Over 20 shot, found dead around Mexico

Some 20 people were reported killed in executions or gun fights with state forces, or found dead around Mexico on 18-19 January, Proceso reported. These included: five suspected criminals killed in a shootout with police and the army on the night of 18-19 January in the north-western district of Mochis in the state of Sinaloa, and six shot dead by troops and police in the district of Puente Nacional in the east-coast state of Veracruz. Thousands of troops and federal policemen have been sent to Veracruz within the Veracruz Seguro operation, in a bid to curb a surge in organized crime there. The operation was recently extended to the Sotavento zone in the state that includes Puente Nacional, the district where troops reportedly came under fire late on 18 January, Proceso reported. The website reported the discovery in Estado de México of the bodies of three men apparently shot to death; they were found on 19 January by a road linking Toluca and Temascaltepec. In addition six bodies were discovered on 18 January in the states of Estado de México, Puebla and Morelos; one of the victims here was found cut into bits, and three in a state of "advanced" putrefaction in the district of Tochimilco in the state of Puebla. Six skeletons or the bones of six people, were found in a house in the west-coast district of Acapulco on 18 or 19 January, the daily El Universal reported.

El Salvador gangs to avoid violence in four districts

Mediators announced the start on 18 January of the second phase of a ceasefire between El Salvador's main criminal gangs, naming four districts as "sanctuary municipalities" that were to be gradually rid of violent crime in following days, Europa Press reported. The ceasefire began in March 2012 and officials believe it has significantly reduced violent crime in El Salvador. The municipalities were named by the army bishop and the former leftist guerrilla Raul Mijango who have been acting as mediators between the state and several gangs. In a communiqué issued on 19 January five gangs promised to respect the four sanctuaries and qualified this as part of a process "whose objective is to fully abandon all criminal activity." They also stated that they would continue to "disarm" and hand over weapons to "facilitators" of the Organization of American States, which is assisting the pacification process in El Salvador, Europa Press reported. They asked the government to design a legal framework for this disarmament. The statement was signed by the gangs MSX3, Barrio 19, Mao-Mao, Máquina and Mirada Locos, while the four districts due to become sanctuaries from violence were named as Santa Tecla, Sonsonate, Llopango and Quezaltepeque, the latter a reputed crime hot-spot, Europa Press reported. El Salvador's La Prensa Gráfica reported on 20 January that the gangs were prepared to extend the ceasefire to 18 other districts, adding however that they had made no commitment to discontinue extortion.

Guerrillas kidnap five in northern Colombia

Five or more people were reported kidnapped in northern Colombia early on 18 January, it was suspected by guerrillas of the left-wing National Liberation Army (ELN), Europa Press reported citing army declarations. The five were employees of a mining or energy company and apparently kidnapped by a group of 25 guerrillas in the southern part of Bolívar, a department whose territory reaches the Caribbean coast. President Juan Manuel Santos was reported as having written on the website Twitter that the army had reacted and the guerrillas were already "within its range." Colombian troops were reported earlier as fighting the ELN in the Boyacá department south of Bolívar, and Europa Press observed the kidnapping followed by a day a gunfight there that killed an ELN guerrilla. Separately Colombia's police chief José Roberto León Riaño was reported as declaring the same day that police thwarted a suspected bid by guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to strike at targets in and outside Bogotá when a two-month ceasefire is to end on 20 January. The FARC declared the unilateral ceasefire last November to coincide with ongoing negotiations with Colombian representatives in Havana. Police discovered grenades and 250 kilograms of explosives as well as diagrams of several installations - the suspected targets - in an unspecified location in the district of La Palma north of Bogotá. León said the find indicated the FARC were planning to blow up three police and military academies in Bogotá and in the district of Sibaté south-west of Bogotá, the broadcaster Caracol reported.

Nineteen reported killed around Mexico

Nineteen people or perhaps more including children were reported killed or found dead, in cases dismembered or beheaded, in incidents around Mexico on 16-17 January, Proceso reported. Two of these were identified as aged 15 and 17 and found shot dead late on 16 January in the northern district of Torreón. The bodies of three other young men were found very late on 17 January in Estado de México, by a road linking Mexico City and Puebla. They had been shot dead, La Jornada reported on 18 January, the daily observed that in total 33 were reported killed in that state during 14-17 January. In the south-eastern state of Tabasco a body was found in a burned car and provisionally identified as belonging to the missing former mayor of the district of Paraíso, Cristóbal Javier Ángulo. A member of the left-wing Democratic Revolutionary Party, Ángulo was mayor from 2010 to 2012 and apparently last seen on 16 January when he drove out of Paraíso toward the city of Villahermosa, Proceso reported. Three suspected criminals were reported gunned down by troops and police in the eastern port of Veracruz. A conservative politician, his wife and three-year-old son were gunned down late on 17 January in the central state of Morelos. Ignacio Domínguez Carranza had been a mayoral candidate of the National Action Party for the district of Tlalquiltenango where he died when armed men fired "hundreds of times" on his home from a convoy of cars, Proceso reported. The state governor deplored the crime and wrote on the website Twitter that the culprits would be punished. The daily El Universal separately reported that a man was killed in Mexico City on 16 January as he resisted a car theft.

President insists security improving in Honduras

President Porfirio Lobo Sosa has insisted that security in Honduras, one of the world's most violent countries, had improved in spite of assertions to the contrary by domestic and foreign observers, the daily La Prensa reported on 16 January. He told pressmen in the capital Tegucicalpa that "everyone feels" security had improved in Honduras even if "there will always be problems," adding that curbing crime was not in any case the task of government. He said he hoped the next government would "keep going, keep working on the security theme and the citizenry has to participate too, everyone must make an effort." He contradicted comments made earlier by his Security Minister Pompeyo Bonilla Reyes who told a local radio station that 800 security cameras placed around the capital had stopped working as authorities owed the equivalent of some five million USD to the firm operating the cameras. Bonilla reportedly declared that the police radio-communication system was also about to be cut off; Lobo dismissed his comments as "a bit dramatic" and said the relevant firm had not "turned off" the capital's security cameras. The government was seeking ways to pay the firm's money, Lobo said. Some of Bonilla's comments were reported by the daily La Tribuna; he was cited as saying that cameras stopped working in early January, and blamed this on the government's cash shortage. According to La Prensa the government had a shortfall in revenues and state employees or some state employees in the health and education ministries but also the armed forces were not paid last December. It reported on 3 January that only about one tenth of a security tax imposed in 2012 to finance policing and security had been spent. The state collected some 857 million Honduran Lempiras (HNL), a little under USD 43 million, between April and 27 December 2012 but only about HNL 80 million had been spent so far, this by the Security Ministry. The tax brought in HNL 90 million in December alone, La Prensa reported. It cited the compaints of members of the business community dissatisfied with paying the tax as well as considerable amounts on private security.

Colombian troops kill guerrilla, arrest two

Troops shot dead a member of the National Liberation Army (ELN) in a gunfight on 15 or 16 January in the district of Pajarito north-east of the capital Bogotá, El Espectador reported. The daily stated that army operations were continuing in the area, in the department of Boyacá. One of the detained was described as a child or teenager of unspecified age, wearing a Colombian army uniform; he was handed over to child welfare authorities. Arms and ammunition were later confiscated.

Ten killed in Mexico, states to boost security

Ten were reported as found dead or gunned down in shootouts and executions around Mexico on 15-16 January. Five of these were killed in the north-eastern state of Tamaulipas, including two cartel suspects shot by the army in Ciudad Victoria. Two others found dead in that city had a written message by them presumably placed by their assassins, alleging they had earlier kidnapped and murdered an army captain. The army confirmed the officer was buried in Ciudad Victoria on 13 January. A message left by the body of another victim found in Ciudad Victoria on 16 January alleged that he had been killed for thieving; authorities suspected he was killed by the Zetas cartel. Other killings that day occurred in the states of Durango and Estado de México and in the west-coast district of Acapulco, Proceso reported. One of the dead was a 16-year-old found with his throat slit in the Valle de Chalco district in Estado de México. A recent surge in killings in Estado de México in central Mexico, prompted authorities to consider deploying troops in its more crime-ridden districts. On 16 January the state's chief prosecutor Miguel Ángel Contreras Nieto blamed the recent surge on a fight between two criminal groups the Familia Michoacana and Guerreros Unidos; their turf war had killed 25 in the preceding 72 hours he said. While there was no "security crisis" in the state he declared, state and federal authorities were discussing the option of deploying troops, Proceso reported. Separately the governor of the eastern state of Veracruz Javier Duarte de Ochoa said state police would take over security in the Sotavento region in the state and specifically the district of Úrsulo Galván following the disappearance of eight municipal policemen there, Proceso reported on 16 January. He was apparently speaking in Úrsulo Galván, whose authorities have asked the state to take over its security. Duarte said state police would be acting in the framework of the Veracruz Seguro operation that has boosted the presence of state forces including troops around the state of Veracruz. He called on residents in the Sotavento zone to remain calm, while citing the operation's possible expansion to more districts. The Veracruz Seguro plan has so far seen increased police and military presence principally in the Veracruz-Boca del Río conurbation on the coast and in several districts with greater criminal activity.

Six women killed in Guatemala

Six women including two girls aged six and 12 were killed or found dead in Ciudad de Guatemala and in the department of Zacapa north-east of the capital on 16 January, the daily Prensa Libre reported. The girls had apparently been strangled to death and were left on a street in their pyjamas at one in the morning. These were some of the victims of the steady trickle of crimes daily reported in Guatemala. On 15 January the mayor of the town of Jutiapa near the frontier with El Salvador was shot dead inside a barber's shop, Prensa Libre reported. The Interior Minister later declared he suspected the assassination to be the work of organized crime. Prensa Libre also reported on 15 January the shooting death of a businessman in the San Miguel Petapa district south of the capital; he was the brother of Rafael Eduardo González Rosales, mayor of San Miguel Petapa in 2008-12. The same day a bus passenger was shot dead by thieves who boarded a bus travelling between Guatemala City and Quezaltenango, Prensa Libre reported. The passenger had refused to hand over his belongings as asked.

Catholicism reported in decline in Nicaragua

A survey carried out in Nicaragua in December 2012 showed the relentless decline of Roman Catholicism in that country between 1991 and 2012 and rise of Protestant Christianity, even if Catholics remained the largest religious community, El Nuevo Diario reported on 16 January. The Nicaraguan firm M & R Consultores carried out the survey for the Public Opinion Monitoring System (Sistema de Monitoreo de Opinión Pública, Sismo), interviewing 1,600 Nicaraguans between 17 and 28 December; the results were said to have a 95-per-cent confidence level and a margin of error of +/- 2.5 per cent. Just over 52 per cent of respondents described themselves as Catholics, compared to the 90 per cent figure for 1991. The survey indicated 30 per cent of Nicaraguans to be Evangelical, while 14.1 per cent said simply that they were "believers" and 0.3 per cent, atheists. A comparative table of the figures obtained in 1991, 1995 and 2005 indicated that the four per cent of Nicaraguans who said they were Protestant Evangelicals in 1991 increased to 15.1 per cent in 1995, a year when Catholics had declined to just under 80 per cent of the population. The latest survey indicated there were more Catholics in cities and in the western part of Nicaragua, El Nuevo Diario reported.

Tourism, trade growing between Cuba and Peru

Cuba's ambassador in Peru put at 19,000 the number of Peruvians who visited her country in 2012, 34 per cent more she said than in 2011, Peru's official paper El Peruano reported on 16 January. Juana Martínez said she hoped some 25,000 Peruvians would visit in 2013. Bilateral trade however remained "reduced" she said, worth 16 million USD that year and consisting mostly of trade in pharmaceutical products, unspecified services and rhum. She added that the legal framework for increased exchanges and cooperation now existed within documents signed in Cuba during an undated but "recent" visit by President Ollanta Humala. She blamed the limited bilateral trade on sanctions the United States has imposed on Cuba. Peru's growing economy was increasingly creating a prosperous middle class with potentially the spending and travel habits of Europeans or North Americans. The economy was reportedly growing at a rate of six per cent or more; the investment firm BlackRock recently termed it the second Latin American country in terms of investment security, after Chile, El Peruano reported on 16 January.

Venezuela has a new foreign minister

Venezuela's bed-ridden President Hugo Chávez Frías appointed the former vice-president Elías Jaua Milano foreign minister on 15 January; the appointment was announced in parliament by the outgoing minister and acting president Nicolás Maduro, the state news agency AVN reported. Jaua who was also made vice-president for political affairs, told Venezuelan television that his "fundamental task" would be to defend and maintain Venezuela's "political stability and unity as well as Venezuela's independence, both on the internal front and the international front," AVN reported. The foreign ministers of Ecuador and Brazil were the first to congratulate him by telephone. The foreign ministry thanked them in a statement also confirming scheduled meeting in coming days between Jaua and the foreign ministers of Colombia and Ecuador, El Universal reported. The nomination was said to have been made by Chávez himself, whose signature was shown on the appointment published in the official gazette the next day, El Nacional reported. This seemed to corroborate declarations that his health was improving; the daily cited the Information Minister Ernesto Villegas as saying that he was "climbing back up the hill." The president underwent surgery for cancer the previous December.

General suspects Colombia's FARC arming amid talks

While negotiating peace with the Colombian government in Cuba, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) were thought to have "increased" arms purchases "since the peace process began," Spain's EFE reported on 13 January, citing remarks by the Ecuadorean general commanding troops on the frontier with Colombia. Brigadier-General Fernando Proaño Daza, commander of some 12,000 troops in northern Ecuador, told EFE by telephone that a makeshift "arms workshop" was found in a house on 9 January in the Salado district in the northern province of Imbabura, yielding handguns, ammunition, pieces and related fabrication tools. Proaño said that "since the peace process began, trafficking has increased. We have caught a large quantity of ammunition, armaments and what we can determine is that they made use of this situation to strengthen their situation anticipating what could happen in the future." The FARC declared a two-month ceasefire due to end on 20 January, and Colombian officials were expecting a resurgence of attacks after that. The arms found on 9 January were described as destined for illegal groups, which could include drug traffickers. Separately a former provincial legislator was cited on 10 January as saying that Colombia seemed to be negotiating with no more than 30 per cent of the FARC and that judging by recent clashes, certain FARC military "blocks" were absent at the talks. Sigifredo López, a former hostage of the FARC, said the "so-called south-western blocks" formerly led by the late FARC chiefs dubbed Alfonso Cano and Mono Jojoy were not participating "and the proof is that every day there are clashes in south-eastern and south-western Colombia," El Espectador reported. He did not elaborate. The FARC and government negotiators resumed peace talks in Havana on 14 January.

In days, over 70 reported killed around Mexico

Eight were reported killed or found dead on 15 January in separate incidents in the Mexican states of Coahuila, Estado de México and Chihuahua. Three of these were employees of the Mexican transport ministry reported as missing on 14 January in the northern city of Torreón in Coahuila; they were found dead the next day, apparently "tortured" before being killed, Proceso reported. The review reported the deaths of 41 people around Mexico between 11 and 14 January, including 19 killed in the capital in the 12-14 period. These apparently were distinct from 21 reported killed on 13-14 January in the northern states of Chihuahua and Nuevo León and Estado de México in central Mexico. Five of the dead here were suspected criminals shot by the army in the district of Cadereyta in Nuevo León, Proceso reported on 14 January. On 13 January two were gunned down while driving in the Caribbean island resort of Cozumel, in the state of Quintana Roo; the local governor promised an immediate inquiry and "zero tolerance" for crime on the island, Proceso reported. The same day a mother and her daugher of unspecified age were found shot dead in the district of Tlahualilo in the northern state of Durango, Proceso reported observing that the incident was amid two days of "extreme" violence in that part of the state. Mexico City's mayor reportedly declared on 13 or 14 January that the 19 killings registered in the capital on 12-14 January were unusual but unrelated to drug cartels, and overall security was "assured" in the city. Miguel Ángel Mancera, speaking in the capital, said authorities were investigating and "the instruction I have given very clearly is that there be no impunity...the important point here is that there will be no impunity." Some of the killings occurred in the districts of Iztapalapa and Gustavo A. Madero, where authorities have pursued a disarmament programme intended to reduce killings, Proceso observed.

Almost 40 killed, found dead around Mexico

Some 38 people were reported to have been killed or found dead in presumed criminal incidents around Mexico in the 9-11 January period, Proceso reported on 10 and 11 January, describing the 11th as one of the most violent days since Enrique Peña Nieto's presidency began in December 2012. Eight victims were killed in the northern state of Chihuahua on the night of 10-11 January, while five were found in a mine shaft in the north-central district of Noria de Angeles. Two men and a woman were also shot early on 11 January in a house in Mexico City, considered one of the country's less crime-ridden areas. Late on 9 January, four men aged 18 to 25 were killed in and outside a house in the northern city of Monterrey. Three policemen were among the dead: one was shot dead in the northern city of Tijuana as he left work at six in the morning on 10 January and two the same day in Chihuahua, the capital of the northern state of Chihuahua, Proceso reported.

Mexico has new law to compensate crime victims

President Enrique Peña Nieto promulgated on 8 January a law to establish a system of state assistence and compensation for victims of crime in Mexico, agencies reported. The Victims Law or General Victims Law was ratified in April 2012 but blocked by the last president, Felipe Calderón; Peña Nieto promised when elected in 2012 to bring it to fruition. The law, due to enter into force 30 days after its promulgation, required local, state and federal authorities to aid crime victims by various means including with financial assistance for legal action taken by victims. Authorities assisting victims were to adjust their regulations and codes of practice to the law within seven months of its promulgation. The law's provisions would constitute a new National System of Attention to Victims, CNNMéxico reported on 10 January. This it added would likely replace the existing prosecutor's office attending to crime victims created in 2011 by the Calderón government, known as Províctima (Procuraduría Social de Atención a Víctimas de Delito). The broadcaster observed however that the system's challenge was to ensure its provisions were implemented by local authorities Mexicans often distrust when they do not suspect them of conniving with criminals. Jurists speaking to CNN welcomed the law as a first step toward better justice for crime victims.

Ten killed around Mexico, locals arm against criminals

Ten people were reported killed in presumed criminal incidents around Mexico on 8-9 January, including three gunned down in the northern district of Saltillo and four in the north-western district of Tijuana. Another victim was an employee of the baking firm Bimbo, shot dead while driving a delivery van in the north-western city of Culiacán, Proceso reported on 9 January. On 8 January, police found 10 tonnes of marijuana in a mechanical workshop in Tijuana in the state of Baja California, although stamps on the sealed packets indicated these had previously been confiscated by police or the army. Nobody was arrested and it was not immediately clear why the load was seemingly abandoned or stolen. A police revision that day apparently indicated the load had been confiscated days before in three parts. The drugs formerly owned by the Sinaloa cartel, were handed over to state prosecutors, Proceso reported. The review separately reported that 200 residents of the western district of Ayutla de los Libres have been armed since 5 January and set up road blocks in response to persistent crime. The locals were controlling circulation in and out of Ayutla and declared they would not disarm until criminals had left the area. The governor of Guerrero where Ayutla is located, Ángel Aguirre Rivero reportedly told local media on 8 January that the measure indicated "the citizenry's desperation before organized crime and the lack of response by authorities," Proceso reported. Residents of Ayutla and two nearby districts mobilized on 5 January when a local policeman was kidnapped; the official was rescued and the kidnappers reportedly fled.

Murder rate in Bogotá reported lowest in decades

Bogotá's police revealed on 5 January that there had been 1,281 registered homicides in the Colombian capital in 2012 compared to 1,654 in 2011, and the city now had the lowest homicide rate in decades, RCN La Radio reported. The 23-per-cent reduction corroborated other figures recently given out by authorities. Bogotá's police chief Luis Eduardo Martínez Guzmán said the homicide rate for the city of some seven million residents was now 16.9 per 100,000 inhabitants. This was one of the lowest in Latin America. By comparison Greater Caracas was recently found to have a homicide rate of 122/100,000 inhabitants. Bogotá's security affairs chief Guillermo Asprilla said the "figures show the most successful year" in security terms since 1985, and attributed this to police action and the mayor's policies to curb possession of arms. A measure of the significance of this figure was perhaps in its comparison with Bogotá's homicide rate in 1993 - at a time when communist guerrillas and drug cartels were most active and potent - which was 80.9 per 100,000 inhabitants. Separately President Juan Manuel Santos was to discuss the state of crime in Bogotá with cabinet ministers and members of the Bogotá municipality, at a security council to be held in the north-eastern district of Usaquén. The residential area, described in reports as usually quiet, was recently the setting of gun fights between members of a local drug gang. The security council would examine the homicide figures given by police, and issues including drug trafficking, extortion, and bullying and drug abuse in schools, RCN La Radio reported on 10 January. It was not immediately clear when the council would meet.

Colombian guerrillas say will not renew ceasefire

A spokesman for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) declared on 9 January that the guerrilla army would not renew a 60-day unilateral ceasefire due to end on 20 January, intended to facilitate ongoing peace talks with the government in Havana. The head of the FARC's negotiating team in Havana, the guerrilla dubbed Iván Márquez, said "there will be no extension of the unilateral ceasefire. So far we have not contemplated the possibility. The only possibility would be to sign a bilateral ceasefire," which the Colombian government has so far ruled out, El Espectador reported. He also expressed hope that Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez would soon recover from the cancer for which he was operated last December, so he could "continue to contribute to this peace process as he has done." Chávez was in hospital in Havana. Márquez said that thanks to the president's help "it was possible for this peace table to be held in Havana." Venezuela is thought to have considerable influence with the FARC.

Venezuelan court allows delayed presidential oath

The Constitutional Hall of the Supreme Court of Venezuela ruled on 9 January that the ailing President Hugo Chávez did not have to take the oath of office for another presidential term on 10 January as required - given his physical incapacity - and this was a formality not affecting the "administrative continuity" in the country. Chávez was re-elected as president last October but remains in hospital in Cuba following surgery for cancer last December; the country was being run by a cabinet headed by his vice-president and foreign minister, Nicolás Maduro. Parliament voted on 8 January to allow his absence during treatment, while opponents urged the Supreme Court to declare whether or not this was legal. The court's President Luisa Estella Morales Lamuño declared that while a new constitutional period began on 10 January, "another swearing-in as President-elect is not necessary as there is no interruption in exercising his office...this is a re-elected president, the...re-election is to do with approval of his management," El Universal reported. She said he was outside Venezuela "for his health," with parliament's permission and in keeping with Article 235 of the constitution; that article stipulates that parliament must authorise a presidential absence in Venezuela if this is for more than five days. She said there could be no date now for when Hugo Chávez would be sworn into office, but this would surely happen once he was cured of cancer.

Group would become Mexico's "real" opposition party

Mexico's National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) led by the former presidential aspirant Andrés Manuel López Obrador took formal steps on 7 January toward becoming a party, its members vowing to garner extensive membership and insinuating this would become the main opposition to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Members of Morena (Movimiento Regeneración Nacional) visited the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) in Mexico City to formally notify it of Morena's intention to become a party. It was not immediately clear if this was a mere formality as Morena members have said or if approval was needed. In any case its members seemingly had scant regard for the IFE, which ratified the PRI's bitterly contested election in 2012 after rejecting all cheating allegations. They reportedly laughed when an IFE official welcomed them to the building as the "home of democracy." Mexico's Leftist parties insist the 2012 elections were fraud-ridden. Later addressing an IFE panel, party president Martí Batres Guadarrama denounced the Pact for Mexico signed between the PRI and the two main opposition parties - to ease reformist legislation - as "the PRI's dream and a reactionary utopia" intended to eliminate dissent, La Jornada reported on 8 January. "The PRI does not like democracy, plurality, discrepancy...that pact symbolises...a system of pseudo-governmental parties where everyone has the same opinion, a uniform...political society...but bad news for the PRI, if there is an opposition it is called Morena." He said Morena rejected the "neo-liberal model" and energy-related privatizations likely to be pursued the PRI government. Morena's impact would become apparent in time, and depend on how many members and ultimately votes it can garner. These were expected to be taken from the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), the main Leftist party formerly led by López Obrador. On 8 January López Obrador addressed "hundreds" of supporters in Mexico City's historic central square, where he registered his membership and began a national campaign to win party members. He vowed to defend Mexico's oil as national property and curb tax rises being imposed by the "gang of ruffians" in the government, while affirming Morena's peaceful vocation, La Jornada reported. A post was set up where "dozens" registered their affiliation after López Obrador left. Party president Batres was reported to have said the same day that he expected 1.5 million Mexicans to join the party in 2013, "more than recently registered" for the National Action Party, the main conservative party. He was to present the party's financing plans on 9 January, Excelsior and Notimex reported.