Tag Archives: MX

Health

U.S. to lift Canada, Mexico land border restrictions in Nov for vaccinated visitors

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WASHINGTON, Oct 12 (Reuters) – The United States will lift restrictions at its land borders with Canada and Mexico for fully vaccinated foreign nationals in early November, ending historic curbs on non-essential travelers in place since March 2020 to address the COVID-19 pandemic.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement the administration next month “will begin allowing travelers from Mexico and Canada who are fully vaccinated for COVID-19 to enter the United States for non-essential purposes, including to visit friends and family or for tourism, via land and ferry border crossings.”

The new rules are similar but not identical to planned requirements announced last month for international air travelers, U.S. officials said in a call earlier with reporters.

Lawmakers from U.S border states praised the move to lift the unprecedented restrictions which harmed the economies of local communities and has prevented visits to friends and families for 19 months.

“Since the beginning of the pandemic, members of our shared cross-border community have felt the pain and economic hardship of the land border closures. That pain is about to end,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement.

Unvaccinated visitors will still be barred from entering the United States from Canada or Mexico at land borders.

The officials from President Joe Biden’s administration emphasized that the White House would not lift the “Title 42” order put in place by former President Donald Trump’s administration that has essentially cut off access to asylum for hundreds of thousands of migrants seeking to enter from Mexico.

The precise date in early November when the restrictions will be lifted on both land and air travel will be announced “very soon,” one of the officials said.

Homeland Security said the administration was creating “consistent, stringent protocols for all foreign nationals traveling to the United States – whether by air, land, or ferry.”

Canada on Aug. 9 began allowing fully vaccinated U.S. visitors for non-essential travel.

A U.S. and a Canadian flag flutter at the Canada-United States border crossing at the Thousand Islands Bridge, which remains closed to non-essential traffic to combat the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Lansdowne, Ontario, Canada September 28, 2020. REUTERS/Lars Hagberg/File Photo

‘GREAT RELIEF’

Once the U.S. curbs are lifted, non-essential foreign visitors crossing U.S. land borders, such as tourists, will be able to visit if they are vaccinated. In early January, the United States will require essential visitors, like truck drivers or healthcare workers, to be vaccinated to cross land borders, the officials said.

U.S. lawmakers have been pushing the White House to lift restrictions that have barred non-essential travel by Canadians across the northern U.S. border since March 2020, and many border communities have been hit hard by the closure. Mexico has also pressed the Biden administration to ease restrictions.

Senator Maria Cantwell said the announcement “will provide great relief to those waiting to see friends and loved ones from Canada.”

The White House announced on Sept. 20 that the United States in early November would lift travel restrictions on air travelers from 33 countries including China, India, Brazil and most of Europe who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. It also said it would extend the vaccine requirements to foreign air travelers from all other countries.

Foreign visitors crossing into the United States by land or ferry will need to be vaccinated but will not necessarily need to show proof of vaccination unless they are referred by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol for secondary inspections.

By contrast, all non-U.S. air travelers will need to show proof of vaccination before boarding a flight, and will need to show proof of a recent negative COVID-19 test. Foreign visitors crossing a land border will not need to show proof of a recent negative COVID-19 test.

On Friday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the United States would accept the use by international visitors of COVID-19 vaccines authorized by U.S. regulators or the World Health Organization.

One question unanswered is whether the United States will accept vaccines from visitors who received doses of two different COVID-19 vaccines.

The U.S. land border restrictions have not barred U.S. citizens from returning home.

Reporting by David Shepardson, Steve Holland, Tim Ahmann and Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Eric Beech, Ana Nicolaci da Costa and Richard Pullin

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World

Ecuador to pardon thousands after 118 die in worst-ever prison riot

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QUITO/GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador, Oct 1 (Reuters) – Ecuador is planning to pardon up to 2,000 inmates in order to relieve overcrowding at its detention centers after 118 inmates died and a further 79 were injured in the country’s worst-ever prison riot earlier this week, an official said on Friday.

Bolivar Garzon, the director of the South American country’s SNAI prison authority, said the government aimed to prioritize the elderly, women, and prisoners with disabilities and terminal illnesses in the wake of the clashes on Tuesday at the Penitenciaria del Litoral in the southern city of Guayaquil.

The country’s prisons are currently home to some 39,000 inmates, Garzon added.

Garzon said the riot, the latest in a wave of prison violence in the Andean country, was sparked by “a battle for control by organized crime groups.” Riots left 79 dead in February and 22 in July of this year.

Officials say gangs have alliances with transnational criminal groups and are battling over drug trafficking routes.

Ecuador has sent 3,600 police and military reinforcements to prisons across the country to maintain order, Interior Minister Alexandra Vela told reporters on Friday. She added that forensic units had identified 41 of the victims, and had delivered the bodies of 21 of the victims to their families.

Dozens of inmates’ relatives have gathered outside a Guayaquil morgue seeking information about their loved ones. Authorities said at least six victims were decapitated.

Eduardo Montes, 60, was awaiting news of his 25-year-old brother Vicente Montes, who is due to be released in one month.

“They sent us a photo where you can see the head of one victim, and we believe it is my brother, but we do not know if he is really dead or if he is alive,” Montes said. “I have hope that he is alive and that they release him.”

Reporting by Alexandra Valencia in Quito and Yury Garcia in Guayaquil, Ecuador; Writing by Luc Cohen; Editing by Howard Goller and Aurora Ellis

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Business

The electric vehicle boom is pay-dirt for factory machinery makers

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DETROIT, Aug 20 (Reuters) – The investment surge by both new and established automakers in the electric vehicle market is a bonanza for factory equipment manufacturers that supply the highly automated picks and shovels for the prospectors in the EV gold rush.

The good times for the makers of robots and other factory equipment reflect the broader recovery in U.S. manufacturing. After falling post-COVID to $361.8 million in April 2020, new orders surged to almost $506 million in June, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Reuters Graphics

Here’s a graphic on U.S. manufacturing new orders: https://tmsnrt.rs/3lVyhlM

New electric vehicle factories, funded by investors who have snapped up newly public shares in companies such as EV start-up Lucid Group Inc (LCID.O) are boosting demand. “I’m not sure it’s reached its climax yet. There’s still more to go,” Andrew Lloyd, electromobility segment leader at Stellantis-owned (STLA.MI) supplier Comau, said in an interview. “Over the next 18 to 24 months, there’s going to be a significant demand coming our way.”

Growth in the EV sector, propelled by the success of Tesla Inc (TSLA.O), comes on top of the normal work manufacturing equipment makers do to support production of gasoline-powered vehicles.

Automakers will invest over $37 billion in North American plants from 2019 to 2025, with 15 of 17 new plants in the United States, according to LMC Automotive. Over 77% of that spending will be directed at SUV or EV projects.

Equipment providers are in no rush to add to their nearly full capacity.

“There’s a natural point where we will say ‘No'” to new business, said Comau’s Lloyd. For just one area of a factory, like a paint shop or a body shop, an automaker can easily spend $200 million to $300 million, industry officials said.

‘WILD, WILD WEST’ “This industry is the Wild, Wild West right now,” John Kacsur, vice president of the automotive and tire segment for Rockwell Automation(ROK.N), told Reuters. “There is a mad race to get these new EV variants to market.” Automakers have signed agreements for suppliers to build equipment for 37 EVs between this year and 2023 in North America, according to industry consultant Laurie Harbour. That excludes all the work being done for gasoline-powered vehicles.

“There’s still a pipeline with projects from new EV manufacturers,” said Mathias Christen, a spokesman for Durr AG (DUEG.DE), which specializes in paint shop equipment and saw its EV business surge about 65% last year. “This is why we don’t see the peak yet.”

Orders received by Kuka AG, a manufacturing automation company owned by China’s Midea Group (000333.SZ), rose 52% in the first half of 2021 to just under 1.9 billion euros ($2.23 billion) – the second-highest level for a 6-month period in the company’s history, due to strong demand in North America and Asia.

“We ran out of capacity for any additional work about a year and a half ago,” said Mike LaRose, CEO of Kuka’s (KU2G.DE) auto group in the Americas. “Everyone’s so busy, there’s no floor space.”

Kuka is building electric vans for General Motors Co (GM.N) at its plant in Michigan to help meet early demand before the No. 1 U.S. automaker replaces equipment in its Ingersoll, Ontario, plant next year to handle the regular work. Automakers and battery firms need to order many of the robots and other equipment they need 18 months in advance, although Neil Dueweke, vice president of automotive at Fanuc Corp’s (6954.T) American operations, said customers want their equipment sooner. He calls that the “Amazon effect” in the industry.

“We built a facility and have like 5,000 robots on shelves stacked 200 feet high, almost as far as the eye can see,” said Dueweke, who noted Fanuc America set sales and market share records last year.

COVID has also caused issues and delays for some automakers trying to tool up.

R.J. Scaringe, CEO of EV startup Rivian, said in a letter to customers last month that “everything from facility construction, to equipment installation, to vehicle component supply (especially semiconductors) has been impacted by the pandemic.”

However, established, long-time customers like GM and parts supplier and contract manufacturer Magna International (MG.TO) said they have not experienced delays in receiving equipment.

Another limiting factor for capacity has been the continuing shortage of labor, industry officials said. To avoid the stress, startups like Fisker Inc (FSR.N) have turned to contract manufacturers like Magna and Foxconn(2354.TW), whose buying power enables them to avoid shortages more easily, CEO Henrik Fisker said. Growing demand, however, does not mean these equipment makers are rushing to expand capacity. Having lived through downturns in which they were forced to make cuts, equipment suppliers want to make do with what they have, or in Comau’s case, just add short-term capacity, according to Lloyd. “Everybody’s afraid they’re going to get hammered,” said Mike Tracy, a principal at consulting firm the Agile Group. “They just don’t have the reserve capacity they used to have.”

Reporting by Ben Klayman in Detroit; additional reporting by Joseph White; Editing by Dan Grebler

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Business

GM workers in Mexico defeat union in first test of U.S. trade deal

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The General Motors plant is seen as its workers are to vote on whether to reject or keep the collective bargaining agreement, marking the first major test of labor rules under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), in Silao, Mexico August 17, 2021. REUTERS/Sergio Maldonado

MEXICO CITY, Aug 19 (Reuters) – Workers at a General Motors Co (GM.N) pickup-truck plant in central Mexico have voted to scrap their collective contract, opening the door for them to oust one of Mexico’s largest labor organizations as their union under a new trade deal.

The vote, with safeguards agreed upon by Mexico and the United States to ensure a fair vote, was the first test of labor rules under an accord that replaced the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

The outcome marks a defeat for one of the most powerful unions in Mexico while representing an opening for workers to freely choose independent groups they feel will best fight for their interests.

An initial vote in April was suspended after Mexico’s labor ministry found irregularities in the process, prompting the United States to lodge the first complaint under the labor enforcement mechanism of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which took effect last year.

The unionized workers will keep the same terms for pay and benefits as they seek new representation or create a union from scratch. Choosing a new union will require another vote, in which the current union could also vie to take back the contract.

Of 5,876 GM employees who cast ballots in the Tuesday-Wednesday vote at the plant in the city of Silao, 3,214 workers rejected the bargaining agreement while 2,623 workers voted to keep it, the labor ministry said in a statement.

Many workers who campaigned for the “no” vote said their current union did not fight hard enough for better salaries at the plant that produces thousands of profitable pickup trucks a year. read more

“It’s a huge peace of mind knowing we’re no longer tied to this union,” said G.D., a plant employee for more than 25 years who said he reached the top salary level for his position years ago, and who asked not to disclose his name for fear of reprisals.

The ballot count was led by the plant’s Miguel Trujillo Lopez union – part of the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM) – alongside observers from the Labor Ministry, Mexico’s National Electoral Institute (INE) and the United Nations’ International Labour Organization (ILO).

Neither the union nor GM immediately replied to requests for comment.

The United Auto Workers (UAW) union, which represents thousands of GM’s U.S. workers, said the vote marked a win on both sides of the border.

“For UAW members this will lead to a fairer playing field by lifting wages and benefits in countries like Mexico,” it said in a statement.

Unifor, Canada’s largest private sector union, said the vote set an example of what USMCA had aimed to achieve by giving workers a voice.

Mexico’s labor ministry said the vote took place “without incident” and would help set a precedent for best practices.

Such votes are required at unionized workplaces across Mexico under a labor reform that underpins USMCA labor rules and is geared at eliminating so-called sweetheart contracts between business-friendly unions and companies.

GM workers and labor activists hailed the outcome, saying it could inspire workers at other plants in the auto industry and beyond to follow suit by ousting unions that have long held power.

“For the first time, we could have workers deciding and discussing their work futures, their work conditions,” said Willebaldo Gomez, a researcher at Mexican labor rights group CILAS.

Still, the GM vote was only a first step on what could be a long path for workers to establish a new union.

“The other victory will be building an independent union, an organization that looks out for their interests and watches over their rights,” Gomez added.

Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon in Mexico City; Additional reporting by David Sehpardson;
Editing by Dave Graham, Matthew Lewis and Diane Craft

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Technology

Policy groups ask Apple to drop plans to inspect iMessages, scan for abuse images

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Aug 19 (Reuters) – More than 90 policy and rights groups around the world published an open letter on Thursday urging Apple (AAPL.O) to abandon plans for scanning children’s messages for nudity and the phones of adults for images of child sex abuse.

“Though these capabilities are intended to protect children and to reduce the spread of child sexual abuse material, we are concerned that they will be used to censor protected speech, threaten the privacy and security of people around the world, and have disastrous consequences for many children,” the groups wrote in the letter, which was first reported by Reuters.

The largest campaign to date over an encryption issue at a single company was organized by the U.S.-based nonprofit Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT).

Some overseas signatories in particular are worried about the impact of the changes in nations with different legal systems, including some already hosting heated fights over encryption and privacy.

“It’s so disappointing and upsetting that Apple is doing this, because they have been a staunch ally in defending encryption in the past,” said Sharon Bradford Franklin, co-director of CDT’s Security & Surveillance Project.

An Apple spokesman said the company had addressed privacy and security concerns in a document Friday outlining why the complex architecture of the scanning software should resist attempts to subvert it.

Those signing included multiple groups in Brazil, where courts have repeatedly blocked Facebook’s (FB.O) WhatsApp for failing to decrypt messages in criminal probes, and the senate has passed a bill that would require traceability of messages, which would require somehow marking their content. A similar law was passed in India this year.

“Our main concern is the consequence of this mechanism, how this could be extended to other situations and other companies,” said Flavio Wagner, president of the independent Brazil chapter of the Internet Society, which signed. “This represents a serious weakening of encryption.”

Other signers were in India, Mexico, Germany, Argentina, Ghana and Tanzania.

Surprised by the earlier outcry following its announcement two weeks ago, Apple has offered a series of explanations and documents to argue that the risks of false detections are low.

Apple said it would refuse demands to expand the image-detection system beyond pictures of children flagged by clearinghouses in multiple jurisdictions, though it has not said it would pull out of a market rather than obeying a court order.

Though most of the objections so far have been over device-scanning, the coalition’s letter also faults a change to iMessage in family accounts, which would try to identify and blur nudity in children’s messages, letting them view it only if parents are notified.

The signers said the step could endanger children in intolerant homes or those seeking educational material. More broadly, they said the change will break end-to-end encryption for iMessage, which Apple has staunchly defended in other contexts.

“Once this backdoor feature is built in, governments could compel Apple to extend notification to other accounts, and to detect images that are objectionable for reasons other than being sexually explicit,” the letter says.

Other groups that signed include the American Civil Liberties Union, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Access Now, Privacy International, and the Tor Project.

Reporting by Joseph Menn; Editing by Edwina Gibbs

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US

EXCLUSIVE U.S. starts flying migrant families into Mexico far from border – source

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Asylum-seeking migrant families from Central America wait to be processed by the U.S. Border Patrol agents after crossing the Rio Grande river into the United States of America from Mexico in Roma, Texas, U.S., July 28, 2021. REUTERS/Go Nakamura

WASHINGTON, Aug 5 (Reuters) – The United States on Thursday began flying Central American and Mexican families to southern Mexico in an effort to deter migration by bolstering a COVID-era expulsion policy at the U.S.-Mexico border, a person familiar with the matter said.

Nearly 200 Mexican and Central American family members were expelled deep into Mexico on Thursday in what are expected to be regular flights, the person said. The flights, which will include adults, aim to disrupt a pattern of repeat crossings under a U.S. border policy known as Title 42.

U.S. President Joe Biden has reversed many of the restrictive immigration policies of his Republican predecessor, former President Donald Trump, but has left Title 42 in place amid 20-year highs in border arrests.

Although health experts, pro-migrant advocates and some Democrats say the policy cuts off access to asylum without a clear health rationale, Biden officials argue it is necessary to keep U.S. detention centers from becoming overwhelmed during the pandemic.

Under Trump, some Mexican migrants caught at the U.S.-Mexico border were flown to southern Mexico. But the use of the strategy under Biden – and under the Title 42 order – is new, according to the person familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity to discuss government operations.

The United States will work with non-governmental organizations and shelters in southern Mexico to ensure that migrants can safely return to their home countries, the person said.

Mexico’s migration institute and foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Biden administration also announced last week that it would subject migrant families to a fast-track deportation process known as “expedited removal” to their home countries from U.S. detention centers. read more

The expulsion flights to southern Mexico will be faster than that process, the person familiar with the situation said.

Pro-migrant groups on Monday restarted litigation that aims to stop the Biden administration from expelling families under Title 42, which the administration renewed that day. read more

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), one of the groups challenging Title 42, has argued the policy denies migrants a legal right to claim asylum and returns them to situations of grave danger in Mexico.

Lee Gelernt, the lead ACLU lawyer in the case, said the flights to southern Mexico could also inflict harm.

“The Biden administration is apparently looking for new ways to expel people and in the process subject these desperate migrants to additional trauma,” he said.

Reporting by Ted Hesson in Washington, Additional reporting by Daina Beth Solomon; Editing by Mica Rosenberg and Gerry Doyle

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World

Honduran police arrest five after mob of 600 lynches Italian man

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TEGUCIGALPA, July 9 (Reuters) – Honduran police on Friday arrested five suspects for their role in killing an Italian man, who was lynched by a mob of more than 600 villagers in revenge for allegedly murdering a homeless man, the government said.

The villagers on Thursday attacked 65-year-old Giorgio Scanu with stones, sticks and machetes at his residence in the town of Santa Ana de Yusguare, in the southern Honduran department of Choluteca, the security ministry said.

The mob came after Scanu after he allegedly beat a 78-year-old homeless man to death on Wednesday for damaging ornamental plants in his garden, according to police reports based on complaints from local residents.

“More than 600 angry residents entered the residence and used sticks, stones and machetes to kill the Italian accused of having killed Mr. Juan de Dios Flores,” said Rebeca Martinez, a spokeswoman for the security ministry.

Parts of Scanu’s residence and a vehicle were set on fire, Martinez added.

Police arrested five people aged between 19 to 55 for the murder of Scanu, a retired engineer who had been living in the rural town and has two children and a wife who reside in Tegucigalpa, according to officials.

The authorities said they believe his family are Honduran.

Martinez said authorities are searching for others involved in Scanu’s lynching and that police were present at the time, but could not stop it due to the size of the mob.

Reporting by Gustavo Palencia; Writing by Anthony Esposito; Editing by Sandra Maler

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World

New video surfaces of Mexican president’s brother taking stacks of cash

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Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador participates on a commemoration on the third anniversary of his presidential election victory at National Palace in Mexico City, Mexico July 1, 2021. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

MEXICO CITY, July 8 (Reuters) – A Mexican news outlet broadcast video on Thursday of a brother of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador receiving stacks of cash several years ago, just ahead of a national vote in which the now-ruling party was competing in its first election.

The new video marks the second time that a brother of the president can be seen accepting large amounts of cash, several years before Lopez Obrador rode to a landslide presidential election victory in 2018 on a pledge to root out rampant corruption.

In the video released late on Thursday by Mexican news outlet Latinus, Martin Jesus Lopez Obrador can be seen receiving an envelope stuffed with a large stack of bills, which a narrator says totaled 150,000 pesos ($7,500) and were part of a recurring set of payments.

According to Latinus, the video was filmed in 2015 just ahead of elections in which the newly-formed Morena party of Lopez Obrador was competing in its first elections.

Latinus added that the cash was never reported to electoral authorities by Morena, and could amount to a campaign finance violation.

The man in the video giving the president’s younger brother the cash is David Leon, a political operative who served as an adviser to Lopez Obrador before heading Mexico’s civil protection agency. He gave up the government job last August.

The president’s spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Leon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Martin Jesus Lopez Obrador could not be immediately contacted for comment.

Leon was also filmed giving a different brother of Lopez Obrador – Pio Lopez Obrador – wads of cash in separate videos published by Latinus last year.

The president at the time said the cash came from legal contributions by his supporters and was used for the 2015 elections. He denied the payments amounted to corruption, but called on the attorney general’s office to investigate.

In response to the videos released last year, Leon said that from 2013 to 2018 he worked as a consultant “not a public servant,” adding that he supported Lopez Obrador’s political movement by “collecting funds among acquaintances in order to hold rallies and other activities.”

($1 = 19.9947 Mexican pesos)

Reporting by David Alire Garcia and Sharay Angulo; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan

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World

‘Eye of fire’ in Mexican waters snuffed out, says national oil company

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MEXICO CITY, July 2 (Reuters) – A fire on the ocean surface west of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula early on Friday has been extinguished, state oil company Pemex said, blaming a gas leak from an underwater pipeline for sparking the blaze captured in videos that went viral.

Bright orange flames jumping out of water resembling molten lava was dubbed an “eye of fire” on social media due to the blaze’s circular shape, as it raged a short distance from a Pemex oil platform.

The fire took more than five hours to fully put out, according to Pemex.

The fire began in an underwater pipeline that connects to a platform at Pemex’s flagship Ku Maloob Zaap oil development, the company’s most important, four sources told Reuters earlier.

Ku Maloob Zaap is located just up from the southern rim of the Gulf of Mexico.

Pemex said no injuries were reported, and production from the project was not affected after the gas leak ignited around 5:15 a.m. local time. It was completely extinguished by 10:30 a.m.

The company added it would investigate the cause of the fire.

Pemex, which has a long record of major industrial accidents at its facilities, added it also shut the valves of the 12-inch-diameter pipeline.

Angel Carrizales, head of Mexico’s oil safety regulator ASEA, wrote on Twitter that the incident “did not generate any spill.” He did not explain what was burning on the water’s surface.

Ku Maloob Zaap is Pemex’s biggest crude oil producer, accounting for more than 40% of its nearly 1.7 million barrels of daily output.

“The turbomachinery of Ku Maloob Zaap’s active production facilities were affected by an electrical storm and heavy rains,” according to a Pemex incident report shared by one of Reuters’ sources.

Company workers used nitrogen to control the fire, the report added.

Details from the incident report were not mentioned in Pemex’s brief press statement and the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Reporting by Adriana Barrera and Marianna Parraga; Additional reporting by David Alire Garcia; Writing by Anthony Esposito; Editing by Daina Beth Solomon, Philippa Fletcher and David Gregorio

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