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What's Trump's next move?

Off the Record features fact-checked news written by journalists and contributors to EL UNIVERSAL

Trump has yet to threaten Mexico with tariffs again - Photo: Shawn Thew/EFE
11/09/2019 |09:28
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What's Trump's next move?

Diplomats knew the White House was expecting that Mexico wouldn't be able to lower the migration flow in the Mexico-U.S. border , and this way, the U.S. could force Mexico to accept its demand to become a safe third country . Nevertheless, we've been told that the Mexican officials boasted about the 56% decrease in the migration flow and Minister Ebrard showed a graph to Vice President Mike Pence . We've been told that the Mexican team perceived a different atmosphere, quite different to the one from three months ago when President Trump threatened Mexico with tariffs . Pence congratulated Ebrard and ambassador Martha Bárcenas when he said that this is the greatest moment in the Mexico-U.S. relation . So Trump's strategy has changed, but for how long?

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Humanitarian crisis

But in regards to migration , there is another side, one that is far away from the agreements reached by Mexican and U.S. authorities : the humanitarian t reatment of migrants in Mexico , nevertheless, their treatment is not as humanitarian . We've been told that on August 8, a Haitian immigrant, Maxene André , died at a migration center in Mexico , after an illness. Nevertheless, Mexican authorities have yet to repatriate his body back to Haiti .

Bad reputation

We've been told that the study about the media reputation of the cabinet members , published by EL UNIVERSAL, was read at the National Palace . We've been told they weren't surprised about the ones who are in the top positions and in the last positions. Nevertheless, in the case of the Health Minister, Jorge Alcocer , who had the worst reputation in August, it wasn't his fault only. Although his statement minimizing the lack of medicines to treat children with cancer was the reason behind his negative reputation , we've been told that he got a lot of help from José Alonso Novelo, the head of the Federal Commission for the Protection Against Sanitary Risks (Cofepris) . They claim Novelo has feuds with a lot of people in the industry, patients, non-profits, and farmers. The U ndersecretary, Hugo López Gatell , has also contributed to the negative image, who left media outlets waiting for information during a crisis. This is real teamwork !

The war against fat and sugar

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his week will be crucial in Congress because lawmakers might pass a bill to require new labels on food and beverages with high sugar and levels. We've been told that there's a lot of expectation surrounding this bill. On one hand, the National System for the Integral Protection of Girls, Boys, and Teenagers (Sipinna) hopes that the bill is passed with no restrictions and that companies are forced to include information such as “high in sugar” and “high in calories ” in the labels. The Sipinna's executive secretary, Ricardo Bucio Mujica , has said that not approving the new labels “would affect the lives of millions of children.” On the other hand, companies expect a not-so-harsh bill and let's not forget that the bill faced some obstacles in the lower chamber after lobbyists were able to delay its approval in the Health Commission . Who will win this war?

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