Information about the Maya Train and other projects will be subject to public scrutiny. supreme court
The Supreme Court (SCJN) has partially suspended a presidential decree that sought to protect government infrastructure projects from scrutiny by classifying them as matters of national security.
Published in late November, the decree drew criticism from several analysts, opposition politicians and others, who broadly agreed that it was indicative of an increasingly authoritarian government and would be detrimental to transparency.
The National Institute of Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data (INAI) filed a legal challenge against the decree and was successful in having some of its provisions suspended.
The SCJN ruled Tuesday that the federal government cannot reserve information about its infrastructure projects on the grounds they are pertinent to national security. As a result, government information about projects such as the Maya Train, the Dos Bocas refinery and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec trade corridor will be subject to public scrutiny.
INAI argued that the decree violated people’s right to access information and that the government had exceeded its powers by publishing it. The institute stressed that it was not its intention to stop government infrastructure projects, acknowledging that their construction is of great national importance.
The government will be unable to withhold information about the new Mexico City airport and other projects, although the president said that was not its intention.
The government could file an appeal against the suspension, which took effect immediately, but the court would likely take several months to deliver a ruling. However, President López Obrador indicated Wednesday that the government was happy to comply with the court’s decision.
The SCJN rejected applications by INAI for other parts of the decree to be suspended. The institute sought the suspension of provisions that allow the government to award contracts for projects without a tendering process and which instruct government agencies to grant permits to projects deemed to be of public interest and national security in a maximum period of five working days.
Such expedited temporary approvals will come at the expense of environmental, feasibility and accountability review processes.
Responding to the Supreme Court’s ruling at his Wednesday press conference, López Obrador rejected claims that the government had sought to conceal information about its projects through the publication of the decree.
“[Our] adversaries said that what we wanted was to hide information and that’s not true, it’s a lie. Now the court says ‘go ahead with the decree,’ or [at least] it’s not stopping it. But we have to present information, which is our responsibility. We understand that transparency is a golden rule,” he said.
The president previously said that his decree was aimed at stopping bureaucracy from holding up projects. His administration is pursuing an ambitious infrastructure agenda, and has faced legal challenges against some of its projects, including the Maya Train and the new Mexico City airport.
Classifying such projects as pertinent to national security will help the government avoid having its projects halted by injunctions and other legal instruments.
Health officials are asking seniors to register online for their COVID-19 boosters, hoping to avoid scenes like this one in March in Puebla.
Seniors should register on the government’s vaccination website before receiving their booster shots against COVID-19, Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said Tuesday.
The federal government said earlier this month that registration wasn’t required, but López-Gatell said it would help speed up the process at vaccination centers.
“When we announced the booster shots, we indicated that prior registration wouldn’t be needed, but we’ve detected that it’s advisable to have prior registration,” he told President López Obrador’s morning press conference.
“… We don’t want elderly people to be waiting for a long time in vaccination centers … so it is important to register,” the deputy minister said.
Seniors should register for a booster shot on the mi vacuna (my vaccine) website. Vaccine candidates are required to enter their CURP identity number, the date of their most recent shots – six months must have elapsed to qualify for a booster – and their address.
As of Monday, more than 137.9 million vaccine doses have been administered to some 81 million people, most of whom are fully vaccinated. The first-dose vaccination rate among adults is above 85% but only 63% among the entire population, according to The New York Times vaccinations tracker.
Meanwhile, Mexico’s accumulated case tally stands at almost 3.92 million after the Health Ministry reported 771 new cases on Monday. The official COVID-19 death toll increased by 49 to 296,721. However, the real number of fatalities is believed to be much higher.
Signedcards.com offers a choice of four different types of greeting cards.
Sending a greeting card abroad from Mexico, many expats can attest, is not a practical way to keep in touch with loved ones.
Mail can take weeks, if not months, to reach its destined address in the United States, Europe, or farther afield.
But a former U.S. Marine who faced the problems of cross border mail over a long international career came up with a solution that might satisfy the needs of some U.S. expats who wish to mail greeting cards to loved ones.
Signedcards.com is the brainchild of Jerry McLaughlin, whose service allows the correspondent to take a photo of a handwritten message and upload it onto the website. The message is then printed onto a card of the sender’s choice and dispatched by first class mail from a U.S. address to anywhere in the country, ensuring speedier delivery.
The service could be particularly useful for expats sending cards to the U.S. for specific dates, such as Christmas, birthdays or anniversaries, where a local postal service’s delivery times would be unpredictable.
McLaughlin said that facilitating communication inspired him to set up Signedcards.com: “Sending messages of celebration, support, and thanks are acts of love and mercy. Those acts change the world. The easier it is to send those messages the more of those notes that are sent,” he said.
There are 27,500 cards to choose from and it costs US $7.99 to send one, including the price of the stamp.
Signedcards.com has 181 reviews on ratings website Trustpilot.com, all of which are positive.
US Ambassador Ken Salazar, third from left, helped celebrate the beginning of the new joint security initiative on Tuesday. Foreign Ministry
A new security agreement between Mexico and the United States took effect Tuesday.
The security component of the bilateral “bicentennial framework for security, public health and safe communities,” which was announced in October, supersedes the 13-year-old Mérida Initiative, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said.
Speaking alongside United States Ambassador Ken Salazar and Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez in Mexico City, Ebrard said it was a historic day.
“It’s … the beginning of operations of a new stage between Mexico and the United States in matters of security,” he said.
“The death certificate of the Mérida Initiative has already been issued; today we’re issuing the birth certificate of the bicentennial framework,” Ebrard said.
The agreement was hashed out between the two countries in October, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other US high-level officials participating.
After high-level security talks in Mexico City on October 8, Mexico and the United States pledged in a joint statement to “move forward as partners to find solutions that are backed by justice, effective cooperation on law enforcement and a data-driven approach to develop effective strategies against organized crime.”
“Transnational organized crime has taken too many lives in both of our countries. We recognize that we have a responsibility to work together to achieve our shared goals of security and peace,” the two countries said.
“We need to address violence, reduce the capacity of and disrupt transnational criminal organizations and focus on prevention to create the conditions for a culture of peace while working side-by-side to address the root causes of crime.”
The creation of five binational working groups to address security issues was announced at the Tuesday press conference attended by Ebrard, Rodríguez, Salazar and other officials.
Through the new security pact, Mexico and the United States will work to combat violence, impunity, corruption, cyber crime, money laundering, the recruitment of vulnerable people by organized crime groups and the trafficking of weapons, drugs and humans, Rodríguez said.
“Both countries are obliged to work together, it’s a shared responsibility, that’s what the current context of transnational crime demands,” the security minister said. “These groups can’t be confronted unilaterally, the conviction to pursue them in order to bring them to justice is needed on both sides of the border.”
Mexican Navy soldiers burn 50 tonnes of confiscated drugs and methamphetamine precursors in Manzanillo, Colima, in July.
Ambassador Salazar acknowledged that the United States has a responsibility to help stem the flow of weapons across the border to Mexico. Ebrard said in September that reducing violence in Mexico will be very difficult if the United States doesn’t do more to stop the illegal flow of weapons, while in the October joint statement the two countries committed to “combat arms trafficking by coordinating bilaterally on detection and interdiction of firearms, considering new strategies and strengthening our collective efforts.”
“… [Stopping] the weapons that come here to Mexico from the United States is the responsibility of both nations, but we recognize, as President Biden has said, that these weapons are coming from the United States,” Salazar said.
'We have to help fraternal peoples,' said López Obrador of Mexico's support for Pedro Castillo.
President López Obrador has dispatched a delegation to Peru to assist that country’s president as he faces attempts by the conservative opposition to remove him from office.
A delegation led by Finance Minister Rogelio Ramírez de la O traveled to Lima last Wednesday to support and provide advice to the government of leftist President Pedro Castillo, a former primary school teacher and union leader who took office in July.
Speaking at his regular news conference on Tuesday, López Obrador said that attempts by the president’s adversaries to oust him began just a month after he took office.
“Fortunately they didn’t get 40% [support] in the second [Congress] vote, I think they needed 52 votes and they got 46 – it was close in other words,” he said.
“Just imagine, it’s conservatism supported even by [Nobel Prize-winning Peruvian writer and former presidential candidate Mario] Vargas Llosa, it’s an irrational thing,” López Obrador said.
“The president asked us for support because [there’s] a whole media campaign [about inflation] against him. … So, being very respectful, we went [to Peru] to support him,” he said.
However, the main purpose of the delegation’s visit, AMLO said, was to provide advice to the Peruvian government about how it can help “humble people, poor people” during “difficult times.”
Deputy Welfare Minister Ariadna Montiel and the head of the Mexican Agency for International Cooperation and Development, Laura Elena Carillo, accompanied Ramírez.
The newspaper Milenio characterized the visit as an attempt by the government to export its “fourth transformation model” to the South American nation. López Obrador claims that his government is carrying out a transformation of Mexico that is equal in importance to monumental events such as independence from Spain and the Mexican Revolution.
The Mexican delegation provided advice to the Peruvian government about how to implement social programs similar to the signature schemes rolled out by the López Obrador administration, among which are the Sembrando Vida (Sowing Life) tree-planting employment program and a youth apprenticeship scheme.
“We have to help fraternal peoples,” including a president who emerged from a “popular movement” and represents poor communities, AMLO told reporters.
Mexican and Peruvian officials are expected to continue their discussions later this month.
López Obrador – who clearly sees similarities between himself and his Peruvian counterpart – revealed that Castillo told him that opposition lawmakers didn’t want him to wear his trademark sombrero when he visited the Congress.
The indigenous president has faced other forms of discrimination, he said, asserting that elites in Lima cover their noses when Castillo passes them in the street.
The Pueblo Mágico of Tapalpa is nestled in the beautiful Sierra Madre Occidental mountains, just a two-hour drive from Guadalajara.
If you are feeling cramped in the city or overheated on the coast, or are just looking for a fun travel destination for your family, look no further than Tapalpa, Jalisco.
This Pueblo Mágico is nestled in the beautiful Sierra Madre Occidental mountains, conveniently located just a two-hour drive from Guadalajara or a half-day drive from Puerto Vallarta and the Nayarit coast.
As few travelers outside of Guadalajara know of this town, Tapalpa remains a quiet, quaint and friendly pueblo, free from the crowds and tourists you will find at more popular destinations in Mexico.
Tapalpa has become our family’s preferred summer getaway when coastal temperatures soar. Recently, we visited in the fall for a change, to introduce the town to my father-in-law who was visiting from the United States.
We found it just as pleasant — maybe even more so — than in the summer, as the wildflowers were in full bloom and the sun shone brightly every day. (Summers in Tapalpa are blessedly cool, but can also be a bit rainy.) It was the perfect getaway to enjoy some family bonding time and new experiences — even for my world-wise 80-year-old suegro.
Grandpa Slobe gets ready to zip line at Ekopark Tapalpa.
My father-in-law grew up on a small dairy farm in upstate New York and spent many mornings in his youth milking cows. So I was surprised to learn when we attended a “cow-to-plate” cheese-making workshop with local maker Elena Preciado that he had never tasted cow’s milk fresh from the teat. Growing up in the suburbs, where I only got milk from the grocery store, I, too, had never tasted fresh cow’s milk, and neither had my daughter or husband.
Preciado made sure that our first experience was a treat. Within the first few minutes of the workshop, she had us milking cows and sipping steaming cups of fresh milk mixed with cocoa powder, sugar and a shot of sugar cane alcohol for the adults.
After our feeble attempts (well, my father-in-law knew what he was doing), the pro cowhands took over and filled several buckets with ease. We headed back to Preciado’s house and proceeded to transform the milk into queso fresco over the course of the next three hours.
Between each step of the process, she taught us the fundamentals of making cheese; the differences between queso fresco, queso fundido, panela and requesón; and a whole new Spanish vocabulary for cheese-making. We learned cuajar (to curdle) and chiquihuite — the little round basket for making panela cheese (and my new favorite Spanish word).
At the end of the workshop, we came away with enough queso fresco to keep us rich in cheese for weeks. The whole experience was delightful, informative and fun for the whole family and was just one of many new experiences during our time in this amazing Pueblo Mágico.
It being our fifth trip to Tapalpa, we already knew of some great family-friendly activities that we planned to do again. One activity my nine-year-old daughter loves but that I wasn’t so sure we could convince her grandpa to do was zip lining at Ekopark Tapalpa.
At Elena Preciado’s cheesemaking workshop, get hands-on “cow-to-plate” instruction on the entire process, starting with milking.
This outdoor adventure park features not only zip lines but a suspension bridge course, paintball, rappelling and an attraction where you swing in 360-degree circles upside down by your feet. It reminded me of a modern version of the Papantla Flyers — a dizzying ancient Mesoamerican ritual still performed today in parts of Mexico. Now that I think about it, perhaps zip lining was the tamest activity we could offer my dear father-in-law.
But to my surprise, he was game. It was a thrilling experience for all, and one that we will always look back on with amazement that he joined us for seven wild rides down the zips.
One activity that we can all agree on is trying new foods. The Slobe family LOVES to eat. There’s rarely a bakery, sweet shop or street food vendor we pass by without stopping for a treat. Yet with all our familiarity with different foods, we managed to find a novel culinary experience for our visitor.
Tapalpa has many wonderful restaurants (see a link to a list at the bottom), but one of our favorite places is La Sanduga Sabe, a Oaxacan eatery run by Martín Garcia, a sweet and welcoming oaxaqueño who also happens to own 14 adorable Chihuahuas — you may see him walking his dogs on the plaza or his furry companions lounging at the restaurant.
La Sanduga Sabe’s mole negro and mole almendrado (almond mole) are amazing, but I would be remiss if I also didn’t recommend the chapulines (grasshoppers). These come sauteed in a buttery, garlicky, spicy sauce that even a non-bug-eating person like me can enjoy.
With all his lived experience and love of food, my father-in-law had yet to try chapulines. He didn’t hesitate one bit and liked them right away.
The Slobe family likes to eat! Luckily, there’s plenty of places in Tapalpa to do it like the Oaxacan eatery La Sanduga Sabe.
With all our good eats (we hit a new restaurant every day), we had to work it off with some good old-fashioned exercise. We got our steps in (18,525 to be exact) hiking the Piedra Bola trail — a 6.4-mile round-trip hike to a rock mirador (lookout) with amazing views of the Tapalpa countryside, the mountains and Colima volcano.
We also did some rock scrambling at Las Piedrotas, a curious array of giant boulders strewn across an expansive grassy field that you can climb on, zip-line between, rappel off and ride horseback around.
Our week in Tapalpa was filled with even more family-friendly fun, including attending a rodeo, a lavender workshop and exploring the downtown shops and central plaza. Despite all the activities and all the times we’ve visited Tapalpa, we never seem to tire of the place. Every time we visit, we experience something new and fun for the whole family. What more could one want out of a family vacation?
Debbie Slobe is a writer and communications strategist based in Chacala, Nayarit. She blogs at Mexpatmama.com and is a senior program director at Resource Media. Find her on Instagram and Facebook.
The vehicle found at the crime scene was riddled with bullet holes.
Seven bullet-ridden bodies were discovered on a road near the Amanalco-Valle de Bravo highway in México state on Monday.
The victims were found in the community of San Lucas, about 70 kilometers from the state capital Toluca. Residents reported an intense gun battle had taken place in the area early Monday.
Police confirmed that five of the victims were found lying beside a Nissan sedan, which had been hit at least 35 times.
The sixth victim was inside the vehicle and the seventh was found in a nearby ravine.
México state is one of six states which are responsible for 50% of the country’s murders. The other states are Guanajuato, Baja California, Michoacán, Jalisco and Chihuahua.
Mexico recorded the two most violent years in its history in the first two years of President López Obrador’s term, with 34,690 murders in 2019 and 34,558 in 2020.
An artisanal Christmas tree in Nacajuca, Tabasco. (Archive)
Indigenous artisans in Nacajuca, Tabasco, have created a special Christmas tree decorated with 500 sombreros and other artisanal products.
As well as the sombreros, the 10-meter tree is adorned with 100 bags, traditional fans and drums, all of which were made by artisans from nearby Mayan towns.
One of the artisans, Miguel Sánchez, said he came up with the idea a long time ago, but struggled to secure the support of local authorities. In the end, the efforts of local artisans made the project a reality.
“A total of 500 sombreros of three different sizes and types were used, 300 of them were large. In addition, bags, matted palm leaves, drums, old man masks for the traditional dance and baskets were needed, all made with materials from the region, produced by the Yokot’an peoples of the state of Tabasco,” he said.
He added that the project helped some artisans earn income amid the hardships of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The artisans were invited. Obviously they were paid for their labor as they should be. With the pandemic they didn’t have any sales, so [the project] helped.”
The tree adorns the center of the Tabasco city.
The unique community centerpiece went down well with local people, Sánchez added. “It motivates people. Everyone was delighted because it is what they like: something representative of the municipality. Nacajuca is a town that has a lot of culture. Of all the municipalities of Tabasco, it is the one that has the most culture and tradition …” he said, adding that he hoped the group would be hired for projects in the future, whether locally or in other states.
It’s not only Nacajuca that is showcasing the work of its artisans this holiday season. In the state capital, Villahermosa, 21 Nativity sets made of different sizes and materials have been put on display.
Mock graves in front of the National Palace on Monday were intended to encourage the president to recognize disappearances, massacres and human rights violations. colectivo hasta encontrarte
Almost three years ago, a senior federal official described Mexico as an “enormous hidden grave” given the large number of clandestine burial pits scattered across the country.
On Monday, not-so-clandestine graves – albeit simulated – were uncovered in front of the National Palace in the historic center of Mexico City.
Families of people who have disappeared in Guanajuato – Mexico’s most violent state – set up the mock graves in front of the seat of executive power to put the missing persons issue squarely in the sight of President López Obrador and pressure his government to act.
The protesters’ rationale and rallying cry: “If Andrés Manuel won’t go to the graves, the graves will come to him.”
Early on Monday morning, before the president began his 7:00 a.m. news conference at the National Palace, a truck dumped a load of dirt and rocks in front of the building, which also serves as López Obrador’s residence.
Photos of missing persons from Guanajuato were placed in the palace ‘graveyard.’
The mainly female protesters, members of three search collectives from Guanajuato, proceeded to use the dirt to cover the mock graves they had set up.
Then – while López Obrador was speaking to reporters inside the National Palace – they used shovels and picks to remove the dirt in a simulated act of exhumation. But instead of bodies they uncovered written messages that included denunciations of the government and demands for it to combat the missing persons problem.
Among them: “The graves are the result of the absence of the state;” “We don’t want to bury them, we want to hug them;” “The truth cannot remain hidden;” and “We’re looking for answers.”
In a statement posted to social media, the collectives rejected a claim there were no hidden graves in Guanajuato.
“When the authorities told us there weren’t secret graves in the state we, with our hands full of dirt and love, showed them there were,” they said. “We’re looking … for justice, we’re looking for answers, we’re looking for the truth.”
The protesters claimed that the federal government’s militarized security strategy and crackdown on fuel theft has caused violence to increase in Guanajuato, where almost 3,000 homicides were recorded in the first 10 months of the year. They called for authorities to guarantee the safety of people searching for their missing loved ones, explaining that some have received threats.
A truck load of material is dumped first thing Monday morning for the preparation of ‘gravesites.’
The protesters, who displayed photographs of their missing loves ones atop the “graves” they uncovered, sought an audience with the president but weren’t granted one.
“On the part of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador it was a negative,” said Liliana Mendoza, a member of the Hasta Encontrarte (Until We Find You) collective. “They just told us to leave our statement.”
The family members subsequently took their protest to the offices of the federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR). They called for greater collaboration between the FGR and its Guanajuato counterpart on missing persons cases and demanded additional funding for search efforts and to compensate victims of violence and their families.
More than 95,000 people are officially listed as missing in Mexico, with the vast majority disappearing in the 15 years since former president Felipe Calderón launched a militarized war against drug cartels. There are some 52,000 unidentified bodies in the nation’s morgues and common graves.
The government has promised to allocate more resources to the search and identification of missing persons and there are now search commissions in every state.
But “most of the burden continues to fall on family members, search groups and other non-governmental organizations, which face bureaucratic barriers, corruption and government negligence,” InSight Crime, a foundation dedicated to the study of organized crime, said in August.
A teenager had his fingers cut off for refusing to sell drugs in Acapulco, Guerrero, an incident that triggered the northward flight of another family to flee violence.
The 16-year-old’s index fingers were removed on both hands with a machete for refusing to be recruited by a gang.
The victim recounted the moment that gangsters confronted him. “I went to my cousin’s 15th birthday party and I was going home in a taxi, and another taxi came and they kidnapped me. They put a gun on me because I didn’t want to get in the car,” he said.
“They … beat me and they took me out [of the vehicle] to cut off my fingers,” he added.
The attackers showed a practiced technique to mutilate his fingers. “They put a board [under my hands] and struck my fingers with a machete. Also, they beat me with a board on my back …”
It was hoped that the fingers could be reconnected to the teenager’s hands, but they couldn’t be found.
His father, a builder, said his son’s treatment cost about 10,000 pesos (US $477).
The teenager and his parents are now in a shelter in Tijuana, after fleeing due to threats that the teen would be decapitated and the whole family would be killed.
Like many other families, particularly from Michoacán, they hope to relocate to the United States to flee violence in Mexico.
“Fue un corte con un machete, me pusieron una tabla y le pegaron a los dedos”, este fue el castigo de un joven de 16 años por resistirse a vender droga en #Acapulco. Él y su familia huyeron, ahora permanecen en un albergue de #Tijuana con la esperanza de poder cruzar a EU. pic.twitter.com/ZMhhfFU61G
