More than a year after closing, schools reopen in Campeche — with some doubts

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April 19, 2021

Teachers at a Campeche school at a meeting to prepare for the reopening of 137 primary schools in the state.

Campeche on Monday became the first state in Mexico to reopen schools more than a year after they closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

At least 137 public primary schools in rural, largely indigenous communities where poor internet connectivity makes studying online difficult were expected to welcome back some 5,900 students and 278 teachers.

Most teachers in Campeche, one of eight states that are currently low-risk green on the federal government’s coronavirus stoplight map, have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, but the decision to reopen schools nevertheless encountered some resistance.

The SNTE teachers union said that schools shouldn’t reopen until teachers have received both required vaccine doses and authorities can guarantee that appropriate virus mitigation measures are in place.

Miguel Augusto Palomo Cuevas, principal of a school in a rural community in the municipality of Carmen, said the state Education Ministry pledged to provide cleaning materials after the Easter vacation period but hasn’t met that commitment.

Palomo told the newspaper El Universal that it would be preferable to wait until the start of the 2021–2022 academic year, which will begin in August, because there is a lot of movement between Campeche and the neighboring states of Yucatán and Tabasco, neither of which is green on the stoplight map.

(Yucatán is currently high-risk orange while Tabasco is medium-risk yellow.).

“… I live in Mérida and work in Campeche,” Palomo said, adding that some other education workers travel from Yucatán and Tabasco for work.

Leonel Obed Dzul Canul, a Campeche teacher, said that he and his colleagues are keen to get back to school but agreed that the authorities must guarantee that teachers and students will be safe.

For his part, Campeche Education Minister Ricardo Koh Cambranis said that all the schools that are reopening were cleaned last week. He noted that not all students will go to school on the same days, explaining that half will attend one day and the other half the next day.

Koh said the Education Ministry will monitor the situation in the 137 schools over the next three weeks and if there is no evidence of the virus spreading, an additional 486 preschools, primary schools and middle schools will welcome back students in a second phase of the resumption of in-person classes. Private schools won’t reopen until a third phase, he said.

Campeche is Mexico’s least affected state in terms of both confirmed coronavirus cases and Covid-19 deaths. As of Sunday, the gulf coast state had recorded 9,193 of the former and 1,141 of the latter.

Source: El Universal (sp)

San Miguel Literary Sala hosts online events with film stars turned authors

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Michelle Aguilar

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April 19, 2021

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Actor Matthew McConaughey's memoir Greenlights came out in 2020 and reached the top of the New York Times bestseller list.

Although the pandemic forced them into an online virtual format this year, the San Miguel Literary Sala has come out of adversity swinging, scheduling a season of online events, including live, interactive interviews with authors more commonly known as Hollywood royalty: Tom Hanks and Matthew McConaughey.

The San Miguel Literary Sala — which hosts the annual San Miguel Writers Conference in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato — is hosting Hanks on April 23 in a virtual interview format.

McConaughey will be interviewed in the same manner on May 14.

For both events, viewers will also get to take advantage of a San Miguel Literary Sala tradition: a one-on-one interaction afterward with the author.

Typically, at the organization’s events, authors stay on stage and speak individually with audience members. Viewers will be able to recreate this experience online, getting a brief chance to converse with Hanks or McConaughey via video conferencing.

Actor Tom Hanks is promoting his debut short story collection Uncommon Type.

“It’s as close as we can come online to a book signing where individuals have the chance for a short personal chat with the author,” San Miguel Literary Sala executive director Susan Page said.

Hanks, more commonly known as an Academy Award-winning actor in blockbuster movies such as Saving Private Ryan, is promoting his debut short story collection Uncommon Type, a group of stories that all feature a typewriter in some way, sometimes minor, sometimes central.

According to author Stephen Fry, “The stories in Uncommon Type range from the hilarious to the deeply touching.”

Hanks will be interviewed by EJ Levy, a short story author who has won the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction.

McConaughey, who won the Oscar for the film Dallas Buyers Club, is promoting his memoir Greenlights, which reached the top of the New York Times bestseller list after it was released in 2020.

An unconventional memoir filled with a combination of raucous stories, outlaw wisdom and life lessons, author Lawrence Wright said of it, “This is a wildly unexpected and delightful book you can’t just read, you have to experience.”

McConaughey will be interviewed by fellow Texan Jamie Brickhouse, a comedic storyteller, memoirist and actor.

Tickets to the Hanks and the McConaughey interviews and an entire season of literary events for book lovers and workshops for writers of all levels being conducted online this year are available by going to the San Miguel Literary Sala website and clicking on “store” in the top horizontal menu.

Mexico News Daily

Youths get jail time after selling marijuana brownies on social media

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MND Staff

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April 19, 2021

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The four vendors of marijuana food products were sentenced to three years.

There will be no more “space cakes” for connoisseurs of pot-based delicacies in Sonora after four youths were jailed for selling marijuana brownies on Facebook and Instagram.

In a summary hearing on April 11 the four accepted the charges for crimes against health by way of small-scale drug dealing and were sentenced to three years in prison.

Under the accounts “Brownies,” “Magic Cakes” and “Space Cakes,” Tonatiuh “N.,” 29, Luis Carlos “N., 22, Kevyn Emmanuel “N.,” 18, and Ángela Amayrane “N.,” 21, sold the brownies online and delivered them by courier.

Police opened the case after a complaint by a parent, and information technology experts then determined the identities of the users behind the social media accounts.

Police then searched the homes of the four youths in Hermosillo where they found marijuana brownies, marijuana, cooking pots, ovens, flour, packaging, cell phones and cash.

Forensic doctors from the Attorney General’s Office said the use of marijuana in edible form generates intoxication, alters perception, and creates fear, panic, paranoia, dizziness, and other symptoms.

“We are putting out a warning to parents … whoever consumes … can not only become addicted, but can also gravely damage their health, and whoever sells it will not only commit the crime of drug dealing, but could also be responsible for murder, because of the poisonous properties of consuming foods containing marijuana,” read the message on the Twitter of Sonora’s attorney general.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Are Mexico’s iconic donkeys in danger of extinction?

By

Leigh Thelmadatter

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April 17, 2021

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Donkeys living the good life at the Burrolandia sanctuary in Otumba, México state. Most of 57 animals there are rescues. Alejandro Linares Garcia

Few images are more stereotypical of Mexico than a gray donkey carrying large bundles led by a guy in a large sombrero. But that reality has all but disappeared.

Is the donkey itself far behind?

The donkey is not native to Mexico, but its importance was established very early in the colonial period. There were no domesticated pack animals in Mesoamerica; a certain class of people did that job.

The Spanish quickly imported donkeys, which can carry up to four times their body weight and far more than any human.

The animals became indispensable in farming, trade and mining. Over time, a gray Mexican variety developed, not due to breeding but rather simple survival. As purely work animals, only the hardiest survived and bred.

Donkeys are long associated with Mexico, but they are not native to the country. They were actually brought here by Spanish colonists. Yanez

Donkeys are still an important symbol of Mexico’s agricultural past, representing strength, hard work and, yes, a lack of intelligence. (Poor students are classically called burros.)

The truth is, the donkey is intelligent. The stupid reputation comes from being disobedient, which happens when the donkey is mistreated, according to Raúl Flores of the Burrolandia donkey sanctuary in Otumba, México.

For over a decade, the Mexican media and even National Geographic in Spanish have reported that donkeys are in danger of extinction here. They base their assertion on data from Mexico’s census agency, Inegi, which states that there were 1.5 million of the animals in Mexico in 1991 but only 585,000 in 2007 and 300,000 in 2020.

However, the Veterinary School of the National Autonomous University (UNAM) disputes these findings. According to officials there, numbers have gone down significantly, but the animal is nowhere near extinction.

They estimate the donkey population to be somewhere around 3.2 million, based on a UN Food and Agriculture Organization report that ranks Mexico fourth in the world for donkey numbers.

Marian Hernández Gil, who coordinates the school’s donkey research and conservation efforts, said that the animals are still an indispensable part of sustainable agriculture in highly isolated areas of Mexico, areas in which it is impossible to travel or farm with vehicles or machines.

Donkey carrying milk. Juan Carlos Fonseca Mata

The school is still concerned about the donkey’s well-being in Mexico. UNAM partnered with the United Kingdom-based Donkey Sanctuary project to work in 13 states that account for about 75% of the country’s donkey population. One of their activities is to promote donkey care at state veterinary schools.

The reason for the discrepancy in numbers between Inegi and the UN is that donkeys are hard to count. They are often in highly isolated areas. Inegi’s numbers come from counting those animals that are corralled on farms and other rural work units. They do not include, according to UNAM, wild or otherwise roaming populations of donkeys.

There is no doubt that donkeys are “extinct” in the day-to-day life of the vast majority of Mexicans.

Many Mexicans now live in urban and semiurban areas where the animals usually have no economic value. Even in many rural areas, the mechanization of farming has taken the donkey’s place in most agriculture, just as trucks took away its transport function.

By the 2000s, the value of a donkey had fallen to as low as 500 pesos per animal. The fear among conservationists was that their value was so low that the rest of the population would simply be culled because they were too expensive to care for.

However, the value of burros has risen more recently into the thousands of pesos (yes, you can buy live donkeys through Mercado Libre!). Does this mean donkeys are making a comeback?

Not quite. The rise in price is most likely due to a huge demand for donkey hides in Asia. These hides are boiled to extract a collagen called ejiao, used in traditional medicines and cosmetics. This market demands millions of hides per year and has put documented strains on donkey populations worldwide.

There are no large-scale efforts to conserve the Mexican donkey, but one town prides itself on its dedication to the beast of burden: Otumba is a rural municipality in the heart of Mexico’s pulque country, an hour outside Mexico City and 10 minutes from Teotihuacán.

The town calls itself the “cradle of the donkey” and has celebrated a “Donkey Day” since 1965. Back then, donkeys carrying jars of pulque and aguamiel (maguey sap before fermentation) were a common sight but already starting to disappear.

Donkey Day is May 1, celebrated with a Donkey Fair starting at the end of April. The fair includes a donkey costume contest, donkey polo matches, and a donkey “Formula 1” race. Unfortunately, the fair has been canceled in both 2020 and 2021 because of the pandemic.

There is still a way to support the town’s dedication to the donkey. It is home to a nonprofit private donkey sanctuary called Burrolandía, run by the Flores family since 2006.

It claims to be the first organization of its kind in the Americas, home right now to 57 donkeys. Most are rescues, with about 10% born at the sanctuary.

A bonding moment between Burrolandia's residents. — A bonding moment between Burrolandia’s residents.

The sanctuary fervently believes that the donkey is in danger of extinction in Mexico and that the vast majority of those in the country are poorly cared for, even abused.

In normal times, the sanctuary supports itself through tours of the facility and the surrounding town (using miniature trains and other vehicles outfitted with donkey ears), a restaurant, sales of feed for the donkey and even an adopt-a-donkey program.

They need about 1,000 visitors a month to remain solvent but have had only a trickle since the pandemic started. Feed costs alone for the animals run almost 2,000 pesos a day.

In November 2020, the sanctuary put out a call for donations as it had cut rations to the donkeys as much as they could. As of this month, the situation is still quite precarious, with the Flores family stating that the sanctuary is flat broke.

Tours are still available, but it is necessary to book an appointment before you go. The sanctuary can be contacted through its Facebook page.

Leigh Thelmadatter arrived in Mexico 18 years ago and fell in love with the land and the culture in particular its handcrafts and art. She is the author of Mexican Cartonería: Paper, Paste and Fiesta (Schiffer 2019). Her culture column appears regularly on Mexico News Daily.

Veracruz beach clean-up removes lumps of tar carried in by tide

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Rose Egelhoff

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April 17, 2021

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A turtle arrived on the beach while tar was being removed.

Members of the Vida Milenaria Turtle Encampment along with personnel from government agencies cleaned more than five kilometers of coastline in Tecolutla, Veracruz, where hundreds of kilos of tar washed ashore this week.

Tourists, businesses and environmentalists began reporting sightings of the hydrocarbon goo in the middle of the week.

Irma Elizabeth Galván, director of the encampment, said that representatives of the environmental protection agency Profepa took samples before beginning the clean-up. As tar continues to wash ashore, workers expect to keep cleaning the beach in the coming days.

Beach cleaners include personnel from Pemex, the Ministry of National Defense, the Tecolutla port captain’s office and others.

“We are still unsure of the cause or origin of these hydrocarbon patches, we are awaiting the response of the authorities in that respect. Meanwhile, we continue our work cleaning and patrolling the beach looking for turtles,” Galván said on social media.

A member of the clean-up crew with a ball of tar on the beach at Tecolutla.

On Friday as the cleaners worked, a turtle emerged from the ocean to lay its eggs, an event that Galván said underlines “the necessity of the clean-up, since this is a nest-laying zone and we’re in the middle of the season in which they arrive.”

Source: Milenio (sp)

Vaccine tourism: Mexicans who can afford it head north for a Covid shot

By

Jude Webber

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April 17, 2021

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covid vaccination — Mexico is currently vaccinating seniors. People under 40 could be waiting until next year for their shot.

Dismayed by the slow rollout of Covid-19 shots at home, middle-class Mexicans are increasingly traveling to the U.S. as loose inoculation policies in some states fuel vaccine tourism.

“It’s sort of common knowledge that you can get vaccinated in different places,” said Julia Reyes, a researcher who traveled from Mexico to Dallas this week to get her first jab and asked not to use her real name.

“They don’t ask for anything because the policy is ‘we want everyone here to get vaccinated.’”

Via WhatsApp groups or word of mouth, Mexicans with the ability to travel at the drop of a hat are swapping tips and packing planes, taking advantage of their proximity to a country with a bountiful vaccine supply and where doses in some places — including the border state of Texas — are going unused.

Try Las Vegas, some advise — some hotels throw in a free night to people traveling to get their jabs. Claim to have a health condition like diabetes or hypertension, if anyone asks, others recommend. If vaccines have run out by 5 p.m., go back the next day at 7 a.m.; you can show your Mexican driver’s licence, others counsel.

“I had to become a vaccine detective,” said one university professor, who asked not to be identified. Keen not to jump the queue, she only traveled to the U.S. once vaccinations for her age group had been authorized — information she discovered by checking websites on a daily basis.

“My decision is based on a very clear-headed evaluation of the Mexican vaccine process — for people my age, it could take months — they are not even vaccinating all healthcare workers,” she said.

Mexico has stepped up its vaccine distribution, hitting a record of nearly 554,000 doses on a single day this week, but Marcelo Ebrard, foreign minister, acknowledged reliance on foreign-made shots had caused “delays and difficulties.”

Since becoming the first Latin American country to start vaccinating, on Christmas Eve last year, Mexico has administered more than 13 million doses, largely to front-line health workers, over 60s and some teachers. The government insists all over-60s will have had at least one dose by the end of this month, and vaccinations for teachers and over 50s will start soon.

By contrast, the U.S., which has administered more than 200 million shots, is rapidly opening up vaccine eligibility. All states are now vaccinating anyone aged 16 or over or have promised to do so soon. Texas alone has administered more than 15 million shots.

In some places supply is outstripping demand, with gaps opening up between the number of vaccines delivered and the number administered, especially in the south.

Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that several states, especially in the south-east of the country, have more than 30% of their vaccines unused. In Texas, just under a quarter of the distributed vaccines have not yet been used.

Part of the reason appears to be a reluctance to get vaccinated, which is particularly strong among rural Republicans. Polling by the health think tank the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) has found that this group are the most likely to say they will definitely not get a vaccine.

Texas is among the places where Mexicans who fear a long wait back home are taking advantage. There are no residency requirements for vaccinations in the state, along with 20 others, according to KFF.

“The plane here was packed,” said Reyes, who spotted someone she had seen on board at the Walmart where she was vaccinated. Football Club Monterrey, known as the Rayados, a soccer team based in northern Mexico, reportedly traveled en masse to Dallas in recent days to get the jab.

“They [the medical staff] kept thanking us for getting the vaccine,” said the professor, who got her shot at a huge vaccination centre in another U.S. state, Utah.

Alicia, another Mexican who also asked not to give her real name, said she signed up to “tons of accounts” before traveling to Texas. As soon as CVS pharmacy announced vaccinations were open, she jumped.

Julien de Bellaigue, a French restaurant owner in Mexico City, also traveled to Texas this week for his first shot. “In Mexico, if I’d had to wait my turn — I’m 40 — I’d be waiting until spring 2022. In France, I might be eligible in the autumn, but I’m over here. I see a lot of people all day because of my job and every day I go to sleep saying ‘I hope I haven’t caught it,’” he said.

One of his friends has even set up a business, charging $180 to get vaccine appointments for people traveling from Mexico.

The Texas health department said the state’s distribution program was “intended for people who live in, work in, or spend a significant amount of time in Texas.”

As of last week, 99.4% of people vaccinated in Texas were from the state, officials said, compared with 0.56% from out of state and 0.04% from another country. “The data shows it’s not a major issue,” the department said.

“The need for Mexicans to go to the U.S. is 100%, it’s not for fun,” said Alicia, who has a health condition that makes her a high risk for Covid. Because of that, she could not take viral vector vaccines, and was concerned that the BioNTech/Pfizer jab may not be available.

She is now fully vaccinated with both Pfizer doses. She did have misgivings: “Some people have said we’re abusing the U.S. government and we are, it’s true.”

But Reyes said: “I think it’s an amazing policy — they really do care and want everyone going through their country to be vaccinated, whether illegal immigrants or tourists.”

Mexico’s government has a political imperative to speed up its own vaccine program: midterm elections are in June, and President López Obrador hopes to tighten his grip on Congress and boost the number of states ruled by his party.

According to a recent poll, 67% of those Mexicans who had already been vaccinated, or who had a relative who had, approved of the president, eight points higher than among the uninoculated.

In a country where an estimated eight out of 10 Covid deaths have been among those with little or no education, vaccine tourism is only worsening the yawning divide between rich and poor.

“Unfortunately, it exacerbates the inequality perpetuated by Covid,” said Jason Marczak, director of the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center. “Elites can buy a plane ticket and get the shot but the people who need it even more — because they can’t stay home and telework — can’t.”

Ex-Gulf Cartel boss loses appeal; 20-year prison sentence stands

By

Rose Egelhoff

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April 17, 2021

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Mario Cárdenas during his arrest in 2012.

Mario “El Metro” Cárdenas, ex-leader of the Gulf Cartel and brother of former leader Osiel Cárdenas, has lost his appeal against a 20-year prison sentence.

If the former cartel boss stays in Mexico he could walk free in 2032 due to time already served. But it’s possible he will be extradited to the U.S. to face additional charges in Texas, where he is wanted for conspiracy.

A federal judge authorized his extradition in October of last year but Cárdenas petitioned against the order on grounds that Covid represented a health risk.

Navy marines arrested Cárdenas in September 2012 in Tamaulipas, when he tried to enter a building with a large firearm. In addition to the weapon, he was found to be carrying 129,000 pesos (US $6,400 at today’s exchange rate) in cash and four small bags of cocaine.

Cárdenas was originally sentenced in June of 2019, which his lawyers appealed. He previously served time for organized crime after an arrest in 1995. He was further found to be trafficking large amounts of cocaine and marijuana from inside the Matamoros prison, and was transferred to the Puente Grande prison in Jalisco. He was released in 2007.

Cárdenas’ brother Osiel is currently serving a sentence in the U.S. after having been extradited in 2007. He is known for having recruited the paramilitary group Los Zetas as the armed division of the Gulf Cartel. His release is scheduled for 2028.

The Gulf Cartel is based in Tamaulipas but operates in a number of states. Mario Cárdenas served as its co-leader along with Jorge Eduardo Costilla after another brother, Ezequiel Cárdenas, was killed by marines in 2010.

Source: Infobae (sp)

Governor accused of assaulting teacher in beseiged Michoacán city

By

Rose Egelhoff

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April 17, 2021

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A Michoacán teacher has accused the state governor of assault after an incident Tuesday in the beseiged city of Aguililla, where residents are being held hostage by two warring cartels.

Primary school teacher Fernando Padilla Vázquez and his son were in the city’s central plaza, holding placards urging an end to the violence, when Governor Silvano Aureoles arrived. He stepped off an army truck, strode directly to Padilla and shoved him hard in the stomach.

One of the people accompanying him quickly escorted the governor back to the truck amid jeers and shouts from citizens who had gathered for Aureoles’ visit.

He said later that the protesters were halconeros, or hawks, the word used to describe cartel lookouts, who had insulted the security forces who were accompanying him on his tour of the area. “… I decided to confront one of the agitators,” he wrote on Facebook.

But the incident hasn’t gone down well in Aguililla, which has been cut off for several months as the Jalisco New Generation Cartel battles the Cárteles Unidos for control of the area.

Supportive teachers and residents gathered at municipal headquarters in the city on Thursday. Among them was parish priest Rev. Gilberto Vergara, who said, “We are not hawks, we are the voice of the people, who are tired of so much violence and a government that does not defend them.”

Also on Thursday the teacher Fernando Padilla accused the state’s Ministry of Education of canceling the payment of his salary, in what some have suggested was retaliation for his criminal complaint against the governor.

Sources: Expansión Política (sp), Reforma (sp)

Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo music event to be offered online on Sunday

By

Rose Egelhoff

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April 17, 2021

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Big live music events may be canceled, but that does not mean you can’t enjoy good music. To that end, the Big Hearts Rock ‘n Blues Online Show, a benefit music event produced in Mexico, will be shown Sunday at 6 p.m. CDT.

Feststream 2021, a free show organized by Tequila Rock ‘n Blues Explosion, seeks to raise awareness and funds for street animal rescue and neutering in Mexico. Organizers say a bonus segment for donors features a high-quality “bootleg video” of a 2020 Blues Brothers tribute concert in Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo. Donations will go to shelters and vets that have neutering and treatment campaigns.

“This truly is an important cause in Mexico, and we want to do much more in terms of neutering, treatment and feeding to give these homeless dogs and cats living on the streets of Mexico a better life,” said event organizer Bob Rempel of Winnepeg, Canada, and Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo, Mexico. “There are reports of over 23 million homeless dogs and cats in Mexico. We’re based here with our fests and events, we enjoy the beaches and fine weather here, we love dogs and cats, we see the love they give back, so it makes good sense for us to continue to help support Mexico shelters and vets with neutering and treatment right now.”

The international lineup includes Kal David and Lauri Bono from the U.S., Clay Melton (U.S.), Fonzeca Caja de Pandora Project (Monterrey, Mexico), Ernest de Leon y su Banda de Blues (Mexico City), Mystic Highway (Canada) and many others.

The response from performers was so strong that organizers are now planning a second show for May 16.

“We love our big-hearted performers who stepped up,” said Rempel, “and all will be given first consideration when we put together our Big Hearts Live Rock ‘n Blues Event for the Cancún region for December 2-5, 2021 and further events we are planning for Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo, Mexico City and Puerto Vallarta, as soon as Covid-19 allows us to.”

To watch the show, register online or through the organization’s Facebook page.

Mexico News Daily

Gunmen open fire on Covid vaccination brigade in Michoacán

By

Rose Egelhoff

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April 17, 2021

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Arms and marijuana were seized after the brigade was attacked.

Gunmen attacked a Covid vaccination brigade in Tangancícuaro, Michoacán, Friday. There were no injuries.

The brigade, which was traveling between Patamban and Ruiz Cortines, included military personnel and state police, who repelled the attackers and gave health personnel a chance to escape. Minutes later, the National Guard and soldiers arrived and the attackers fled on foot.

A search by the National Guard provoked another attack in which one of the gunmen was apprehended, leading to the seizure of six vehicles, firearms and marijuana.

One theory over the attack on the brigade is that stealing the vaccine itself was the motive.

“Luckily the personnel were unhurt, but this kind of act is unpardonable and we will not tolerate it,” Governor Silvano Aureoles stated on Twitter.

Source: El Sol de México (sp)