Inoculating prison inmates against Covid sparks debate in Quintana Roo

By

-

March 18, 2021

One of five inmates vaccinated in Cozumel.

The vaccination of five inmates at a prison in Cozumel, Quintana Roo, has triggered debate over whether criminals should be given priority over other citizens when it comes to inoculation against Covid-19.

Prisoners aged 60 and over at the Social Reintegration Center on the Caribbean Sea island were given shots against the infectious disease this week as part of a National Human Rights Commission campaign to encourage state governments to give early vaccine access to people in jail.

Marco Toh, president of the Quintana Roo Human Rights Commission, spoke out in favor of the campaign, saying that the inoculation of prisoners, who often live in cramped conditions that can fuel the spread of viruses, is necessary to guarantee their right to health. They should not be discriminated against, he said.

Lenin Amaro, president of the Riviera Maya chapter of the Business Coordinating Council, also said that the Cozumel prisoners had the right to be vaccinated.

“We mustn’t lose our human sense. It doesn’t matter that they’re prisoners if they’re older than 60,” he said, pointing out the national vaccination strategy gives priority to seniors, millions of whom have already received shots.

“… They’re twice as vulnerable because they’re over 60 and all locked up in the same place,” Amaro said.

Mario Machuca, head of a tourism workers association in Cancún, took a less sympathetic view.

“From my point of view the strategy is not bad but it’s not the most appropriate one either,” he said.

“The entire public and private health sector should be prioritized first followed by the economic sector taking into account waitstaff, hotel staff, chefs and all people who go to work every day and are exposed to the virus,” Machuca said.

Sergio León, president of the Cancún chapter of the Mexican Employers Federation, was skeptical about whether prisoners should be given precedence over non-frontline health workers.

“I believe that all people involved in health care, whether in direct contact [with Covid patients] or not should be considered a priority [for vaccination],” he said.

Social media users also weighed in. One quoted by the newspaper Milenio questioned why inmates were being vaccinated ahead of people who pay taxes and “behave well.” Another criticized the vaccination of prisoners while there are thousands of health workers who still haven’t received a shot.

Source: Milenio (sp)

AMLO challenges US claim that narcos control one-third of Mexican territory

By

MND Staff

-

March 18, 2021

0

A cartel convoy on a Mexican highway in 2018.

President López Obrador has rejected a United States government claim that criminal organizations control “ungoverned areas” that account for about one-third of Mexico’s territory.

The commander of the United States Northern Command made the claim Tuesday at a U.S. Department of Defense press conference in response to a question about the situation on the Mexico-U.S. border.

“I would say that [the recent influx of migrants to the border] is a symptom of a broader problem that … manifested itself over the last year or so. …Two major hurricanes, Covid, instability created by transnational criminal organizations, all of these are indicators and reasons why people want to leave Central America, South America and Mexico to come to our nation,” General Glen D. VanHerck said.

“… Counternarcotics, migration, human trafficking, they’re all symptoms of transnational criminal organizations who are operating oftentimes in ungoverned areas – 30% to 35% of Mexico – that is creating some of the things we’re dealing with at the border,” he said.

“And so, we need to take a whole-of-government look at that problem. I think it’s a national security imperative that we must look at.”

At his regular news conference on Thursday, López Obrador dismissed the general’s territorial control claim as untrue.

“But we respect the opinion of everyone,” he added. “We’re going to continue having good relations with the United States government, we’re not going to argue with the United States government. [President Joe Biden] is very respectful with us.”

According to the news magazine Proceso, it was the first time since the 2006-2012 presidency of Felipe Calderón that a high-ranking United States military leader publicly enunciated the scale of the Mexico’s drug trafficking and territorial control problem.

However, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has acknowledged the sway cartels hold in Mexico, and the U.S. drug market.

“Mexican TCOs [transnational criminal organizations] are the greatest drug trafficking threat to the United States; they control most of the U.S. drug market and have established varied transportation routes, have advanced communications capabilities, and hold strong affiliations with criminal groups and gangs in the United States,” the DEA said in its 2020 National Drug Threat Assessment report.

It said that Mexican cartels continue to control lucrative smuggling corridors, primarily across the United States’ southwestern border.

“The two largest organizations, the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), show signs of expansion in Mexico, demonstrating their continued influence even compared to other Mexican TCOs,” the DEA said.

“These TCOs expand their criminal influence by engaging in business alliances with other organizations, including independent DTOs [drug trafficking organizations], and working in conjunction with transnational gangs, U.S.-based street gangs, prison gangs, and Asian money laundering organizations.”

In addition to the Sinaloa Cartel and the CJNG, the DEA identified seven other Mexican criminal groups that have a significant drug trafficking impact on the United States.

They are the Beltrán Leyva Organization, the Northeast Cartel/Los Zetas, the Guerreros Unidos, the Gulf Cartel, the Juárez Cartel/La Línea, the Familia Michoacana, and Los Rojos.

Mexico has long been considered to have a territorial control problem, especially in rural areas where there is evidence that cartels control large swathes of land in several states.

Source: Reforma (sp), El Financiero (sp), Infobae (sp)

Bustling La Puerta offers quotidian alternative to Ixtapa’s glitz

By

Elisabeth Ashe

-

March 18, 2021

0

In La Puerta, fresh fruits and vegetables are easy to find.

Ixtapa is a lovely, well-manicured resort community just a few miles from the bustling fishing village of Zihuatanejo. A planned tourist destination constructed in the 1970s on a mangrove estuary and coconut plantation, home to popular oceanside hotel chains, it’s where to go if you want to experience the sun, surf and nightlife.

Here there are countless stores selling clothing and arts and crafts, high-end stores carrying designer labels and brands and numerous first-class restaurants and bars. There is easy convenience as well: banks and ATMs and pharmacies are on nearly every corner, as are 24-hour walk-in clinics, where for 40 pesos you can get a diagnosis and a prescription in a short time.

Large enough not to feel isolated, the area is still small enough to walk, although numerous taxis and buses will take you anywhere you want to go.

A few blocks away are numerous apartments, condos and homes for sale or rent. Beautiful private homes walled and gated dot the side streets, and there is even a marina at the far end of Ixtapa where you can dock your boat.

Two golf courses seal the claim that this is a first-class resort destination.

Though not far from Ixtapa’s hotel area, La Puerta feels like a different Mexico.

But, behind all that is a community known as La Puerta de Ixtapa, (La Puerta to locals), which you can access by walking, bike or scooter via a small path and gateway near the Fonatur building off Paseo de Los Viveros.

The flower boxes and uneven concrete in some places make maneuvering a little tricky, but it only takes a couple of minutes until you’re over the threshold and into what looks like a whole new world bustling with activity.

There are vendors with pushcarts and stores that sell everything from baked goods to meat, vegetables and seafood. I soon saw that I could get my hair cut, buy office supplies or hardware and have keys cut all within a few blocks’ radius. A fitness center, pharmacy and water company are housed on the same block.

Clothing stores and locals selling used clothes on the sidewalks in front of their homes are standard. There are fresh chicken and fish stands. Small restaurants and bars are plentiful, including a cute little one called Freddy’s Bar, popular not only with the locals but also with expats, some of whom live in nearby developments in the Morrocoy neighborhood.

I could smell delicious Mexican food everywhere I went and traced it to a taco restaurant called Julio’s Asadero. Two new larger grocery chains had been added since my last visit, in addition to mom-and-pop establishments.

A vast water tower dominated what I perceived to be the town center, situated in the middle of a traffic circle. Combi buses continuously run, with trips to Ixtapa and Zihuatanejo via the highway easily accessible.

A wall at a neighborhood taquería displays its offerings. — A wall at a neighborhood *taquería* displays its offerings.

The community is completely self-sufficient, and I was hard-pressed to think of anything I would want but couldn’t get in this very typical Mexican community.

Homes run the gamut from freestanding to apartment and townhouse configurations. Some look to be ancient, built from adobe bricks and left in their original form, while others are more modern and updated with flowers and shrubs. Gone are Ixtapa’s manicured streets, lawns and order of design, yet somehow they all blend in harmony in a way I find charming.

Music seems to waft over the community. Dogs and cats roam the streets. I half-expected, half-hoped to see donkeys and chickens (although I didn’t). I noticed that for the most part, the roads were free from the usual garbage you sometimes find in some communities. Judging by the number of people sweeping in front of their homes and businesses, residents take pride in keeping La Puerta clean.

Despite the differences between the two communities — including socioeconomic ones — one thing about both remains consistent: people’s smiles and friendliness.

And given that, I would have to conclude that perhaps the two worlds are not that dissimilar after all.

The writer divides her time between Canada and Zihuatanejo.

Story on Mexican hand gestures leads to video guide

By

Tony Richards

-

March 18, 2021

0

The CGTN video offers a clear demonstration of gestures used in Mexico.

An article on hand gestures written by Mexico News Daily writer Leigh Thelmadatter and published last month was picked up by the China Global Television Network (CGTN) where correspondent Alasdair Baverstock took it to a new dimension.

The beginner’s guide to Mexican Hand Gestures is a 2 1/2-minute video that clearly demonstrates the many gesticulations that are part of the Mexican culture.

“You don’t really learn these gestures; you’re born with them,” says demonstrator Blanca Vargas. “Your parents use them; your friends use them, and you just understand what they mean.”

Mexico News Daily

Vaccinations get under way in México state, Jalisco, Michoacán and Guerrero

By

MND Staff

-

March 18, 2021

0

A senior citizen gets a jab in Tonalá, Jalisco, this week.

The Covid vaccination program began in recent days in three heavily populated municipalities in México state, Jalisco and Guerrero, while seniors in some other major centers will have the opportunity to get a jab in the coming days.

The rollout in Coacalco, a México state municipality that borders Mexico City to the north, began on Wednesday and authorities plan to inoculate more than 27,000 residents aged 60 or older in the space of a week.

The program will commence in the México state municipalities of Nezahualcóyotl and Texcoco, both of which are also in the greater Mexico City metropolitan area, on Friday and Saturday, respectively.

In Jalisco, the first anti-Covid shots were given in Tonalá, a municipality that borders Guadalajara, on Monday. Authorities hope to administer more than 40,000 shots there but the first day of the rollout didn’t go as smoothly as hoped.

Vaccines were administered in Tlaquepaque, another Guadalajara area municipality, last week but at least 2,000 seniors missed out on a shot due to a lack of supply, the newspaper La Jornada reported. Vaccination started Wednesday in 11 other Jalisco municipalities including San Juan de Los Lagos, Jocotepec, Ciudad Guzmán and Chapala.

Seniors in Guadalajara will begin rolling up their sleeves for shots starting this Saturday. More than 80,000 vaccine doses have been allocated to Jalisco’s capital and largest city but the population of seniors is almost triple that number at 238,500, according to the 2020 census.

Unlike many other locations, Guadalajara will not designate scheduled vaccination days for seniors depending on the first letter of their surname. With the population of seniors well above the number of doses that will be available there are predictions of chaotic scenes in the municipality on Saturday.

“When you organize your vaccination centers to attend to 80,000 people and three times more arrive it’s obvious there will be a problem,” said public health expert Carlos Alonso Reynoso.

Vaccinations will be administered at the following locations in Guadalajara starting Saturday: Parque Agua Azul, the CODE Alcalde sports center, Parque San Jacinto, Parque Ávila Camacho, the CODE Paradero Sports Center, Antigua Penal de Oblatos, Explanada del Instituto Cultural Cabañas, Centro Universitario de Arte, Arquitectura y Diseño and Museo del Ejército a la Fuerza Aérea.

The vaccine rollout will also begin Saturday in Morelia, Michoacán, at 11 different vaccination centers. A list of them is published on the Michoacán Health Ministry website.

Meanwhile, vaccination is already underway in Acapulco, Guerrero, where the first shots were given to seniors on Wednesday.

A total of 23,520 vaccine doses will be available in the resort city between Wednesday and Monday. Seniors with surnames starting with A were eligible for inoculation on Wednesday, those with last names beginning with B are being vaccinated today and those with surnames starting with C will be inoculated Friday and next Monday.

There are five vaccination centers in Acapulco. They are Centro de convenciones, Unidad deportiva de Acapulco, Tecnológico de Acapulco, Unidad deportiva Jorge Campos and Forum Mundo Imperial.

Almost 3.3 million seniors across Mexico have received at least one vaccine dose, according to data presented by the Health Ministry on Wednesday night, and about 17,000 have received two.

Mexico has so far used four different vaccines to inoculate health workers, seniors and teachers. They are the Pfizer, Sinovac, Sputnik V and AstraZeneca. A total of 4.7 million doses had been administered by Wednesday night.

Source: El Financiero (sp), La Jornada (sp), El Universal (sp), El Informador (sp), Uno TV (sp)

United States plans to share AstraZeneca vaccine with Mexico and Canada

By

MND Staff

-

March 18, 2021

0

The vaccine will go to those seniors who received their first shot last month.

The United States plans to send 2.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine to Mexico, the U.S. government said Thursday, providing a much-needed boost to Mexico’s vaccination program.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said another 1.5 million doses would be shared with Canada. She added that the arrangement had not been finalized yet, “but that is our aim.”

The announcement comes four days after President López Obrador said he was confident that the U.S. government would agree to supply vaccines to Mexico, where the official Covid-19 death toll is approaching 200,000. He discussed that possibility with U.S. President Joe Biden during a video meeting earlier this month.

Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Twitter that he will provide details about the arrangement on Friday morning.

The United States has tens of millions of the AstraZeneca vaccine at local manufacturing sites but is not using any of them because it has not been approved by U.S. regulators. Several European countries have suspended its use because a small number of recipients developed blood clots.

However, the European Medicines Agency declared the vaccine safe on Thursday. AstraZeneca has also said that, based on a review of 17 million recipients, people given the vaccine were less likely than others to develop dangerous clots.

The Mexican government, which has so far only received a single shipment of 870,000 AstraZeneca shots manufactured in India, said last week that it would continue to use the vaccine despite the thrombosis cases. Another shipment from India is expected to arrive soon and the government has an agreement to purchase more than 40 million AstraZeneca shots to be manufactured in Argentina and bottled in Mexico.

The United States’ announcement that it will send vaccines to its neighbors – it’s first foray into Covid-19 vaccine diplomacy – comes at “a critical time in negotiations with Mexico,” The New York Times reported.

It said that sources including Mexican officials revealed that Biden asked López Obrador during their recent video call if more could be done to stop the increasing flow of migrants to the United States-Mexico border.

Mexico has recently ramped up enforcement against Central American migrants traveling through the country to apply for asylum in the United States but U.S. border agents still conducted 100,441 apprehensions or expulsions of migrants at the border in February, a 28% increase compared to January.

Although migration has become a pressing bilateral matter since Biden took office in January, United States and Mexican officials deny that there is any deal on that issue included in the vaccine agreement.

Psaki told a press conference Thursday that bilateral discussions on vaccines and border security were unrelated but overlapping.

Specifically asked whether there were any strings attached to the United States offer to loan vaccines to its neighbors, the White House press secretary said “certainly that’s not the case with Mexico.”

“It’s not the case with any country around the world. And so I wouldn’t read into it more than our ability to provide – to lend – vaccine doses,” Psaki said.

Roberto Velasco, head of the Mexican Foreign Affairs Ministry’s North America department, said in a statement there was no quid pro quo for vaccines.

Migration and vaccines are two separate issues, he said, adding that Mexico is looking for “a more humane migratory system and enhanced cooperation against Covid-19, for the benefit of our two countries and the region.”

Although it is unclear when they might arrive, the AstraZeneca vaccines from the United States will be used to administer second shots to the 870,000 seniors who received a first dose in February, Foreign Minister Ebrard said.

He said the United States’ commitment was “great news” and suggested that additional shipments could be sent, writing on Twitter that it was the beginning of “broad cooperation on vaccines.”

Mexico has administered just over 4.7 million vaccine doses since the country’s vaccination program began on December 24 whereas more than 113 million doses have been given in the United States. Mexico has administered just 3.8 doses per 100 people compared to 34 in the United States, according to the Times vaccinations tracker.

But the vaccination program here is gathering pace after virtually stalling in February due to a lack of supply, and Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell predicts that up to 600,000 seniors will be inoculated per day starting in April.

The government has received almost 7.2 million vaccine doses to date but said in late February that it expects to receive more than 100 million by the end of May

Mexico has endured one of the worst pandemics in the world, with almost 2.2 million confirmed cases and 195,908 deaths as of Wednesday, according to official data. The real numbers in both categories are widely believed to be much higher, mainly due to Mexico’s low testing rate.

Source: New York Times (en), Milenio (sp)

Jaguar sighted for the first time in part of Manantlán Biosphere Reserve

By

Michelle Aguilar

-

March 18, 2021

0

Jaguar caught by a camera in the Manantlán Biosphere Reserve. conanp

Federal environmental authorities are celebrating the discovery of a jaguar for the first time in a specific area of the Sierra de Manantlán Biosphere Reserve in Jalisco and Colima, indicating that despite illegal hunting and forest fires in the region in recent years, the national jaguar population is continuing to grow.

Jaguars were first spotted in the UNESCO-listed reserve in 2009. According to Mexico’s federal natural protected areas office, Conanp, it’s believed that the protected area is maintaining a population of two jaguars per 100 square kilometers.

The jaguar’s discovery in the Cerro Grande was made through a camera planted in that area of the reserve, where local residents are involved in Conanp’s jaguar conservation program, monitoring wildlife species on their land.

Conanp said the discovery is motivating the residents to continue preservation activity.

“It reinforces the idea that the protection and conservation of ecosystems is a matter of the planet’s health and of our own selves as the species that inhabits it,” Conanp said in a press release.

Jaguar: primer registro en Sierra de Manantlán

Watch this video on YouTube

According to the 2018 national jaguar census, conducted by Conanp with the National Autonomous University and other institutions, there are approximately 4,800 jaguars in the wild in Mexico. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature says that Mexico’s population of jaguars is one of the world’s most threatened.

The Sierra de Manantlán Biosphere Reserve, a national protected area listed on UNESCO’s World Network of Biosphere Reserves, is considered to have the greatest biodiversity in western Mexico. According to Conanp, it hosts 120 mammal species, including examples of each of Mexico’s six wild feline species.

The Manantlán reserve also provides connectivity to jaguar populations in Michoacán that roam toward the Chamela Cuixmala Biosphere Reserve in Jalisco and the National Swamplands Biosphere Reserve in Nayarit.

Source: Milenio (sp), UDG TV (sp)

Government to announce big oil discovery in Tabasco though its viability is uncertain

By

MND Staff

-

March 18, 2021

0

President Lázaro Cárdenas announces the expropriation of the oil industry on March 18, 1938.

President López Obrador will officially announce on Thursday the discovery of a large oil and gas field in Tabasco but there is no certainty that the deposit will be commercially viable.

According to government officials consulted by the newspaper Milenio, the deposit to be announced is the Dzimpona onshore field, located in Comalcalco not far from the site of the Dos Bocas refinery, which is currently under construction on the Gulf of Mexico coast.

The government believes the field has the initial potential to yield 600 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe).

López Obrador will announce the field during an event to celebrate the 83rd anniversary of the expropriation of the Mexican oil industry. Former president Lázaro Cárdenas nationalized the sector on March 18, 1938.

López Obrador said earlier this month that there has been a lot of progress in terms of oil exploration and that the government has been lucky. Pemex CEO Octavio Romero said Sunday that the new discovery is “a large field surrounded by smaller ones that could together hold prospective resources comparable to those found in Ixachi and Quesqui.”

Located in Veracrz, Ixachi is an onshore field discovered in 2019 with an estimated 2 billion boe of recoverable resources, mainly gas, Romero said. The Quesqui field, discovered in Tabasco in 2020, holds almost 1 billion boe, he said.

Marco Cota, CEO of Talanza Energy Consulting, warned that it is too soon to call the latest discovery a success. He noted that presidents have traditionally made big announcements about oil discoveries on March 18, asserting that they tend to be mere political marketing, especially during election years, as is the case this year.

Cota said that the government can only truly talk about success with respect to the discovery once it has been confirmed as commercially viable. Over the years, Pemex has identified dozens of potential fields that it has been unable to develop, he said.

“At the end of the day, Mexico has no shortage of reserves, it is the environment for investments in the country that is deteriorating,” Cota said, referring to the government’s decision to cancel new oil and gas auctions – made possible by the previous government’s energy reform – among other moves to give Pemex more control of the sector.

Energy analyst Ramsés Pech said that even if the Dzimpona field is found to be commercially viable it will not help Pemex to boost crude production anytime soon. Noting that the field is still in an exploratory phase, he said that production would not likely begin until the end of López Obrador’s 2018-2024 term or the start of the next federal administration.

Gonzalo Monroy, CEO of the energy consultancy firm GMEC, said the recent discovery of onshore fields is “not a game changer in any way.”

He said that a lot is already known about onshore fields in Mexico’s Gulf coast area as a result of lessons learnt at Ixachi and Quesqui. The wells at both fields are high temperature and high pressure, Monroy said, explaining that those factors translate into higher costs.

At current prices, gas projects don’t help to relieve Pemex’s main problems such as excessive production chain costs, he said.

Pemex has more than US $100 billion in debt and has not been able to increase crude production significantly despite the government’s efforts to stabilize operations by injecting about $17 billion into the company over the past two years.

It reported a loss of almost 481 billion pesos (US $23.5 billion) in 2020 as demand for oil slumped due to the coronavirus pandemic and associated economic restrictions.

Another problem for Pemex despite the discoveries in recent years is dwindling reserves. Consistent underinvestment in exploration has resulted in proven and probable reserves dropping to less than 16 billion boe in 2020 from from almost 45 billion boe in 2001, according to National Hydrocarbon Commission data.

The government’s decision to build a US $8-billion refinery on the Tabasco coast has been criticized on the grounds that it diverts resources from Pemex’s more profitable exploration business.

But López Obrador is determined to reduce Mexico’s dependence on imported fuels, pledging last year that the country will be self-sufficient in gasoline by 2023.

His announcement today – despite doubts about its commercial viability – is likely to be used as evidence for Mexico’s capacity to reach that goal.

It also gives a boost to the president’s nationalistic energy agenda as he seeks to “rescue” Pemex and the government-owned Federal Electricity Commission by bolstering their role in the Mexican energy sector at the expense of foreign and private companies that have invested billions of dollars here since the state monopoly was ended by the 2014 reform.

Source: Milenio (sp), S & P Global (en)

Holy Week photo expedition leads to an unanticipated cultural encounter

By

Joseph Sorrentino

-

March 17, 2021

0

The dramatic encounter between the Virgin Mary and Jesus on his way to the crucifixion during Holy Week festivities in Tlalixtac, Oaxaca. Joseph Sorrentino

It was in Tlalixtac, a village about 20 miles outside of Oaxaca, on Good Friday when I heard the words that no one ever wants to hear anywhere, but especially in Mexico.

You are going to jail.

I was in Tlalixtac to photograph Semana Santa. I was told it’s an interesting place, especially on Good Friday, when they reenact Christ’s crucifixion. Earlier that week, I’d met Dylan, a young Mexican-American photographer, and we decided to photograph together. It was really good for me because at the time I had only a rudimentary grasp of Spanish and he was bilingual. Plus, he taught me some slang and curses, things that always come in handy.

We’d decided to visit Tlalixtac a few days before Good Friday so we could get to know people and get permission to photograph. We went to the local church and talked to the priest and a bunch of people, and everyone said it was OK to take pictures. We started shooting on that first day and returned every day, getting more comfortable.

What we neglected to do, however, was talk to the local authorities.

We were photographing in the church on Good Friday when a local official came up and told us to leave the church. If we didn’t, we’d go to jail. We stepped outside with him, Dylan explaining why we were there and that we had talked to people and the priest and were told it was OK to photograph.

“I do not care,” he said. “If you photograph again, you will go to jail.”

Confused, we went to talk to the priest, and he assured us it was OK to photograph. We’d barely stepped back inside the church when the same official hurried toward us — angrier now.

“Get out of the church,” he said. “And if you photograph in here again, you are going to jail.”

Dylan told him we’d spoken with the priest, but the official replied that the priest wasn’t the one in charge; he was. We asked if it would be OK to photograph outside the church, and he said that would be fine. But first, we headed back to talk with the priest again, Dylan explaining in more detail what we’d been told. Again, he told us to photograph in the church if we wanted to. Slightly confused, we went back to the church but stayed outside. Just as we started photographing, who shows up but our favorite local official.

“OK. That is it!” he yelled. “You are going to jail.”

Inspired by the confusing encounter the writer had with a Tlalixtac official opposed to him taking photographs at a local church on Good Friday. Miguel Ángel Gómez Cabrera

Explaining to him that he’d just told us we could photograph outside did nothing to calm him down. “How much do you want?” Dylan finally asked.

“Señor, I do not want your money,” was the reply. “I am only trying to protect you. Just last week, some people — they looked like you two — were in the church trying to steal some paintings. The people caught them and dragged them out, and we had to step in to save them.”

Yeah, I bet. Somehow, we didn’t end up paying him anything.

Dylan and I decided to tell some of the folks we’d met that we were going to be arrested. He talked with some young guys and got them to promise to break us out of jail. I talked with a woman and got her to promise to cook us meals if we were arrested. Clearly, we were only taking the threats semi-seriously. I certainly didn’t want to spend time in a Mexican jail but if we were going to be arrested he wouldn’t have threatened us three times. He would have done it. Right?

We had no problems the rest of the day with that official.

The reenactment was pretty intense. They don’t actually nail anyone to the cross, but the young man portraying Christ was whipped so hard as he carried a large cross through the streets that large red welts were raised on his back. The most moving moment was called La Encuentra, a reenactment of Mary meeting Jesus as he made his way to his crucifixion. Then the young man was tied up on a cross for about 90 minutes.

At the end of the day, we asked the priest how he chose who portrayed Christ. He told us it was the young man who came in first in catechism class. I have to admit that if I were in that class, I would’ve tanked.

As we were leaving, I caught sight of the official who’d threatened to throw us in jail. I walked up to him. “Señor,” I said, “we are leaving. You will not see us again.”

“Please, señor,” he replied, shaking my hand, “please come back and visit us soon.”

Joseph Sorrentino, a writer, photographer and author of the book San Gregorio Atlapulco: Cosmvisiones, is a regular contributor to Mexico News Daily. More examples of his photographs and links to other articles may be found at www.sorrentinophotography.com He currently lives in Chipilo, Puebla.

No sargassum on Quintana Roo beaches, government says; reports say otherwise

By

MND Staff

-

March 17, 2021

0

A photograph published Wednesday by the newspaper Milenio of sargassum on a Quintana Roo beach.

The federal government on Wednesday denied the presence of sargassum on Quintana Roo beaches after media reports said Tuesday that brigades of workers had begun removing the smelly, unsightly seaweed from the state’s Caribbean coastline.

Claiming that false information had been published by the newspaper Reforma, President López Obrador asserted that the state’s beaches are clear of sargassum, which washes up on Mexico’s Caribbean coast every year, usually between March and September.

“Fortunately there is no sargassum, the beaches are clean; the Caribbean is a paradise with its turquoise blue water. We’re now managing to reduce contagion [of the coronavirus], there are now green light states [on the coronavirus risk map] and tourist activity will recover soon,” he told reporters at his morning news conference with his usual dose of optimism.

Deputy Navy Minister Eduardo Redondo Arámburo confirmed the president’s statement, claiming that seagrass had been mistaken for the macroalgae.

“There is no sargassum currently [on beaches]; there are small patches very far [out at sea],” the admiral said, explaining that the navy has been making flyovers of the Caribbean Sea since the start of the year.

One of the navy's sargassum removal vessels. — One of the navy’s sargassum removal vessels.

“… I can assure you that the Caribbean Sea beaches are clean and ready for tourists to go to them to swim and enjoy our Mexican Caribbean,” Redondo said. “The Ministry of the Navy will continue working hand in hand with other institutions to keep the beaches clean.”

Redondo said the navy has nine shallow-water sargassum removal vessels and they are already at sea. He also said that a deep-water vessel will be deployed in the coming days and that sargassum barriers are being installed in Tulum, one of several Quintana Roo destinations expected to see an influx of visitors over the Easter vacation period.

But numerous hoteliers and tourists today rejected the government’s claims that there was no sargassum, posting photos and videos to social media that showed masses of the seaweed washed up on the coastline. Akumal Sur, Mahahual and Playa del Carmen were among the locations affected.

In addition, the Cancún sargassum monitoring network published a new map on Wednesday that showed that there are moderate amounts of the weed at 26 beaches and abundant quantities at three beaches on the northeastern coast of Cozumel, a small island off the coast of Playa del Carmen. An additional 36 Quintana Roo beaches have very low quantities of sargassum, while only 15 are completely untainted by the brown seaweed.

Various experts also confirmed that there is indeed sargassum in the state. Alejandro Bravo, an oceanographer and member of the Quintana Roo government’s sargassum committee, told the newspaper Milenio that there has been a “significant presence” of the seaweed on beaches for the past month. He said sargassum actually began arriving in January, surprising members of the committee because it doesn’t normally reach Quintana Roo until later in the year.

“It hasn’t arrived in overwhelming quantities but its presence is significant,” Bravo said.

Brigitta Ine van Tussenbroek, a scientist at the National Autonomous University’s Institute of Marine Sciences and Limnology and another committee member, said that sargassum has arrived in recent weeks, although not in “catastrophic quantities.”

Greater quantities could arrive later in the season depending on the behavior of ocean currents, she said.

Joel González Chiñas, an oceanographer and biologist who has been researching the sargassum problem since 2015, told Reforma that it appeared that the government has “other information” – a phrase frequently used by López Obrador when confronted with information he doesn’t agree with – because “there are moderate and manageable arrivals” of the weed on Quintana Roo beaches.

“There are photographs and maps [of the sargassum], it’s not something we’re hiding. There are people who walk on the beach and send photos. In hotels there are daily cleaning brigades …” he said.

Source: Reforma (sp), Milenio (sp)