X Meeting of The Latin American Society of Tuberculosis and other Mycobacteriosis (SLAM-TB)

On behalf of the Mexican Society of Immunology (SMI), and the Latin-American Society of Tuberculosis and other Mycobacteriosis (SLAM-TB), it is a pleasure to invite and welcome you to the XXIV Congress of SMI and X Meeting of the SLAM-TB, which in this occasion and for the first time both Conferences will be virtual events. Monterrey city in the Northeast of Mexico was the original place where both Conferences should be held the last year, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic it was not possible and now both Congresses will be virtual meetings. Both Scientific Program Committees have organized an outstanding schedule of lectures and symposia that will provide you with the fundamental knowledge and the most recent advances in mycobacteriology and immunity in health and disease. Due to the solidarity and enthusiasm of our invited speakers, the new program is quite similar to the original one and in the case of the Mexican Congress of Immunology it was substantially improved by the participation of Dr. Buchner and Dr. Doherty, both Medicine Nobel Prize awarded scientists. Besides the integration of new symposiums of high relevance topics organized by colleagues with high academic profile and prestige.SLAMTB congregate a wide group of Latin-American microbiologists, molecular biologists, epidemiologists, immunologists and other researchers interested in the study of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and other related pathogens. SLAM-TB was founded in 2006 in Pucón Chile and its most important academical activity is this Meeting, in which numerous and active researchers in this field from diverse countries present and discuss their recent results, also well-known excellent researchers dictate conferences on the most relevant topics about tuberculosis.

The State of Emergency as an Instrument to Overcome Organized Crime and Vigilantes: A Comparative Study of Michoacán and Guerrero

In the period of 2009-2014, organized crime subjected all kinds of political authorities and benefited from impunity throughout Mexico, especially in Michoacán and Guerrero. This circumstance provoked a grave constitutional crisis since these authorities were meaningfully overridden and were not able to properly enforce the rule of law in these regions. These phenomena brought about the rise of self-defense groups from local civil societies, as a desperate measure to protect their most fundamental rights from ruthless crime. However, this uprising deepened the constitutional crisis, already experienced in these regions due to the calamitous activities of criminal organisations, because it implied the complete absence of the Mexican state to restore legal order. The present article argues that a formal declaration of emergency by the Mexican President, with the official approval of the Mexican Congress, would have solved efficiently the constitutional crisis that Michoacán, Guerrero and other regions were going through in this period, and would have competently discouraged the expectations of the local people to relay on vigilantes as their last resort to guarantee their fundamental rights in the face of organized crime. This argument is based on archive research, testimonies of people uploaded in video documentaries, the Mexican Constitution, the International Human Rights Law, the doctrine of constitutional dictatorship of Clinton Rossiter, and the legal doctrine on balance and deliberation of Robert Alexy.

Cabildeo de los grupos empresariales en el Congreso mexicano : LXII legislatura

This paper analyzes the business lobbying in the Mexican Congress during LXII Legislature, with Taxes and Telecommunication reform legislative processes as case studies. The argument is as follows: the signing of Pacto por México formed a stable legislative coalition between government and opposition, against which the business groups failed to articulate an effective strategy. In fact, their participation was isolated and contradictory, therefore their influence was limited.

Mexico

There have been significant changes to Mexican law recently that have provided prosecutors updated and enhanced tools to combat corruption. In May 2015, the Mexican Congress and the states approved a constitutional amendment that created the National Anti-Corruption System, which was put into full force and effect in 2017. This supplemented and broadened the already existing anti-corruption laws in Mexico’s public procurement process. Now individuals and legal entities can be criminally liable for bribery of public officials in Mexico. In November 2014, Mexico City passed modifications to the criminal code making bribery an offense that can be committed by both individuals and legal entities and created an innovative approach to calculating penalties against companies. However, even though laws have changed, much remains to be done. The OECD noted that Mexico has fully implemented very few of the recommendations that it has made to eradicate corruption. Mexico still had no prosecutions or convictions for foreign bribery. Corruption is still common in Mexico, with the widespread use of “gestores” or intermediaries to navigate the bureaucracies responsible for issuing licenses and permits, shell companies owned by family members of government officials seeking a bribe, fictitious service providers, and improper gifting and excessive hospitality to employees of state-owned entities. With the new Lopez Obrador Administration’s anti-corruption plan, further changes are anticipated in public procurement by the creation of a central mechanism to manage and monitor public contracts to achieve greater transparency. The new administration has also committed to creating an autonomous Special Prosecutor’s Office to independently investigate and prosecute corruption cases and to implement additional restrictions on entertainment and gifts provided to public officials.