PAR VIAL Cabo San Lucas Downtown Streets Open
CABO SAN LUCAS - Port Administration Authority Director Brian Westall announced that Boulevard Marina, Cabo San Lucas street, Hidalgo street and Boulevard Lázaro Cárdenas, closed due to the Par Vial public works project, are now open. Governor Narciso Agúndez was interviewed Monday Nov 2 on Cabo Mil regarding the project, criticism from the community about delays in completion, and ongoing maintenance issues. That report will be translated for Thursday November 5's News in English with Marshall Ellingson.
Cruise Ship Donation to Cruz Roja
CABO SAN LUCAS - Holland American Cruise Lines has donated a package of medical supplies to Cruz Roja Mexicana. The donation will also assist Cruz Roja's Medical Emergency Technology career program.
Municipality to Participate in Sabor a Cabo
SAN JOSE DEL CABO - The municipal government will assist with December 1's Sabor a Cabo gastronomic festival on Medano Beach, although municipal general secretary Garibaldo Romero did not say what the municipal government's participation would include.
Cruise Ship Arrivals Improve Taxi Drivers' Economic Situation
CABO SAN LUCAS - Suchpaca taxi spokesman Alberto González said that the arrival of more cruise ships has improved the economic situation slightly for taxi drivers but Par Vial road work has affected them enormously, with some clients preferring to walk rather than endure traffic jams. González also commented on the signing of the agreement to participate in Sabor a Cabo, saying it was a good step for the taxis to be involved in the the festival.
National News
2010 Federal Budget News
MEXICO CITY - PRD and PRI senators said the Senate will abide by the changes made by deputies to the Income Law over the weekend since there is a November 15 deadline for the approval of the budget bill. However, they said they were not satisfied with what they described as the approval of “not the best” revenue package.
The Senate approved a watered-down version of President Felipe Calderón's fiscal reform package, agreeing to minor modifications to a bill passed by the lower house last week and now Congress will have to vet the changes before the bill goes to the president's desk for final approval.
Deputies ratified an increase to the income tax to 30 percent on income greater than 10,300 pesos monthly and an increase from two to three percent on the IDE tax, or tax on cash deposits of over 15,000 pesos a month, not the current 20,000 pesos…
The Senate also supported a measure passed by the lower house to raise sales tax on the mainland to 16 percent from 15 percent.
"We are seeking to preserve the fiscal and economic stability of the country with this package," said Senator Jose Trejo of PAN (National Action Party).
The Senate agreed to increase taxes on beer makers to 26.5 percent from 25 percent but still below the 28 percent hike proposed by President Calderón.
President Calderon's PAN party lack a majority in both houses of Congress, and were unable to convince the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, to back a 2 percent sales tax on all goods without exception.
Meanwhile,
The Private Sector Center For Economic Studies, the CEESP, suggested
reducing by 200 the number of deputies and also removing 64 senators…
Such changes would spark savings in the order of 127 million pesos on
average each year, the center said.
President
Calderón Addresses Corporate Tax Dodgers
MEXICO CITY -
President Felipe Calderón, struggling to get tax hikes past
Congress, scolded big firms for not paying their fair share of
taxes.
President Calderón needs votes from the opposition
Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) but has run up against
resistance from the PRI and PRD, who have demanded he do more to
increase revenues from Mexico's biggest companies.
"I am
not asking companies in Mexico to pay more than what a dentist, an
employee, pays. I am asking them to put in what they need to, to
observe the law," a visibly upset President Calderon said in a
speech delivered to business leaders in Mexico City on
Thursday.
Bond rating agencies have warned Mexico faces a
downgrade of its debt unless concrete steps are taken to improve the
sustainability of public finances.
"It is OK that they
have philanthropic activities, that they sponsor sports and cultural
events, that they donate medical equipment, but they need to pay
(taxes) too," the president added.
Mexico Tests New Influenza A H1N1 Vaccine
MEXICO CITY -Mexico is increasing efforts to produce its own A H1N1 vaccine. A small company is running tests on a vaccine cultivated inside insect cells instead of the more traditional, and slower, method inside chicken eggs.
Mexico has been hampered in its attempt to buy swine flu vaccines to cover high-risk groups such as health workers, pregnant women and babies.
French company Sanofi-Aventis will be providing one million doses by the end of November of this year and an extra four million by the end of 2009. In January, another 15 million will be sent, according to Federal Health Secretary José Angel Cordova.
Sanofi-Aventis, in a press conference with President Felipe Calderón, announced it will build a laboratory in the State of Mexico that from 2012 will be able to produce 25-30 million A H1N1 vaccines a year. The cost of the project is estimated to be 100 million euros or approximately 147 million dollars.
Heavy
Rainstorms Cause Fatalities and Damages
MEXICO
CITY - in Mexico City and environs on Friday left six
people dead in Ecatepec and three in Tultitlán; 14 people were
injured and three more were reported as disappeared… Four thousand
homes were damaged as well as 120 vehicles…The
town of Ecatepec, in the State of Mexico, called for the entire area
of Guadalupe hill to be declared a disaster zone after more than 520
homes were damaged and thousands of people left homeless. And
Tultitlán and Coacalco, also in the State of Mexico and which were
also affected by the storm, criticized the government for not sending
federal aid despite the high numbers of people stranded by the
storm.
Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard said 15 million pesos
will go for aid to overcome the emergency in Gustavo A. Madero
borough, where the rainstorm damaged 900 homes… Ebrard said another
45 million pesos will be allotted to repair roadways, schools and
hospitals.
Mexico Business Leaders Host Jordan Events
MEXICO
CITY - Business ties between Mexico and Jordan have received an
unprecedented push to strengthen relationships and jump start
development in each respective country.
Entrepreneurs,
industry leaders, tourism experts and diplomats are set to kick off a
new stage in bilateral connections at an official breakfast, luncheon
and cocktail hour for invited guests tomorrow Wednesday, Nov. 4, to
spark conversations and make strategic introductions.
The
events will be hosted by the Honorary Consulate of Jordan in Mexico,
the Embassy of Jordan in Washington, DC, and the Jordan Tourism Board
of North America (JTBNA).
"The guests are all what you
would call the 'movers and shakers' of Mexico," Frank Devlyn
told The News in Mexico City. Devlyn is the honorary consul of Jordan
in Mexico and president of the Devlyn Optical Group of Mexico.
He
added that around 120 guests each were expected for the breakfast and
lunch affairs, and around 180 invitees were anticipated for the
evening cocktail ceremony. The honorary consul said that notable
guests would include Prince Zeid al-Hussein, the Jordanian Ambassador
to the United States and brother of Jordan's King Abdullah II.
Guggenheim Cancels Guadalajara Museum
GUADALAJARA - The New York-based Guggenheim Foundation has withdrawn its backing for a franchise museum in Guadalajara in order to concentrate all its energy on a flagship project taking shape in Abu Dhabi.
The foundation cancelled the Guadalajara project because “the economic crisis did not permit the Mexican government to make decisions in the necessary time frame,” said Juan Ignacio Vidarte, global strategy director for the foundation.
Another planned Guggenheim museum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil has also been scrapped.
With financial support from municipal and state governments and the private sector, the Guggenheim Foundation carried out a feasibility study in 2006 at a cost of two million pesos. In 2007, Guadalajara city hall donated 65,000 square meters of land overlooking the Huentitan Canyon to construct the museum.
The non-profit “Guadalajara Capital Cultural” and the Jalisco state government have vowed to develop another “world-class” museum.