Trade activity in Baja California increased in both retail and wholesale in March, according to a Mexican agency.
The National Statistics and Geography Institute, or INEGI in Spanish, said sales income in retail trade climbed 19.7 percent during the third month of the year compared to March of 2015.
This is the second largest increase in the northern border and the eleventh nationwide, the agency said.
According to the report, salaries increased only 5.4 percent and employment did 7.7 percent.
Wholesale trade advanced 11.6 percent in sales income while salaries did it only 2.9 percent.
Employment on the wholesale trade sector increased 8.3 percent, according to INEGI.
Baja California’s retail trade has increased for 18 consecutive months and wholesale trade 13 months.
Without providing details, the state Secretary of Economic Development said some specific trade subsectors observed a lower increase due to an augmentation in competitors and dollar price increase.
American fugitive arrested
A man whom U.S. authorities have been searching for was arrested Tuesday by state Ministerial police officers, said the Attorney General’s office.
The agency said police officers arrested Edgar De Jesús Espinoza, 23, out of Los Angeles, at Fraccionamiento Misión del Angel in southern Mexicali.
After receiving a report from U.S. authorities, police agents arrived at Abadía Avenue and Tule Street where they observed an individual who was acting suspiciously.
After observing the police officers the suspect attempted to flee, but was detained.
Police agents contacted the U.S. Marshals Service to confirm the suspect’s identity.
Espinoza had an active arrest warrant for crimes related to transportation and sale of controlled substances, as well as for probation violation.
The suspect was transported to the Mexican National Immigration Institute to proceed with his deportation and delivery to U.S. authorities.
Political parties comply with law
Members of the General Council with the State Electoral Institute ruled that most political parties complied with a provision in state law that mandates gender-equality in candidate nominations.
Council Chair Javier Garay said the board made the decision based on a ruling from a regional office of the Federal Electoral Court regarding an appeal filed against some of the nominees.
Electoral council members voted in favor of a resolution that declared most political parties complied with law in quantitative and qualitative terms.
State law mandates candidacies must be 50 percent for women and the other half for men. Also, the law indicates that districts and municipalities where a political party has had more votes must also be distributed equally.
The only exception during the election cycle was the Baja California Party, which was forced to replace the District V Assembly candidate.
National Action Party state chair José Ovando said before the council’s decision that the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI in Spanish, did not comply with law and was about to replace most of its candidates.
PRI state chair Chris López called his opponent’s arguments as half-truths and full-lies that seek only to impact citizen’s participation in campaign.
Jail proposed for those who abandon senior citizens
A state lawmaker introduced a bill that, if enacted, would imprison for up to three years those who abandon their aged parents.
State Assemblyman Francisco Barraza, a Mexicali member of the Baja California Party, introduced a bill to amend the Penal Code to punish children who leave their 60-year-old parents and older at their own.
The proposal includes between one and three years in prison and losing inheritance rights for leaving their ill or disabled parents unattended.
The bill also includes provisions to allow the Comprehensive Family Development Department, or DIF in Spanish, to file lawsuits against violators.
“As of today the Penal Code sets as a crime children or ill people abandonment, but does not include senior citizens,” Barraza said. “Without a doubt the abandonment of a senior citizen remains unpunished.”
He went on to say that in many cases the elderly are victims of abuse and violations to their human rights for decades.
Even though the state and the country have worked in the issue senior citizens are still on risk of suffering the negative consequences of prejudiced perceptions, whose effects lead to unemployment, abandonment, and the denial of opportunities and fundamental rights, he said.
The state is home to 269,000 residents of 60 and older, who represent 8 percent of the state’s population.
Official projections estimate an increasing number of senior citizens living in Baja California in the next years, who will demand more benefits from state agencies.
According to statistics from the National Council of Social Development Policy Evaluation, 43 percent of Mexican senior citizens are poor and lack the income to purchase goods and services to cover their personal expenses.
