Mexico City – Mexico’s new government is yet to take office, but it has already reignited a fierce debate on women’s reproductive rights that could end in a polarising referendum.

Shortly after a landslide victory by left-wing politician Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in the July 1 presidential elections, his to-be interior minister drew both praise and criticism when she declared herself in favour of abortion rights.

Olga Sanchez Cordero, who is expected to become the first woman to hold the position when she takes office on Saturday, said she supports the decriminalisation of abortion.

She also said she would favour a “judicial mechanism” to release women currently in prison for either having an abortion or assisting in one, hinting at a possible amnesty.

Her comments infuriated the country’s conservatives, especially because abortion rights was not one of Lopez Obrador’s campaign promises.  

AMLO, as he is known in Mexico, ran on a three-party coalition which included the ultra right-wing party Partido Encuentro Social. During his campaign, he said he plans to put abortion rights up for referendum, but has not provided any details. 

“What we’re seeing is a legislative agenda that is not the one 30 million people who voted for Lopez Obrador asked for,” says Leonardo Garcia Camarena, vice president of a large conservative activist group Frente Nacional por la Familia. 

“It is being imposed against the will of the Mexican people; it’s being forced on us,” he told Al Jazeera.

The Frente, which brings together smaller, local groups across the country, rallied supporters on October 20 and marched to AMLO’s offices demanding he rescind Sanchez Cordero’s appointment.

But Sanchez Cordero found support from some female politicians. In the last two months, three different proposals to decriminalise abortion have been submitted in Congress, as well as one in the Senate.

While the proposals’ details vary, they all look to reform the country’s criminal code and health law to effectively override local legislation and force individual states to provide free and safe abortions. The proposals are awaiting discussion.

‘Second-class citizens’

Mexico City is the only state out of 32 in the country where a woman can terminate her pregnancy legally and free of charge before the 12-week mark.

In the rest of the country, a woman can legally get an abortion within the same timeframe if a doctor determines her life is at risk or if she can prove that she was raped, which women find very difficult to do.

“People have stopped paying attention to Mexico because the capital city is considered one of freedoms, but the rest of the country is excluded,” said Regina Tames, director of think-tank Grupo de Informacion en Reproduccion Elegida, or GIRE, which also provides free legal defence to women who face prison time for abortion. 

“The city doesn’t represent the majority,” she told Al Jazeera.

Data on the impact of illegal abortions is hard to find. Most recent figures from the country’s statistics agency, Inegi, show that from 2002 to 2016, 624 women died from getting an illegal abortion.

But the figure underrepresents the reality, as deaths stemming from complications (such as hemorrhages or infections) are not recorded in the “death by abortion” category.

In a 2017 report that spans 10 years of data, the Mexico City government said that the majority of the women who had abortions in the capital were residents, though women from every other state in the country travelled to get an abortion there, highlighting a demand for the practice across a country of 61 million women.

“This effectively makes us second class citizens,” says Francisca Duarte, sociologist and member of the feminist organisation Observatorio Feminista Clara Zetkin in the northern state of Sonora, located some 2,000km away from the capital city.

“There are women in the central region of the country that enjoy rights that the rest of us don’t.”

In Sonora, 19 people have been sentenced for having an abortion or assisting in one since 2008, according to data from the state prosecutor compiled by a local outlet. At least 75 others have been investigated.

After Sanchez Cordero’s remarks, Duarte’s organisation presented a letter to the local congress, asking politicians to revert a decade-old ruling that defines life at conception.

Politicians in at least 10 other states in Mexico have proposed new legislation either for or against decriminalisation since AMLO’s presidential win.

Pushing for a reform

Tames’s organisation, GIRE, is offering guidance to local politicians interested in passing legislation to decriminalise abortion, even providing model laws that comply with the recommended international standards approved by the UN, as well as other organisations.

She argues that amnesty for those currently incarcerated for crimes related to abortions would not guarantee women who have an abortion in the future will not end up in jail and would therefore be a temporary solution to a long-term problem. 

And, because Mexico is a federation and the individual states have their own constitutions and laws, pushing for decriminalisation at the federal level would not automatically force them to provide safe abortions as a health service.

Abortion rights groups are therefore pushing for a reform of the country’s health law and criminal code that would effectively force the states to either comply or fight back in the courts.

The process can be long, explains Tames, and considering that AMLO’s Morena party won a majority in 19 of the 26 local congresses that held elections last summer, there is a possibility these states will back a federal reform.

“It would be disheartening to see, six years from now, that the law didn’t change,” Tames says, referring to AMLO’s term as president and his party’s current influence in local governments as a real opportunity for change.

If the law stays the same “it would give us reason to pause and think about how Mexico truly sees its women”. 

Many ctivists on both sides of the abortion debate believe a referendum is a bad idea. For Tames, people’s rights should be guaranteed by the state regardless of people’s opinions.

Incoming interior minister Sanchez Cordero said in an event on Sunday that “people’s rights are not up for referendum, they are merely recognised”.

On the other side is Garcia Camarena, who argues that referendums are not a realiable mechanism and any results will lack credibility. He would not trust them.

Polarisation, while unnecessary, seems inevitable, says Juan Dabdoub, head of the conservative non-governmental organisation Consejo Mexicano de la Familia, which lobbies against decriminalisation.

“This is happening all over the world and it’s reached us now,” he added. “If what we wanted was for the country to come together and be peaceful then we’re starting off on the wrong foot.”

G-20

After meeting with Trump, Argentina’s president had to downplay a White House readout that described China’s economic behavior as “predatory.”

A routine White House press statement describing a run-of-the-mill meeting Friday between President Donald Trump and Argentine President Mauricio Macri caused an unexpected diplomatic dust-up when it attacked China’s economic behavior as “predatory.”

The word choice, while common for the Trump administration, set off alarm bells for Argentine officials who are hosting Chinese President Xi Jinping as part of the G-20 leaders summit, where the two countries will sign a trade pact. Argentina has also courted billions in investment from Beijing over the past decade, and is hoping to announce on Sunday the completion of an $8 billion deal to build a nuclear power plant.

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Argentine chancellor Jorge Faurie attempted to walk back the White House statement, telling reporters that the tone of the meeting was “extremely cordial.”

“I don’t think there was a reference [to China] in those terms,” said Faurie, according to Argentine daily La Nación. The White House was not immediately available for comment.

In a statement released earlier in the day, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders had said: “Today, prior to the start of the G20 Summit President Trump and President Macri met over breakfast to reaffirm the strong partnership between the United States and Argentina. The two leaders reiterated their shared commitment to face regional challenges like Venezuela and predatory Chinese economic activity.”

The White House wording could be seen as a mere jab in the ongoing U.S.-China trade spat that has led to escalating tariffs between the two nations. The rest of the statement was relatively standard, noting, for instance, “the two leaders reiterated their shared commitment to face regional challenges like Venezuela,” before mentioning China.

But the Trump administration is also increasingly worried about the growing influence of China in Latin America. China’s incursion in the region has caused some countries to align with Beijing — in May, the Dominican Republic severed ties with Taiwan, the self-governing island that remains unrecognized by China.

Macri has collaborated with Xi, as well. China has invested $18.2 billion in Argentina — mostly in infrastructure — over the past decade.

But Argentina has sought to court these investments without upsetting the U.S., the other half of one of the world’s biggest geopolitical rivalries. To that effect, Washington and Buenos Aires signed an energy cooperation agreement on Friday.

Still, Trump’s behavior during the trip — his first foray into Latin America — has caused other “annoyances” for Macri, according to local media. Trump was late to his morning meeting and dropped his translation headset on the floor, complaining, “I understood you better in your language than in the interpretation.”

The president also left Macri alone onstage during a photo-op where he was greeting leaders, reportedly because of a miscommunication.

Andrew Restuccia contributed to this report

Tijuana, Mexico – As heavy downpours Thursday night flooded the already unsanitary encampment in Tijuana’s northern side where thousands of Central American asylum seekers are being housed, authorities began moving small groups to a new government-run indoor shelter, 20km east of the US-Mexico border.

A total of 700 out of the 6,000 people sheltered at the Benito Juarez sports complex were transported in buses to the new facility. 

Buses arrived on Friday morning to transport others, but many expressed scepticism due to the distance the new shelter is from the border.

The rain had turned most of the camp to mud, flooded tents and forced some migrants and refugees to move out of the shelter and onto neighbouring streets where concrete floors made for better sleeping ground.

Living conditions for migrants and refugees are getting worse and wait times for the asylum process are increasingly drawn-out, exasperating Tijuana officials and migrants.

Mirna Contreras was sitting in her tent waiting out the rain on Thursday afternoon. She said she was sad because she didn’t have enough money to rent a room in a local hotel.

“My tent is slowly flooding. It’s really cold at night and I have a bad cold,” she told Al Jazeera.

Children walked barefoot through the mud and puddles that gathered in the eastern part of the camp that was originally a baseball field. On Thursday, UNICEF said it was concerned about the nutrition, education and health of the migrant and refugee children. 

Unsustainable situation

Tijuana’s Government Secretary Leopoldo Guerrero confirmed the new shelter is spacious enough to house all of the migrants and refugees. But he said the city government is struggling to meet the need for resources including clothes, medicine and food. 

The government expects about 4,000 more migrants to arrive in the city in the coming months.

“Tijuana needs the federal government to step in because the current situation isn’t sustainable. We need the federal government to take over the total control of the migrant shelters, including costs,” he told Al Jazeera.

Guerrero said the city spends about $27,119 each day on food, water, clothes and services for migrants and refugees.

The initial group of migrants and refugees who left Honduras more than a month ago arrived in Tijuana in mid-November. Thousands more from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico have joined subsequent groups. 

Many say they are fleeing violence, extreme poverty and political persecution.

Humanitarian crisis

In late November, Tijuana mayor Juan Manuel Gastelum declared the situation a humanitarian crisis and asked the United Nations for aid to help the city deal with the influx of people wishing to apply for asylum in the United States.

Rights groups accused US President Donald Trump of creating the crisis at the border by taking extreme measures against the migrants and refugees, including sending thousands of US troops to the border. 

On Friday, US officials said the number of troops would be cut from 5,600 to 4,000, but the deployment may be extended through the end of January, Reuters news agency reported. 

Many accuse the US government of stalling the number of asylum applications it accepts, an allegation officials deny. 

The new shelter in eastern Tijuana will be run by the Mexican federal immigration agency.

While the Tijuana government feels the financial pressure of maintaining the shelters, migrants and refugees are growing weary of the living conditions and wait times for asylum processing.

Migrants and refugees, with the help of aid groups, are managing their own informal numbering system that has kept track of more than 5,000 asylum seekers to date. Those at the bottom of the list expect to wait at least two months before getting a chance to file their asylum application with US authorities.

Nusli Antunez arrived to the shelter six days ago with her husband and, although she is hopeful she can secure asylum, she wants to get to work in Tijuana.

“We want to get out of here, rent a room and work,” she said.

Antunez was planning on going to a job fair organised for migrants and refugees by Mexico‘s Ministry of Labour.

She has asthma and although she admits that many migrants and refugees have to stay in the shelter because they can’t afford to rent a room, she doesn’t want to.

“Just look at the conditions we live in,” she said.

Meanwhile on Thursday, more than a dozen migrant women announced plans to go on a hunger strike to pressure Mexican and US authorities to speed up the processing of asylum claims.

When the group tried to walk towards the pedestrian border crossing where they planned on carrying out the strike, they were stopped by Mexican federal police that cited security concerns after a protest Sunday resulted in US border patrol agents throwing tear gas at migrants and refugees, including children, and a five-hour border shutdown.

As of Friday morning, 10 people, three migrants and seven human rights defenders are said to be on hunger strike near the pedestrian crossing known as the Chaparral. 

Adam Wells@adamwells1985Twitter LogoFeatured ColumnistNovember 30, 2018

John Minchillo/Associated Press

The Cincinnati Reds are moving on from center fielder Billy Hamilton after five seasons. 

Per C. Trent Rosencrans of The Athletic, Hamilton won’t be tendered a contract for 2019 by Friday’s 8 p.m. ET deadline. 

This article will be updated to provide more information on this story as it becomes available.

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