Friday, February 7, 2025

Mazatlán says restaurants can reopen; state warns it’s too early

The mayor of Mazatlán, Sinaloa, announced that the city’s restaurants will open with limited capacity on Sunday, sparking criticism and warnings from state health officials who say it’s still too early for such a move.

Mayor Luis Guillermo Benítez Torres wants eateries to open at 40% capacity so that families can celebrate Mother’s Day, but the state Health Ministry warned him that there are still too many active cases in the city to do so safely.

Of the 612 active cases of Covid-19 in Sinaloa, 83 are in Mazatlán, the location with the third highest number of cases in the state.

Benítez argued that municipal governments are autonomous, but state Health Minister Efrén Encinas Torres said that mayors are obliged to obey the nationwide preventative measures that are based on state and federal health laws.

He warned the mayor against the move, citing the severity of the crisis and the risks of not continuing to observe physical distancing measures.

A similar argument played out between state authorities in Nuevo León and the mayor of San Pedro Garza García, Miguel Treviño, who reinitiated public works projects in the municipality on Thursday.

Governor Jaime Rodríguez said that even the president is bound to abide by the federal mitigation measures, which clearly define essential and nonessential activities.

That state’s health minister, Manuel de la O Cavazos, expressed his preoccupation for the situation in Nuevo León, where Covid-19 cases “filled up a hospital” in a single day after 89 people were hospitalized Wednesday. That number was topped on Thursday, when 141 cases were admitted to medical centers in the state.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Facade of the Bank of Mexico

Bank of Mexico cuts interest rate to 9.5%

2
With a vote of 4-1, the central bank lowered Mexico's benchmark interest rate half a point, after five quarter-point cuts in 2024.
A calf with an ear tag stands in a field of cattle, like those waiting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border after a screwworm infection shut down exports for three months

Mexico resumes cattle exports to U.S. after screwworm scare

0
Over 200,000 cattle are waiting at the U.S. border, which has been closed to cows since a flesh-eating cattle parasite was found in southern Mexico last November.
View of a Xochimilco chinampa across a canal

Saving Xochimilco: The battle to preserve Mexico City’s ancient canals

2
Organizations like Humedalia are working to preserve Xochimilco's traditional agriculture and stop environmental degradation from unchecked tourism.