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By: Fidel Gastelum, Reporter
The week of October 14-20, will be remembered as one of the tensest and controversial in the administration of Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Among the citizen consultation in Baja California, tax reforms, changes in Pemex union structures, and the trigger that represented the series of riots in Culiacán, the capital of the State of Sinaloa.
On Tuesday, a great achievement of his new public administration policy was being developed, regarding labor rights and the fight against corruption, especially in PEMEX, after the resignation of the leader of the Petroleum Workers Union of the Mexican Republic (STPRM), Carlos Romero Deschamps. After 26 years at the head of the agency, he currently faces accusations of corruption and illicit enrichment, under two investigations by the Financial Intelligence Unit and the Attorney General’s Office.
On Wednesday, October 16, Tax Reform came into force, in which fraud or tax evasion is considered to be a serious crime, in conjunction with the Domain Extinction Law, which would lead to the seizure of property to whom is prosecuted for the aforementioned crimes. This new federal provision has been highly questioned by the business sector, especially by COPARMEX, an organization that has alerted the danger it poses to the trust and attraction of new investments, and the stability of taxpayers.
Subsequently, this issue went to second term, since while it was discussed on the morning of Thursday, October 17, at 12 noon, the outbreaks and voices pointed towards the capital of the State of Sinaloa, when armed groups took the main accesses and avenues of the city, causing continuous shooting, in response to the arrest of Ovidio Guzmán López, son of the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, Joaquín “Chapo” Guzmán, who is currently being held in a maximum-security prison in Brooklyn, NY.
This situation caused road and panic chaos among residents of the City of Culiacán, where people took refuge in supermarkets, offices and other establishments. The detonations did not cease until late at night, so many people were forced to spend the night inside these places. Meanwhile, on social media, a large number of videos were shared with the actions taken by criminal groups, and public safety and the military forces in Mexico were appreciated.
As a result, López Obrador during his morning conference on Friday had to deal with different sensitive issues, referring to the events raised in that state, being that he had just gone through a small controversial crisis, derived from the Citizen Consultation of the incoming government of Baja California. Thus, closing a series of unfortunate events, in a matter of a week.
