Huge rangeland boost announced

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thenews.com.mx

President aims to rehabilitate drought -stricken land

BY MAURILIO SOTO

The News

President Enrique Peña Nieto introduced Monday a National Rangeland Rehabilitation Program aimed at reclaiming drought-ravaged lands in the north of the country.

The rehabilitation efforts will cover 1.5 billion hectares of arid land, providing enough water for livestock in the states of Durango, San Luis Potosí, Coahuila and Zacatecas.

In the coming months, equipment will be delivered to the states of Aguascalientes, Baja California, Baja California Sur, Chihuahua, Nuevo Leon, Querétaro and Sonora.

The president, speaking at the 78th General Assembly of the National Confederation of Livestock Organizationsin Zacatecas, Zacatecas, said the draught conditions in those states are holding back agribusiness, a major sector of the national economy.

He said the 300,000 structures being built will collect 7.06 million cubic feet of water each.

The government is also allocating 312 million pesos, in the form of insurance, to rangelands, which will insure more than 80,000 producers and protect 4.65 million head of cattle.

Mexico is the world’s seventh largest meat producer, said the president, whose government will invest 120 million pesos to ensure the genetic quality of high value livestock, through the DNA Testing Program.

“Specific action is being taken, through policies and programs, to give fresh impetus to the livestock business in this country,” the president said. “This reaffirms the commitment of the government to support the livestock, fields and fisheries of our country.” This will in turn strengthen the income and productivity of the 6.6 million who work in these industries.

After reaffirming the government’s commitment to “detonating the potential” of the Mexican countryside, the president imparted that this particular sector, which is central to the national economy, grew by 5 percent the first TWO months of 2014.

Residents get aid as winter sets in

Monday, 30 December 2013 00:10
thenews.com
 
Durango state government has come to the aid of a number of isolated communities, taking them supplies and running checks to ensure all residents are fit and healthy as winter weather sets in.

State authorities visited more than 55 of the state’s most vulnerable townships, where poor residents have scant resources to protect against the onset of colder weather.

Durango Secretary General Jaime Fernández Saracho said that the state government is working hand in hand with municipal authorities and federal health and development agencies to ensure all communities have been reached and residents are prepared for freezing temperatures.

Fernández added that more than 1,500 families would receive support to the east of the state capital.

THE NEWS

Punto Final Funds Buy Police Equipment, Road Improvements and Playground Equipment for Municipality

by Maureen Dietrich on 27 Nov 13
mazmessenger.com 

Approximately 2,800,000 pesos will be used to purchase guns for the municipal police.

The “Punto Final” campaign offered to citizens whereby fines and late fees on monies owing to the municipality were forgiven for two months has resulted in 70 million pesos of extra income for city hall.

Mayor Alejandro Higuera Osuna told media yesterday the monies would be used to purchase 14 police patrol cars and one armored truck, three of the patrol cars for the tourist police and five for the municipal transport department.

Approximately 2,800,000 pesos will be used to purchase guns for the municipal police to ensure they are equipped during Carnaval, said the Mayor.

The city will also invest in paving the Villa Unión-El Roble road to upgrade it to four lanes with a central median, and the city is in the process of finishing erecting playground tarpaulins for two schools in La Noria and San Francisquito.

Higuera pointed out funds from the Punto Final campaign were not being used for public works nor to pay the city’s debts to service providers.

The campaign which ran from September to mid-November was expected to generate 50 million pesos but exceeded that amount by 20 million.

 (from Noroeste)

Mexican Tycoon Carlos Slim’s Telmex Delivers Tons of Humanitarian Aid To Storm Victims in Mexico

Dolia Estevez, Contributor

forbes.com

9/23/2013 @ 4:40PM |2,713 views

Telmex delivers aid in Sinaloa state. (Photo credit: Telmex)

Telefónos de México (Telmex), the dominant Mexican fixed-line phone carrier controlled by Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim, responded to the current national emergency caused  by Tropical Storm Manuel and Hurricane Ingrid with aid for thousands of victims in Mexico.  Telmex said on Monday that it has delivered 114 tons of humanitarian aid to tens of thousands of Mexicans affected by the twin storms in the Gulf and Pacific costs.

In 24 of Mexico’s 31 states, towns and cities were flooded, highways and communication lines cut off, and deadly landslides set off.  More than 1 million people have been affected across the country and 50,000 have been evacuated from their homes.

 

Telmex said that the aid — food supplies, mats, blankets and purifying water plants– is being delivered by company volunteers in the worst hit states of Guerrero, Sinaloa, Oaxaca, Michoacán, Veracruz and Chihuahua. Arturo Elías Ayub,  Slim’s spokesperson, estimated the amount of aid distributed so far is 15,000 essential food packages, half a million liters of purified water and around 20,000 mats and blankets. He did not answer a question requesting an estimated cost for the aid.

In Guerrero, the state most severely battered by tropical storm Manuel, more than 22,000 homes are damaged in 59 municipalities. The extent of the damage in the region has left more than 20,000 people in shelters. More than half of Telmex’s aid has been directed to Guerrero.

Telmex said it installed a total of 14 portable plants for purifying water, nine of them in Guerrero where they are processing 200 liters of water per minute. In three shelters in Acapulco, Guerrero, and two in Navolato, Sinaloa, Telmex set up computers with free Internet access and technical assistance for people that need it.
Telmex is also allowing people to make local calls at no cost from its public phone booths in cities in Guerrerro and Sinaloa.

On Sunday the official death toll rose to around 115. The number apparently does not include crew members aboard a Federal Police helicopter that disappeared Thursday while aiding rescue efforts in La Pintada, Guerrero.  Officials said all aboard died.  Sixty-eight residents of La Pintada, the scene of the single greatest tragedy wreaked by the two storms, remained missing after a massive landslide, authorities said.
Guerrero State Governor Ángel Aguirre Rivero, a member of the leftist PRD, stirred strong feelings among the population after Mexican media reported that in the evening the storm hit his state, he partied and drank with his political cronies until dawn, accompanied by mariachi music.

Meanwhile, in Mexico City, criticism mounted all week in editorials and public commentary that the government had made natural disasters worse because of poor planning, lack of a prevention strategy and corruption, the AP reported.  “Governments aren’t responsible for the occurrence of severe weather, but they are for the prevention of the effects,” wrote Mexico’s nonprofit Center of Investigation for Development in an online editorial criticizing a federal program to improve infrastructure and relocate communities out of dangerous flood zones, reported the AP.

On Sunday, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto said the death toll was at “110 or 115.” He added Mexico’s Congress would revise its budget in response to the storm. Material losses are estimated in the billions of dollars.