Mocambo restaurant and adjacent businesses burn during Monday's fire.
A fire on Isla Mujeres, Quintana Roo, caused vast material damage on Monday and destroyed almost a dozen businesses. A Civil Protection officer suffered smoke inhalation but there were no fatalities.
The blaze started in Mocambo restaurant just after 11 a.m. on the waterfront when a deep-fryer burst into flames.
The force and direction of the wind pushed the flames from Mocambo’s thatched palm roof towards neighboring restaurants Miramar and La Luna. The blaze spread farther to engulf other neighboring businesses, including El Picus, Artensanías Huchim and Muelle 7.
The fire department, the navy, Civil Protection officials and representatives from the water utility Aguakán arrived to help extinguish the blaze and prevented it from reaching a nearby gas station.
The establishments affected were almost completely destroyed.
Fuerte incendio en Isla Mujeres consume una decena de establecimientos
President López Obrador and his wife, Beatriz Gutierrez-Múller, in the National Palace during an event celebrating Mexico's independence.
President López Obrador has made “republican austerity” a centerpiece of his administration, but the government’s frugality didn’t stop it from spending almost 9 million pesos (US $453,000) to upgrade and embellish the National Palace, the seat of executive power.
According to a report by the news website Emeequis, the office of the president has signed at least 12 contracts for improvements to be carried out at the National Palace, where López Obrador – who decided to turn the official president’s residence into a cultural center — has lived with his wife and son since mid-2019, ostensibly as part of his own personal austerity drive.
In April 2019, three months before AMLO and his family moved into an apartment within the walls of the Mexico City palace, the president’s office spent more than 2 million pesos (US $100,700) to hire three companies to carry out maintenance on the building’s elevators, some of which are for the exclusive use of the president.
The office subsequently spent more than 1 million pesos to upgrade the building’s air conditioning system and 808,000 pesos to install telecommunications equipment.
Also before López Obrador moved in, new carpet was laid in the National Palace’s Treasury Room – where the president holds his daily press conferences – at a cost of almost 338,000 pesos. Another 348,000 pesos went to improvements of the main courtyard known as the Patio of Honor, and more than 405,000 pesos was spent on new awnings for the building, located opposite Mexico City’s central square, the zócalo.
The president’s office signed one contract worth almost 1.6 million pesos to have extensive renovation and maintenance work carried out, including the replacement of wooden floors and the repair and painting of walls.
Another contract for more than 1.2 million pesos was awarded for the installation of new lights on the building’s facade. However, some of the lights currently don’t work because they haven’t been properly maintained, Emeequis reported.
The president’s office spent 138,000 pesos to hire a company to convert the palace’s Madero Room into an exhibition space, while in March last year, an artist was commissioned to paint a portrait of former president Lázaro Cárdenas, which was hung in the president’s office. Ernesto Espiridion Ríos Rocha received 139,200 pesos (US $7,010) for his oil painting, which was reportedly commissioned by López Obrador himself.
To further beautify “the palace of (so-called) austerity,” a florist was awarded a five-month 250,000-peso contract to supply flowers, including lilies, orchids and roses, between August and December 2020.
All told, the president’s office spent 8.97 million pesos on projects to upgrade the palace and make it more attractive, Emeequis said. The office justified the expenses by saying that the palace is not only López Obrador’s official residence but also the “permanent stage of official acts” presided over by the president and attended by foreign heads of state and other dignitaries.
The Ministry of Finance has also awarded contracts totaling 9 million pesos to carry out repairs to the facade of the large building and waterproof its roof.
That means that at least 18 million pesos (US $906,400) has been spent on improvements at the National Palace since López Obrador took office in late 2018 – no small amount for a president who prides himself on pinching pesos.
The crowdfunded real estate company Monific will invest 150 million pesos (US $7.5 million) in eight new hotel projects at Magical Town and beach destinations this year.
Potential locations include Tulum and Cozumel in Quintana Roo, San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, and Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca.
The company’s investor base reached 10,000 in recent weeks, and representatives say they feel confident to bet on increasing their investor base further.
“In 2020 alone we funded over 40 million pesos for four projects. The idea is to reach a fund of 150 million for 2021 and have seven or eight new opportunities,” they said.
They added that the pandemic did not have a damagingly negative affect on the company’s earnings for their four boutique hotels in Tulum, Bacalar and Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, with many visitors staying for months due to lockdown restrictions.
Monific’s platform allows investors to invest from 1,000 pesos (US $50) to 1.5 million (US $75,000), 5% of the total value of a property, and earn yields between 11% and 16% per year.
Hard-boiled eggs and tomatoes lend a dash of color to this hearty Nicoise Salad.
It’s been tuna week at my house, which isn’t a bad thing.
Fresh tuna is abundant here in Mazatlán, either from the seafood markets in Playa Norte, vendors in the central mercado or, my newest happy discovery, at a small shop that sells flash-frozen fish, shrimp and other seafood. I can get tuna medallions weighing about a third of a pound for 35 to 40 pesos (under US $2). What’s not to love?
Tuna fishing season in the Pacific is from January to November; and while frozen tuna isn’t the same as fresh, it’s still OK in my book.
And what kind of tuna would we be eating? Well, most likely it’s Yellowfin tuna (ahi) or maybe Bluefin, both of which are caught and farmed in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Flavorful and fatty, they’re the tunas of choice for sushi, searing and grilling.
Bluefin, with their aerodynamic, bullet-shaped bodies and ability to swim up to 40 mph, grow and mature slowly and are therefore not as commonly found. Some Bluefin species can weigh 2,000 pounds and reach 10 feet in length.
You’ll find yourself quickly addicted to these tuna burgers.
Albacore and Skipjack tuna are milder in flavor, with lighter flesh — not those thick, red steaks — and are what’s used for canning.
Skipjack, the most abundant species of tuna, is often called “light chunk tuna” and is also known as Arctic Bonito. Some of you may be familiar with dried bonito flakes (katsuobushi), widely used in Japanese cuisine.
When cooking tuna, a quick sear or grilling is all that’s needed; more than a few minutes and the meat will dry out. Best to leave the middle rare or raw.
Fresh Tuna Burgers with Grilled Pineapple
Also delicious served as patties!
1 tuna medallion, about 1-inch think, approx. 4 inches square, diced fine
1 tsp. soy sauce
1 Tbsp. mayo, plus more for garnish
1 Tbsp. yogurt
¼ -inch chunk fresh ginger, minced
2 tsp. canned jalapenos, minced
1-2 tsp. sesame seeds, plus more for garnish
½ cup-plus panko crumbs
Salt and pepper
Sesame, coconut or olive oil for frying
½ cup fresh pineapple, cut in small chunks
1/3 cup fresh cilantro leaves, whole
Slivered red onions
Ciabatta rolls or burger buns
Mix soy sauce, 1 Tbsp. mayo, yogurt, ginger, jalapenos, 1–2 tsp. sesame seeds, panko, salt and pepper.
Add more panko until mixture sticks together but is still gooey. Cover; let sit for 15 minutes.
Heat oil, make into two patties and fry on medium-high heat, turning once, until outside is crispy and browned. (It’s OK if tuna is a little pink inside.)
After frying both burgers, remove from pan and in same pan, sauté diced pineapple quickly until lightly browned.
Toast Ciabatta rolls or buns, spread with mayo. Place burger on bread, top with cilantro leaves, slivered red onion, a sprinkle of sesame seeds and pineapple.
Makes 2 thick or 3 thinner burgers.
When cooking tuna, it’s best to leave the middle rare or raw.
Honey-Lime Glazed Tuna Steaks
Halve this recipe for two servings.
4 (6-ounce) tuna fillets
2-3 limes, juiced
¼ cup olive oil
2 Tbsp. rice vinegar
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp. grated fresh ginger
¼ cup honey
Salt and pepper to taste
Whisk together lime juice, oil, vinegar, garlic and ginger. Lay fillets on a plate, season with salt and pepper and spoon half the glaze over them, turning to coat evenly. Refrigerate and marinate 30 minutes. Mix honey into remaining half of the glaze. Heat a grill or heavy skillet over high heat.
Cook tuna about 2 minutes on each side for medium-rare to medium. Brush glaze over the cooked side, remove from heat and serve immediately.
Hawaiian Poke (POH-keh)
No need to spend lots of money ordering this at a restaurant — as long as you have super-fresh tuna, you can easily make it yourself.
In a large bowl, mix all ingredients. (Save nuts for garnish.) Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving. — Hawaii Magazine
Seared Tuna with Peppercorns
2 (5 oz.) tuna medallions, about 1-inch thick
½ Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. whole peppercorns
Salt
Melt butter with olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add peppercorns and cook until they soften and pop, about 5 minutes. Gently place tuna in the skillet and cook about 1½ minutes per side. Sprinkle with salt and serve immediately.
Bet you can’t eat just one of these sliders.
Nicoise Salad
½ lb. fresh tuna steaks
1/3 cup olive oil, divided
Salt and pepper
1-2 cloves garlic, halved
2 tsp. zest + 1 Tbsp. juice from 1 lemons
1 tsp. fresh thyme, oregano or cilantro leaves
2 tsp. mayonnaise
¼ tsp. honey
2 medium potatoes, cooked and cooled, cut in bite-size chunks
6 Tbsp. blanched, cooled string beans, cut in ½ -inch lengths
½ cup halved grape tomatoes
3 Tbsp. chopped Niçoise or Kalamata olives
3 Tbsp. slivered red onion
1 Tbsp. capers
Optional: 6 marinated anchovies
8 leaves red leaf, romaine or bibb lettuce
Rub tuna with 1½ tsp. olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.
Heat 2 tsp. oil in nonstick skillet over medium-high heat; sear tuna for 45 seconds each side, then rub hot fish with cut side of garlic. Cool. Cut into ½ inch cubes or slices.
Whisk remaining ¼ cup oil, lemon zest and juice, fresh herbs, mayonnaise and honey; season with salt and pepper.
In a large bowl or platter, gently toss or arrange tuna, potatoes, beans, tomatoes, olives, onions, capers and anchovies, if using, with dressing. Serve atop lettuce leaves.
AMLO’s press conferences may have to stick with safer topics like eulogizing Jorge Arvizu, an actor he likes who voiced a character in Mexico’s version of Top Cat.
To stop President López Obrador from speaking about the upcoming elections, including promoting the ruling party and criticizing its opponents, the National Electoral Institute (INE) could go as far as arresting him, suggsted the secretary-general of the ruling Morena party.
López Obrador, who has already received one warning for violating INE rules on what he can and can’t say during the official campaign period in the lead-up to the June 6 elections, acknowledged that possibility himself on Monday morning when declining to respond to a question about whether he would propose a reform to reduce the cost of holding elections.
“… They [the INE] could fine me or even arrest me, so it’s better I don’t [comment],” the president told reporters at his regular news conference.
Citlalli Hernández, secretary-general of Morena — the party that López Obrador founded — claimed that the INE will seek to stop the president from making remarks about the election any way it can, including by having him detained, which is legally permitted for 36 hours as a last resort.
She accused INE president Lorenzo Córdova and councilor Ciro Murayama of being operatives of the National Action Party, Institutional Revolutionary Party and Democratic Revolution Party, which have formed an alliance to contest the June 6 elections at which the entire lower house of Congress will be renewed.
“It now turns out that the INE is threatening our president with arrest for speaking about various issues at his morning press conference. It’s outrageous that the electoral umpire doesn’t see what the opposition is doing to stop Morena’s advance,” Hernández said.
“On the contrary, Lorenzo Córdova and Ciro Murayama are taking sides to stop our movement. But let it be clear to this paid-off [electoral] umpire, let it be clear to the opposition: we are democrats determined to transform this country,” she said.
“… We say with complete clarity: we’re not going to allow them to attack democracy and attack hope.”
The INE issued López Obrador a warning last week for speaking about the government’s social programs at his morning press conference, or mañanera, on April 16.
The president spoke about matters related to “achievements and actions of the government,” the INE said, adding that his remarks “could be classified as government propaganda.”
The INE sent a document to López Obrador reminding him that, during the official campaign period — which runs from early April to early June — he is not permitted to speak about government achievements or pronounce his preference for one political party or alliance over another.
The president is also barred from commenting on the various parties’ political platforms, speaking about the internal machinations of parties and their electoral strategies, referring to specific candidates, talking about poll results and seeking to influence citizens about how to vote.
Complying with the rules is a challenge for López Obrador because he is accustomed to using his lengthy weekday press conferences to promote his administration and deliver blunt rebukes of government critics, including opposition parties.
In a media interview, INE councilor Claudia Zavala said that if the president again violates rules about what he can’t say, he could be issued with a formal reprimand. Further breaches could earn a fine of up to 708,500 pesos (US $35,650), she said Monday.
“The last measure … permitted in the legislation … is arrest for 36 hours,” Zavala said before acknowledging that the president has shown greater care at recent press conferences to ensure that he doesn’t fall foul of the law.
At his mañanera on Monday, López Obrador said that one thing he wouldn’t stop speaking about was the state of democracy because Mexico is “the country with the most electoral frauds in history.”
The president, who claims that he was robbed of the presidency at the 2006 and 2012 elections, said that one of the changes needed is to have impartial electoral authorities rather than ones that are on the side of the “conservative party.”
He called the INE’s decision an “attack on democracy” and pledged to present an initiative after this year’s elections to reform the electoral body to ensure that it is “truly autonomous and independent.”
The mayor and his supporters turn off the water Sunday to Puerto Escondido.
Municipal water has been cut off to thousands of residents of Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, as part of a protest that blocked Highway 200 on Friday, local media reported on Sunday.
Highway blockades continued Monday, effectively cutting off communication between the city of Puerto Escondido and points east.
Neither state nor federal government officials have issued an official response to the protest, initiated by the mayor of Santa María Colotepec to support the municipality’s demands regarding some 1,300 hectares of land expropriated in 1970.
Mayor Carmelo Cruz Mendoza warned that his municipality would not give up any land to San Pedro Mixtepec, the other municipality in which Puerto Escondido is located.
On Sunday, Cruz and his followers turned off the city’s water, which comes from Colotepec, the newspaper El Imparcial reported.
It also reported that residents of several colonias in Colotepec have rejected the mayor’s actions and threatened to burn the vehicles being used to block the highway at several locations.
Six municipal police officers in Texcatepec, Veracruz, have been arrested for attempting to set three suspected murderers free.
State police had arrested Lucas Nicolás Licona, Nicolás Desiderio and Hilariano Lechuga before the municipal police officers arrived to try to help them escape.
The three are suspected of the murders of two female teachers, an evangelical pastor, a local councilwoman and a businessman from Hidalgo, as well as the attempted robbery of the local treasurer.
The six officers were disarmed and arrested.
It was the second time this week that municipal police have been detained for trying to set criminals free. Twelve officers were arrested in San Andrés de Tuxla, Veracruz, for liberating a detained suspect before state officers could present him before a judge.
With lines for vaccination like this one earlier this month in Tlaquepaque, Jalisco, some Mexicans who can afford the cost are opting to travel to the US to get a jab.
At least 50 Mexican travel agencies are offering holiday packages to the United States that include vaccination against Covid-19, according to the Mexican Association of Travel Agencies (AMAV).
Association president Eduardo Paniagua told the newspaper Milenio that the agencies began selling the packages two weeks ago.
About 120,000 packages – which cost approximately 20,000 pesos (about US $1,000) per person – have been sold in that period, according to AMAV data.
A package includes return flights to the United States, airport transfers, a short hotel stay and vaccination registration for travelers, Paniagua said.
Vaccine tourists are traveling from cities such as Mexico City, Guadalajara and Cancún to U.S. destinations in states such as Texas, Arizona and Florida.
One travel agency offering a vaccination package is Ticket Travel in Aguascalientes. It has a package called “Vacúnate en Texas” (Get Vaccinated in Texas) that costs 19,900 pesos and includes vaccination, a three-night hotel stay in Dallas and return flights to Aguascalientes city.
The agency said that initial interest was from individuals but entire families, including children and grandparents, have purchased packages in recent days.
Eduardo del Real, president of AMAV Zacatecas, said that Mexicans are buying the packages because of the simplicity they bring to the process of traveling to the United States to get vaccinated.
“There is a significant segment of people going to the United States to get vaccinated, … what they don’t want is to struggle [with the process]. The importance of the travel agency is that it combines all the services,” he said.
For a fee, travel agencies can make vaccination bookings for their customers at pharmacies or Walmart, del Real explained. They can also advise customers how to do it themselves if they want to avoid the additional charge when purchasing their holiday packages, he said.
One person who completed the process herself is Laura González of Monterrey, Nuevo León. She recently traveled to Las Vegas to get vaccinated and found the online registration process very easy.
“They don’t ask for your passport or visa and on the day of application the only thing they requested was a photo ID card to note my age and verify that I was the person on the register,” she told Milenio.
Almost 230 million vaccine doses have been administered in the United States whereas only 16.4 million shots had been given in Mexico by Sunday night. Vaccination in Mexico hasn’t yet reached the general population aged below 60, making a trip to the United States an attractive option for Mexicans who can afford it.
In some U.S. states, vaccination is available to all adults regardless of whether they live there or not.
Multiple polls conducted by the newspaper El País and the website Oraculus agree: around 45% of respondents plan on voting Morena in upcoming elections for the lower house of Congress.
The ruling Morena party has a commanding lead in the polls six weeks before voters will elect 500 deputies to sit in the lower house of the federal Congress.
Results of polls conducted between December 1 last year and April 23 and collated by the newspaper El País show that 46.9% of voters intend to cast their ballots for Morena, the party founded by President López Obrador that swept to power in the 2018 elections.
A “poll of polls” collated by the website Oraculus shows a similar result: 44% of respondents intend to vote for Morena, which currently has a slim majority in the Chamber of Deputies on its own and a two-thirds majority with its allies.
The El País analysis and the poll of polls both show that Morena has more than twice the support of the two main opposition parties, the National Action Party (PAN) and the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
According to the newspaper, 17% of voters will vote for the conservative PAN and 16.5% will support the PRI, which held office between 2012 and 2018. Only 4.2% of poll respondents will vote for the leftist Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), while the Ecological Green Party (PVEM), the Citizens Movement (MC) and the Labor Party (PT) will attract the support of 3.8%, 3.1% and 3% of voters, respectively.
The poll of polls collated by Oraculus.
The PVEM and the PT are Morena party allies. The three parties together will attract the support of 53.7% of voters at the June 6 elections, according to El País.
Oraculus, which collated the results of 67 polls, predicts that the Morena-PVEM-PT alliance will win 337 of the 500 lower house seats, 300 of which are elected directly and 200 by proportional representation.
The PAN, the PRI and the PRD have formed their own alliance to contest the elections. According to El País, the three-party alliance will attract the combined support of 37.3% of voters. Oraculus predicts that the coalition will win 152 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and the other 11 seats will go to the Citizens Movement party, which currently has 25 federal deputies.
Oraculus’s poll also shows that López Obrador currently has an approval rating of 63%. He has maintained a high approval rating despite widespread criticism of the government’s management of the coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed more than 300,000 lives in Mexico, a sharp economic slump in 2020 and the failure to combat high levels of violence, including homicides and femicides.
Among López Obrador’s four most recent predecessors, only Felipe Calderón, who represented the PAN between 2006 and 2012, had a higher approval rating after 28 months in office. Calderón’s rating two years and four months after he was sworn in as president was 67%, according to Oraculus.
Vicente Fox, who held office for the PAN between 2000 and 2006, was the third most popular president after 28 months in office with an approval rating of 58%.
According to Oraculus, President López Obrador has an approval rating of 63%.
Ernesto Zedillo, who held office for the PRI between 1994 and 2000, had a 54% approval rating after 28 months while Enrique Peña Nieto, who also represented the PRI, only had 41% support in April 2015, seven months after the disappearance of the 43 teaching students in Guerrero, a crime that significantly hurt the popularity of the then-president and his government.
The strong standing of Morena and López Obrador in the polls is likely to instill confidence not only in the party’s candidates for deputy but also in at least some of its contenders for thousands of municipal and state positions. In addition to renewing the lower house of federal Congress, voters will elect councilors, mayors, state representatives and governors in 15 states on June 6.
According to the results of a survey conducted by the polling company Massive Caller, Morena is ahead in the gubernatorial races in nine states: Baja California, Colima, Guerrero, Michoacán, Nayarit, Sinaloa, Sonora, Tlaxcala and Zacatecas.
In two of those states, Guerrero and Michoacán, the party doesn’t currently have a candidate for governor because the two men it put forward were stripped of their candidacies for failing to report precampaign expenses.
The other states where voters will elect new governors this year are Baja California Sur, Campeche, Chihuahua, Nuevo León, Querétaro and San Luis Potosí.
Morena currently holds the governorships of five states — Baja California, Chiapas, Puebla, Tabasco and Veracruz — and is also in power in Mexico City, where the government is led by Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum.
The PRI is in power in 12 states and the PAN holds office in nine. Quintana Roo and Michoacán have PRD governments, the MC is in office in Jalisco, and the Solidary Encounter Party — a Morena ally — holds power in Morelos. Independent governor Jaime Rodríguez, who contested the 2018 presidential election, heads Nuevo León.
Fights, prostitution and gang intimidation are rife in a prison in Puebla where the state government has dismissed two wardens since it took office in August 2019.
The Center for Social Reintegration (Cereso) located in Lomas de San Miguel, Puebla, has been investigated by both state and national human rights commissions.
One inmate died and five others were injured in a fight on December 28 when 15 inmates protested against a ban on visitors due to the pandemic. When other prisoners refused to join the demonstration, a brawl broke out. The inmate died while being treated by doctors, and state police were sent in to restore order.
Two days later the Puebla Human Rights Commission opened an investigation, but has yet to issue any recommendations.
Prison guards allowed parties involving prostitution in the facility on weekends during 2019, according to the National Human Rights Commission. During the parties, female inmates were allowed into the male wards where they exchanged sexual favors for money.
The commission instructed the Security Minister Raciel López Salazar to open an investigation and identify the authorities responsible. However, Salazar was dismissed from his position on April 16 before complying.
Relatives of inmates say they fear for the lives of those inside the facility. “The situation inside San Miguel prison is getting worse and worse because the violence and fights that put our families at risk is continuing. My brother is serving a sentence for a minor crime and he has told us that he has been beaten by inmates without deserving or anticipating it,” said the relative of a prisoner.
Another relative said that some inmates are members of the “El Cachibombo” gang, and according to what was also revealed by a ministerial source, they charge inmates for protection.
“This group asks for money to protect the inmates and, if they don’t pay them, they threaten them with death and beat them. There are times when we have had to get the money so that my brother gives it to them and they don’t hurt him. It really is scary what they live through there,” he said.
Both of the men agreed it was essential for state authorities to take full control of the prison.
