Women protesting gender violence in Cuernavaca, Morelos.
Women in Morelos are now legally permitted to carry a range of nonlethal defensive weapons such as retractable batons, pepper spray and tasers.
The state Congress passed a reform to the criminal code that allows women to carry such weapons last December, but the law wasn’t promulgated until last week.
Morena party Deputy Ariadna Barrera Vázquez presented the bill, arguing that it was necessary because violence against women, including sexual assaults, is on the rise in Morelos, a small state located immediately south of Mexico City.
She presented 2018 data that showed that more than 82% of women felt unsafe in the state, up from 74.7% in 2013. There were 84 femicides in Morelos last year, and at least 10 in the first three months of 2021.
“Violence against women is a reality, … I dare to say that 10 out of 10 women have been victims of some kind of gender violence,” Barrera said in the Congress.
Another indicator of the situation Morelos women face is that a gender alert — which indicates high levels of violence against women — has been active in eight of the state’s 36 municipalities, including Cuernavaca, since 2015.
Allowing women to carry weapons of self-defense gives them a “greater feeling of security,” according to the reform. Access to nonlethal weapons allows women to protect themselves in the face of an attack or act of aggression that threatens their physical integrity or even their lives, it says.
Prior to the reform taking effect, possession of nonlethal weapons such as pepper spray and tasers for self-defense purposes was punishable by imprisonment of up to three years.
Barrera pointed out that the minimum term for a person convicted of sexual assault is two years. Therefore, she said, a woman who used pepper spray on a man assaulting her could theoretically go to prison for longer than her aggressor.
The legalization of women’s right to carry nonlethal weapons in Morelos was not well received by some women’s groups, the newspaper El Universal reported. One such group is Huitzitzilin, which defends the rights of women and children.
President Ana Carina Chumacero said that a better idea would be to provide education aimed at reducing violence to society in general. She also said that women would feel safer if police knew how to respond in cases of gender violence.
“I believe there are a lot of tools that we could use to build peace” instead of arming women, Chumacero said.
Charlie, a guest and trainee at Club Canino, takes a rest after a session on how to be a good boy.
“Birds fly, bears growl and dogs bark. That’s how things are!”
This seems to be the favorite refrain of dog owners in Mexico when neighbors complain about the noise.
I may tend to believe it in regards to birds and bears, but when it comes to dogs my mind immediately goes back to many, many delightful episodes of the TV series The Dog Whisperer, where I sat in open-eyed wonder watching Mexican-born César Millán perform what truly seemed like miracles, over and over. The mild-mannered, unflappable Leader of the Pack would knock on a door, and when it opened we would be introduced to the meanest four-legged monster that ever trampled upon the surface of the earth. Then we would meet the dog’s owners: trembling, distraught and frequently bleeding from their ogre’s latest love bite.
César would simply smile and, explaining that this dog was just “out of balance,” would then make an unexpected little sound like psst! — which had the most extraordinary effect upon the poor creature. By the end of the show, the unbalanced monster had turned into a perfectly normal, well-behaved pet, its owners staring in wide-eyed amazement and gratitude at the wonderful change.
“So why does my community sound like a dog pound every night?” I asked myself. “And why have my friends and I all received dog bites? Haven’t my neighbors learned the power of a psst?”
Guillermo “Memo” Ortiz at his computer, where he keep tabs on his doggy guests in their hotel “suites.” Owners can follow along via smartphone.
When I mentioned all this to my friend Paul, he said, “Don’t you know we have our own dog whisperer right here in the neighborhood? Last year, I was going off to Europe for a few weeks, so I left my dog Charlie — who was very young and undisciplined and overly frisky — at Hacienda La Venta Club Canino, which is a very nice dog hotel. They told me they also did dog training. When I came back, Charlie had been transformed. He would heel, he would sit, he would lie down when he was told to, he would come when he was told to, he would wait for me outside the house — and I like the way the trainer Memo did it: using rewards, not punishments.”
One day, I decided to check out Club Canino, located in the town of La Venta del Astillero, a 10-minute drive west of Guadalajara and just a five-minute walk from the community where I live.
Behind a big gate I found a beautiful, wide, grass-covered patio surrounded by hacienda-like arches. All the dogs’ rooms face the patio, and each room has a window so that the guests can keep an eye on everything that’s going on outside. Besides that, each suite has a closed-circuit camera so that the owner can keep an eye on the dog via smartphone.
The founder and director of this inviting place, Guillermo Ortiz, sat me down in a nice shady spot at the edge of the patio. When Memo, as he calls himself, told me he had been working with dogs all his life, I asked him how canines look at the world.
“Basically, the dog sees the world through his nose. It’s through his sense of smell that a dog knows if you are afraid, if you are sad, if you are happy,” he said. “Each of us is a chemical factory, and we are constantly giving off hormones according to our estado de ánimo, our mood. All of this the dog perceives, so he is able to read us much better than we are able to read him.
“Dogs have been at man’s side for more than 30,000 years, plenty of time for them to figure out exactly what we are expressing, even if we ourselves don’t know. As for us humans, we aren’t nearly as good at reading dogs … but we can learn. We can observe their facial expressions, their vocalizations, the position of their tail, their posture, their body language. And with all this, we can hope to understand their inner state. Are my dog’s ears erect, relaxed, pointing forward, pointing back? All of these things we can learn to read.”
Ortiz takes a moment to greet a couple of of his canine customers.
I asked Memo to tell me something about training dogs.
“Some dogs are aggressive. People have brought us different breeds. For example, pit bulls and bull terriers can have this problem. Here we’ve had very good results, and it’s not unusual to change their behavior 100%. Whatever the case, we’ve always seen an improvement,” he said.
“Every dog is different. We have to look carefully at each particular case before deciding what techniques to use for each dog, but in general, it’s important to give a dog confidence, to let him know that what we want from him is a friendly relation with other dogs, that nothing bad will happen to him if he does what we are asking. In extreme cases, it’s important to draw their attention every single time a situation arises and to reward them whenever they accept the presence of another dog. The corrections we use are always in the language that they understand. We don’t hit dogs or mistreat them. We use the technique that the dog’s mother used when it was a puppy, to touch the dog in certain places, to put it into a position of submission, everything within the language of canine psychology.
“Here’s an example: once we had a dog named Kida with a problem. She was a pit bull, and she fought with every dog she saw until her owner reached the point where she simply couldn’t take Kida outside at all. Kida’s rehabilitation took about one month, and at the end, her owner could take her for a walk anywhere, passing other dogs with no problem. The case of another American Pit Bull Terrier named Bruno — who had been used in dog fights — was much more severe. Bruno needed four months to learn to tolerate other dogs.”
I asked Memo if he also did home visits.
“Yes, we offer classes at people’s homes. The class lasts 45 minutes, but it’s not for the dog, it’s for the owner, so they learn how to manage their dog. Most problems caused by dogs are actually being provoked by their owners.
Ortiz with his dog show trophies.
“We also give classes here at our installation. When it comes to more difficult cases, the dog stays here with us for as long as necessary. Every time the owner comes to visit the dogs, we explain the advances we’ve seen and eventually the dog goes back to its home.”
Finally, I brought up the subject of barking. “Can anything be done about it?”
“Here we offer training for dogs with problems of conduct or with traumas,” he said. “The problem of excessive barking is usually due to excessive energy or boredom, and we can use certain techniques to reduce the noise. We may not always achieve 100% success, but we usually see at least a 50% to 60% improvement.
“I’m thinking, for example, of a German Shepherd named Luna. The owners lived in Villa Real, and the problem was that Luna barked all day long and never stopped. So we worked with her, and the result is that today she barks only occasionally, like any normal dog.”
“What did you do to bring about this change?” I asked.
“It’s simple: exercise, training and the help of a special collar that produces a vibration when the dog barks. The training includes positive reinforcement every time the dog stays quiet for a while. When this happens you reward her, you pet her and you take her out to play, so she relates food and walks with keeping quiet. A lot of dogs bark because they want attention. What we have to do is convince them of the opposite: keeping quiet will get them what they want. As for the electronic collar, you can find it in specialized stores or you can get it from Mercado Libre.”
After meeting Memo the dog trainer and watching several reruns of The Dog Whisperer, I now walk the cobblestone streets of my fraccionamiento (neighborhood) understanding that the cacophony of barking all around me comes from countless dogs who are stressed and unbalanced because their owners have made them that way.
Club Canino has 24 roomy “suites” where you can leave your dog when you’re on vacation. It also features a training path where you can practice heeling, climbing stairs, etc. For more information, see their Facebook page or call Memo Ortiz at 333 140 8268.
The writer has lived near Guadalajara, Jalisco, for 31 years and is the author of A Guide to West Mexico’s Guachimontones and Surrounding Area and co-author of Outdoors in Western Mexico. More of his writing can be found on his website.
Yucatán Governor Mauricio Vila at a Covid-19 vaccination center in Mérida last week.
Yucatán will switch to medium-risk yellow on the state’s coronavirus stoplight map for the first time on Monday, Governor Mauricio Vila announced Thursday.
Yucatán is currently high-risk orange on both the state and federal stoplight maps. The federal Health Ministry will present an updated map at Friday night’s coronavirus press briefing.
Yucatán was medium-risk yellow on the federal map between November 23 and December 7 last year but state authorities decided last June that they would make their own decisions about coronavirus restrictions according to their own stoplight system.
“We have decided that decisions about Yucatán will not be made in Mexico City,” Vila said at the time.
The risk level in Yucatán, which has recorded more than 36,000 confirmed cases and over 3,600 Covid-19 deaths, has remained fixed at orange on the state stoplight map since June 8, 2020.
As of Monday, however, restrictions on the circulation of vehicles between 11:30 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. will not apply Sunday through Wednesday. But the ban on driving between those hours will remain in place Thursday through Saturday.
Vila also announced that restaurants will be permitted to remain open until midnight Sunday to Wednesday starting next week. They have been required to close at 10:00 p.m. for almost a year since reopening to in-house diners.
Also starting next week, the maximum capacity at restaurants, stores, shopping centers, supermarkets and hotels will increase to 75%. Cinemas and theaters will be limited to 50% of normal capacity.
Children’s playing areas and sporting facilities in public parks will reopen Monday, while university students will be permitted to resume professional work placements on May 15.
Social events such as weddings will also be permitted as of May 15, but people hosting and attending will be required to comply with strict health protocols. Attendance will be capped at 100 for indoor events and 200 for outdoor ones.
The governor warned that authorities will close down any events at which health protocols are being violated.
Yucatán took the decision to switch the risk level to yellow based on data showing that 30.5% of critical care hospital beds set aside for coronavirus patients are occupied and 51.6% of all beds allocated for such patients are in use. The infection rate and the positivity rate are both on the wane.
As of Thursday, there were an estimated 562 active cases in the state, according to federal data, and 27,408 across the country.
Mexico’s accumulated case tally currently stands at just under 2.32 million while the official Covid-19 death toll is 214,095.
The pandemic has been so good to online shopping that Mexican businesses haven’t been able to find enough cardboard from their usual suppliers.
The cost of cardboard has increased by 10–15% in Mexico due to low global and local production and high demand generated by an online shopping boom amid the coronavirus pandemic.
In an interview with the newspaper El Financiero, the head of the AMEE packaging association said that member companies have been forced to look for new cardboard suppliers in foreign countries because imports from the United States and local production have been insufficient to meet demand.
“The pandemic is affecting the supply of cardboard,” Hiram Cruz said.
“This is a result of the increase in e-commerce activity of up to 80%,” he said, adding that another factor is that China has stockpiled raw materials for the production of cardboard, “such as recycled cardboard.”
“That was coupled with the suspension of logistics firms’ activities due to the pandemic, which generated a shortage and an increase of 10–15% in the cost of cardboard,” Cruz said.
According to ANFEC, a national association of cardboard manufacturers, there was an unmet demand for 150,000 tonnes of cardboard last year.
“… Companies like FedEx and UPS tripled their demand. The change in the habits of the public due to coronavirus generated an additional degree of demand for short- and medium-term consumer goods that are transported in cardboard,” said ANFEC director Sergio Farfán.
The production in Mexico of three different types of cardboard — corrugated, micro-corrugated and foldable — all decreased in 2020, which Farfán attributed to the suspension of nonessential economic activities early in the pandemic.
Cardboard imports also declined last year, falling 5.6% to 395,769 tonnes, according to Economy Ministry data.
Farfán predicted that Mexican cardboard production will decline again in 2021 due to unreliable gas supply, a lack of paper availability — its cost also increased last year — and a shortage of other imported raw materials.
Cruz said the use of alternative packaging materials is not always feasible.
“What the packaging industry is about is finding the optimal material which is suitable to the packaging and security requirements of the product. There are materials with important innovations such as plastics and there are more innocuous materials such as glass, but we have to consider the benefit-to-cost ratio,” he said.
The newspaper El Economista reported Friday that e-commerce sales soared 62% in February compared to the same month last year.
Zaldívar: the court itself will resolve any legal challenges to the law.
Mexico’s Congress on Friday approved a law backed by President López Obrador to extend the term of the head of the Supreme Court, despite controversy over the move’s constitutionality.
Chief Justice Arturo Zaldívar had admitted he was caught by surprise when the measure was added to a judicial reform bill at the last minute last week. He said in a statement it would be up to the Supreme Court itself to resolve any legal challenges to the law, which was passed last week in the Senate and on Friday in the lower house after hours of debate and objections raised by politicians from across the political divide.
He has ruled such moves unconstitutional in similar cases, including an attempt to prolong the term of a governor from the ruling Morena party in the state of Baja California.
Asked if he would stay on if the court ruled the extension constitutional, Zaldívar told Radio Fórmula “we would talk again then.” Meanwhile, “I am serving as chief justice of the court for the period for which I was elected.”
A two-year extension would mean Zaldívar’s term ends in 2024, when López Obrador’s presidency ends.
Critics have warned the move could set a precedent for López Obrador to seek to prolong his own mandate or install a justice over whom he could exercise control after he leaves office.
The president — who has weakened or attacked other key institutions including the electoral authority, INE, and pushed through energy reforms despite the Supreme Court ruling that key elements are unconstitutional — has dismissed such suggestions.
He said he believes the term extension is constitutional and without Zaldívar, an “honourable and principled” man, at the helm, judicial reform would be “dead in the water.”
However, Diego Valadés, a constitutional expert, said the timing was crucial, coming ahead of June 6 midterm elections in which López Obrador’s party is expected to trounce rivals.
“That would mean that most people would be legitimizing with their vote everything López Obrador has done against INE and in violation of the constitution,” he said.
Under Mexican law, presidents can only serve a single term. López Obrador has repeatedly said he would not seek re-election.
However, Porfirio Muñoz Ledo, a veteran politician and senior member of López Obrador’s Morena party, warned in response to the extension of Zaldívar’s mandate: “We’re coming to a crossroads in history. There’s no turning back. Either we go to democracy or we go to authoritarianism.”
José Miguel Vivanco, executive director of the Americas division at advocacy group Human Rights Watch, called the Zaldívar move “an unconstitutional reform which openly contradicts article 97, paragraph 4 of the constitution. It’s clear that Morena does not believe in the rule of law.”
That article states that the head of the court “cannot immediately be re-elected for a successive term” once his or her four-year term concludes.
Deputy Saúl Huerta will not be running for reelection in June, the Morena party announced Thursday.
A federal deputy with the ruling Morena party has decided not to stand for reelection at the upcoming elections amid accusations that he sexually assaulted a 15-year-old boy.
Morena announced Thursday night that Saúl Huerta, a deputy from Puebla, had resigned as a candidate for the June 6 elections, at which the entire lower house of Congress will be renewed.
The announcement came after audio was broadcast by Imagen Televisíon in which a teenage boy accuses Huerta of drugging him and assaulting him at a hotel in the Mexico City neighborhood of Juárez on Wednesday.
The youth, who was apparently working with the 63-year-old lawmaker, said Huerta gave him a soft drink that tasted “bitter,” adding that when he got out of a car upon arriving at the hotel, he felt “very dizzy” and could barely walk.
He said the deputy told him that he would rent two rooms but he only paid for one with one bed. The 15-year-old said that he lay down on the bed because he was feeling ill and that Huerta went to the bathroom.
The Morena party leader in the lower house of Congress, Ignacio Mier Velazco, declined to comment on Huerta’s case, calling it unrelated to Huerta’s position.
When the lawmaker exited, the youth said, the man was completely naked.
The teenager said Huerta pulled his pants down and guided his hand to his penis while using his own hand to masturbate him.
Imagen Televisíon also published audio of a telephone conversation between Huerta and the boy’s mother. In the conversation, the deputy attempts to reach a financial settlement with the woman to put an end to the scandal.
“Don’t destroy me,” he pleads with her on repeated occasions. “Let’s reach an economic agreement. … I’m begging you, help me; you’re going to destroy me. I’m a good person,” Huerta said.
The lawmaker was arrested at the hotel after the teenager managed to alert the manager that he had been sexually assaulted. Police took Huerta to the offices of the Mexico City Attorney General’s Office (FGJ), but he was later released because, as a deputy, he has immunity from prosecution, known as the fuero.
The FGJ said it was continuing its investigation and would seek to have the lawmaker’s immunity removed if there was sufficient evidence against him.
Huerta, who participated virtually in a lower house session just hours after he was released from custody, later claimed that he had been a victim of an extortion and blackmail attempt in which he was “falsely” accused of abusing the boy. He claimed that the alleged victim was examined and that experts found no evidence of an assault. The deputy rejected the claim that he had used his fuero to escape custody.
Despite Morena Secretary-General Citlalli Hernández having called on Huerta to take a temporary leave of absence while the case was investigated, Morena’s leader in the lower house of Congress declined to comment on Thursday about the accusations Huerta faces or discipline him, saying that the alleged incident was part of his personal life and not related to his duties as a deputy.
“I can’t offer an opinion on personal things, not of him nor any other members of the Chamber of Deputies,” Ignacio Mier Velazco told reporters.
Asked whether he would seek Huerta’s resignation, Mier said:
“He didn’t do it [commit the alleged assault] in his role as a federal deputy; he did it in his personal life. I repeat, in the personal lives of deputies, I can’t get involved.”
Morena should be asked about the matter, Mier said, stressing that he is not the leader of the party.
Morena Secretary-General Citlalli Hernández called for Huerta to take a leave of absence from his post.
Morena subsequently announced on Twitter that Huerta had “definitively” and “irrevocably” resigned his candidacy for deputy at the June 6 elections, i.e., he voluntarily decided not to stand for reelection.
Morena did not force him to relinquish his candidacy, nor did it demand that he step down from his position, which he will continue to hold until the end of August.
Later on Thursday night, Mier clarified his position with regard to the allegations: “As coordinator of the Morena deputies, I express my repudiation of any act that is a crime against a minor,” he wrote on Twitter.
“Law enforcement authorities must investigate under the principles of presumption of innocence and due process. The Chamber of Deputies doesn’t have the power to exercise a process of desafuero [the removal of immunity] except through the request of the Attorney General’s Office or a judge,” Mier added.
“In the case of Saúl Huerta,” he said, “we will remain attentive and assist in whatever is required by the ministerial authorities.”
Chef Ruiz shops at the market for her restaurant in San Cristóbal.
In Claudia Albertina Ruiz’s indigenous Tzotzil community in Chiapas, she was expected to marry young and tend to the home, but she chose a different path.
After pioneering her own way in the culinary world, she has now been recognized by the 50 Next, a list that celebrates 50 young people around the world, from activists to app creators, who are “changing the world of gastronomy in unique and interesting ways.”
Ruiz, the only Mexican included, made the list in the hospitality pioneers category.
The young chef was the first indigenous woman to enter the school of gastronomy at the Chiapas University of Sciences and Arts. Then she became the first indigenous woman to work at Pujol, the world-renowned restaurant of chef Enrique Olvera in Mexico City.
In 2016 she went on to open her own restaurant, Kokonó, in San Cristóbal de las Casas. The restaurant serves traditional Chiapas dishes and promotes indigenous culture, but has been hit hard by the pandemic.
Claudia Ruiz, one of the ’50 Next’ in gastronomy.
“Values, family, love of art, respect for others and, above all, the acceptance of individuals regardless of their origin, are all present in our space,” Ruiz said. “That is why we not only cook, but also educate – and it is an education based on professionalism, but at the same time a more humane one.”
That education is for both clients and workers, according to the 50 Next website, a project of the creators of the 50 Best world rankings.
“At Kokonó, she provides young indigenous people with training, skills and jobs, while supporting local producers and educating customers on the origin and value of each dish. In a male-dominated industry where prejudice against indigenous communities still exists, Claudia Albertina also speaks out against sexism, racism and stereotypes. She is an active promoter of the slow food movement, which links the pleasure of food with a commitment to the community and the environment.”
After meeting Ruiz, celebrated Danish chef René Redzepi said, “I was impressed by her willpower, her knowledge of the ingredients and her instinct about the role of food in every part of life and society … now more than ever we need indigenous people to have a platform to share their abilities and ancestral knowledge with the world.”
Ruiz is currently in the process of setting up an association to help the vulnerable and a soup kitchen to help those in need.
“We want to empower and inspire the next generation to achieve their dreams without forgetting their roots,” Ruiz said.
Aerial view of the Tijuana Country Club's golf course.
A legal battle is brewing over the Baja California government’s plan to expropriate the exclusive Tijuana Country Club and its 18-hole golf course and convert the green space into a public park for residents of the densely populated border city.
The government, led by Morena party Governor Jaime Bonilla, published a decree last week that outlined its intention to expropriate the property, located in an affluent part of Tijuana. It states that people opposed to the project have 15 days to lodge their complaints with the state government.
The 15-day period will expire next Wednesday.
Bonilla has proposed converting the 50 hectares of the 73-year-old club — known locally as Club Campestre Tijuana — into a public space for sporting and cultural activities. He argues that it is one of the few green areas in Tijuana, which has few parks, that can be redeveloped for that purpose.
“With the growth of Tijuana — it’s the most densely populated city in the country — it doesn’t have lungs, and young people in the neighborhoods don’t have anywhere to play. There are no green spaces,” Bonilla said after the publication of the decree in the government’s official newspaper on April 13.
Members of the Tijuana Golf Club. including Roberto Quijano, seated, second from left, at a press conference.
“I say: there’s the green space [at the country club], we have to make a big park … for the people — with swimming pools, games for children, theater, an amphitheater, all that fits there,” he said.
The governor said the publication of the decree was the first step in the process to hand over the country club land to the people so that it is no longer the exclusive domain of just 800 members.
“The country club should be in the hands of … its legitimate owners [the people]. I said it in the [2019] campaign [for governor],” Bonilla said.
“… There are people who have lived in Tijuana for 40 years and they don’t know the [Tijuana] Country Club; they can’t even gain access to the parking lot,” he said.
Bonilla said that past governments improperly allocated the club to the current owners. (According to members, it is registered as belonging to Club Campestre Tijuana.)
“I have nothing against private property, I’m pro-private property but when it [really] is private property. You can’t call something private property … that is yours now because previous governments” transferred it dishonestly, the governor said.
The news agency Reuters reported that ownership of the property has been disputed for decades, “with the government saying it was not properly transferred to new owners in 1969, after the deaths of two joint owners.”
The newspaper Milenio reported that an announcement by Bonilla late last year that his government would expropriate the club came after a disagreement with then Tijuana mayor Arturo González Cruz.
Cruz was seeking to become Morena’s candidate for governor at this year’s election. González, who was unsuccessful in securing the candidacy, is a former president of the Tijuana Country Club.
Addressing the media last week, Bonilla asserted that the club got away with not paying its taxes due to complicity with past governments. His government cites property tax and water debts as further justification for expropriating the property.
Mario Gastón Toledo Castillo, president of the country club board, rejected the governor’s claims.
“Those who assert that we’re not the legitimate owners are lying,” he told a press conference. “They’re falsely saying … that the country club has debts,” Toledo added.
Baja California Governor Jaime Bonilla says the club owes back taxes, but the club’s members dispute the claim.
Although Bonilla asserted that the plan is not designed to win votes at the upcoming elections in Baja California, the optics for Morena — which could be seen as playing a Robin Hood-type role — could help it electorally.
The party’s candidate for governor, Marina del Pilar Ávila Olmeda, said the arguments of both sides must be heard and that any decisions related to the expropriation plan must be taken in accordance with the law.
In an interview with Reuters on Monday, Baja California Government Secretary Amador Rodríguez stuck to the “public good” line proffered by the governor.
“Studies have shown that what we need for Tijuana is an area that would raise the standard of living,” he said.
“The expropriation will be decreed” 15 days after the publication of the expropriation plan if there is no challenge to it. Whoever the courts recognize as the legal owners will receive more than 1.2 billion pesos (US $60.2 million) compensation over a period of two years, Rodríguez said.
The government won’t reach that point easily since there is most certainly opposition to the government’s plan. According to the newspaper Reforma, members of the Country Club are preparing a torrent of injunction requests. Adolfo Solis, a lawyer for the club’s members, said legal action has already begun.
Property ownership is one of the most important rights, he said. Such an expropriation would set a dangerous precedent.
“Any opponent, any journalist or any official, any group that is not aligned with the government, could simply have their property removed,” Solis said. “This debate is going to be won in the courts.”
Toledo, the club president, also expressed confidence that the club will win the battle.
Roberto Quijano Sosa, a club spokesman, said the expropriation plan “stinks of political revenge between two politicians,” an apparent reference to Governor Bonilla and former mayor González. “It doesn’t smell of a social claim,” he said.
Lupita Jones, who will represent an alliance of the PAN, PRI, and PRD parties at the June 6 gubernatorial election, blasted Bonilla for his expropriation plan and warned that his government could also attempt to take away the homes and businesses of everyday citizens.
President López Obrador, who founded Morena, said Tuesday that he was looking into the matter.
The complex’s clubhouse in the background.
There is also opposition to the expropriation plan among residents of neighborhoods that adjoin the Tijuana Country Club.
“The residents … are worried about the right to own private property because, with your hands on your waist, they could strip you of your wealth – that generates uncertainty,” said Eduardo de la Peña, head of a residents’ group in the neighborhood of Hipódromo Chapultepec.
The Tijuana-based news website Uniradio Informa reported that residents have warned that they will protest and could even set up human blockades to stop any attempted government “invasion” of the country club.
De la Peña said that people who live near the club are worried that the value of their properties will significantly decline if the land is expropriated and turned into a public park.
“… We have special affection for the country club,” he added. “We had our graduations here, it’s part of the history of Tijuana.”
México state native Xiye Bastida addressed the Leaders Summit on Climate on Thursday.
A 19-year-old Mexican environmental activist delivered a sharp rebuke of world leaders at the Leaders Summit on Climate on Thursday, criticizing them for their lack of ambition in tackling the climate crisis and blaming the problem on colonialism and capitalism.
Xiye Bastida, an Otomí-Toltec woman from San Pedro Tultepec, México state, who emigrated to the United States with her family in 2015 due to drought and later severe flooding in her hometown, addressed leaders on the first day of the summit, which is being hosted virtually by United States President Joe Biden.
“The climate crisis is the result of those perpetuating and upholding the harmful systems of colonialism, oppression, capitalism and market-oriented greenwash solutions,” said Bastida, the organizer of “Fridays for Future” climate strikes in New York, an international movement founded by Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg.
“The 40 leaders who are in this summit are in the majority from the global north, which has historically perpetuated these systems. The communities who are the most affected — those who have endured displacement because of drought, flooding, wildfires, crop failure and human rights abuse — are not fully represented here today,” she said.
“Solutions must be aligned with the fact that climate justice is social justice. We can no longer keep having summits and conversations around what needs to change because we already have all of the solutions that we need, so all we have to do is implement them.”
Bastida emigrated with her family to the US in 2015 from San Pedro Tultepec, México state, after it experienced drought and then severe flooding.
Bastida bluntly told leaders that they “need to accept that the era of fossil fuels is over,” asserting that, “we need a just transition to renewables worldwide so that we can stop emitting carbon.”
She enumerated a long list of demands, telling the leaders participating in the two-day summit — among them President López Obrador, President Xi Jinping of China, Prime Minister Boris Johnson of the United Kingdom and President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil — that they must stop fossil fuel investments and subsidies; put an end to existing fossil fuel extraction; and provide “comprehensive, non-Eurocentric and intersectional climate education, including literacy on climate justice, environmental racism, ancestral and indigenous wisdom, disability justice, green careers and sustainable living.”
“… You will often tell us, again and again, that we are being unrealistic and unreasonable, but who is being unrealistic and unreasonable with unambitious, nonbold, so-called solutions? You are the ones creating and finding loopholes in your own legislation, resolutions, policies and agreements.
“You are the naive ones if you think we can survive this crisis in the current way of living. You are the pessimists if you don’t believe we have what it takes to change the world,” Bastida said.
In a Twitter post, Bastida said she felt proud to have represented Mexico and youth at the summit, “especially when AMLO’s speech fell short in ambition.”
López Obrador’s address was also criticized by other environmentalists, including the director of the Mexican Center for Environmental Law, Gustavo Alanís, and the head of the Mexico Climate Initiative, Adrián Fernández Bremauntz.
Xiye Bastida at the TED World Theater event in New York in February.
“It’s clear that the president didn’t understand what the meeting was about; he minimized environmental issues as much as possible and particularly those that have to do with climate change,” Alanís said.
“What is obvious is that [addressing climate change] is not a priority for him, nor does he care [about the issue],” said Fernández, referring to a president who has abolished a public climate-change trust and implemented policies that favor the use of fossil fuels over renewable sources of energy.
In his address, López Obrador said that Mexico will discontinue exporting crude oil and use its reserves to meet domestic demand for fuel. In addition, he indicated that hydroelectric plants are being upgraded to reduce the use of fuel oil or coal in electricity production.
But the central message of the president’s remarks to the summit was an invitation to President Biden to support the expansion of Mexico’s Sembrando Vida program (Sowing Life) in southeastern Mexico and Central America by planting 3 billion trees and creating 1.2 million jobs.
Also critical of López Obrador’s address and the federal government’s climate initiatives was María Daniela Rivero, founder of the Red de Jóvenes Ambientalistas (Network of Young Environmentalists), an activist group.
“Mexico does not have strong environmental discourse,” she said. “… The majority of our political leaders are not even qualified to [address] these issues. A paradigmatic change is urgent. … The Sembrando Vida program has a facade of being a pro-environment and reforestation program, but, on the contrary, it’s removing trees to plant trees,” she said.
Athletes representing Mexico at the Tokyo Olympics will wear inauguration uniforms with traditional Zapotec embroidery on the lapels after the design was selected in a national competition.
The Mexican Olympic Committee and High Life, the brand that will design the uniforms, opened the competition on April 9, inviting the public to choose among three possible Olympic uniforms, all designed by High Life.
Thousands of people voted, according to committee president Carlos Padilla. The winner was a suit featuring traditional embroidery by women of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Oaxaca. The uniform was made with dry-fit technology and designed with stretch jogger pants and a loose fitting suit jacket for the comfort of the athletes.
High Life will also launch a public collection of designs inspired by the Olympic uniforms.
Mexico has selected 93 athletes to compete at the games but expects to send as many as 150 in spite of uncertainty about the event due to the coronavirus pandemic. The games are scheduled for July 23 to August 8 in Tokyo, Japan.
