April 04, 2008, Cont. from front page, Mexico’s farmers stand their ground, By Gabriela Blanco, SAPASMA completes installation of new water tank, By Jesús Ibarra, National News Round-up, Residents reject ''NAFTA''railway extension in Los Frailes, By Jesús Ibarra, Kansas City Southern

Members of the activist group Va por San Miguel demonstrated against the establishment in the Jardín during Starbucks’ opening ceremony, but others, mainly younger people, are happy with the new coffee shop, and other residents and coffee shop owners think that the competition is good and are not opposed to the new business.

The best cup of joe?

According to Claudio Pritcher, the company’s marketing manager in Mexico, Starbucks focuses on coffee of the best quality. “We have a group of expert coffee tasters who taste more than 150,000 cups of different coffees a year in search of the best coffee beans and perfect roasting techniques,” he said. He added that Starbucks follows the European tradition of darker roasting. “A high-quality bean can stand more roasting, which confers a unique flavor.”

According to Pritcher, smoking is not allowed in Starbucks because the smell of its coffee is part of the appeal. He said that Starbucks has bought coffee beans from Mexican producers in Chiapas, Oaxaca and Veracruz for 20 years and promotes Mexican coffee in other parts of the world. “We sell coffee from many parts of the world, but mainly from Mexico,” he said.

Gabriel Cervera, a businessman with 27 years of experience in the coffee business in Querétaro, said that “it is very probable that Starbucks is buying high-quality, select coffee beans. An elaborate selection process results in beans with the best quality of uniform size and texture.”

According to Cervera, this high-quality coffee is more expensive—10 or 20 percent more expensive—than other beans. However, he said, Starbucks sells the coffee for much more than the company pays for the beans. Coffee beans cost about 43 pesos per kilogram, and Starbucks sells coffee at more than 200 pesos per kilogram. “With their prices, their objective is that a customer spends 100 pesos. In my coffee shops, the average cost per person is 30 pesos.”

However, for Cervera, Starbucks’ coffee is not the best in the country. “We can find better coffee in other places. There is a very old café in Morelia, Michoacán that has been in business more than 100 years and sells excellent coffee. The best coffee in the world is the Guatemalan coffee called Blue Mountain, which Starbucks does not carry. In Mexico we have good-quality coffee in areas like Chiapas, Veracruz and Oaxaca. I buy my coffee in Coatepec, Veracruz.

Juan Villaseñor, a local coffee shop owner, agrees that Starbucks’ coffee is of good quality. “However, we have very good coffee in San Miguel. I like the coffee from La Ventana, Café del Jardín and El Viejo Topo,” he said.

According to Cervera, the introduction of Starbucks in Querétaro (there are four Starbucks in the city) did not result in a big drop in his business.

However, other chains such as Italian Coffee, which has a more aggressive marketing policy, did. “Italian Coffee in Querétaro wants to monopolize the coffee market. When it first opened it did not hurt my sales, but a few months later my business decreased 40 percent,” he said.

Juan Villaseñor said that he does not think Starbucks came to damage our city. “As an American company it may displace some Mexican businesses. I do not agree, however, with protectionism. Competition is good for making improvements, and if we are in a globalized world we must improve.” José Luis de la Hos, another sanmiguelense, agreed that “Starbucks’ presence in San Miguel will make local cafés improve.”

The public chimes in

People have differing opinions about the presence of Starbucks in San Miguel’s downtown.

“The authorities support all those investors who come and risk their capital to create more jobs. Everybody has the right to protest; however, I am sure that most of the foreigners in the protest are doing nothing for San Miguel’s benefit and development, unlike the ones working, for example, with Feed the Hungry. I think we have to support all the people, mainly youth, who like to patronize this type of coffee shop and not think only about the interests of one group.”—Mayor Jesús Correa

I think it is an important arrival of investors to San Miguel de Allende, since they produce jobs. Regarding the demonstration, I can say that the signage meets the standard set for San Miguel’s downtown.”—Ángel Gastélum, head of Urban Development

“They take our coffee beans abroad and return them processed. That is taking away jobs for Mexicans.” —Rocío, Mexican resident

“Starbucks does not fit in with the artistic and cultural nature of the town, and the sign is not in Spanish. We do not believe this is appropriate for the centro.” —Joan, American resident

The protest is not against a particular business but against the place where it is established. Foreign companies are not part of the idea of a colonial town.” —Jorge, Mexican resident

“My friends and I like Starbucks. We like the place where it is because most of the time we meet in the centro. San Miguel’s youth have the right to enjoy modernity.” —Rebeca, Mexican student

“We have the right to enjoy a coffee shop that is famous around the world.” —Maribel, Mexican resident

“It is not a suitable business for our buildings that could be preserved with some other kind of institution. It is important to preserve our Mexican coffee in San Miguel.” —Mari Paz, Mexican resident

“This international business has a sensibility completely counter to this unique town.” —Sarah, American resident

“This will be an entrance for a lot of other international franchises to come to San Miguel, transforming it into a common downtown like in any other city. With foreign companies, the money will go to other places instead of remaining here.” —Lorea, member of Va por San Miguel

“I think we have to be up-to-date, but with certain restrictions, and in this case Starbucks conforms to these restrictions; besides, we need more jobs for the people.” —Patty, centro resident

Why don’t they protest Banamex? When you enter the bank you see a world of modernity in the heart of San Miguel. —José Luis, Mexican resident

ALSEA, Mexican partner of Starbucks

ALSEA is the leading restaurant management company in Latin America. Its clients include Domino’s Pizza, Burger King, Popeye’s Chicken & Seafood, Chili’s and Starbucks.

GC&A, marketing strategies for Starbucks

GC&A is an international business management firm with offices in the United States and Mexico. Among its clients are American Express, Kansas City Southern, Bank of America, NFL, ALSEA and Starbucks.

The tractors passing the Jardín on March 26 were not another festive parade. They were protesting quadrupled electrical rates for farmers and drawing attention to the unsolved assassination of movement leader Armando Villarreal Martha.

At 9am that Wednesday, the Comité pro Mejoramiento del Agro Nacional Guanajuatense, A.C. (Committee for Improvement of National Farming Guanajuatense, A.C.) protested at five state highways and at the Jardín in San Miguel. They demanded that the federal government solve the murder of Agrodinámica Nacional (National Farming) leader Villarreal Martha and that they put an end to the persecution of all the group’s leaders. They also want fulfillment of the Ley de Energía para el Campo (Law of Energy for the Field) for the Comisión Federal de Electricidad CFE (Federal Electricity Commission).

The farmers’ movement impeded cars on the main highways, such as León–Silao, Salamanca Salvatierra–Celaya Querétaro, San Luis de la Paz and San José Iturbide. In San Miguel they closed Calle de San Francisco from Reloj to Hidalgo.

Villarreal Martha was riddled with bullets March 14 in Nuevas Casas Grandes in the State of Chihuahua. The assassins are still free.

Villareal Martha headed radical farmer movements, mainly against the federal government. In January he organized the demonstration in Mexico City which paralyzed the downtown area. In addition, he opened several negotiations and prevented the CFE from cutting the electricity to agricultural wells of hundreds of farmers.

“We are not going to be intimidated; we’ll still fight for our farmers’ rights and against electric power costs,” said Felipe Sanchez Olvera, president of the committee in San Miguel.

At the moment, Sanchez said, a small farmer receives an electric bill of up to 70,000 pesos for consumption, when before the bill was about 14,000 pesos.

“The CFE replaced the meters we had with digital ones and they raised the tariff on us. Before we paid 30c per cubic meter and now we pay 1.25 pesos. Just picture a person who earns 700 pesos per month—when the light bill comes he can no longer eat that month,” remarked Jose Conception Hernandez, the proprietor of San Gerardo Farm.

José Rosario Stefanoni, the owner of La Perla Farm, saddened by the federal government’s lack of support for agriculture, cited the close of Mexican petrochemical plants. “Now we have to buy Russian and Chilean fertilizers. Obviously they are much more expensive than the ones we used to buy here.”

The protesting farmers said that they were not broken by the battle against the detrimental public policies and they will continue to fight for the revision of agricultural electrical tariffs.

“Because of their increased electrical expenses, farmers fall behind and when they are not able to pay the excessive tariffs, the CFE can seize their lands, taking away the farmers’ patrimony,” Stefanoni says.

The leaders finished the demonstration at 6pm.

On March 27, SAPASMA (Water and Sewage System of San Miguel) inaugurated a new water tank installed in Colonia Garambullos in the northeastern part of the city. The tank will provide water to the eastern part of the centro.

Alfonso Sautto, head of SAPASMA, explained that the water tank, with a 1,100 cubic meter capacity, is supplied by a well called Mexiquito III, located along Salida a Dolores. “The water naturally flows down through a thin pipe, over 900 meters long, that supplies the whole area” he said. The area includes the region bordered by Hidalgo and Cuesta de San José.

Sautto said that the project cost 1,203,592 pesos. “SAPASMA paid 50 percent of this amount and CEA (State Water Commission) the other 50 percent.”

According to Sautto, the importance of this new water supply tank is that this sector of the centro was supplied by wells in the upper part of the city, along Salida a Querétaro.

“Those wells will continue supplying the centro, but to a much lesser extent, so there will be more water available for the upper part,” he said. This new tank will benefit around 12,000 people.

Mayor Jesús Correa, who was present at the inauguration, said that these projects are not noticed by most people. “People only see the results when they turn on the faucet,” he said. “This type of project generally inconveniences residents, but in the end the work benefits the whole city.”

At the end of the inauguration ceremony, Angélica Casillas, a representative of CEA, filled buckets carried by neighbor children with water extracted from the new system.

National News Round-up

To keep our readers in San Miguel informed of recent developments across Mexico, we’ve compiled an overview of lead stories from last week’s national newspapers.

Victims of violence receive support from the government
According to El Universal, last Thursday, Marcelo Ebrard head of the Mexico City government, issued the first insurance cards for female victims of violence. The beneficiaries will receive 1,500 pesos per month for a year. The program provides economic support to the women who are victims of family violence so that they can fight their aggressor in court. In addition to financial support, the women will receive legal consultations and psychological support. Each case will receive immediate attention with applications never taking more than 48 hours and during this time, authorities will verify the health of the victim, make referrals to social workers and conduct investigations in the places where the presumed aggression was committed.

Mexico gives control of “tequila” to US

Exclusive to La Jornada, after many years of lagging production and sales, Mexico gave control of the term “tequila” to US business interests. For some time, the volume of production and sales in the tequila industry have not reflected prosperity for the originating region (Jalisco and part of Michoacán, Tamaulipas, Nayarit and Guanajuato) of the quintessential and beloved Mexican libation.

According to specialists, more than half of the Mexican market in tequila exports are in the hands of foreign companies. Last year, for the first time, US exceeded Mexico in volume of tequila sales, according to the Euromonitor International Inc. Back in January 2006, an agreement concerning tequila was signed by a representative of the US Commerce Department and the Secretaría de Económía de Mexico (Mexican Economy Department). This document ceded the commercialization and packaging of the product term “tequila” to the US. This effectively ended Mexico rights to supervise sale and exportation under the term of “tequila.”

New rules in Mexico pave the way for transgenic crops

As reported by OpEd News, after a three-year-long process, Mexico is about to clear the way for legal cultivation of transgenic crops, in spite of resistance from environmentalists and several small farmer associations.

The Rules for the 2005 Bio-safety Law on Genetically Modified Organisms were published Wednesday, and by the end of this year a national bio-safety system and special guidelines for experimental sowing of transgenic maize will be in place.

According to some scientists and the government, constructing this legal edifice was appropriate and necessary, as in their view it ensures legality and regulates the study, experimental planting, and potential sale of genetically modified (GM) crops.

Environmentalists refer to the Mexican biosafety law as the “Monsanto Law,” after the US biotech giant that is the world leader in transgenic seed production, which has publicly backed the legislation.

Miguel Colunga, leader of the Democratic Campesino Front of Chihuahua, a state in northern Mexico, says his country “is still in time to reverse” the authorization of GM crops. “Transgenic crops are not safe, and we will lose our sovereignty, because the GM seeds belong to just a few transnational corporations,” Colunga told IPS.

Kansas City Southern, (KCS), an international transportation holding company, and its affiliates that form the “NAFTA railway,” linking mid-America, Mexico and Canada is making its presence felt in San Miguel. Last month the company attempted to start construction on a three-kilometer railway extension through the residential areas Los Frailes, La Cañada and El Mirador. The project was stopped by the intervention by local residents and the Mayor’s office. Residents and parents of children at a nearby private school (Atabal), immediately organized a steering committee to halt construction of additional railroad tracks or any type of railway infrastructure in the quiet residential area.

Residents contend that the project generates negative repercussions. Three kilometers of trees would be cleared, and emigrants from Central America en route to work illegally in the US could disembark here, possibly leading to increased crime.

Residents claim that it would also cause visual and noise pollution, in addition to posing a danger of derailment next to homes and the school.

José Luis de la Hoz, a Los Frailes resident and member of the committee, said they will not allow any work of this kind in Los Frailes and adjacent neighborhoods. “We will seek legal recourse against the Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes (SCT, the federal Communications and Transport Department) if they authorize Kansas City Southern to continue with this work,” said De la Hos.

He reported that the committee has already appealed to Mayor Jesús Correa, who gave them his complete support. On February 21, Daniel Trujillo, head of the Public Security Department, along with several police officers, arrived at the Los Frailes railway with a cease-work order. A representative of the local Urban Development Department was already present and was charged with halting the work.

“According to constitutional article 15, the local government is autonomous and any construction work in the municipality has to be authorized by its Urban Development Department,” he explained. “Kansas City Southern did not have any authorization document to do this work. They also did not have authorization from SCT, the federal department that must authorize any work of this kind.”

De la Hoz said that in the face of threats and offensive behavior of some employees of KSC from the city of Querétaro, an American resident of Los Frailes reached the company’s president in the United States by phone after several attempts to explain the problem to him.

“We also spoke to Governor Juan Manuel Oliva, senator Luis Alberto Villarreal, and deputy Roberto Ruiz. They all gave us their support. The phone conversation with the company’s president in the US made possible a personal talk with José Zozaya, the president in Mexico, who, on March 17, came to Misión de los Ángeles Hotel to speak with about 100 residents of the three affected neighborhoods. He understood our concerns and admitted that the project was conceived at a desk using a computerized simulation program that indicated that that was the appropriate site to build the extension, but the area neighborhoods were not taken into consideration. He promised that the company would look for another place to build the track. I personally trust him,” said De la Hoz. However, he reiterated that the committee will not allow any work of this kind.

As we go to press, work remains suspended.

Kansas City Southern is an international transportation holding company comprised of three primary railroads: The Kansas City Southern Railway Company (KCSR), Kansas City Southern de Mexico (KCSM) and Panama Canal Railway Company (PCRC).

KCS provides a wide variety of shippers, from the local farmer to major manufacturers around the world.

· Headquartered in Mexico City, KCSM operates a rail system of 2,645 track miles, serving northeastern and central Mexico and the port cities of Lazaro Cardenas and Tampico, among others.

· A primary Mexican rail line, KCSM provides a direct connection between the US and the industrial heartland of Mexico known as the International Intermodal Corridor.

· Kansas City Southern Mexico plans to invest over $200 million in capital in 2008.

· The planned 2008 investment will be in addition to more than $1.7 billion already invested over the past 10 years, and is part of a new series of investments in Mexico, which began last year.