Monday, September 8, 2025

Residents fined for filling Oaxaca city potholes: they didn’t have a permit

Repair a pothole on a Oaxaca city street and you’re likely to get fined for it: filling baches, as they’re called, requires a permit.

Citizens who took it upon themselves to fix gaping holes in city streets were fined earlier this month for not having obtained the proper permits. Now they are demanding that authorities get the job done.

“We are an example of everything that a city should not be. A group of citizens covered a pothole and the municipal authority fined them,” said Jorge González Ilescas, a citizens’ representative. “The mayor has not visited this area because he has no intention of participating in its recovery.”

The municipal government’s efforts at patching the potholes amount to little more than filling them with dirt and stones, which is not a viable or lasting fix, citizens argue.

“There is not a single street in the city of Oaxaca, the metropolitan area of ​​Xoxocotlán and Santa Lucía del Camino or San Jacinto Amilpas that is free of damage,” said Rubén, a taxi driver.

“We are waiting for the government’s response because it is the same everywhere. If we go through Nuño del Mercado it is ugly … the lower part of the IV Centenario bridge is a swimming pool. Periférico, Miguel Cabrera, Avenida Central and Manuel Ruiz, they are impassable,” he says, arguing that the temporary repairs the city does last only a few days.

“The main reasons why our streets are destroyed is first due to heavy rains, secondly because of the terrible work of previous administrations and because [the state water utility] does not do their job well,” Mayor Oswaldo García Jarquín said.

However, Governor Alejandro Murat made it clear this week that the responsibility for repairing city streets lies with the municipal government. “The potholes in the cities are the responsibility of the municipalities,” he said.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Have something to say? Paid Subscribers get all access to make & read comments.
mechanical robot "dog" with rifle in Zacatecas, Mexico

Rifle-wielding DogBot joins Zacatecas’ US $53M security arsenal

3
The state of Zacatecas unveiled a new 1-billion-peso police command center last week and announced the acquisition of a DogBot that can carry an assault weapon.
man spraying crops

Mexico finally bans DDT, along with 34 other pesticides

1
That Mexico waited so long after its hazards were exposed to ban DDT has bewildered even Agriculture Minister Julio Berdegué, who called the delay "a Ripley's tale."
Accident between a train and passenger bus in México state

10 killed in bus-train collision northwest of Mexico City

3
Ten people were killed and 41 others were injured when a freight train slammed into a double-decker passenger bus in México state on Monday morning, the México state Civil Protection chief said.
BETA Version - Powered by Perplexity