Mexico’s López Obrador loses some of his "Teflon" in midterm elections. Mexico's ruling political coalition is projected to lose its qualified majority in the lower house of Congress after a poor showing in midterm elections Sunday, according to initial figures released by the government. 

López Obrador's left-leaning political party, Morena, won about 35% of the vote. Morena and its governing partner, Partido Verde, are expected to win between 265 and 292 of the 500 seats in the lower house, according to preliminary figures from the National Electoral Institute (INE). 

 

López Obrador’s opponents framed the vote as one of the most important in recent Mexican history. They fear he wants to steer this country - the No. 1 U.S. trading partner - back toward the kind of one-party authoritarian system that prevailed for most of the 20th century. Critics compare the Mexican leader to populists such as Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and Salvadoran leader Nayib Bukele, who have demonized adversaries and rebuffed challenges to their authority by the judiciary.

Last week the Mexican government announced that its inoculation program - one of the most ambitious in Latin America - had essentially come to a standstill. The country of 128 million people has received just 766,350 doses of vaccine, all produced by Pfizer-BioNTech.
That figure was supposed to hit 1.5 million by the end of the month. Mexican officials have described the delay as a minor setback and said shipments from Pfizer are expected to resume Feb. 15. 2021. “It is simply going to be temporarily postponed,” said Mexico’s undersecretary of health, Dr. Hugo López-Gatell, who is leading the nation’s pandemic response.
Officials here said they have already made deals to purchase enough vaccine to inoculate the entire country. They have signed agreements with Pfizer, China’s CanSino Biologics and the British company AstraZeneca to purchase enough vaccine for 128 million people. They are also trying to line up enough of the Sputnik V vaccine from Russia for 12 million more. 

 

In November, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization, urged Mexico’s leaders be serious about the coronavirus and set examples for its citizens, saying that “Mexico is in bad shape” with the pandemic. A new set of rules requiring all travelers entering the US by sea, air or land to show proof of a recent negative coronavirus test and self-quarantine or self-isolate after entry.

Between the night of Thursday 14 and the afternoon of this January 17, 471 new cases of Coronavirus and 18 deaths were registered, of which 10 were in La Paz; another 377 people recovered, according to the count issued by the Ministry of Health (SSA).
The cumulative total reached 20,410 confirmed cases from the end of March to date; This figure includes 908 deaths, as well as 17,742 recovered and 1,760 patients in their active phase.
La Paz was the municipality with the highest number of recent deaths, adding 10 to its figure, which reaches 410 deaths; Similarly, 198 new cases were detected, leaving 957 active. Those recovered reached 8,618, of which 122 are extra.

 

On the other hand, Comondú, there were 4 extra deaths, leaving 100 deaths in the municipality; in addition, 49 people were discharged, being 1,261 so far. Assets number 142, of which 39 are recent.

The head of the State Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks (Coepris), Blanca Pulido Medrano reported, participating in a virtual conference, that 67 businesses are suspended in Baja California Sur, since they have opened even though they do not fall within the Classification of phase 5 of the COVID-19 traffic light.
"It is a very titanic job [...] we have 67 suspensions throughout the state, and this is secondary to the opening of establishments that are not yet in this level 5 category.
“Very important, if you have a restaurant-bar classification, if nothing else is dedicated to the pure sale of snacks, they are not allowed; for us they are bars ”, referred the doctor.

In this sense, he explained that these contempts have occurred in Los Cabos, La Paz and Loreto, since there are merchants who open regardless of whether the authority may sanction them, so that the opening of these places does not represent a danger to the increase. of Coronavirus cases.

"Of these 67 correspond to gyms, both in Loreto and Los Cabos, and part of La Paz; Party event rooms that are also not authorized at this level and the other, the vast majority of them, are those that call themselves a restaurant-bar and that are bars ”, emphasized Pulido Medráno.
She also recalled that the Presidents of the Chamber of the Restaurant and Seasoned Food Industry (Canirac) in Baja California Sur have already been warned about the consequences of opening businesses that are not allowed.

At midnight the center of Tropical Storm Lorena was located near latitude 15.6 North, longitude 102.6 West. Lorena is moving toward the northwest near 15 mph (24 km/h). Tropical Cyclone LORENA-19 can have a low humanitarian impact based on the maximum sustained wind speed, exposed population and vulnerability.There has been little change in the cloud structure of Lorena since the last advisory, with the storm having a central convective feature and a ragged band in the western semicircle. A recently received WindSat overpass indicates the low-level center is located near the northwestern edge of the central convection.

Maximum sustained winds are near 50 mph (85 km/h) with higher gusts. Gradual strengthening is forecast during the next couple of days as Lorena approaches the coast of Mexico.

A Mexican journalist from Santa Rosalía, Baja California Sur was killed by 15 shots of high-caliber weapons, the governor said Monday. The first reporter killed this year in what has become one of the world's most dangerous countries for the press. Rafael Murua, a community radio station director had received death threats for his work according to local media reports. Rafael Morúa Manríquez, 34 years old, had been reported missing since Saturday evening, when, according to his relatives, he went for a walk through the center of Santa Rosalía, but did not return.

His body was found near kilometer 40 of the Santa Rosalía-San Ignacio road. Murua, 34, was under the Mexican government's protection program for journalists and rights activists, said Balbina Flores, country director for the watchdog group Reporters Without Borders. The group reported at least nine journalists’ murders in Mexico last year, making it the third-most-dangerous country to be a reporter after war-torn Afghanistan and Syria.