State police inspect weapons belonging to Zongolica municipal police.
State police in Veracruz took control of two municipalities on Wednesday, disarming and relieving from duty at least 40 municipal police officers.
Law enforcement from Papantla and Zongolica will be sent to the state capital Xalapa for reevaluation.
Veracruz authorities have intervened in at least nine municipal police forces this year, and taken control of at least six.
Papantla and Zongolica are both locally governed by the Democratic Revolutionary Party. The party’s state leader, Sergio Cadena Martínez, believes the Morena state government’s intervention was tied to politics, and Sunday’s elections.
“This is clearly an intimidating and desperate act that seeks to try to suppress the spirit of citizen participation … It’s a cowardly government, a government that is afraid, and takes advantage of institutions,” he said.
Zongolica has one of the largest community police forces in the country, which continues to operate. It is composed of 1,200 elected, local indigenous people, who patrol unarmed.
If you are like me, one of the first things you noticed about driving in Mexico (after blinking green lights) is that there are certain street names that keep getting repeated. In fact, if you see street names such as (Benito) Juárez, (Miguel) Hidalgo, 16 de septiembre, (Francisco I.) Madero and Reforma closely together, chances are you are in the historic center.
If you guessed that most of these street names come from Mexican history, you would be correct. Most countries have street names to preserve the memory of historic events and people. Mexico is no exception. These have changed from time to time, principally when there has been major sociopolitical changes. For this reason, many names today are related to the War of Independence followed by historical events after that such as the Mexican Revolution. According to Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi) the most common street names in Mexico are Miguel Hidalgo, Emiliano Zapata, Benito Juárez and 5 de Mayo.
Miguel Hidalgo is called the “father of the nation” and the “father of independence.” His role in Mexico’s identity has similarities to that of George Washington, although their lives before and during and after their struggles against European powers were very different.
Hidalgo was one of several conspirators against the Spanish Crown whose plot was prematurely discovered. Warned by fellow conspirator Josefina Ortíz de Domínguez, Hidalgo decided to call together the townspeople of the small village of Dolores in Hidalgo where he was parish priest. Ringing the bell at 11 p.m. on September 15, 1810, he called the people to join him in rebellion, an act that officially marks the start of Mexico’s independence and is recreated every year as part of celebrations.
Independence is so central to Mexican identity that (Miguel) Hidalgo is the most popular name in 24 of Mexico’s 32 states, appearing over 14,200 times.
Avenida Madero in Villahermosa.
In Mexico City alone, it appears on 317 streets. Other names referring to this war are also extremely common. Independencia appears about 7,000 times and 16 de septiembre (the first full day of independence and the national holiday) just over 6,600. Other national figures from this time period are common and include (José María) Morelos, (Ignacio) Allende and (Vicente) Guerrero.
Regional heroes of the movement are often honored in the areas where they were active. Fray Servando and Padro Mier refer to José Servando Teresa de Mier y Noriega y Guerra, who was active in Monterrey and appears frequently on street signs in Nuevo León and the northeast.
Emiliano Zapata was the leader of the Liberation Army of the South, one of the major factions fighting during the decade-long Mexican Revolution. Unlike some other factional leaders, Zapata never became president of Mexico; in fact, he was killed by troops loyal to rival Venustiano Carranza.
But Zapata’s name is the best remembered in Mexico and most recognized internationally. Zapata’s ideas about land and agrarian reform found their way into the current 1917 constitution, and his name and image are still invoked in struggles of the rural poor against the powers-that-be. One recent example of this are the Zapatistas of Chiapas, who made international headlines in 1994.
Zapata’s name is second only to Hidalgo, but his name does not appear quite as ubiquitously in Mexico as Hidalgo’s. The name is most popular in Guanajuato, and not surprisingly, Morelos, where he had his base of operations and where his ideas still dominate land tenure today.
Other names related to the Revolution include (Francisco I.) Madero, (José María) Pino Suárez, (Álvaro) Obregón, and interestingly enough Porfirio Díaz, the president/dictator that all of the factions rose up together against at the outset. Although Francisco (Pancho) Villa was also a factional leader (and best known to Americans), his name appears commonly only in certain parts of northern Mexico such as Durango.
There are many Calle Hidalgos, named after the Mexican Independence hero Miguel Hidalgo.
Neither part of the Independence or Revolution movements, Benito Juárez nonetheless may be the closest thing Mexico has to a secular saint. Born 1806 in rural Oaxaca, Juárez was a full-blooded Zapotec who studied law to help his people. The 19th century was a time of constant civil wars and coups d’état in Mexico, and Juárez spent his life fighting either French invaders and/or conservative factions among his own countrymen.
He was a driving force behind the 1857 constitution and the Reforma (Reform) that irrevocably changed Mexican society. He died in office as Mexican president in 1872 and is the only Mexican individual to have a national holiday on the anniversary of his birth. Juárez’s name appears just under 10,000 times nationally, appearing most strongly in Quintana Roo and his native state, with about 1,500 streets there alone.
The last is not a person but a historical date, and a curious one at that. 5 de Mayo (May 5) is the anniversary of the Battle of Puebla. It is better known in the U.S. as something similar to St. Patrick’s Day, a day of celebrating Mexican heritage often with large quantities of alcohol and cheesy costumes. It is not a national holiday in Mexico although it is very important in Puebla and in certain places where many poblanos have migrated, both in Mexico and the United States.
The battle pitted the invading French against various Mexican forces cobbled together just outside the city of Puebla. On that day, Mexican forces won, but only managed to delay the French installation of Maximilian I as emperor of the Second Mexican Empire. Although 5 de mayo ranks fourth, streets with this name are clustered strongly in Puebla and central Mexico.
Street names do not stay completely static, with a number of signs in Mexico City attesting to historic name changes. It is common to rename streets as local men gain the presidency or other important political posts, so be on the lookout for López Obrador streets in the near future.
Leigh Thelmadatter arrived in Mexico 18 years ago and fell in love with the land and the culture in particular its handcrafts and art. She is the author of Mexican Cartonería: Paper, Paste and Fiesta (Schiffer 2019). Her culture column appears regularly on Mexico News Daily.
President López Obrador on Monday officially handed control of the government's ports and merchant marine department to the navy.
President López Obrador on Monday officially handed control of the government’s ports and merchant marine department to the Ministry of the Navy (Semar).
The department was formerly managed by the Ministry of Communications and Transportation but the federal government last year decided to hand it over to the navy, a move that triggered the resignation of former communications and transportation minister Javier Jiménez Espriú.
López Obrador formalized the transfer at a ceremony in the port city of Veracruz to mark Mexico’s annual Navy Day. He said the navy is the institution best prepared to defend Mexico and combat the importation of illegal drugs via the country’s ports.
Communications and Transportation Minister Jorge Arganis said the process to hand over the ports to Semar was seamless.
“Today, June 1, we’re completing an impeccable delivery of the General Coordination of Ports and Merchant Marine to the Semar authorities,” he said.
“We can inform you [Mr. President] that we’ve complied with your instruction and we’re absolutely convinced that the operation of the ports is in the best hands.”
Navy chief José Rafael Ojeda pledged to put an end to corruption at Mexico’s ports and maritime customs.
“We’re going to focus on eradicating any act of corruption and poor management,” he said before ruling out any possibility that the country’s ports will be militarized.
Ojeda said that the personnel who will manage the ports won’t be “makeshift” officials but highly-trained professionals well suited to carrying out the tasks the president has entrusted to the navy.
“… There will be … changes in the administration of the ports in order to make their operation more efficient. On the customs side, we commit to carrying out an administration that is free of corruption and of course very efficient; foreign trade won’t be affected,” he said.
López Obrador has justified his decision to give the navy control of the ports by saying that it is best placed to root out longstanding corruption. Since taking office in late 2018, he has delegated a range of non-traditional tasks to the armed forces, including public security, infrastructure construction and the delivery of Covid-19 vaccines. The president announced last month that the navy will also be given control of the new Isthmus of Tehuantepec trade corridor once it is completed.
López Obrador has defended his heavy reliance on the armed forces, casting the military as an honest institution and an essential ally in the fight against corruption.
Candidate Marilú Martínez was abducted with her family.
Candidates have continued to campaign at risk of attack in the final week before Sunday’s elections, although in one case the attack was devised by the candidate himself.
Marilú Martínez Núñez, a Citizens’ Movement candidate for mayor of Cutzamala de Pinzón, Guerrero, was kidnapped with her family Tuesday night by approximately 10 armed men. The military, the National Guard and state police are working to find them.
Head of the Citizens’ Movement in Guerrero, Adrián Wences Carrasco, said he was informed that outgoing mayor Timoteo Arce Solís could be behind the abduction. His wife, Rosa Jaimes, is running against Núñez.
In Puebla, meanwhile, Dr. Porfirio Eusebio Lima, a Green Party candidate for Acajete, was reported kidnapped on Saturday. But not only has he reappeared unharmed but admitted to staging the event, although the reason for doing so has not been revealed.
The candidate had checked into a hotel in Querétaro city using a false identity, but he was caught on security cameras. He had been there since Saturday.
In Quintana Roo, one case of election violence is closer to resolution. The Attorney General’s Office is investigating groups connected to the Sinaloa Cartel for the murder of mayoral candidate Ignacio Sánchez Cordero in Puerto Morelos, and an attack on his wife, Blanca Merari Tziu, who is now running in his place.
Santos Popoca draws Aztec figures on the dress of a traditional dancer. joseph sorrentino
Coatlicue, the Aztec serpent goddess, slowly comes to life under the steady hand of Santos Popoca Fernández.
He’s leaning over his worktable in his small studio in San Pedro Yancuitlalpan, Puebla, concentrating intently on the drawing he’s making on a dress that will be worn by an Aztec dancer.
Popoca started painting clothing for traditional dancers about four years ago.
“I make them because I want to revive the ancient forms of art,” he said. “The symbols I use are all Azteca. All of the pre-Hispanic cultures used representations of their culture on clothing or on their bodies. Every culture had its own symbols, their own particular identity. Pre-Hispanic groups made clothing with different materials, but they always used clothing with symbols. Depending on who they were, it was to distinguish societies, positions, classes. So a governor wore different clothes than a warrior.”
Many people are familiar with the Aztec dancers who perform in Mexico City’s zocalo, but such groups are found in pueblos all across Mexico, performing their dances during ceremonies and rituals. The dancers are easily recognized, wearing their feather headdresses and brightly colored clothing.
Dancer Guadalupe Jiménez Rincón models one of the artist’s works. joseph sorrentino
Aztec dances are, in part, a way to show the art and culture of Mexico’s indigenous groups. But they’re also a form of prayer, a way for dancers to communicate with their gods and goddesses, and a way to take the dancers out of their everyday lives.
“We dance to obtain different levels,” said Miguel Antonio Zamora Solís, captain of Grupo San Miguel, an Aztec dance troupe in Xochimilco, Mexico City.
Many Aztec dance troupes incorporate Catholic imagery in some way into their ceremonies. Often, flags or paintings bearing the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe will be carried. Cleansing ceremonies will be done in front of Catholic altars. Crucifixes will be adorned with flowers.
Clothing with paintings of the Virgin of Guadalupe are often worn during ceremonies.
“With the dance, it is a union of the two religions: Catholic and indigenous,” Zamora said. “It is a mix of Catholic and indigenous, and they are equal in importance.”
But not all Aztec dancers do this.
“There are dancers who still conserve the most original cosmovision [worldview] of the Mexicas [Aztecs],” Popoca said. “They do not integrate anything from Catholic ideology.”
Popoca doesn’t use any Catholic images in his work.
“… I want to conserve and revive what’s authentic about our cultures,” he explained.
The symbols he does paint on the clothing worn by dancers have special meanings.
“Every dancer, every person will have their particular symbol, symbols that are unique to them,” Popoca said. “Shamans and priests have special symbols and numbers that are only for them. All of the symbols and characteristics give a person power or knowledge.”
Coatlicue, the goddess that Popoca is painting on the dress, is the Aztec’s earth-mother goddess, the goddess of, among other things, childbirth, warfare and agriculture.
Santos Popoca Fernández in his studio. joseph sorrentino
“She has a necklace with hands, hearts and a skull,” he told me as he drew. “These are symbols that are very typical for this goddess.” She’s usually portrayed with snakes draped on either side of her. “The snake is a symbol of transformation,” he continued. “It sheds its skin. The oldest symbol of her is a statue of a snake, no human face.”
The images he paints aren’t always exactly what an actual symbol or a figure looks like.
“The symbols I paint are a fusion of what I find in books, the figures I see and my own ideas,” Popoca said. “They are really something new.”
When Popoca’s ready to paint an image on a dress, he’ll first make a drawing on onion skin, a thin, transparent paper. He will then either place the drawing under the cloth and trace it or draw it freehand.
“It is a very slow process because it is very detailed,” he said. Once the drawing is done, he’ll color it in with spray paints and oil paints.
Although often portrayed as an old woman, Popoca said he’ll portray Coatlicue on different sides of the dress as both an old and young woman.
“All of the symbols transform, have different forms, different ages, too. According to our ancestral beliefs, everything that exists is moving, metamorphizing,” he said. “Land moves, people move, as does water, our heart. The idea [here] is to show the evolution, the transformation.”
Popoca estimates that he paints between five and 10 dresses a year. He’ll work eight hours a day for four days on a simple one and charge about 3,000 pesos (US $150). The most complicated dresses take him 15 days and cost a dancer 7,000 pesos. Most of the clothing he paints will be worn by women, but he also paints clothing for men.
There’s been a lot of debate lately about whether it’s appropriate for non-indigenous people to wear clothing or use symbols from indigenous cultures, symbols that often have religious significance. Popoca’s painted clothing is beautiful, and it’s easy to imagine that someone who’s not an Aztec dancer would want to buy one of his dresses.
“Anyone can wear them,” he admitted, “but they’re not a fashion. It would be difficult for me to sell it as a fashion. It’s not typical to do that. They are not for daily use, only for ceremonies and dances.”
In addition, Popoca views his work as more than just painting beautiful images on clothing.
“It is important to preserve these images and the culture,” he continued, “because everything is related to — and organized by — our ancestral roots. This is ancient knowledge. It is to understand your place in the world and your objectives. If one does not understand the past, one cannot understand the present or future.”
Campaign materials of the Fuerza Militar in Naucalpan.
A group of former military personnel will run on an all-military ticket in elections this Sunday in Naucalpan, a densely-populated México state municipality that is part of the greater metropolitan area of Mexico City.
Twenty-eight retired military members, 16 of whom are women, will represent the Solidary Encounter Party (PES) in municipal, state and federal elections. The PES, formally known as the Social Encounter Party, is an ally of Mexico’s ruling Morena party.
Campaigning under the slogan Fuerza Militar, or Military Force, the candidates are seeking to win control of the Naucalpan government and to represent the municipality in the state and federal legislatures.
According to a report by the Associated Press (AP), the PES candidates are promising to bring order to Naucalpan, a city of 800,000 people that borders the northwest of Mexico City.
The presentation of an all-military ticket to voters could be regarded as a litmus test to gauge support for candidates who once served in the military. A recent national survey found that four in 10 Mexicans wouldn’t mind having a government led by the armed forces, suggesting that a significant number of people would be prepared to vote for current or former military men and women.
According to the Naucalpan military candidates, their decision to run on a joint ticket is not a political endeavor but rather an “apolitical” project that seeks to respond to security and corruption problems in the municipality. Candidates who spoke to AP said they proposed their joint ticket to several parties before reaching a deal with the PES, a socially-conservative minor party which polls indicate has lost support and could face political annihilation this Sunday.
The candidates said that if elected they will bring their military experience to their new jobs in areas such as management, order and hierarchy. They said that if they are successful in Naucalpan, all-military tickets could be formed in other parts of Mexico, a country in which the military already has enormous power thanks to President López Obrador’s delegation of a wide range of tasks to the armed forces.
“We could start as a base in Naucalpan, where we are going to seek peace and social justice to later spread it at a national level,” said Reyes Robles, a retired army general hoping to win a seat in federal Congress.
Robles, who with 45 years experience in the army is the highest-ranking member of the military ticket, rejected the suggestion that politics in Mexico are being militarized, despite the president relying on the armed forces for public security, infrastructure construction and a range of other non-traditional tasks.
Referring to his PES colleagues, the ex-general said that each candidate in Naucalpan is exercising a constitutional right to seek elected office that all citizens enjoy.
“Our country does not militarize,” Robles said. “Simply, our governments, when politics fail, they lean on the armed forces for the organization and the capacity to respond to the problems we’re facing.”
Retired Captain Oscar E. Hernández Mandujano, who is also seeking a seat in Congress, noted that members of the armed forces often retire early and need to find other pursuits in life. He compared exiting the military to graduating from a university, asserting that people who have served in the armed forces are equipped with military values that can be used in the outside world.
The Naucalpan PES candidates, if successful, will not be the first retired military personnel to hold elected office. Retired soldiers and marines have held congressional seats for various parties for over a decade, AP said, adding that the military sees their election in a positive light.
But the military hasn’t endorsed or sought to promote the PES ticket in Naucalpan, according to military expert Juan Ibarrola.
“[Current] military personnel don’t like to get involved in politics,” he said. “It’s not in their interest and they don’t need it” because they already have enough power, he told AP.
Separation ponds at a lithium mine in Chile's Atacama Desert. Open Commons
The ruling Morena party is no longer seeking to nationalize lithium mining and instead will encourage private investors to help develop Mexico’s potential to produce the sought-after, ultralight metal.
Mexico has large potential reserves of lithium, which is used in a range of batteries, including those that power electric vehicles, but most of it is in clay deposits that are technically difficult and expensive to mine.
Morena Senator Alejandro Armenta, head of the Senate’s finance committee and a close ally of President López Obrador, said late last year that the government could establish a state-run lithium monopoly. But in an interview with the news agency Reuters this week, he said he will author a bill promoting a regulated market for lithium mining.
“We’re convinced that we need private investment, and we’re allies of domestic investors and also foreign investors who respect us,” Armenta said.
The lawmaker told Reuters that his new stance was the result of having studied regulatory frameworks for lithium in other countries.
Senator Alejandro Armenta.
A market-friendly lithium bill will be taken to Congress at the start of the new sitting period in September, he said, when the makeup of the lower house will have changed as the result of elections this Sunday.
López Obrador, who is pushing to increase the state’s control of the oil and electricity markets after the previous government opened them up to private and foreign companies, said in March that his administration was looking at the possibility of taking a larger stake in the nascent lithium sector.
But Economy Minister Tatiana Clouthier said in a radio interview last month that the government was considering a public-private partnership, suggesting that the state might seek to secure a 51% stake in the sector, which is centered on the northern state of Sonora.
Armenta told Reuters that he supports such an arrangement.
The news agency noted that large oil companies have mostly been unwilling to engage in joint ventures with Pemex if the state oil company is responsible for operations.
“It was unclear if lithium investors would react similarly,” Reuters said.
It also said that developing Mexico’s lithium potential could help diversify sources for the metal, for which there is growing demand as automakers such as General Motors and Ford make plans to manufacture new electric vehicles later this decade. Lithium production is currently concentrated in a small number of countries led by Chile and Australia.
Mining lithium in Mexico, however, poses significant challenges. Reuters said that about three-quarters of global production comes from lithium-rich saline brines, while the remainder is extracted via rock mining.
However, in Mexico, most lithium deposits located to date are trapped in clay soils. Former federal environment minister Víctor Manuel Toledo asserted in late 2019 that lithium will be Mexico’s “new oil,” such is the vastness of its reserves.
But Fernando Alanís, former CEO of major silver miner Peñoles and president of the Mexican Chamber of Mines, doesn’t share his optimism.
“Unfortunately, Mexico’s potential doesn’t really exist because there isn’t a commercial process to remove lithium from clays,” he said.
However, there are several lithium projects under development, Reuters noted. Lithium Americas Corp, which has a project in Nevada, said it is confident it will be able to extract the metal using a process that involves acid leaching.
Construction workers clearing a road in preparation for construction of Bacanora Lithium’s planned mine in Sonora.
Three years ago, Bacanora Lithium, which has four concessions in Sonora, predicted output of 17,500 tonnes of lithium carbonate by 2020. However, the firm — which hasn’t revealed how it intends to extract lithium — failed to begin production. It is now forecasting that it will commence mining in 2023 and eventually increase production to 35,000 tonnes annually. If it achieves that target, Mexico would be catapulted to “major producer status,” Reuters said.
Such a quantity would have accounted for 43% of last year’s global production, which was 82,000 tonnes, according to the United States Geological Survey.
Whether Mexico will become a major lithium producer and reap the economic rewards remains uncertain. But the potential for a windfall appears high, and the government — while willing to partner with private companies in order to tap their expertise — appears determined to take the lion’s share of the profits.
An electoral institute office burns in Tuxtla Gutiérrez.
Student protests in Chiapas turned violent Monday as protesters threw stones and molotov cocktails as they fought security forces, injuring a state police officer with a missile to the face, and setting alight an office of the National Electoral Institute (INE). Riot police responded with tear gas.
Police were attempting to clear protesters — Mactumatzá teacher training college students — from the Tuxtla Gutiérrez-San Fernando highway.
Sources from the Ministry of Security reported that the clashes began when the students tried to enter a mechanical workshop belonging to the ministry, throwing explosives.
Earlier in the day, protesters set fire to the INE office in the state capital Tuxtla Gutiérrez and vandalized five INE vehicles at another office.
The ministry reported that the police recovered 11 commercial transport vehicles, a 20,000 liter fuel tank owned by Pemex and a pickup truck belonging to the Federal Electricity Commission, all of which had been commandeered on Friday and Saturday.
The INE delegate for Chiapas, Arturo de León Loredo, said a criminal complaint would be filed with the federal Attorney General’s Office and called the attack “a regrettable act … in a society governed by the rule of law.” He added, however, that human life had not been put at risk by the attacks on INE facilities.
Protests began last week in reaction to the arrest of trainee teachers on May 18 during a blockade on the Tuxtla Gutiérrez-San Cristóbal de las Casas toll road. Demanding in-person enrollment exams at their college, 19 male and 74 female teachers in training were arrested and taken to prison, accused of rioting, gang activity and robbery with violence.
The female students were released on a conditional basis, and the male students await trial in prison.
Community murals in San Quintín, Baja California, painted by professionals with the participation of residents. Rogelio Santos
I met my new Aunt Georgeanne for the first time as a young teenager.
I think it was before she married my Uncle Jerry, but it’s hard to say now that so many years have passed. In addition to being a super cool and kind lady, I found out on the day that I met her that she was an artist like her new sister-in-law, my grandmother.
When I walked into her house for the first time, I saw the biggest canvases I had ever seen: they were as gigantic as the entire high-ceilinged walls and filled with complexity, dreamlike colorscapes with hints of recognizable scenes.
Before going into that house, it had never occurred to me that it was possible to paint things that were so … big.
Waco, Texas, in the 1980s and 1990s mostly had graffiti on walls, if anything at all, and murals were a thing I don’t remember discovering until I was an older teen living in Fort Worth. The place that really showed me what was possible when it came to “giant” art, of course, was Mexico.
In my hometown of Xalapa, there are several murals around the city, and I love them all … even the ones that seem to have been slapped up without much planning beforehand.
Art is art, and paint is an especially good way to really create a dramatic difference in pretty much any space. You don’t necessarily need to be talented to use it, and if you wind up creating something that you decide in the end looks stupid, you can always paint over it again. Is there any better metaphor for fresh starts?
So, no political or pandemic talk today. Today, I shall sing the praises of paint specifically, and good intentional design and planning in general.
Sifting for ideas through all the devastating news of the week in the paper, I was inspired by Leigh Thelmadatter’s articles (also here) on how murals are spreading throughout Mexico, as well as Robyn Huang’s piece on some of the giant murals popping up. Now that’s a contagion and cultural habit that I can get excited about!
From professionals to troops of amateurs, murals are blooming all over the place. I can’t think of a better way to spread around hope, community and beauty.
And when the people within communities participate in those projects themselves, the kind of ownership and sense of belonging that it gives them is not something you can put a price on. If we could expand this tendency to include municipal help with things like repairing streets, installing solar streetlights, etc … now that would really be something!
Because the way our communities look matters. It gives us pride and hope and inspires us to go above and beyond in the same types of ways; it reminds us of our own potential for transformation.
This is something that I know to be true on both the micro and macro levels.
I discovered it as a teenager upon seeing the difference that it made for my own family to have a clean, pleasant environment to live in (growing up, my house was usually close to hoarders-level messy, with predictable correlations especially to the adults’ sense of hopelessness).
As I got older, I came to understand my grandmother’s enthusiasm for keeping things clean on a level that had seemed obsessive to me, as well as her desire to create art. Like my own, her talent for creating things with paint wasn’t innate but, rather, born of a desire to make things beautiful for all who spent time in the space.
Order and art give me a sense of peace that I’ve struggled to find through other means, and it will always be my go-to technique to restore a sense of light and hope to even the most hopeless places.
I believe in this power so strongly, in fact, that I spend much of my time creating these spaces for myself and for others with my own fledgling business, using everything from safety evaluations to organization to (of course) mural painting. They say you should “niche down,” but I just can’t force myself to choose — I love it all!
Art and organization don’t heal everything, I know, but it makes such a bigger difference than we think it does. It inspires us, comforts us, makes us feel listened to and helps us express ourselves at a deeper, almost magical level.
And public art is something that belongs to everyone in a society in which the “finer things” are increasingly enjoyed in private, for a fee. What better way to bring people into the fold than giving them a piece of the beauty that’s for all of us?
The protected areas where illegal fishing has taken place. oceana
Illegal fishing in seven protected areas is putting endangered species at risk, a United States NGO has revealed.
A study by Oceana shows that at least 236 Mexican vessels have encroached into protected marine areas and fishing refuge zones since 2012, imperiling species of tortoise, shark, fish and other sea life, and that 10% of all vessels registered since that year could have engaged in violations.
Banning commercial fishing in certain areas allows species to reproduce and develop, before migrating to areas where fishing is allowed.
The report reveals that the worst affected area is Scorpion Reef off Yucatán, where 106 vessels were recorded in a place where no type of fishing is allowed. The reef is the largest coral structure in the southern Gulf of Mexico, home to four endangered species of turtle, 136 species of fish and 24 species of shark.
Sixty vessels were detected in the Veracruz Reef System National Park, and 47 in the Mary Islands Biosphere Reserve, off Nayarit.
Baja California Sur has seen illegal fishing at Punta Coyo, Guadalupe Island, in the El Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve, at the Revillagigedo National Parks and and in deep Pacific waters.
Oceana used a platform called Global Fishing Watch (GFW) to conduct its research; it’s a free mapping platform it developed with Google which shows the activities of more than 70,000 fishing vessels around the world.
The irector of Oceana, Renata Terrazas, urged authorities to use the GFW tool. “We invite Conapesca [the National Commission of Aquaculture and Fisheries] to use this tool that facilitates the work of all the authorities involved in the surveillance of our seas,” she said.
Mariana Aziz, campaign director at Oceana, said transparency was key to protecting endangered species. “Knowing what is happening at sea is fundamental to protect its biodiversity. One of the main threats is illegal fishing. To combat it we need to make fishing activity more transparent, and put that information to the institutions that should be doing patrol operations, like the National Commission of Protected Natural Areas,” she said.
