MEXICO CITY (AP) — Schools in Mexico have six months to implement a government-sponsored ban on junk food or face heavy fines, officials said Monday, as authorities confront what they call the worst childhood obesity problem in the world.
The rules, published on Sept. 30, target products that have become staples for two or three generations of Mexican school kids: sugary fruit drinks, chips, artificial pork rinds and soy-encased, salty peanuts with chili.
School administrators who violate the order will face fines equivalent to between $545 and $5,450, which could double for a second offense. That could amount to nearly a year’s wages for some.
Mexico's children have the highest consumption of junk food in Latin America and many get 40% of their total caloric intake from it, according to the U.N. children’s agency, which has called child obesity there an emergency.
Authorities say about one-third of Mexico's children are overweight or obese.
Previous attempts to implement laws against junk food have met with little success.
A survey of over 10,000 schools carried out between 2023 and 2024 found that junk food was available in 98% of them, with sugary drinks in 95% and soft drinks in 79%. Ads for junk food were found in 25% of schools.
New President Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday that schools will have to offer water fountains and alternative snacks, like bean tacos.
“It is much better to eat a bean taco than a bag of potato chips,” Sheinbaum said. “It is much better to drink hibiscus flower water than soda.”
However, the vast majority of Mexico's 255,000 schools do not have free drinking water available to students. According to a report in 2020, the effort to install drinking fountains succeeded in about 10,900 of the country’s schools, or about 4%. Many schools are in areas so poor or remote that they struggle to maintain acceptable bathrooms, internet connection or electricity.
Mexico instituted front-of-package warning labels for foods between 2010 and 2020 to advise consumers about high levels of salt, added sugar, excess calories and saturated fats. Some snack foods carry all four warning labels.
But under the new rules, schools will have to phase out any product containing even a single warning label from their snack stands.
It wasn't immediately clear how the government would enforce the ban on the sidewalks outside schools, where vendors usually set up tables of goods to sell to kids at recess; 77% of schools in the recent survey had such stands outside.
FILE - A street vendor sells sweet snacks in Mexico City, July 5, 2016. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo, File)
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) —
A Texas man whose execution was halted will not appear to testify at state Capitol following objections to transporting him from prison, officials announced Monday.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Texas man whose execution was halted after a last-ditch maneuver by lawmakers who believe Robert Roberson did not kill his 2-year-old daughter was expected to testify before a state House panel on Monday, four days after he had been scheduled to die by lethal injection.
Roberson had been set to become the first person in the U.S. executed over a murder conviction connected to a diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome. His claims of innocence are backed by a group of Republican and Democratic legislators who say he was convicted based on outdated science.
Once Roberson testifies to lawmakers, prosecutors could seek a new execution date at any time, according to Gretchen Sween, one of his attorneys.
Lawmakers have sought to have Roberson transported from death row to appear in person, raising the possibility of an extraordinary scene in the Texas Capitol, but the state attorney general's office told the committee he would appear virtually.
Committee members were continuing to push for Roberson to appear in person and that it is a requirement of his subpoena, according to Sween.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's office said the Texas Supreme Court should throw out the subpoena, writing that the House committee has “stepped out of line” in their first public statement on the case.
Rebuffed by the courts and Texas’ parole board in their efforts to spare Roberson’s life, legislators last Thursday subpoenaed Roberson to testify in an unusual tactic to buy him more time. Lawmakers on the House committee have expressed frustration with Texas' junk science law, which they say has failed to work as intended, including in Roberson's case.
The 2013 law allows a person convicted of a crime to seek relief if the evidence used against them is no longer credible. At the time, it was hailed by the Legislature as a uniquely future-proof solution to wrongful convictions based on faulty science. But Roberson’s supporters say his case points to faults in the judicial system where the law has been weakened by deliberate misinterpretation from the state’s highest criminal court.
In the last 10 years, 74 applications have been filed and ruled on under the junk science law. A third of applications were submitted by people facing the death penalty. All of them were unsuccessful.
Anderson County District Attorney Allyson Mitchell, whose office prosecuted Roberson, has previously told the committee that a court hearing was held in 2022 in which Roberson’s attorneys presented their new evidence to a judge, who rejected their claims.
Roberson was sentenced to death for the killing of his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis, in 2002. Prosecutors argued the infant's death was caused by serious head trauma from being violently shaken back and forth. Roberson's attorneys say that the bruising on Curtis' body was likely due to complications with severe pneumonia and not child abuse.
Almost 90 lawmakers across party lines, medical experts and best-selling author John Grisham had called on Republican Gov. Greg Abbott to stay his execution. Abbott has not commented on Roberson's case and the Texas parole board rejected pleas to grant clemency.
Lathan is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
Texas state representatives Lacey Hull, left, and John Bucy III comment during a press conference after the stay granted by the Texas Supreme Court to halt the execution of Robert Roberson, at the Huntsville Unit of the Texas State Penitentiary, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024, in Huntsville, Texas. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)
Jennifer Martin, left, and Thomas Roberson, older brother of condemned prisoner Robert Roberson, right, holds signs as they protest outside the prison where Roberson is scheduled for execution at the Huntsville Unit of the Texas State Penitentiary, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024, in Huntsville, Texas. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)
Texas man whose execution was halted by subpoena set to testify to lawmakers
Texas man whose execution was halted by subpoena set to testify to lawmakers
FILE - Texas lawmakers meet with Robert Roberson at a prison in Livingston, Texas, Sept. 27, 2024. (Criminal Justice Reform Caucus via AP, File)
