. As the name of Feng’s company suggests, ever since its founding in 2000, this Chinese firm has had its eyes on Mexico, particularly those places most visited by international tourists and businesses. That was the first year of Vicente Fox’s presidency, under which Lopez Rodriguez was involved in a China investment scandal while serving as a customs officer.

Speculation of a PRI power play against PAN
Reports have surfaced that  individuals linked to Fox are involved in 90% of the investment.  Among the names mentioned are José Luis Salas Cacho, ex-director of Maritime Transportation, and Manuel Bribiesca Sahagún, son of former first lady and Vicente Fox’s wife Marta Sahagún. So, is it possible that President Enrique Peña Nieto's administration is wielding its power via PROFEPA to land a blow in what is actually a decades-old power struggle between the PAN and PRI? However, you consider this situation, it is hard for the public to ignore the incestuous relationship between Dragon Mart investors and former PAN functionaries under Fox. Meanwhile, environmentalists and local community leaders in Cancun are praising the federal government’s decision as a victory for the land and for the rights of the region’s inhabitants.

-Jake Sandler

Also in LADB on Jan. 28-30

• German-Manufactured Assault Rifles Recovered from Local Police in Guerrero in Aftermath of Student Massacre
• New Stage of Relations Between Washington and Havana Triggers Expectations of Cuban People
• Ecuadoran Government Rescinds Property Loan, Sparking Confrontation with Indigenous Group
• Government Unveils Anti-Crime Strategy As El Salvador’s Homicide Rate Soars
• Honor Court Ruling Highlights Uruguay’s Many Military Pension Perks

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Is the Proposed Nicaragua Canal Scientifcally Sound?

You've heard the expression "the devil is in the details." Details about President Daniel Ortega's ambitious cross-country canal have been scarce, even though Nicaragua's Asamblea Nacional approved the project two years ago and HKND (Hong Kong Nicaraguan Canal Development Investment Company) was chosen as the developer in mid-2013.  

While there was skepticism, opponents--and supporters--did not know how to react to the waterway--known as the Gran Canal Interoceánico de Nicaragua (GCIN)--except in the vaguest of terms. The Ortega administration did offer some information about the project nearly a year before the actual route was released by HKND. But hen the government was confronted with the question of why officials failed on such a high level to consult with any of the communities involved, they explained that because the route was yet unknown, they could not consult with any communities in particular.

This fall,  HKND  released details of the project,including the exact route is for the waterway that will connect the Caribbean to the Pacific Oceans. This information has allowed  scientists and environmental researchersto publish their first informed assessments of the project. Both the Academia de Ciencas de Nicaragua  (ACN) and Centro Humboldt, a leading non-government environmental research center based in Managua, have highlighted the immense environmental, and socioeconomic repercussions that will inevitably result from the construction of the Gran Canal Interoceánico de Nicaragua (GCIN).

The ACN report argues that the project will cause incredible damage to biodiversity and natural and  aquifers as well infringe as the collective rights and well-being of many communities, including some that reside within protected, semi-autonomous regions. There is a “Message to the Nation” in the final section, which explains that the ACN “applauds all efforts for national economic development,” but also also urgently recommends “that such national projects should always pay close attention to all possible unintended consequences… and to follow the suggestions of relevant environmental, social and economic studies of impact.”

Without explicitly opposing the concept of the canal, the ACN report directs its criticisms at the specific plan proposed by HKND and brings the Chinese firm and the Nicaraguan government to task for failing to heed suggestions from environmental experts and community leaders.

A separate  report published by Víctor Campos, sub-director of Centro Humboldt, provides further information about the obvious and prolonged impacts that the canal will inevitably have on the fresh water supply in Lago de Nicaragua as well as the fragile biodiversity in the Cerro Silva Natural Reserve, an area that is also home to indigenous communities. These communities were not consulted despite the plan’s stipulations for the right to acquire whatever land HKND finds necessary.

At the end of Campos’ response, he too makes no explicit opposition to the idea of a canal in general, but leaves the nation with a list of suggestions and conclusions that include,”1. The best route will not pass through the Lago de Nicaragua; 2. That there has been a decision made at the National level to systemically ignore the voices of qualified scientists and experts; and 3. Eventually, Nicaraguans will be able to influence the decisions of the nation, but as of now, they will not be able to influence the decisions of this company and their enterprise.”

Both reports, which come from science-based entities, made the point that, aside from the proven and inevitable environmental and socioeconomic repercussions of the construction, much of the current problem lies outside the realm of science and environmental research itself. Both reports suggest the problem lies in the lack of transparency in the process. The national government and HKND failed to  make crucial information available to the public, failed to consult with the communities that will be directly displaced and affected, and ignored loud opposition from experts in scientific research.

-Jake Sandler


Also in LADB This Week...
Contrasting Elections in Bolivia and Peru 
While Evo Morales breezed through re-election as president of Bolivia, the trends in the Peruvian municipal and regional elections were less uniform. In the Peruvian results, Lima Mayor Susana Villarán came in a distant third, losing the race to former mayor Luis Castañeda Lossio.

A Social-Media Activist Loses Her Life in Mexico
The campaign by social-media activists to shine the spotlight on the activities of organized crime and on police and official corruption in Tamaulipas took a tragic turn when María del Rosario Fuentes Rubio one of the leaders of the Twitter-based community Valor por Tamaulipas was kidnapped and murdered.

More Trouble for Mexico's Largest Bank
Mexico’s largest lender, Grupo Banamex, is in deep financial and legal trouble with the Mexican and US governments for its handling of fraudulent loans to Oceanografía, a contractor that provided services to the state-run oil company PEMEX

A True Reform or a Charade for Police in Honduras?
The Dirección de Evaluación e Investigación de la Carrera Policial (DIECP) has provided the Ministerio Público (MP) with some 100 files on approximately 200 investigated members of the Honduran Policía Nacional (PN) as part of a slowly ongoing process officially aimed at cleansing the deeply corrupt force. But Honduran human rights activist Bertha Oliva counters, saying the results of the police-cleansing process launched in May 2012, during former President Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo’s administration (2010-2014), adds up to zero.  See more in this week's issue of NotiCen


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Argentina Pushes Back

As Argentina’s President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner battles against a recent court decision in New York that ruled in favor of Argentine bond owners, called ‘vulture funds’, the populist South American leader is also filing suit against RR Donnelley, a printing company that recently closed up shop in Buenos Aires and laid off hundreds. The large printing company cited struggles amidst the difficult national economic situation, due in large part to Argentina’s defaulting on its debt for the second time since the new millennium. President Fernández de Kirchner is utilizing an anti-terrorism law to threaten RR Donnelley with criminal charges for attempting to further derail the national economy and incite fear in international markets.

Fernández de Kirchner’s threat against the printing company could appear as desperate, backing the position of those who favor the New York decision and view Fernández de Kirchner’s anger as nothing more than a mechanism to draw popularity by standing against the unpopular US government.

Despite favorable responses from the IMF and international media that criticized the heavy-handed New York court decision, which set Argentina’s default in motion by affirming the claims of vulture funds that held-out during a debt restructuring plan under the presidency of Nestor Kirchner (Fernández de Kirchner’s husband) almost a decade ago, the US Supreme Court upheld the New York decision, thus calling into question the economic spending policies of Kirchner’s administration. Andrés Gaudín addresses the controversy in Argentina in this week's issue of NotiSur. 

High public spending has been known to cause problems for the national economies of countries ruled by populist leaders, often more concerned with pleasing the masses and maintaining their power than financial minutia such as inflation rates. In fact, the populist president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, has set in motion a group of laws that not only allow him to stay in power indefinitely, but also begin a move away from Ecuadoran dollarization. President Correa has framed this strategy as a way to protect the Ecuadoran people from the control of banks and bankers. Luis Ángel Saavedra discusses the Correa government's new currency policy in this week's issue of NotiSur. However, the new financial code is set up in a way that will allow Correa to more readily increase spending and ‘print’ electronic money. This would create a system of parallel currencies, similar to the convertibility plan under which Argentina has operated since its first default in 2002.

Between Kirchner and Correa, two leaders heavily influenced by South American populists during the second half of the twentieth century, there is a grand attempt evident to stand up against the US and other global powers. Whether or not these positions are motivated by populism, the ‘vulture funds’, in Argentina’s case, and the dependence on the US dollar in Ecuador’s, underline the legitimate struggle of Latin American nations (and other post-colonial, periphery economies for that matter) to overcome what economist Ellen Brown calls “colonization by bankruptcy”.

-Jake Sandler

Also in LADB this week....
Update on Unaccompanied Minors: We've written about the children from Central America from the perspective of Mexico and El Salvador.  George Rodríguez gives us a regional perspective as well as a point of view from Honduras. 

Praise for Dominican Republic's Immigration Policy: The Dominican government's decision to move toward a resolution of its immigration conflict (primarily with neighboring Haiti) has earned the praise of a couple of important international figures, Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon,  Read more from Crosby Girón.

A New Corruption-Free Police Unit in Mexico? On Aug. 22, President Enrique Peña Nieto swore in a 5,000-member gendarmerie, an elite federal police force that the administration is touting as a "new model" of corruption-free law enforcement. The new unit, known as the Gendarmería Nacional, will function as a type of SWAT team that will be deployed to specific areas of conflict. Security analysts are skeptical that the new unit will make much of a difference. "The gendarmerie is an aspirin to fight a cancer," Ernesto López Portillo, founder of the Instituto para la Seguridad y la Democracia (Insyde). Read More from Carlos Navarro

Too Many Deputies and Senators in Mexico?  The governing Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) has proposed a public referendum on a proposal to reduce the size of the Chamber of Deputies and Senate in Mexico. Supporters of this plan agree that Congress has become too big and costly to operate, so a reduction in the number of members of the Chamber of Deputies and Senate is warranted. Critics suggest, however, that the PRI’s proposal to reduce the number of at-large seats in each chamber is undemocratic because it would make it difficult for small parties to gain representation in Congress and perhaps give too much power to the party with the majority of seats.  Carlos Navarro tells us whether this initiative will prosper.

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Economic Development, Energy Needs Clash with Environmental Protection, Right of Communities to Control Natural Resources

Photo: Carlos Navarro

In March 1977, the United Nations Water Conference recognized water as a right for the first time declaring that “All peoples, whatever their stage of development and social and economic conditions, have the right to have access to drinking water in quan tities and of a quality equal to their basic needs”.

The right to protect water and natural resources has become a source of conflict in many countries in Latin America.  Four countries--Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Panama--have had to struggle or are struggling with a decision regarding this precious natural resource. Environmental advocates and indigenous communities are among hose opposing the privatization of water or the development of huge water-related projects.  The government and the business sector are on the other side. They see the large-scale projects as a means to promote development/and or create sources of energy for the country. The results have been mixed.

Let's examine each of the conflicts.

Chile. In June, the government’s Comité de Ministros—the top of the bureaucratic totem pole for decisions regarding development projects—voted unanimously to reject the polemical HidroAysén power project, a multibillion-dollar hydroelectric complex planned for a mostly untouched area of Chile's far-southern Región de Aysén.  The ruling ended years of on-again, off-again legal limbo regarding the costly venture, which its corporate backers—Endesa (51%), a Spanish-Italian energy giant, and Colbún (49%), a privately owned Chilean utility—first unveiled in 2007.  Read More in Read More  from Benjamin Witte-Lebhar in NotiSur, July 11, 2014

Ecuador: A march staged by Ecuador’s indigenous movement—the second during President Rafael Correa’s time in office—was so small that, instead of influencing the government, it showed the indigenous movement to be weak and fragmented. A water law, as this set of regulations for the use and administration of a natural resource that the Ecuadoran Constitution classifies as a human right is known, was approved by 103 of the Asamblea Nacional’s 137 members despite ongoing debate since the bill was proposed in 2009. Read More  from Luis Ángel Saavedra in NotiSur, July 18, 2014

Panama: Panama’s newly elected President Juan Carlos Varela, who took office on July 1, comes to power amid a drought-sparked energy crisis that has highlighted the perils of depending heavily on hydroelectric power at a time when rain patterns have become increasingly erratic as a result of climate change. Panama’s new government has stated that it wishes to review the contract awarded by the former administration to Brazilian company Norberto Odebrecht for construction of the Chan II hydroelectric dam on the Río Changuinola, in the northern province of Bocas del Toro. Representatives of the Ngöbe indigenous group have reiterated their opposition to the project and have complained that Varela has not met with them to discuss his plans for Chan II. Read More from Louisa Reynolds in NotiCen, July 24, 2014

Peru: The  Congress on July 11 passed a packet of laws to promote investment and reactivate the economy despite numerous national and international criticisms that labeled the proposal a blow to the country’s environmental structure, control, and management. The new regulations basically relax sanctions for environmental violations. Iván Lanegra, former intercultural vice minister, told the newspaper La República, "Clearly, reducing fines implies less environmental protection and, worse yet, dismantling environmental protection is done with a law called "Investment Promotion," which increases the risk that it could be interpreted to mean environmental policy is being used to attract investment, which is precisely what should not be done."  Read more from Elsa Chanduví Jaña in NotiSur, July 25, 2014

Also in LADB the Past Two Weeks...
In Mexico, a federal court granted bankruptcy protection to PEMEX contractor Oceanografía,, the federal government reduced estimates for the number of disappeared, President Enrique Peña Nieto created an office to manage immigration policies along the southern border, and several states  have approved a ban on the use of animals in circus performances, thanks to the efforts of the Partido Verde Ecologista de México (PVEM)

In Central America, Salvadoran President Salvador Sánchez Cerén made a pair of early overtures to human rights victims, raising hopes that his presidency, which began just last month, might usher in an era of greater accountability regarding the many abuses and atrocities committed during the country’s dozen-year civil war (1980-1992)...Guatemala's Congress approved a nonbinding resolution that denies that genocide was committed during the country’s 36-year civil war and calls for "national reconciliation."And President Daniel Ortega added a new item to his already bulging portfolio of powers: direct command of the Policía Nacional (PN), Nicaragua’s 12,000-strong national police force.

In South America,.the Paraguayan government and business leaders moved to encourage more investments from already economically dominant Brazil, and political infighting fueled a standoff between the Venezuelan government and the oposition
 
-Carlos Navarro

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Mob Violence Intrudes into Argentine Penal Code Debate

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Article from NotiSur, May 9

All Argentina is now riveted by 12 cases of mob violence precisely when leading Argentine jurists--of all political stripes and from all academic institutions--have drafted a revision to the country’s virtually obsolete 100-year-old Penal Code. Congressional approval of the proposed legal revision is pending. On March 22, a mob of 50 people in the central city of Rosario killed an 18-year-old masonry worker by kicking his body and head after an unidentified person in the middle of the street screamed that the youth had stolen a purse. Following that brutal event, eleven other cases that left victims either dead or gravely wounded and the perpetrators at large have been reported throughout the country, including one in an upper-class Buenos Aires neighborhood. Andrés Gaudín Read More

Panama Parties Divided Ahead of 2014 Election; Upcoming Vote Affects Colombia Peace Talks; Mexico Debates Marijuana Legalization

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Articles in SourceMex, NotiCen and NotiSur for September 4-6

Mexico Engages in Debate On Further Decriminalizing, Legalizing Marijuana

In 2009, the Mexican Congress approved legislation that decriminalizes possession of a small amount of narcotics. The idea of further loosening up Mexican laws on drug-related issues has been very much alive since that time. In 2010, ex-President Felipe Calderón offered to initiate a debate on legalizing drugs in Mexico , but nothing came from the proposal. The issue has resurfaced in 2013, with new proposals focusing on further decriminalizing or fully legalizing marijuana. Some proposals center on the entire country, while other initiatives would apply to specific locations like Mexico City and Morelos state. -Carlos Navarro  Read More

Colombia's 2014 Presidential Elections Play Role in Peace Talks

Throughout all of 2013, and certainly for many months to come, the political life of Colombians has been and will be marked by the peace talks between the administration of President Juan Manuel Santos and the guerrilla Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) underway in Havana, Cuba, since November 2012. In recent weeks, after many encouraging moves by both sides, a series of contradictory signs--radically different in some cases--has cast a shadow on the process and demeaned the level of the dialogue. Analysts from different perspectives believe that the cause has much to do with the approach of next year's legislative and presidential elections. -Andrés Gaudín   Read More

Panama's Political Parties Divided Before May Elections

Three of the country’s five political parties are divided by internal conflicts between rival factions that are endangering their electoral strategies as the country’s political machinery prepares for the run-up to the May 2014 elections. The Movimiento Liberal Republicano Nacionalista (Molirena) is one of the most divided contenders and faces a struggle between Sergio González Ruíz and other party leaders, who have chosen to maintain their alliance with the governing Cambio Democrático (CD). The Partido Popular (PP) has also been torn apart by internal struggles, after a faction voiced its opposition to its leaders’ decision to form an alliance with the Partido Panameñista. Although there are seemingly fewer tensions within the PRD party, it is clear that there is still significant discontent within its ranks. -Louisa Reynolds    Read More

Honduras Is Creating Two New Police Forces: a Military Police for Public Order and a Community Police

With its Policía Nacional (PN) in a hopeless, and seemingly endless, state of corruption, a Central American nation with some of the highest levels of criminal violence worldwide, is setting up two new security forces, combining police and military power. One new body is the Policía Militar de Orden Público (PMOP), in charge of carrying out regular as well as specialized police work in an effort to reduce crime rates. Congress approved its creation in late August. The other is the Tropa de Inteligencia y Grupos de Respuesta Especial de Seguridad (whose acronym TIGRES is the Spanish word for tigers), a police force thought up to be in direct contact with communities, in an effort to improve the abysmal image the vast majority of Hondurans has of the regular police force--which they either fear or abhor, mostly both. -George Rodríguez    Read More

With President Horacio Cartes, the Partido Colorado Returns to Power in Paraguay

For some, Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes' inauguration on Aug. 15 opened a new chapter in the country. For others, the ceremony marked the return to the worst form of politics, exemplified by the Partido Colorado (PC, Asociación Nacional Republicana, ANR), Cartes' party and the party that for 35 years gave civil support to dictator Gen. Alfredo Stroessner (1954-1989). Cartes' signing, within a week of being sworn in, a law that authorized using the military against social protests, as well as the events on inauguration day and the initial statements by his ministers, seem to support those who looked with pessimism on the return of "Coloradismo." -Andrés Gaudín    Read More

Transportation Secretary Warns Aeroméxico to Improve Financial Situation or Face Same Fate as Mexicana

Imagine Mexico without a flagship airline. Communications and Transportation Secretary Gerardo Ruiz Esparza raised this possibility as Mexico’s largest air carrier Aeroméxico was negotiating to avert a strike by the powerful flight attendants labor union (Asociación Sindical de Sobrecargos de Aviación, ASSA) in early June. Ruiz Esparza warned that Aeroméxico had to improve its economic situation or suffer the fate of Mexicana de Aviación, which has not been able to overcome bankruptcy. The communications and transportation secretary’s comments came just a few weeks before the three-year anniversary of the last time that a Mexicana flight took off, which was Aug. 28, 2010. The airline has had plenty of suitors but none of the bids have been deemed compatible with the requirements of Mexico’s bankruptcy laws. -Carlos Navarro   Read More

Mexico Reconsiders Arraigo; Ecuador to Focus on Energy; Victims Won't Testify Again In Possible Rios Montt Trial in Guatemala

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Articles in SourceMex, NotiCen and NotiSur for June 12-14

Mexico Reviews Practice of Detaining Suspects of Certain Crimes for Extended Periods

There is extensive debate in Mexico on whether the practice of detaining suspects in certain crimes for a period of time without charging them should be abolished. Prosecutors and other proponents of the controversial practice—known as the arraigo—argue that this is a much-needed tool to investigate and eventually prosecute those who commit serious violations of the law, including drug traffickers. But opponents argue that the practice, in any form, represents a gross violation of the civil rights of a detainee, especially since the arraigo has been applied to cases other than those linked to organized crime.  -Carlos Navarro  Read More

Bolivian Government Expels USAID as Relations with U.S. Hit New Low

After a long process of misunderstandings and deteriorating dialogue that had reduced bilateral diplomatic relations to their bare minimum, on May 1, during the International Workers' Day celebration, Bolivian President Evo Morales announced that the government was expelling the US Agency for International Development (USAID) mission. Two weeks earlier, on April 18, the president had said that he would have to seriously analyze USAID's presence in the country as well as "the US Embassy's presence, because relations with the US are desirable but not at the cost of allowing the intolerable interference of its agents in the country's internal affairs." -Andrés Gaudín   Read More

Ecuadoran Government to Focus on Energy in President Rafael Correa's New Term

On May 24, Rafael Correa was sworn in for a new four-year term as president, promising to emphasize productivity. Until now, he said, the priority has been on social investment. The president's proposed new direction also involves the Asamblea Nacional (AN), since it will have to debate modifications to laws to facilitate investment and enable pending projects such as large-scale mining to move forward. Correa's new vice president, Jorge Glas, said his his office would focus on energy production, with a goal for Ecuador to produce 93% of its electricity needs and then produce electricity for export.  -Luis Ángel Saavedra    Read More

Guatemalan Genocide Victims Will Not Testify Again if Trial of Former Dictator Efraín Ríos Montt Is Repeated

Fear and mistrust reign in the Guatemalan municipality of Santa María Nebaj, in the highland department of Quiché, in the wake of a decision by Guatemala's high court (Corte de Constitucionalidad, CC) to annul a sentence against Gen. Efraín Ríos Montt (1982-1983). The CC ruled that the trial must be rewound to April 19, when the court had already heard most of the testimonies and both parties were about to sum up their conclusions before the judges could deliver their verdict. The CC has not clarified whether, since a new panel of judges will take over the case, the trial will have to be repeated from scratch.  -Louisa Reynolds     Read More

U.S. President Barack Obama’s Meeting with Central American Leaders Seen as Possible Relaunching of US-Central America Relations

US President Barack Obama’s meeting last month in Costa Rica with Central American counterparts could have relaunched the relationship between the US and this region. That is the view several local observers shared with NotiCen after Obama met early last month with Sistema de la Integración Centroamericana (SICA) leaders over a work dinner at this capital city’s elegant Teatro Nacional. As was the case during the bilateral US-Costa Rica encounter hours before , topics ranged from introducing new elements in the fight against organized crime--mainly drug trafficking--in the region to development and environmental issues, such as fighting poverty, strengthening US-SICA trade, and producing clean energy.  -George Rodríguez   Read More

New Telecommunications Law Lacks Provisions for Satellite Industry

The telecommunications reforms that the Congress approved overwhelmingly in March and April offer significant changes that could boost competition and efficiency in the television and radio-broadcast industries and telephone service. The new telecommunications law became effective on June 12, the day after the measure was published in the daily federal register Diario Oficial de la Federación. But critics contend that the Congress missed a chance to make important changes to Mexico’s satellite-services sector, which does not operate on an equal footing with international standards and is overly bureaucratic. Still, despite the lack of competition in Mexico, the prospects for the satellite industry have improved with the recent launch of a new satellite, Satmex 8, in March of this year.  -Carlos Navarro  Read More