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

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March 18, 2021

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

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MND Staff

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March 18, 2021

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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

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March 18, 2021

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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

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March 18, 2021

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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

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March 17, 2021

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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

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March 17, 2021

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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)

AMLO threatens to pursue constitutional change if electricity law ruled invalid

By

MND Staff

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March 17, 2021

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President López Obrador threatened Wednesday to send a bill to Congress to change the constitution if a new electricity law that prioritizes the state-owned Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) over private companies is deemed unconstitutional.

The new Electricity Industry Law, which gives CFE-generated power priority on the national grid over that produced by private and renewable energy companies, took effect last week but was promptly suspended by a judge who ruled that it could harm competition and cause irreparable damage to the environment. A second judge ruled against the law on Tuesday in response to 11 injunction requests filed by private companies.

Speaking at his regular news conference, López Obrador said he was certain the law was not unconstitutional before indicating that he would seek to change the constitution if judges, including the Supreme Court, rule that it is.

“If judges, magistrates, justices determine it is unconstitutional and it can’t continue, I would send an initiative to reform the constitution because I cannot be an accomplice to robbery,” the president said, reaffirming his claim that the previous government, which ended a long-held state monopoly in the energy sector, allowed private and foreign companies to loot and steal.

The news agency Reuters reported that some lawyers do not believe that the law – which is seen as a barrier to investment and could trigger clashes with the United States – will be ruled unconstitutional if the government can provide sufficient guarantees to companies with existing energy sector investments in Mexico.

López Obrador didn’t indicate the exact nature of the constitutional change he would pursue but expressed confidence that his government would be able to enact one.

“What do we need? Two-thirds [of the Congress]? … It’s good that the elections are coming, … they [the opposition parties] are betting that we won’t get a majority in the Chamber of Deputies so they can continue maintaining privileges and continue maintaining the regime of corruption. But the people are wise,” he said.

The president’s Morena party and its allies the Social Encounter and Labor parties don’t currently have the votes among them to get the two-thirds majority required.

The president said he was unconcerned about the accumulation of rulings against the electricity law but reiterated that the judges that hand them down should be investigated.

“Public life has to be more and more public, transparency is a golden rule of democracy and there shouldn’t be untouchables. The president of Mexico has no immunity [from prosecution] now, he can be investigated for any crime, that didn’t happen before. If that’s the way it is with the president, why not with other public servants,” López Obrador said.

The president wrote last week to Supreme Court Chief Justice Arturo Zaldívar to ask that the judge who ruled against the electricity law be investigated.

Chief Justice Zaldívar: an investigation will proceed if there’s evidence.

López Obrador said Monday he had asked the Federal Judiciary Council (CJF) to determine whether the court in which the judge sits – an administrative court that specializes in economic competition, broadcasting and telecommunications matters – has the authority to suspend the law.

He said an investigation into the judge is necessary because there are “people, organizations and companies” that are close to the old political regime.

“[They] act based on their well-known economic and political interests [and] use corruption and influence peddling as their modus operandi,” López Obrador said.

He specifically cited Spanish energy firm Iberdrola, for which former president Felipe Calderón and his energy minister Georgina Kessel have worked.

Zaldívar responded to the president’s request for an investigation in his own letter, which the CJF made public on Monday afternoon, in which he made it clear that an investigation would only proceed if there was evidence of wrongdoing.

“As is appropriate in these cases your complaint will be sent to the relevant area of the Federal Judiciary Council so that an investigation is opened if there is evidence for that [to occur],” he wrote.

Zaldívar added that democracy and the rule of law are built on judges’ capacity to make decisions within “a framework of autonomy and independence.”

The chief justice told the president that it’s the job of the Federal Judiciary Council to ensure that judges can freely do that while making certain that they act in accordance with the law and with “honesty, honor and complete impartiality.”

“We will continue to fulfill this mandate,” Zaldívar concluded.

Source: Reforma (sp), Reuters (en), Milenio (sp)

Inoculation a hard sell when vaccines inspire more fear than the virus

By

Sarah DeVries

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March 17, 2021

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A woman receives a Covid-19 vaccine in Querétaro in December.

Last Saturday in Xalapa, Veracruz, was the first day that regular citizens (over the age of 60) were able to get Covid-19 vaccines.

The city set up about 26 modules so that those whose last names started with the letters A–E could go receive their first shots. Several of my friends either have been or will be getting vaccinated this week.

Saturday was the first day of a week-long campaign for this age group. People waited in line for hours; one friend of mine waited for over six. Yet another acquaintance paid someone else to stand in line for him, which was not a terrible idea. For the age group being served, with a little more organization we might have arranged for something like that for lots of people; surely there’d have been plenty goodwill to spread around.

Subsequent days have seen much shorter lines, though we’re not quite sure why. Much of it probably has to do with workers having learned on the first day where their logistical shortfalls were and fixing them. Some also speculate (correctly, most likely), that lots of people with last names not at the beginning of the alphabet got in line incorrectly on the first day.

After what happened with Oaxaca’s roll-out, after all, confidence that there would be enough doses was likely not high. Thankfully, things seem to have gone smoothly so far here, and the weather has been mercifully nice as well.

It’s been a long, hard year, and so often it felt like we would never get to this point. To be sure, we’re not out of the woods, but we can at least see a light at the end of the tunnel now, and that’s something.

And with our stoplight system leaning more toward green than red right now, one can almost imagine that we’ll be able to achieve some semblance of normality by summer. On a personal level, my biggest hope is that my daughter and other children can finally go back to in-person classes.

Saturday is also the day that I read both about the Hidalgo woman who died after receiving her vaccine and about the fact that the AstraZeneca vaccine has been suspended in several European countries on suspicion that it might be linked to cases of thrombosis (basically, blood clots).

Uh-oh.

This news isn’t going to help a situation in which many people seem to be much warier of the vaccine than of the virus itself. It’s a stance that doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, but the nature of fear is that it’s not always logical; it doesn’t look at and evaluate statistics first.

Think of all the people who are afraid to fly even though they’re exponentially more likely to die in a car crash on the way to the airport, or how parents are terrified that someone will snatch their children in the street when a tumble down the unguarded stairs in the house is actually a much bigger threat.

When it comes to fears and assumptions about whether something is likely to happen, statistics have very little to do with the way our hearts jump into our throats.

Back to the Hidalgo woman. According to authorities, at 75, she had other health problems, and her death has not been linked to the vaccine. But for those already suspicious of their safety, it serves as “proof” that they’re correct in their wariness.

Someone’s death soon after the vaccine was bound to happen, whether it was related to the vaccine or not. If a handful of people were dropping dead at every vaccination site, I’d say, “All right, let’s stop; something’s not right.” But that is not the case, and I worry about people refusing to take the vaccine as a result and then becoming seriously ill or dying of the virus instead.

I don’t know anyone who’s had a serious reaction to the vaccine, but boy, do I know a lot of people who have died.

I’ll admit, though, that the news about the AstraZeneca vaccine gave me more pause. Deputy Health Minister López-Gatell reminds us that correlation does not equal causation, but the adamancy with which he assured us about this during his press conference was surely cold comfort to some.

The fact that there have been no such cases in Mexico makes me feel more at ease, but a glance at the current most-read stories list of this paper shows that readers at least of Mexico News Daily are paying a lot of attention to those two stories (for an excellent, easily-understandable and up-to-date Q&A about what we know so far about the AstraZeneca vaccine and its effects, see the New York Times).

I am often alerted that my most recent article has been published because I get emails from strangers about them. Two weeks ago, I received many more not-very-nice emails than usual about the piece I did on vaccines, many calling me naïve, some calling me corrupt (I swear, no vaccine companies have paid me to write things in their favor; I’m not saying I’m above it — I could use the cash — but it’s just not happening). When it comes to vaccines, a lot of people have a lot to say about them.

People are wary and scared. They think the vaccines came out too soon, skipping the appropriate testing (they didn’t skip — it was truly a scientific marvel that combined urgency with our modern technology and knowledge).

I pray that as more people become vaccinated and as fewer people become seriously ill from the coronavirus that at least some of the holdouts will come around and get vaccinated too.

I’ll also be hoping when I get my own vaccine that the gods won’t decide it would be a hilarious joke if I died right after of thrombosis.

Especially if I get the AstraZeneca one.

Sarah DeVries is a writer and translator based in Xalapa, Veracruz. She can be reached through her website, sdevrieswritingandtranslating.com.

Tourism fund plans 12 solar energy plants to power Maya Train

By

MND Staff

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March 17, 2021

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Maya Train construction under way in the southeast.

Up to 12 solar energy plants could be built in the next three years to power the Maya Train, according to the head of the National Tourism Promotion Fund (Fonatur), which is managing the ambitious rail project in Mexico’s southeast.

Rogelio Jiménez Pons told the newspaper Milenio that Fonatur has a master plan that proposes the construction of that number of solar farms in different parts of the country.

He said solar plants would be built in San José del Cabo and Loreto in Baja California; Tulum and Cozumel in Quintana Roo; Palenque, Chiapas; Calakmul, Campeche; Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo, Guerrero; and Huatulco, Oaxaca.

Jiménez said solar plants could also be built at airports operated by the government-owned corporation Aeropuertos y Servicios Auxiliares.

The Fonatur chief said energy generated at the plants would be used for the electrification of the Maya Train, which will transport passengers along 1,500 kilometers of tracks in Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán, Quintana Roo and Chiapas.

That revelation comes nine months after the federal government said it had decided that the Maya Train would be powered by diesel rather than electricity in order to keep operating costs down.

Jiménez said solar plants in San José del Cabo, Tulum and Cozumel would be the first to be built, with construction to start this year after a tendering process in September.

The investment for those three projects will be US $187 million, he said, explaining that Fonatur will provide 20% of the money and the other 80% will come from two state-owned banks, Nacional Financiera and Bancomext.

The San José del Cabo, Tulum and Cozumel plants will have a combined output of 110 megawatts, Jiménez said, adding that the Maya Train will require 200 megawatts to operate. That quantity of power will be reached after additional new solar plants come on line in 2022, he said.

The US $8-billion Maya Train railroad, currently under construction, is expected to start operations in 2023.

Jiménez said that all of the Maya Train solar plants will have battery storage so that they continue to supply power at night.

The Fonatur chief also told Milenio that profits from the Cozumel plant will be used for the establishment of a free ferry service between the island, located off the coast of Playa del Carmen, and Cancún. He said the navy will be responsible for building the ferry and operating the Cozumel-Cancún service.

Profits from other solar plants will go to the ministries of the Environment and Culture for a range of programs. Jiménez emphasized that more energy needs to be generated in Mexico but not by private companies that send profits out of the country.

The Fonatur director said in a separate interview that all of the profits generated by the operation of the Maya Train railroad, on which freight trains will also run, will go directly to the Ministry of National Defense.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Eager for Covid shot, man uses tricycle cart to take his wife to vaccination center

By

Michelle Aguilar

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March 17, 2021

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The couple wait for their shots at a Celaya vaccination center.

Determined to have his wife vaccinated against Covid-19, a 75-year-old Celaya resident transported the 83-year-old woman with a tricycle cart to a vaccination center where health authorities were immunizing seniors in the Guanajuato city.

Although the couple live near the auditorium where immunizations were taking place, state officials said, Hernández delivered his wife because she has Parkinson’s disease and cannot move on her own, according to the newspaper Milenio.

Seferino Hernández Hurtado and Galina Uribe Estrada arrived at the center around 5 a.m., where they waited for a while before receiving their shots.

The couple, who have been married for more than 50 years, were among Celaya’s first residents to be vaccinated.

The story triggered both news stories and social media posts, with some people reacting to the story as evidence of the power and endurance of true love, and others responding negatively, commenting that the couple’s story was an example of the alleged lack of organization of the Covid-19 vaccination process.

Some commenters online decried the amount of time that seniors had to wait to be immunized and the fact that the couple had to leave their house at all to be vaccinated.

“They are incapable of guaranteeing proper access to health to the people of Guanajuato, and even more to people like [the couple],” said one Facebook user. “How many hours did they have to be waiting in line to be the first [to be vaccinated]? And with their age and in their condition! You are romanticizing ineptitude!”

As of Tuesday, 3.7 million of Mexico’s seniors had received one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, according to Health Ministry data. President López Obrador predicted on Monday that all the nation’s seniors will have received at least one dose by the end of April.

Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell also announced Monday that starting in April, the government will immunize up to 600,000 of the nation’s 15 million seniors per day, based on expectations that the number of doses arriving weekly will about double starting next month.

Mexico has to date received almost 7.2 million doses after a shipment of 667,875 Pfizer shots arrived in Mexico City Tuesday morning.

Source: Milenio (sp)