Disqualified candidate threatens to prevent elections from taking place in Guerrero

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April 12, 2021

Residents in southern Mexico City are also feeling the impact.

An Aeromar flight on final approach at Mexico City airport.

Some México state residents say new flight routes into Mexico City airport, which have been in operation since March 25, are disturbing the peace and threatening their health.

As a result of complaints Huixquilucan Mayor Enrique met with Transportation Deputy Minister Carlos Alfonso Morán Moguel, who agreed to examine the redesign of the routes.

The noise generated by planes flying overhead will be measured and recorded this week and the data presented to representatives of Mexico’s air navigation service, the Ministry of Communications and Transportation, the municipal government and neighborhood groups.

In Huixquilucan, the noise at ground level is hitting 85 decibels as planes approach the Benito Juárez International Airport.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), noisy environments above 75 decibels can be damaging. Above 85 decibels can cause cardiovascular problems due to a rise in blood pressure, stress, depression and a reduction in work productivity.

Mayor Vargas empathized with residents’ complaints. “What you are hearing now, imagine this noise at 3 a.m. To be honest, the whole community is really angry,” he said.

Silvia Campirano, who manages a residents association in La Herradura, says the problem is being felt across the community. “In the past two weeks since the new flight routes began, we have received a high number of complaints about the noise, and the effect it is having on people’s health as they can’t sleep properly.”

Herradura resident Pedro Solís is one person who has had trouble sleeping. “I think there must be cases of people waking up in nervous shock. It’s like going to a party. Probably on the first day it’s all OK, but having this constantly is too much,” he said.

The first phase of the air traffic changes affects the Benito Juárez and Toluca airports. A second phase, begins in March 2022 and will coincide with the opening of the new General Felipe Ángeles airport in Santa Lucía.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Private doctors unhappy after AMLO tells them to wait their turn for Covid vaccine

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April 10, 2021

Private sector heath workers protest in Mexico City on Friday.

President López Obrador has raised the ire of private sector health workers after telling them to wait their turn for access to vaccination against Covid-19, a disease which has claimed the lives of thousands of medical personnel in Mexico.

The president suggested Friday that private sector workers including dentists who have not yet been vaccinated wouldn’t be inoculated until the vaccine rollout reaches their age bracket.

Asked at his morning press conference whether the government had ruled out the possibility of giving private sector health workers early access to vaccination, López Obrador responded:

“No, no, because if I say that it is ruled out that will be the headline in Reforma tomorrow,” he said, referring to the newspaper that is frequently critical of him and his government.

After López Obrador indicated that private sector health workers would be vaccinated at the same time as other people of their same age, a Reforma reporter retorted that their early inoculation had effectively been ruled out.

Many private-sector health workers were angered by the president's remarks on Friday. — Many private-sector health workers were angered by the president’s remarks on Friday. ‘Thanks for nothing,’ is this worker’s message for López Obrador.

“No, well, that’s your interpretation, put it like that [if you like]. … With Reforma we can’t [see eye to eye] because Reforma is very angry with us,” the president said.

“… I understand the demand of the private sector doctors, we’re not throwing [their demand] into the waste basket but we already have a [vaccination] strategy that will help all of us,” López Obrador said before launching another attack against Reforma, alleging that its owners used their power to put governors of their choice in office in Nuevo León. Those governors, the president said, were mediocre and dishonest.

As for the vaccination strategy, he said, “…We’re being guided by what the specialists say and what matters most to us is to save lives.”

Although early inoculation of all health workers looks unlikely to occur, the government is planning to give priority access to the country’s more than 3 million public and private sector teachers and education workers.

Once all seniors have been vaccinated, “we’re going to allocate a week or 10 days to vaccinating all education workers, all of them. We’re analyzing [the possibility] of doing it with the CanSino vaccine, which is a one-dose vaccine,” López Obrador said.

He said that the mass vaccination of teachers could begin as soon as April 15 or 20, even though only about half of Mexico’s 15.7 million seniors have been vaccinated to date.

“… We believe that we’re going to finish vaccinating all seniors with one dose by about the 20th of this month so at the same time we’re going to start the vaccination of teachers and education sector personnel,” López Obrador said.

The president claimed that the media’s dissemination of private health workers’ complaints about not being vaccinated yet is part of a campaign to discredit his government.

He highlighted that he and other high-ranking members of his administration, including his health, defense and navy ministers, haven’t yet been immunized, although they could have easily gained access to a shot.

López Obrador pledged in January that both public and private health sector workers would have early access to vaccination but now appears to have reneged on part of that promise. According to the federal government, 90% of frontline health workers in the public sector have been vaccinated and 50,000 private sector doctors have received at least one dose of a vaccine.

But at least three private sector medical associations have called for the early inoculation of all health workers, according to Reforma, and private medical personnel themselves have protested to demand access to shots.

Another protest took place Friday outside the National Palace in the zócalo, Mexico City’s central square, where among the protesters’ placards was one that read: “Dentists work with saliva on a daily basis. Don’t ignore us.”

lopez obrador — The president accused the newspaper Reforma of conducting a campaign against his government by publishing information about health workers’ protests.

“We’re also at risk of being infected with Covid and we’re not considered in the vaccination plan at the moment,” a protesting doctor told the newspaper El Universal.

“We also treat people who are infected and therefore we are at risk. We demand that the president meet with us to establish a route through which we can [gain early] access to the vaccines. We don’t want to continue being relegated,” he said.

“I’m hurt, I’m disappointed with what the president is doing to us because what he’s doing is dividing the medical sector,” said Arlene Mendoza, an ophthalmologist who joined Friday’s protest in the zócalo.

In response to the president’s indication that private sector workers wouldn’t be prioritized, the director of the Mexican Consortium of Hospitals, which represents private hospitals, urged López Obrador to reconsider.

“You can’t go to war without soldiers; health sector workers are your soldiers at the moment and you have to support us,” Javier Potes said.

David Berrones, an ophthalmologist and spokesman for Vacunas Médicos MX, an initiative that is advocating the early vaccination of all health workers, described the decision not to inoculate all medical personnel as unfortunate and wrong.

Among those who have not yet been vaccinated are thousands of health workers who have been working directly with or had exposure to Covid patients since the start of the pandemic, he said.

“Practically half of the [health workers] still to be vaccinated are younger than 40,” Berrones added. “If we’re relegated to the final stage of the vaccination [plan] half of the health sector will be left unprotected.”

People aged 16 to 39 are to be vaccinated in the fifth and final stage of the national vaccine rollout, the schedule for which was modified by the government this week. According to the modified schedule, the inoculation of people aged under 40 will not commence until July and is not scheduled to conclude until March next year.

As of Friday night, just under 11 million vaccine doses had been administered in Mexico. Just over 754,000 (mainly public sector) health workers have been fully vaccinated while about 155,500 have received the first of two required shots.

The lion’s share of the doses used in Mexico have gone to seniors, almost 1.1 million of whom are fully vaccinated, meaning that they have received both required doses of two-shot vaccines or were inoculated with the single-shot CanSino vaccine. Another 7.4 million seniors have received their first dose of one of the four two-shot vaccines – Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Sputnik V and SinoVac – being used in Mexico

Source: Reforma (sp), El Universal (sp)

People power fuels Mexico’s newest wave of murals

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Leigh Thelmadatter

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April 10, 2021

Artist Julia Celeste with budding painter Edgar in front of a mural in the Las Misiones neighborhood of San Quintín, depicting principal crops of the Valley. — Artist Julia Celeste with budding painter Edgar in front of a mural in the Las Misiones neighborhood of San Quintín, depicting principal crops of the valley. Julia Celeste

Street art has been the muralism of our time, taking graffiti from eyesore to cultural contribution, often with positive messages that neighborhoods and cities can support. How do you make that even better? By having the community get directly involved in the design and execution!

This type of community-minded street art has sprung up all over Mexico without any sort of coordination among organizers, who came to their conclusions and projects via different paths but with quite similar results. It is simply an idea whose time has come.

Mexico News Daily did an article on one artist, Natasha Moraga, who does just that. She is covering Puerto Vallarta in trecadís (broken tile) mosaics with a slew of local and expat volunteers eager to help make the city more beautiful. Turns out she is not the only one.

Mary Carmen Olvera of the town of Zacatlán de las Manzanas is not an artist but an organizer and recruiter par excellence. She is behind various projects in this small town in the Sierra Norte of Puebla, known for its apple orchards and cider.

The murals began as part of the town’s first corn festival in 2014. She recruited United States tile artist Isaiah Zagar to come to Zacatlán. Together, they decided to put an image of Quetzalcóatl in broken tile, glass and mirror near the Jilguero Ravine, a popular tourist attraction. The artist designed the project and taught locals how to place the pieces.

One of the Zacatlán de Mis Recuerdos (Zacatlán of My Memories) in progress, using the modified broken tile technique. Alejandro Linares García

The project was a huge success, and Olvera was hooked. She moved on to the wall surrounding the town’s cemetery.

Using a similar technique, the town created a mural with 12 panels with 12 apples, each having a symbol related to Zacatlán’s history, culture and natural beauty. The back of the cemetery got a mural depicting Nahua cosmology, while the front was covered in biblical scenes.

Believe it or not, this little apple town does have its shady neighborhoods. Olvera subsequently turned her attention to the Callejon del Hueso (Bone Alley), formerly a dark, isolated place with a reputation for drugs. Here, she designed a series of murals based on old photographs for the walls of the houses that line the alley, with owners’ permission and participation. The project is called Zacatlán de mis Recuerdos (Zacatlán of my Memories).

A similar project has been started in Zaccatlán’s Lindavista neighborhood.

Like in Puerto Vallarta, almost all the work being done in Zacatlán is with broken tile, but the small town has added its own twist. They found that by using end nippers (a kind of cutting plier), they can break tiles into smaller and more accurate shapes. This has allowed for very detailed and realistic images.

Elsewhere, in Tepoztlán, Morelos, Judy Wray is a retired U.S. artist who calls her adopted home “paradise.” Her involvement in murals in Tepoztlán, called the Flying Beetle project, came about in part because of a small but growing problem with graffiti and vandalism around her home in the Santisima Trinidad neighborhood, just north of the town center.

One of a series of murals of the project Colores de mi Entorno headed by Rogelio Santos, demonstrating various indigenous cultures in the environments of the San Quintín Valley. Rogelio Santos

Wray has a decades-long history of community art projects of all kinds in both the United States and Mexico, from coloring books to painted hubcaps. Her community murals have been designed by professional artists from as far away as Chile. The murals are then sketched onto walls and painted with acrylic paints and brushes by volunteers or by marginalized people whom Wray pays out of her own pocket.

To promote the work and the people involved, she has had the murals reproduced onto huge microperforated plastic canvas typically used for large-scale advertisements so that they can be seen at events. Wray’s murals are painted along cobblestone streets, which forces drivers to move slowly by and appreciate the work.

In San Quintín, near Ensenada, Baja California, Julia Celeste and Rogelio Santos are both artists and longtime residents who migrated to the area when they were children. San Quintín is a highly diverse area with migrants from all over Mexico, many of whom are indigenous.

It makes for a rich tapestry of cultures and traditions, but it also provokes conflict since many ethnic groups tend to segregate themselves. The hard life of migrants also makes them susceptible to the drug trade.

Although they live in the same valley, Celeste and Santos have separately started community mural projects with the same end, to create and promote a sense of community among the different populations. The murals have themes related to migration, the environment of San Quintín and the native cultures of the migrants.

Both artists’ projects are done with acrylics and brushes, which they say allows for many more people to get involved. Filling in colors with paintbrushes is relatively easy, and the coloring book aspect of it is particularly appealing to children.

The Zebra Mural was designed by Władysław T. Benda and painted on the wall by Hermes and Diego. courtesy of Flying Beetle

All of these projects’ organizers proudly point out the positive benefits the murals have had in their communities. In all cases, none of the murals have had problems with graffiti or other vandalism, even years after the mural has been completed, which is a quite different result than that of many street art murals done by professionals and even major government-sponsored works.

The messages of the murals are important, as they almost always affirm the community’s identity and values. But it is the process of creating the murals that generates the most benefit. People who never thought themselves capable of creativity or of having a positive impact on their community are invited to do just that.

All the organizers have stories of participants who psychologically and even spiritually benefitted from participation and became hooked. Participants proudly show friends and family the parts of the mural they worked on, no matter how small, recruiting more volunteers. Olvera stated that a bricklayer she has known for years found many of his physical and psychological pains eased when he began to help with the initiatives.

Completed projects and their stories have had visible effects in their immediate surroundings. Adjoining parks and streets are better taken care of. Callejon de Hueso now sees tourism and new businesses, and both Celeste and Santos report that many mural participants have created friendships with people outside their insular circles.

Leigh Thelmadatter arrived in Mexico 17 years ago and fell in love with the land and the culture. She publishes a blog called Creative Hands of Mexico and her first book, Mexican Cartonería: Paper, Paste and Fiesta , was published last year. Her culture blog appears regularly on Mexico News Daily.

Gunfire rings out again in Aguililla, where residents are fed up with the violence

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April 10, 2021

An army helicopter delivers supplies to soldiers camped outside the city of Aguililla. — An army helicopter delivers supplies to soldiers camped outside the city.

Gunshots rang out once again in Aguililla, Michoacán, on Friday as a bloody turf war between the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and the Cárteles Unidos continued.

In videos posted to social media, volleys of gunfire can be heard during confrontations in Aguililla, the main town in the Tierra Caliente municipality of the same name.

The latest battle between the rival cartels came after the CJNG killed and decapitated at least eight presumed Cárteles Unidos members last week.

As many as 27 members of the Cárteles Unidos may have been killed by the CJNG, according to the Citizens’ Intelligence Unit Twitter account and media reports.

Gilberto Vergara, a parish priest, said in a video message that gun shots were a constant in the municipal seat on Friday. It is unclear whether there were any deaths or injuries as no authorities have officially acknowledged the confrontations.

Vergara said the CJNG is currently patrolling the streets of the city, which has been cut off from the outside world due to blockades set up by both the Jalisco cartel and the army, and trenches dug across roads by residents to thwart criminal incursions.

He said the CJNG has recruited people from outside the municipality to form a human shield that has been established outside the army’s Aguililla base to stop it from carrying out operations – and it is apparently working.

The priest claimed that the army has done nothing to stop the violence between the rival criminal groups. He said a military helicopter arrived on Friday but only to drop off supplies to soldiers.

Vergara claimed that the state government has sought to minimize the violence, even though residents no longer leave their homes due to fear that they could get caught caught up in a gun battle or even become a target themselves.

Although the municipality has been effectively isolated, it has not yet run out of basic supplies, the priest said, but the price of basic goods has gone up.

A local woman who spoke to the newspaper El Universal said that all residents are fed up with the ongoing violence. She implored authorities to do something to bring it to an end and open up access so that food and medications are both available and not sold at exorbitant prices.

“… We hope that this ends before we’re forced to do something we don’t want to do, which is to take up arms,” said the woman, who spoke to El Universal on the condition of anonymity.

Violence has long plagued Aguililla, the municipality where CJNG leader Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes – a wanted man in both Mexico and the United States – was born, but has intensified in recent weeks.

Some media reports have linked the most recent violence, including last weeks’ massacre, to the March 30 arrest in Guatemala of former Aguililla mayor Adalberto Fructuoso Comparán Rodríguez.

The CJNG, widely considered Mexico’s most powerful and violent criminal organization, has been fighting to win control of Aguililla for months if not years, and according to some media reports has succeeded in seizing the municipality, located about 270 kilometers southwest of the state capital Morelia.

At the start of last month, a video surfaced on social media in which CJNG members, acting with impunity on the streets of a small Aguililla town, show off an armored “narco-tank” that was apparently seized from Los Viagras, another rival criminal group.

In addition to clashing with its criminal enemies, the CJNG has attacked government security forces including state police, 14 of whom were killed in an ambush in Aguililla in October 2019.

Source: El Universal (sp), Infobae (sp)

Mexico News Daily launches campaign to help artisans sell online

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April 10, 2021

Chihuahua ceramic artist Tati Eleno Ortiz López at a previous edition of the Feria in Chalapa, Jalisco.

For anyone depending on Mexico’s tourism sector, the pandemic has meant hard times. Among those most deeply impacted are the country’s many traditional artisans — basket-makers, weavers, painters and many more.

On Friday, Mexico News Daily launched a campaign to support folk artists as they seek to survive “the new normal.” Ten percent of the newspaper’s subscription sales revenue will be donated to the Feria Maestros del Arte, a non-profit organization based in Chapala, Jalisco, that is helping artisans around the country sell their goods online.

The Artisans Online campaign invites readers to join in by purchasing a one-year subscription for US $29.99, of which $3 will be donated to help develop online sales. Mexico News Daily will also publish a series of stories featuring innovative and traditional artisans, to raise their profile and celebrate their work, as part of the campaign.

The Feria Maestros del Arte began promoting artisans’ work in 2002 with an annual show in Chapala. The event brings together 85 artisans in a forum that gives the public the opportunity to see and purchase the work of some of Mexico’s best folk artists.

According to the Feria’s Facebook page, the group was created in order to provide a venue for artisans to sell their work.

Artist Rogelio de la Cruz of San Agustín Oapan, Guerrero.

“The indigenous folk art of Mexico is in danger of disappearing if artists cannot find outlets to sell their work … for many, the sales they make at the Feria are the largest portion of their yearly income,” the Feria says.

An army of volunteers operates the fair, to which artists pay no fees fees or a percentage of sales. They are hosted by local families and assisted with their transportation costs.

Two such artists are Rodrigo de la Cruz Cabrera and his father, Don Estaban de la Cruz Miranda, from San Agustín Oapan, Guerrero. After exhibiting and selling at the 2017 and 2018 fairs, they participated in a national exhibition in 2019 and were invited to accompany Mexico’s national ceramics school to the Jingdezhen International Studio in China, according to Feria founder Marianne Carlson.

“Esteban and Rodrigo have won several national awards. However, because they live in an isolated community in the state of Guerrero that has suffered from conflict in the past, it has not been easy for this family to sell their work. Bringing them to the public’s attention at the Feria and through publicity surrounding his two-month trip to China, Rodrigo’s acclaim as a master artisan has boosted interest in their work even higher,” Carlson said. “This is just one success story of artisans who have been recognized at Feria Maestros del Arte and gone on to greater prominence in the folk art world.”

Due to the pandemic, the Feria canceled the 2021 art festival. Instead, it is hosting a series of smaller events run by volunteers, without the artisans present. All money collected goes directly to the artisans, including reimbursement for the cost of shipping their goods. More information can be found on the Feria Maestros del Arte Facebook page.

Some artisans have seen profits from products like embroidered face masks. Online sales have kept some afloat, but many continue to struggle. Even after some markets opened up, economic activity and tourism continue to be sluggish. One group that has had success in online sales is the weavers of the mountains of Zongolica, a remote area where traditional weavers have banded together to sell at the regional and national level. These weavers are featured in the first of Mexico News Daily’s Artisan Spotlight stories by culture writer Leigh Thelmadatter.

To help more artisans survive and thrive economically, the Feria is moving toward digital promotion of featured artisans. Carlson said Covid-19 has made her a believer in digital media and in the importance of online platforms for the artisans to continue selling their work. “Our new website will include e-commerce for all Feria artisans who want us to continue helping them to sell.”

Mexico News Daily

Tangled lines create anxious moments for Papantla Flyers

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April 10, 2021

Flyers cling to the pole in Papantla, Veracruz.

The Papantla Flyers are famous for the the Aztec ritual they perform, flying from ropes at the top of a 100-foot pole, accompanied by a flute and drums.

But this week, the spectacle, held in Papantla, Veracruz, almost turned to tragedy when a tangled rope caused all four dancers to crash into the steel pole, further tangling the lines.

Onlookers watched in horror as the tangled dancers clung to the pole, trying not to fall.

One dancer, Adolfo San Martín García, said the ritual began like any other. But when the dancers launched from the top of the spire, one rope caught on a corner of the wooden frame to which they were tied, throwing all the dancers off balance and causing the mishap.

Thanks to quick thinking from the leader, a disaster was avoided. The ropes were untangled enough to allow the dancers to climb down to the ground and safety.

Source: Noreste (sp)

Feminist group identifies 26 candidates accused of sexual abuse, harassment

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April 10, 2021

Six of the candidates for whom 'wanted posters' were published.

The feminist collective Brujas del Mar has published the names and faces of 26 candidates and aspiring candidates from all political parties who have been accused of violence against women, sexual assault, rape or child pornography.

They also identified 10 legislators and other current government officials who have been accused of one or more of the crimes.

The posts on social media were published in the form of wanted posters, with the names and images of the accused as well as their positions and party affiliations.

Among them was Isaac Pérez Esparza, a Green Party candidate in Veracruz for federal deputy, who was accused of rape and sexual abuse. Pérez withdraw his candidacy on Thursday, the day after the posters were published, claiming he was the victim of “a dirty war.”

“It doesn’t seem fair what they’re doing to me, anonymously and in a cowardly way” and insisted he had never harmed anyone.

Also on the list is Gabriel Cuadri, a National Action Party candidate running for deputy, and a former presidential candidate. He has been accused of assault by multiple students at the Iberoamerican University.

At least one candidate on the list has faced consequences for his alleged crime. Humberto Santos Ramírez, who sought to be a local representative in Oaxaca, was denied the chance to run by his party, Morena, after he was accused of creating a WhatsApp group for sharing photos of naked indigenous women. He has denied the accusation.

Addressing nine political parties and movements in its social media post, Brujas del Mar wrote: “Around here the feminists are doing the job of investigating your candidates. Here are your representatives.”

None of the allegations has been heard in court.

Source: Reforma (sp)

US Consulate issues travel alert for Mexicali, western Sonora

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April 10, 2021

A frame from a video released last week by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

The U.S. Consulate General in Tijuana has issued a security alert warning travelers to take extra precautions in Mexicali, the Valley of Mexicali, and the western part of the state of Sonora, citing a heightened risk of violence between rival cartel factions.

The alert, issued Friday, also warned members of the embassy community to avoid Mexicali until further notice.

The area is caught in the midst of a territorial dispute between the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). At the beginning of April, the CJNG released messages threatening increased violence in Baja California.

A video circulated on social media April 1 showed more than a dozen hooded individuals with various large-caliber weapons and bulletproof vests bearing the CJNG initials.

“This announcement is to inform the general population of Baja California that the Jalisco New Generation Cartel is present in their state and to let them know that the deaths that have been occurring are due to internal corruption within the police forces at every level of the government,” said a speaker in the video. The speaker went on to name the federal, state and municipal police forces as well as various security and investigative units of government.

The next day, the CJNG torched the vehicle of an official from the state Attorney General’s Office in Tecate, in reprisal for a police operation that led to various arrests. On April 8 in Tijuana, the cartel burned two vehicles belonging to the federal Attorney General’s Office.

Sources: Infobae (sp)

For 8 states, Covid stoplight will be green: Nuevo León, Oaxaca rated low risk

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April 10, 2021