The existing Mazatlán Aquarium will close in October.
The construction of Mazatlán’s new aquarium, Mexico’s first public-private project in the tourist sector, is 60% complete and plans to open in October, six months later than previously planned.
The cost of the project is predicted to total 1.4 billion pesos (US $72 million), 60% of which has come from Kingu Mexicana, the company owned by Mazatlán hotel magnate Ernesto Coppel Kelly. The remainder is being provided by the national infrastructure fund, Fonadin, and the Ministry of Tourism through the national fund for tourism promotion, Fonatur.
The new aquarium, located in the Parque Central, covers an area of 26,000 square meters and filling its tanks requires four million liters of water. It will include 19 exhibition rooms, four inner courtyards and a 240-person auditorium, and plans to exhibit 260 species.
“We were going at a good rhythm but the pandemic slowed us down because a lot of the providers, principally the international providers, halted their activities and the delivery of equipment and materials. On top of that, we had to adjust the cost of the project with a 22% increase of what was originally agreed, but those resources are from the private sector, the government won’t have to provide anything more,” said Kingu Mexicana representative, Guillermo Zerecero.
So far 67 companies from Sinaloa, 34 from other parts of Mexico and six international companies have been involved in the project.
“We are really excited because the aquarium is going to create a new international-level attraction for Mazatlán, and that will boost local economic activity which is what Mr. Ernesto Coppel Kelly was looking to do … We predict that each year it will receive 700,000 visitors, of which around 1,000 will be students who will enter free.
To be called the Acuario Mar de Cortés, or Sea of Cortés Aquarium, the facility will replace the existing Mazatlán Aquarium, which will close in October.
Puerto Vallarta is an international tourism destination that would fit Minister Clouthier's criteria for full vaccination of residents.
All adult residents of five tourism destinations would be vaccinated against Covid-19 before the summer vacation period under a plan proposed by the federal economy minister.
Tatiana Clouthier said Monday she had spoken with President López Obrador and proposed full vaccination in five as yet undetermined destinations in order to encourage more travel to Mexico over the summer.
“I believe that this will be fundamental as one of the initial measures [to reactivate tourism],” Clouthier said at a virtual economic forum.
“The president thought it was a very good idea, and we are [currently] determining what the five destinations will be,” she said.
The minister said the destinations chosen will be those where the local economies depend heavily on the tourism sector and have the capacity to attract international tourists.
Destinations that meet those criteria include Los Cabos, Baja California; Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco; and Cancún, Quintana Roo.
Clouthier also said the government is focusing more on promoting ecotourism because, as a result of the pandemic, many travelers are seeking nature-oriented vacations.
“People are looking for different tourism spaces, to be close to nature. … We’ve been working to promote some of these spaces — I’m going to call it ecological tourism, greener, more local tourism. … We’re working with [social media] influencers to promote these spaces,” she said.
Clouthier added that the government is advocating an increase in direct flights to tourism hotspots so that travelers don’t have to transit through third cities to reach their final destination.
Air travel to Mexico from the United States — the No. 1 source country for international tourists — is expected to recover strongly this summer as many U.S. citizens have already been vaccinated against Covid-19 and are keen to go on vacation. The number of flights that have been scheduled between the two countries for this summer is up 6% from 2019.
The vaccine rollout has been much slower in Mexico: as of Monday night, 14.36 million doses — 11 per 100 people — had been administered.
President López Obrador and United States President Joe Biden during a video conference call in March.
President López Obrador will ask United States President Joe Biden for the U.S. to legally and financially support the expansion of Mexico’s tree-planting employment program into Central American nations.
Central Americans who work in the Sembrando Vida (Sowing Life) scheme for three years would qualify for a United States work visa and could apply for U.S. citizenship after working in that country for six months annually during three consecutive years, according to the plan outlined by López Obrador in a video message filmed Sunday at his ranch in Palenque, Chiapas.
One of the Mexican government’s flagship programs, Sembrando Vida employs participants in planting new trees.
AMLO, as the president is commonly known, said that he will make the proposal to Biden at the Leaders Summit on Climate, which will be hosted virtually by the U.S. president this Thursday and Friday.
He suggested that the plan could be part of a regional migration agreement supported by Mexico, the United States and Canada, as well as Central American countries — from which large numbers of migrants are currently fleeing to seek asylum in the U.S.
After working in a United States-funded Sembrando Vida program in their country for three years, Central American participants would have the “automatic right” to a visa that would allow them to work in the U.S. for six months per year, López Obrador said.
“You go [to the U.S.] for six months and return to your town. After having a work visa for three years, with good behavior, you have the right to request United States citizenship,” he said.
“It’s about putting order to the migration flows, not rejecting [migrants at the border] and applying coercive measures.”
AMLO said the plan could help to put people smugglers out of business. He touted the benefits of Sembrando Vida in Mexico, saying that trees are being planted on 1 million hectares of land and that the program is supporting more than 400,000 jobs.
The participants, who are paid 4,500 pesos per month (US $227), are planting fruit trees and timber-yielding trees, López Obrador said.
“This helps to stop people migrating, and it helps the environment a lot — that’s the best thing,” he said. “… In three years, we could provide up to 1.3 million jobs to our Central American brothers and Mexicans in Chiapas, Campeche, Veracruz, Oaxaca and Tabasco,” he said.
The Mexican government has already supported the implementation of tree-planting schemes similar to Sembrando Vida in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. The United States is a large investor in development programs in Central America but has not specifically supported those programs.
After a telephone discussion in early March, López Obrador and Biden said in a joint statement that they had agreed to collaborate to “develop legal pathways for migration” in addition to cooperating to address the root causes of regional migration and to improve migration management.
Details of the new vaccine were presented last Tuesday at the president's press conference.
Media reports, including one by Mexico News Daily, were critical of the federal government for describing a new Covid-19 vaccine as a homegrown invention when it was actually developed in the United States.
But the national pride of President López Obrador and National Council of Science and Technology (Conacyt) director María Elena Álvarez-Buylla that was on display at a press conference last week was not unwarranted.
The vaccine candidate, to be called Patria, is indeed being developed in Mexico with technology from the Icahn School of Medicine in New York as well as a HexaPro protein developed by the University of Texas at Austin.
While the United States-developed technology and protein are crucial to the vaccine’s development, the role of a Mexican company making the vaccine is also critical.
The veterinary pharmaceutical firm Avimex – in alliance with Conacyt, a federally-funded agency, the Mexican Social Security Institute and the National Autonomous University – has been working on the development of the vaccine since March 2020.
Avimex said in a statement that it used existing technology from its veterinary influenza vaccine – which has been shown to be safe for humans – to develop an effective vaccine against Covid-19, which has claimed more than 300,000 lives in Mexico.
“After analyzing the technological platforms at its disposal, Avimex determined that a recombinant Newcastle disease virus (rNDV) has the potential for success for the Covid-19 vaccine,” the company said.
“The development of the Mexican Patria vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 is the result of a combination of different efforts and national and international, public and private, collaborations,” Avimex said.
“… This example of strategic and solidary cooperation is proof that our country has the necessary elements such as talent, ability and infrastructure to confront urgent challenges in health.”
Álvarez-Buylla said last Tuesday that the Patria vaccine could be granted emergency use authorization in late 2021. She also said that clinical trials with volunteers could begin later this month or in May.
The news agency Reuters reported that other versions of the vaccine, developed by researchers in those countries in conjunction with the U.S. institutes, will undergo clinical trials in Brazil, Thailand and Vietnam.
However, Avimex’s version is the only one to be tested that contains an active virus, according to a company spokeswoman. She said Avimex has developed its vaccine in the form of an intranasal spray as well as the more traditional injection.
The company said it intends to produce the vaccine on an industrial scale if it successfully passes clinical testing.
Its possible use is still more than six months away and Mexico hopes to have a majority of the population vaccinated before the end of the year but access to a cheap, Mexican-made vaccine would nevertheless be a boon. The government to date has relied on foreign-made vaccines, shipments of which have not always arrived when they were expected.
As of Sunday, more than 14.2 million vaccine doses had been administered in Mexico, mainly to seniors and frontline health workers. Only 8.9% of the population is vaccinated, according to The New York Times vaccinations tracker, and 3% is fully vaccinated, meaning that they have received both shots of two-dose vaccines or were inoculated with the CanSino vaccine, the only single-shot vaccine Mexico is using.
If you find onions in Mexican markets with the papery skin still on, grab 'em.
Here’s another odd thing I miss since moving to Mexico: onions sold with their skins on. Seems to me the papery skin keeps them fresher; they look kind of naked and vulnerable without it.
But more often than not, that’s how they’re sold. I look at the stem ends and try to find ones that aren’t brown and dried out.
Old onions don’t have the pungent flavor we’re looking for. When I do find “whole” onions, I’m always a little thrilled.
Without getting into smaller varieties or shallots, the three most common onion types — yellow, red or purple and white — have subtle flavor differences.
Yellow onions are the sweetest and have been bred for even more sweetness (think Walla Walla and Vidalia) and are the best for caramelizing or everyday use. They’re what gives classic French Onion Soup its distinctive flavor.
You can add some kick to these pickled onions with jalapeño.
White onions have an even milder flavor, with a more subtle sweetness. They’re what’s most commonly used in Mexican cooking and recipes, and while you can use any kind of onions in, say, salsa, white ones are traditional.
Red onions (my personal favorite), have a sharper flavor and more distinctive presence in recipes, whether cooked or raw. Plus, they have that distinctive purply-red color that I love!
In ancient Egypt, onions’ concentric rings and spherical shape symbolized eternal life, and traces of them have been found in burial tombs — and in the eye sockets of Ramesses IV.
We modern-day humans find a different, not quite as spiritual, effect on our eyes from onions, eh?
Dennis’s Pickled Onions
Variations of pickled onions are eaten all over the world.
2 cups julienned red onion (1 big one)
2 cups rice wine or apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup sugar
Pinch salt
Optional: minced fresh jalapeño
In a pot, combine sugar, salt and vinegar. Bring to a boil. Place onions (and jalapeño if using) in a deep bowl or container. Pour pickling liquid over onions.
Allow to cool to room temperature, then refrigerate.
Crispy Potato, Onion & Mushroom Rösti
3 medium russet potatoes, cut into 1/16 -inch matchsticks or grated
5 Tbsp. olive oil
1 cup julienned onion
½ cup button mushrooms, finely sliced
2 cloves garlic, grated
2 tsp. fresh cilantro, parsley or thyme leaves
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Spread potatoes on microwave-safe plate and microwave on high until softened but still slightly crisp, about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, heat 1 Tbsp. oil in large non-stick or cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat.
Mexicanize this German classic potato and onion dish by adding a few sprigs of cilantro to the recipe.
Add onion and mushrooms and cook, stirring, until softened and starting to brown, about 8 minutes. Add garlic and herbs; cook 30 seconds. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to small bowl; wipe out skillet.
Heat 2 Tbsp. oil in same skillet over medium heat.
Add half of potatoes; press into bottom of pan with rubber spatula. Season with salt and pepper. Spread onion/mushroom mixture evenly over potatoes and top with remaining potatoes.
Press down into an even disk shape using a rubber spatula. Season again with salt and pepper. Cook, shaking pan occasionally, until deep golden brown and crisp on the first side, about 7 minutes.
Carefully slide rösti onto large plate. Turn it upside down by setting another plate onto it and inverting the whole thing so rösti is now cooked side up.
Heat remaining 2 Tbsp. oil in skillet and slide rösti back in. Continue cooking, swirling and shaking pan occasionally, until deep golden brown and crisp on the second side, about 7 minutes longer. Slide rösti onto a cutting board. Serve immediately with a side of aioli or mayo for dipping.
Fresh Tomato & Caramelized Onion Jam
A bit time-consuming but worth the effort!
2 medium yellow onions, julienned
1 Tbsp. butter
6 roma tomatoes, peeled, cored, seeded, finely chopped
½ cup white sugar
¼ cup grated piloncillo or brown sugar
2 Tbsp. fresh lemon or lime juice
2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. red pepper flakes
Melt butter in large, heavy-bottomed saucepan over high heat. Add onions and cook, stirring frequently, until bottom of saucepan is glazed with pale brown bits, about 5 minutes. Add 2 Tbsp. water and stir bits off the pan with wooden spoon. Don’t let it burn!
Continue cooking and stirring until bits and glaze build up again, about 2 minutes more. Add another 2 Tbsp. water and scrape up browned bits. Repeat cooking, adding water, scraping and stirring until onions are a deep, dark brown and completely softened, about 15 minutes total.
Add tomatoes, sugars, citrus juice, vinegar, salt and red pepper flakes to onions. Bring mixture to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until tomatoes break down and mixture thickens and develops a jammy consistency, about 1–1½ hours. Transfer to airtight containers and store in refrigerator for up to two weeks, or ladle into sterilized jars and process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.
Why not throw some onions onto the grill at your next barbecue? They’re a great side to just about any meat.
Grilled Onions
Some might call these the secret to the best tacos
Brush sliced onions with oil and place on hot side of grill.
Cook until charred on both sides and slightly softened, 4-5 minutes per side.
Transfer to cutting board.
Roughly chop or serve whole as an accompaniment to any grilled meat.
The 100-peso note, with Sor Juana on one side and monarch butterflies on the other.
The Sor Juana 100-peso bill has been named banknote of the year for 2020 by the International Bank Note Society (IBNS).
As printer and issuer of the note, the Bank of México beat 24 other nominees to the award, and the Sor Juana bill led the way from the start of the voting process.
The note features national heroine Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, with the monarch butterfly biosphere reserve on its reverse.
Born in 1651, Sor Juana was a self-educated nun and intellectual renowned for her poetry, writing and political activism, who criticized the misogyny of colonial Mexico.
In its announcement the IBNS wrote: “Mexico’s award-winning entry may provide a template as other countries reconsider how they design and promote new banknotes. The successful design in eye-pleasing red combines Hispanic architecture, a famous female Hispanic literary figure and a tribute to the world’s fragile ecosystem.”
Other popular notes included Scotland’s tea room 20-pound note, the Bahamas’ carnival five-dollar bill, Northern Ireland’s 20-pound street musicians banknote and Fiji’s 50-dollar bill celebrating 50 years of independence.
Past bank note of the year recipients include Aruba, Canada, Uganda, the Faroe Islands, two time winner Switzerland and three time winner Kazakhstan, among others.
One concern cited in the report was the government's continued use of soldiers for everyday public security tasks despite the agency's recommendations.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has criticized the Mexican government for failing to guarantee the human rights of a wide range of people last year.
In its 2020 annual report, the IACHR said the government didn’t implement the measures needed to protect the rights of women, children and adolescents, indigenous people, migrants, prisoners, human rights defenders, journalists and members of the LGBTI community.
The commission charged that there is no strategy to prevent sexual assaults on women by members of security forces and there is a lack of mechanisms to sanction discrimination against indigenous people. It criticized the government for not carrying out adequate consultation processes with indigenous communities to gauge their opinion about large-scale infrastructure projects such as the new Mexico City airport, the Maya Train and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec trade corridor.
The commission also said the government hasn’t fully complied with many of the recommendations it made in order to reduce abductions, acts of torture and extrajudicial killings; improve Mexico’s security situation and make it easier for citizens to access justice.
One of its recommendations was to gradually withdraw the military from the streets, where it has been carrying out public security tasks for more than a decade. Instead, President López Obrador signed a decree last May that ordered the armed forces to continue patrolling the streets until early 2024.
Another recommendation was to strengthen the nation’s police forces. But data shows that almost half of Mexico’s municipal and state police officers are not officially certified as required by the law and shouldn’t be working, while the numbers are even worse at the federal level.
The commission questioned why there is no established protocol for abductions committed by security force members to be investigated by independent experts and noted that there is no national registry with information about located hidden graves and unidentified human remains.
The IACHR acknowledged that there are structures in place in Mexico to protect human rights but violations continue to occur regardless.
“The challenge of the Mexican state is to close the gap that exists between its legal framework and its recognition of human rights with the reality that a large number of inhabitants experience,” it said.
Mexico needs to “redouble its efforts” to prevent human rights violations, the commission added.
Of particular concern, the IACHR said, was the high number of abductions and homicides that were not properly investigated. “Structural impunity” in Mexico encourages the repetition of crimes that violate people’s human rights, it said.
The publication of the IACHR report comes just after Amnesty International (AI) released its own damning report on human rights violations in Mexico.
In Mexico City and México state, chances are one in four that it's stolen.
Fourteen percent of liquid petroleum gas (LP) distributed in Mexico in 2020 was sold by criminal gangs in Mexico City and the state of México, according to the Mexican gas association (Amexgas).
Amexgas estimates 23,000 robberies from the pipelines of the state oil company Pemex occurred last year, amounting to 100,000 tonnes of gas per month.
The gangs steal gas trucks to move the extracted gas, a small part of which is sold in the same area, with the far larger proportion transported to the state of México and Mexico City.
The gangs block the distribution of established gas companies and take over by charging for the right of access. They also sell the black market gas far below market price through traditional distribution channels, and are attempting to take control of more pipelines.
The thefts are concentrated in 10 states — Mexico City, the state of México, Puebla, Veracruz, Hidalgo, Tlaxcala, Querétaro, Guanajuato, Jalisco and Tamaulipas, accounting for up to 25% of the product sold.
“There are confrontations between groups that are escalating, on top of that other groups are being created which defend smaller territories and are starting to charge for right of access,” said one distributor who requested anonymity.
The president of Amexgas, Carlos Serrano, explained that the problem has existed for 20 years, but has intensified sharply.
“If you add together the thefts of the 12 years from 2000 to 2012 they total around 5,000. If there were 23,000 just last year, you can get an idea of the situation that we are experiencing,” he said.
There have been 83,000 thefts since 2000, 60% of which occurred in the past three years.
Serrano explained that the value of what is stolen from Pemex in a single year would be enough to pay off all its debt, and that regular users and companies are affected, like tortillerías, bakeries, restaurants and hotels.
“They are putting the Mexican population at risk because these companies don’t have either the interest or the responsibility to comply with the proper procedures. Additionally, this illegal industry is pushing out formal jobs…they are pushing out companies through gangs, threats and extortion,” he said.
Serrano concluded that criminality creates uncertainty in the energy sector, and shows a lack of respect to the rule of law, which prevents economic and societal growth.
The crew, ranging in age from 19 to 57, were the only members of the Zapatista community willing to undertake the journey by boat. Here they are on a replica of the vessel.
The Zapatistas, a Maya political and militant group best known for staging an uprising in Chiapas in 1994, are preparing for another ambitious undertaking: an ocean voyage to Europe in a so-called zapalancha, or “Zapa-boat.”
According to the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), a boat officially called La Montaña (The Mountain) will set sail on May 3 from “a port of the Mexican republic.”
The voyage to Europe is expected to take six to eight weeks, EZLN leader Subcomandante Moisés said in a statement posted online.
Seven EZLN members — four women, two men and one person of indeterminate gender — will crew the vessel, a replica of which was built in a Zapatista community in Chiapas, substantial parts of which are controlled by the Zapatistas. It is unclear if they have any prior experience on the high seas.
“… [The crew members] will remain in quarantine for 15 days … to ensure that they are not infected with the so-called Covid-19 and so that they can prepare” for the voyage, Subcomandante Moisés said in the statement posted online on April 10.
An ELZN video describes the planned voyage.
“… During these two weeks, they will be living inside the replica of the vessel which we built for this purpose,” he said.
“… Starting April 15, 2021, from the 12 Zapatista caracoles [autonomous zones], our comrades … will be carrying out activities to say goodbye to the Zapatista delegation that, via sea and air, will travel to the geography they call ‘Europe,’” Subcomandante Moisés said.
“In this part [of our history], which we’ve called Travesía por la Vida, Capítulo Europa [Journey through Life, Europe Chapter], the Zapatista delegates will meet with those who have invited us to speak about our mutual histories, pain, anger, achievements and failures,” he said.
The EZLN has accepted invitations to meet with people in 30 European countries and territories, according to Subcomandante Moisés, among which are Germany, Denmark, Hungary, Italy, the United Kingdom, Cyprus, Sardinia, Catalonia, France, Russia and Poland.
An EZLN member said in a video message that the crew members have no fear of dying during the long voyage to Europe.
“We are Zapatistas, we are rebels. We’re not afraid of dying in the water. We’re prepared to live, to arrive wherever we arrive. We want to meet with the brothers and sisters of other countries because it’s necessary — it’s important — to show our autonomy,” he said.
A homemade wooden raft, upon which a transatlantic voyage wouldn’t be possible, appeared in that video, which was posted online in December.
However, La Montaña is a much larger, and hopefully sturdier, vessel. Still, a sea voyage to Europe appears to be a risky venture for the Zapatistas.
Indeed, the organization acknowledged that there wasn’t a great deal of enthusiasm to go to sea among the vast majority of its members.
Apart from the seven crew members, who range in age from 19 to 57, “no one wanted to travel by boat,” the EZLN said.
Hundreds marched in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, on Sunday to demand justice for Rodolfo, a mixed breed dog killed with an axe on March 21.
The predominantly young crowd marched to the state prosecutor’s office where environmental activist Arturo Islas Allende delivered a criminal complaint.
The demonstration gained traction after a video of the attack on Rodolfo, also known by Heart, Pirate and Shorty, was uploaded onto social media.
Many brought their pets to the march and carried placards demanding the killer be sentenced to prison. One placard read: “Justice for Rodolfo and for all those that don’t have a voice.”
The suspected attacker, José “M,” a student at a Sinaloa university, has already delivered a preparatory statement to officials.
Islas Allende questioned the morality of the killer. “We don’t want a psychopath like him as our neighbor,” he said.
The girlfriend of the alleged attacker took to social media in his defense, saying the dog had attacked her days earlier and injured her face and hands.
On her Facebook account she claimed that medical treatments for her injuries had cost 8,000 pesos (US $400) and uploaded photographs of the injuries caused by the dog’s bites.
