Mexico accused of violating treaty after releasing US evidence against Cienfuegos

By

-

January 17, 2021

salvador cienfuegos — The retired general was cleared after 'the fastest investigation in Mexican history.'

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has rejected President López Obrador’s claim that the drug trafficking case against former defense minister Salvador Cienfuegos was fabricated and accused the Mexican government of violating a bilateral treaty by releasing U.S. evidence against the retired army general.

The federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) announced Thursday that it had exonerated Cienfuegos, defense minister between 2012 and 2018, of drug trafficking and money laundering charges less than two months after he returned to Mexico from the United States. He was arrested in Los Angeles last October but under pressure from Mexico the U.S. dropped the case against him and allowed Cienfuegos to return home to be investigated here.

López Obrador claimed Friday that the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) fabricated accusations against the ex-army chief, who the U.S. alleged had conspired with the H-2 Cartel to smuggle thousands of kilograms of drugs into the United States.

In a statement sent to the Associated Press after the federal government released a 751-page file the FGR received from United States authorities, the DOJ said it was “deeply disappointed by Mexico’s decision to close its investigation” into Cienfuegos.

“The United States Department of Justice fully stands by its investigation and charges in this matter. … The materials released by Mexico today show that the case against General Cienfuegos was, in fact, not fabricated,” it said.

“Those materials also show that the information relied upon to charge General Cienfuegos was lawfully gathered in the United States, pursuant to a proper U.S. court order, and in full respect of Mexico’s sovereignty.”

The DOJ said it could reopen its case against the former army chief. It also said it was disappointed by Mexico’s decision to publicize information it shared “in confidence.”

(Intercepted text messages contained in the U.S. file were marked: “Shared per court order, not for further distribution.”)

“Publicizing such information violates the Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance between Mexico and the United States, and calls into question whether the United States can continue to share information to support Mexico’s own criminal investigations,” the DOJ said.

The file released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) on Friday includes intercepted text messages between Daniel Silva Gárate, a leader of the Nayarit-based H-2 Cartel known as “El H9,” and his boss and uncle, Juan Francisco Patrón Sánchez, the cartel’s now-deceased chief who was known as “El H2.”

The former, who is also no longer alive, allegedly acted as a cartel intermediary with Cienfuegos.

Cienfuegos, left, was defense minister during the government of Enrique Peña Nieto.

In one message, Silva told Patrón that he had been picked up by a group of men with military-style haircuts and taken to Defense Ministry headquarters in Mexico City for a meeting with “The Godfather,” which was apparently Cienfuegos’ nickname among his alleged criminal conspirators.

Silva told his uncle that The Godfather told him, “Now we are going to do big things with you … that what you have done is small-time.”

Patrón responded that he wanted unobstructed routes to ship drugs from Colombia. Silva texted back: “He [Cienfuegos] says that as long as he is here, you will be free … that they will never carry out strong operations” against the H-2 Cartel.

Silva also told Patrón that The Godfather had told him: “You can sleep peacefully, no operation will touch you.”

According to the Associated Press, other exchanges intercepted by the DEA describe The Godfather purportedly offering to arrange a boat to help transport drugs, introducing the traffickers to other officials and acknowledging helping other traffickers in the past.

The FGR dismissed the incriminating messages, saying in a statement Thursday: “The conclusion was reached that General Salvador Cienfuegos never had any meeting with the criminal organization investigated by American authorities, and that he also never had any communication with them, nor did he carry out acts to protect or help those individuals.”

According to a report by the newspaper El Universal, the FGR concluded that Silva deceived his uncle, making him believe that he had met with Cienfuegos when in fact he had not. His objective in doing so, according to FGR sources, was to obtain money from Patrón under the pretext that he needed to pay a bribe to Cienfuegos.

In the U.S. file published by the SRE, the DOJ said that Cienfuegos was never the main target of the DEA. It said the anti-drugs agency discovered information that incriminated the former defense minister while carrying out an investigation into heroin dealers in Las Vegas, Nevada, who apparently received shipments of the drug from the H-2 Cartel.

The FGR’s exoneration of Cienfuegos adds to a crisis in security cooperation between Mexico and the United States less than a week before Joe Biden is sworn in as U.S. president.

Even though the U.S. yielded to Mexico’s pressure and sent the former defense minister home, Mexico last month approved legislation that regulates the activities of foreign agents in Mexico, removes their diplomatic immunity and allows for their expulsion from the country. That legislation, described by the Associated Press as a “slap in the [United States’] face,” went into force Friday.

In addition, United States Ambassador to Mexico Christopher Landau revealed this week that Mexico rejected U.S. offers to help control cross-border arms trafficking.

The decision to clear Cienfuegos of the drug trafficking allegations after such a short investigation – and after Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said that to bring the former defense minister home and then do nothing would be “almost suicidal” – amounts to a betrayal of the confidence the United States apparently showed in Mexico’s capacity to hold him to account.

dea agents — The US evidence consisted of text messages intercepted by the DEA.

Gladys McCormick, an associate professor in history at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, told the Associated Press that it wasn’t surprising that Cienfuegos was exonerated but added:

“One would think that they would have at least followed through on some semblance of an investigation, even if it was just to put some window dressing on the illusion that the rule of law exists. From the Mexican side, this signals the deep-seated control the military as an institution has on power.”

Three analysts who spoke to El Universal said the rapid exoneration of Cienfuegos creates more doubt than certainty about his innocence, and poses a threat to the relationship with the United States. The latter view is supported by the DOJ’s indication that the United States could stop sharing intelligence with Mexico.

César Gutiérrez Priego, a lawyer who specializes in military matters, said the exoneration raises questions because it came so quickly. The FGR normally acts very slowly, he said.

Gutiérrez said it was regrettable that the FGR hasn’t been transparent in its management of the case and charged that the accusations against Cienfuegos will damage the army’s reputation even though the former defense minister has been cleared of wrongdoing.

Raúl Benítez Manaut, a security expert and professor at the National Autonomous University, said it was hard to believe that the FGR had carried out a thorough investigation in such a short period of time.

“We’ll have to congratulate Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero because it’s the first time that the FGR has completed an investigation so quickly,” he said sarcastically. “It’s the fastest investigation in the history of the Mexican legal system and that causes a lot of suspicion.”

Benítez criticized López Obrador for speaking about the case, saying that he should leave the matter to the FGR, which is supposedly completely autonomous of the federal government.

He said it was possible that the United States will reopen its case against the former defense minister and seek his extradition in light of his exoneration in Mexico.

“This could lead to a strong conflict between the two countries,” Benítez said.

Source: AP (en), El Universal (sp)

At a Covid crossroads, some Cholula businesses fear they’ve closed for good

By

Joseph Sorrentino

-

January 16, 2021

0

Cholula, Puebla, has been designated a magical town by Mexico’s Secretary of Tourism, and it’s easy to see why.

There’s Tlachihualtepetl which, by volume, is the world’s largest pyramid. There’s also its adjacent archaeological site. There’s Avenida Morelos with its colorfully painted stores selling locally made crafts. There’s the zócalo, which features a dozen or so restaurants.

In normal times, it’s a major tourist site. But these are anything but normal times.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic tourism has fallen off dramatically, and on December 29, Puebla Governor Luís Miguel Barbosa announced a closure of all nonessential businesses because of the “exponential growth” in the number of infections and hospitalizations. The lockdown was initially scheduled to end January 11, but as the number of Covid-19 infections continues to climb, it has been extended at least until January 25.

Avenida Morelos, usually filled with tourists and ambulantes (street vendors), is empty, and there are parts of Cholula that feel like a ghost town. Store and restaurant owners, already hurting because of the drop in tourism, are wondering how — and if — they can survive the lockdown.

Martha Cabrera makes a few sales on her store's Facebook page. — Martha Cabrera makes a few sales on her store’s Facebook page. Joseph Sorrentino

Martha Cabrera opened Jade Azul, a jewelry store on Avenida Morelos, four years ago. She designs and makes all the jewelry. Her store, like others deemed nonessential, is closed. Her income dropped about 40% as the pandemic took hold.

“Before the pandemic, I would have maybe eight or nine customers a day,” she said. “During it, maybe four. I can survive on that but I cannot buy anything extra.”

With the lockdown, her financial situation worsened. She’s only been selling a few items on her Facebook page and taking orders from regular customers,

“[Now] I am earning much less than half of what I usually earn, probably 60% or 70% less,” she said. “If the lockdown lasts a month longer, I will have to pay my bills using my savings. I will not be able to survive for more than three months.”

Just down the block from Cabrera’s store is Jacinta Casa de Diseño, an artists’ cooperative selling a variety of handmade goods. Claudia Susana González Leal has run it for two years. The store carries items made by González and seven other families. Sombreros, books, and embroidered shoes and shirts fill every inch of space.

“We normally have 30 people a day stopping in,” she said. “During the pandemic, maybe 15. Our income is down by half.”

Temporary Covid lockdown measures shut down Claudia González's store, and it had a trickle-down effect on the numerous small artisans whose creations she sells. — Temporary Covid lockdown measures shut down Claudia González’s store, and it had a trickle-down effect on the numerous small artisans whose creations she sells. Joseph Sorrentino

Now with the closures, there are no customers and the store’s income is zero, giving way to a negative trickle-down effect. Although González isn’t earning any money from the store right now, her husband’s job is providing her family with enough income to survive; but most of the other artists have no other way to earn money.

“They are all small craftspeople, and no one has a website,” she said. “They don’t know how to build one.

“This artisan is from Tlaxcala,” González explained, holding an embroidered sneaker. “She employed five people. Now it is only her, and she is struggling to survive.” She pointed to shelves of handmade books. “He had three people working and had to let them all go.”

Like most business owners, and, indeed, like most people, she understands the reasoning behind the governor’s decision to close nonessential stores but wants the government to provide some aid.

“For small business owners, to continue like this is impossible,” she said. “The government needs to help at least with our mandatory payments like lights, water, trash.” She was bothered that buses, vans and markets — which are crowded — continue to operate at their usual capacity. “It is,” she said, “a great contradiction.”

Restaurants line the wide walkway along one side of Cholula’s zócalo. It’s typically filled with tables and packed with customers. But there are no tables now and few customers since restaurants are only allowed to offer takeout service.

Victor Aguilar's restaurant can only serve takeout. — Victor Aguilar’s restaurant can only serve takeout. Joseph Sorrentino

Churrería Las Duyas is one of the restaurants on this strip, and it features, as its name indicates, churros, a fried-dough pastry that’s coated with sugar and often filled with jelly, chocolate or cajeta (caramel), along with a variety of sandwiches.

“We have been here almost 20 years,” said owner Victor Alfonso Aguilar Galeana. “Before the pandemic, we averaged 300 people day. During the pandemic, the numbers were down 40% to 50%. Now, with closures, maybe 50 people a day. It is not possible to survive. In fact, it is impossible. A restaurant exists to wait on people, and now it is only for takeout.”

The decrease in the number of customers has forced him to severely curtail his employees’ hours.

“Normally, we have 20 to 25 employees a shift, two shifts a day,” he said. “Now there are five or six during the day and six to eight at night. Everyone comes in for a shift. Everyone gets two to three shifts a week. They usually earn a good amount from tips, but now there is nothing.”

It’s not clear how his workers are able to survive or what they’ll do if the closures continue.

Aguilar, unlike González, doesn’t agree with the governor’s decision to close stores “because not all stores are closed, only the formal businesses, not the informal ones,” he said. “And they cannot say which business is essential. All businesses are essential because we all have to work.”

Cholula's zócalo awaits the tourists' return. — Cholula’s *zócalo* awaits the tourists’ return. Joseph Sorrentino

All three proprietors said the government must help them economically, something President López Obrador has been reluctant to do. To date, most federal aid has only been in the form of loans to small businesses.

There have recently been some talks between Cholula Mayor Luís Alberto Arriaga Lila and business owners, and there are indications that the municipal government is looking for ways to help. But, as yet, there are no concrete plans.

[wpgmza id=”280″]

If the closures continue, owners and their employees won’t be the only ones suffering. Cholula itself may soon face a crisis.

“The worry is that formal businesses are not generating money,” said Aguilar, “so the government is not getting money from taxes like before.”

“If the stoplight doesn’t change,” said González, “there won’t be any tourists at all.”

These stores are primarily for foreigners, tourists, very few Cholulans, Cabrera explains.

“Without tourists, Cholula will not survive,” she says. “It cannot continue without foreigners who have more money.”

Joseph Sorrentino is a regular contributor to Mexico News Daily.

10 states at maximum risk as new Covid cases skyrocket by 21,366 in one day

By

MND Staff

-

January 16, 2021

0

More states will be painted red on the coronavirus stoplight map next week.

The number of red light maximum risk states will double from five to 10 on Monday after the federal Health Ministry presented an updated coronavirus stoplight map on Friday amid skyrocketing new case numbers.

Mexico’s case tally surged past 1.6 million with more than 20,000 new cases reported for the first time since the start of the pandemic.

Mexico City, México state, Guanajuato, Morelos, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Jalisco, Querétaro, Hidalgo and Tlaxcala will be painted red on the stoplight map as of Monday.

The first four states are already red and will remain so for the next two weeks while the other six will switch to that color on Monday from high risk orange.

The hospital occupancy rate for general care beds is above 80% in five of the 10 red light states, according to data presented at the Health Ministry’s Friday night press briefing. They are Mexico City, 90%; Hidalgo, 86%; Guanajuato, 84%; México state, 83%; and Nuevo León, 81%.

Coronavirus cases and deaths in Mexico as reported by day. milenio

Hospital occupancy is one of 10 indicators used by the Health Ministry to determine the stoplight color allocated to each state. Among the others are the Covid-19 effective reproduction rate (how many people each infected person infects), the weekly positivity rate (the percentage of Covid-19 tests that come back positive) and estimated case numbers per 100,000 inhabitants.

The number of orange light high risk states will decrease from 21 to 19 on Monday. Baja California Sur, Sinaloa, Sonora, Durango, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosí, Tamaulipas, Tabasco, Oaxaca, Puebla, Guerrero, Michoacán, Colima, Nayarit and Yucatán are already orange and remain that color on the updated map.

Baja California will switch to orange from red on Monday while Quintana Roo, Veracruz and Aguascalientes will change from medium risk yellow to orange.

Chiapas and Chihuahua will be the only yellow light states as of Monday. The risk level will increase in the former, which is currently green, and decrease in the latter, which is currently orange.

Campeche will be the only green light low risk state in the country as of Monday, retaining that status on the updated stoplight map. The risk level was downgraded to green in Campeche in late September and it has remained that color ever since.

Health Ministry official Ricardo Cortés said that 17 of the 19 orange light states are at risk of regressing to red. The federal government recommends the suspension of all nonessential economic activities in red light states but it is ultimately up to state governments to decide on the severity of restrictions.

In addition to presenting a new stoplight map, the Health Ministry on Friday reported 21,366 new coronavirus cases, setting a new single-day record for the second consecutive day. The accumulated case tally now stands at just under 1.61 million almost 11 months after the virus was first detected in Mexico.

The Covid-19 death toll rose to 139,022 on Friday with 1,106 additional fatalities registered. Health authorities reported more than 1,000 deaths on eight of the past 11 days.

There are currently 106,723 active coronavirus cases across the country, according to Health Ministry estimates, while just over 415,000 Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered in Mexico, including 59,015 on Friday.

Source: El Economista (sp), El Universal (sp)

Thursday’s Covid tally: a record 16,468 new cases, 40% of which are in Mexico City

By

MND Staff

-

January 15, 2021

0

Vaccination of healthcare workers continues across the country.

The coronavirus pandemic is showing no signs of letting up: the federal Health Ministry reported a new single-day record of 16,468 new cases on Thursday and Mexico City and México state will remain maximum risk red on the stoplight map for another week.

Mexico’s accumulated case tally rose to just under 1.59 million on Thursday while the official Covid-19 death toll increased to 137,916 with 999 additional fatalities registered.

Almost 40% of the new cases and a quarter of the additional deaths came from Mexico City, where 90% of general care hospital beds and 86% of those with ventilators are occupied, according to federal data.

Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said Friday that the capital will remain at the red light level between January 18 and 24 because hospitalizations are increasing and coronavirus case numbers remain very high.

Government official Eduardo Clark said that 4,464 coronavirus patients were admitted to hospital over the past week, adding that authorities believe the high number of admissions is related to gatherings of family and friends over the Christmas-New Year period.

Estimated active coronavirus cases as of Thursday night. milenio

Acknowledging the difficult situation many people are facing due to the suspension of nonessential economic activities almost a month ago, Sheinbaum announced that some restrictions will be eased on Monday. The objective is to reactivate the economy without risking people’s health, the mayor said.

As of Monday, Mexico City restaurants will be permitted to offer daytime, on-premises dining to customers as long as they are seated outdoors. A maximum of four people will be permitted to sit at the same table and restaurants must end in-house service by 6:00 p.m. after which they will be limited to takeout and delivery service. Diners will be required to scan QR codes with their cell phones to aid contact tracing efforts.

Open air sports classes will also be permitted as of Monday and gyms with outdoor spaces will be allowed to reopen. Supermarkets have been given the green light to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The aim of around-the-clock supermarket shopping is to reduce the number of people in stores at any one time.

In México state, the coronavirus risk level will also remain at red light maximum, Governor Alfredo del Mazo said. As is the case in Mexico City, restaurants will be able to welcome in-house customers in outdoor dining areas as of Monday.

The governor gave no indication about when the state, which includes many municipalities in the greater Mexico City area, might return to a lower risk rating on the stoplight map.

In a video message posted to social media, del Mazo said that there are more coronavirus patients in hospital than at any other time of the pandemic. He said that 84% of hospital beds are occupied and that 505 patients are currently on ventilators.

“I’m convinced that the efforts that have been made have helped but they haven’t been sufficient to reduce the pace of infection and the number of people in hospital,” del Mazo said. “… Our priority is and will continue to be looking after the health of everyone in order to save more lives.”

Mexico City and México state, which rank first and second, respectively, for both accumulated coronavirus cases and Covid-19 deaths are among five states currently red on the federal stoplight map. The other three are Baja California, Guanajuato and Morelos, which also switched to red in late December. On Friday evening the Health Ministry is due to present an updated stoplight map, which will take effect on Monday.

One state that could turn red next week is Nayarit, where state authorities have already tightened restrictions. Due to a recent rise in case numbers in the Pacific coast state – which is currently high risk orange – the Nayarit government on Thursday decreed that restaurants, bars, cantinas and shopping centers must close by 8:00 p.m. between Friday and February 5.

Nayarit residents have been told to remain in their homes after that time unless they work in an essential industry. Churches and other places of worship are limited to online services.

State health official Jorge Berrera said that daily case numbers averaged about 80 in the first two weeks of the year, and there are an estimated 708 active cases. A first shipment of Covid-19 vaccines has arrived in the state but as is the case across Mexico, immunization is currently limited to health workers.

Despite the recent uptick in cases, Nayarit’s accumulated tally is still relatively low. It has recorded 8,573 confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic, the third lowest total among Mexico’s 32 states after Campeche and Colima, and 1,171 Covid-19 deaths.

Restaurants in Mexico City will be allowed to reopen on Monday, but with outdoor seating only.

The national tally of cases is the 13th highest in the world, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, while Mexico ranks fourth for deaths behind the United States, Brazil and India.

Mexico’s case fatality rate – 8.7 per 100 confirmed cases – is the highest among the 20 countries currently most affected by Covid-19. It ranks sixth among the same 20 countries for per capita Covid-19 deaths with 109 per 100,000 inhabitants.

The countries with a higher mortality rate than Mexico are Italy, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, the United States and Spain.

The occupancy rate for general care beds across Mexico is currently 60% while 50% of beds with ventilators are taken. As of Thursday night, just under 330,000 people had received a shot of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

The pace of Mexico’s vaccination program increased significantly this week after a shipment of almost 440,000 doses arrived on Tuesday. But with a population of almost 130 million, Mexico remains a very long way off achieving the level of immunization that will be required to bring the pandemic to an end.

Source: Milenio (sp), El Financiero (sp)

From mammoth bones to ziplines, this trail has something for everyone

By

John Pint

-

January 15, 2021

0

Ziplines are just one activity along Western Mexico's Río de la Pasión.

El Río de la Pasión forms part of the border between the states of Jalisco and Michoacán, rising from high in the hills of Mazamitla, Jalisco, and flowing due north to the little town of Tizapán, where it pours into Lake Chapala.

This Jalisco town has not been known for much since it was a 19th-century port of call where you could board tours of Mexico’s biggest lake. The riverboats may have been gone by the time I passed through the town in the late 20th century, but I still stumbled upon El Río de la Pasión, and its very name, I felt, was just intriguing enough to warrant a look-see.

And that is how I came upon my first Montezuma Cypress, Mexico’s national tree, popularly known as ahuehuete (old man of the water). El Rio de la Pasión was full of them, so many that their interconnected branches form a kind of roof shrouding the river in semidarkness. It offers a cool, shady place to escape the heat on a sultry summer day.

I came back later to follow the river along its course and there discovered that the ahuehuetes upstream are festooned with Spanish moss, or heno, which is not a parasite but simply uses the tree as a support to hang from. Like tree orchids, this amazing bromeliad lives on nothing but the water and dirt particles floating in the air. In fact, it is one of the most famous of the “air plants.”

When I mentioned my fascination with Spanish moss to the locals, they told me that what I was admiring was nada.

Up close and personal with some exquisite Spanish moss.

“Wait till you see how much heno there is in the trees at the bend in the river, up where they found all those mammoth bones,” I was told.

Mammoth bones?

“Indeed, and the people who know all about them live further upriver in the town of San José De Gracia — you know, the place that’s famous for its Orchid Festival.”

Orchid Festival?

Well to make a long story short, I visited that truly beautiful bend in the river and also saw with my own eyes mammoth bones that were sticking out of the ground. Unfortunately, the route was so rough, I would only recommend it to the most hardcore of four-wheel-drive enthusiasts. That trip was thanks to people from San José De Gracia, Michoacán who, I discovered, do indeed hold an Expo Orquídea every year during the first week of February.

More pertinent to visiting El Río de la Pasión, people at the town’s presidencia told me about a recreational center located right above that fascinating river and — most importantly — very easy to reach from San José via a nicely paved road.

Youngsters hike a picturesque trail at Ecoturismo.

The center is called Ecoturismo Río de la Pasión, and it turned out to be a fascinating place with cabins, plenty of room for camping and “Mexico’s only interstate zip lines,” which take you from Michoacán to Jalisco and back again. On top of all that, it has a great museum displaying figurines and pots found in the area, along with examples of those famous mammoth bones.

“And from here,” they told me, “you can hike along a trail that will take you down to the Passion River and back. It’s only 2 kilometers long, and, don’t worry, you can’t get lost — no hay pierde.

“No hay pierde?” I repeated. “I’ve heard that before!”

Now, ready for anything, several friends and I started hiking down a most curious “path.” It was smooth and hard and wide enough for two cars to pass each other, but it was completely natural. What we were walking on was tepetate, a volcanic rock that is somewhat hard but easy to chisel. It was tepetate that the ancient inhabitants of Mexico looked for when they wanted to make big pits for fermenting the sweet juice of the roasted agave.

We followed this luxury trail down 650 meters to the valley floor, where it instantly changed into a normal narrow footpath that took us through thick, luxuriant foliage filled with wildflowers to the riverside.

At last, we had found an easy way to enjoy the charms of the Passion River. This spot is truly heaven for Spanish moss lovers — the trees were simply dripping with it!

San José de García has a Spanish-moss Christmas tree. — San José de Gracia has a Spanish-moss Christmas tree.

After taking lots of photos, we continued along the trail, stopping here and again to try figuring out where the trail had gone, glancing nervously at the sun approaching the end of its journey across the sky.

“¡No hay pierde!” we all shouted, forging ahead and following our noses. And sure enough, after passing a picturesque little lake, we came to the trail heading back up to the Ecoturismo Center.

The entire loop turned out to be exactly 2 kilometers long, and the walk took about 90 minutes with lots of stops for photos.

By the way, the difference in elevation between the ecocenter and the valley floor is 89 meters. This is the sort of tour the whole family can enjoy — and not to be missed by those who love Spanish moss. Don’t forget the bug repellent, though!

If you have four-wheel-drive and a passion for adventure, you could start out in Tizapán and follow the river all the way to the ecocenter. Otherwise, just ask Google Maps to take you from wherever you are to “Ecoturismo Río de la Pasión,” which is also the name of their Facebook page, where you can book a cabin if you’d like to spend the night there. Driving time from Guadalajara to Ecoturismo is about three hours, but only 90 minutes or so from the north shore of Lake Chapala.

In these days of Covid-19, the center is still open to the public, but reports from San José de Gracia say that the Orchid Expo might be canceled.

This ziplining group is ready to take the plunge.

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.

[soliloquy id="133690"]

Fuel theft has supposedly declined, but the violence in Guanajuato has not

By

MND Staff

-

January 15, 2021

0

A paradox in Guanajuato: less fuel theft but more deaths. — A paradox in Guanajuato: less pipeline theft but more deaths.

An apparent paradox has emerged in Guanajuato: petroleum pipeline theft has declined but high levels of violence continue to plague the state.

A total of 119 people were murdered in the Bajío region state in the first 11 days of 2021, including nine mourners at a wake in Celaya, an entire family including a baby at their home in the same city, five people at an apartment in León and a state legislator in Juventino Rosas.

Writing in the newspaper El Universal, security analyst Alejandro Hope said that with such a bloody start to the new year it is very probable that Guanajuato, for a fourth consecutive year, will record more homicides in 2021 than any other state.

Hope noted that the wave of violence in early January came two years after the federal government launched an offensive against fuel theft, which was the trigger for the murderous violence Guanajuato has seen in recent years according to most analyses.

Hope said the federal government’s version of events says the campaign against fuel theft was “tremendously successful” – the volume of fuel stolen is down 95% compared to the peak during the previous government, some of the main fuel theft organizations were dismantled and José Antonio “El Marro” Yépez, the former leader of the Guanajuato-based Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel and probably Mexico’s best known huachicolero, or fuel thief, is behind bars.

Yet the violence in Guanajuato has not only failed to stop but continues in an upward spiral, the analyst said.

“There is less fuel theft (according to what they say) but more deaths,” he wrote. “What can explain that paradox?”

Hope offered two possible explanations. One possibility is that the paradox is not in fact a paradox because the fuel theft economy hasn’t contracted to the extent the government says it has.

There is some data to back up that claim, he said, pointing out that the number of illegal taps on pipelines in Guanajuato declined 52% in the first eight months of 2020 compared to the same period of the year before.

“That’s a substantial reduction, but not the virtual elimination of the business that the authorities have presented,” Hope wrote.

He contended that another possibility is that violence can survive the contraction of the illicit market that gave rise to it.

AMLO: 'profound social decay' has developed over the years. — AMLO: ‘profound social decay’ has developed over the years.

“An activity such as fuel theft requires men, weapons, vehicles, warehouses, safe houses and networks of complicity at various levels of government. Once in existence, that criminal infrastructure can be used for other crimes (kidnapping, extortion, robbery, drug trafficking, etc.) So, maybe there is less fuel theft than there was in the past but its legacy continues [and is] used for many other things that cause spirals of violence,” Hope wrote.

He said that if his second explanation was even “moderately correct, the implications would be significant.”

It would mean that attacking an illicit market, whether it be a drug market, fuel theft market or any other kind of illegal market, won’t necessarily have a pacifying effect, Hope said

Instead, violence in itself, not the business it arose from, would have to be targeted, he argued.

“That obliges [the authorities] to understand the hidden dynamics of violence and the influences that trigger … gunshots in a specific space and market. Said in another way, homicidal violence won’t ease up in Guanajuato while the explicit objective is not to reduce it,” Hope concluded.

For President López Obrador, “social decay” is a major factor in the high levels of violence in Guanajuato, where the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel have been engaged in a vicious turf war in recent years over control of fuel theft as well as drug trafficking and extortion, and many other smaller criminal gangs operate.

“We believe that there is profound social decay in Guanajuato that developed over years. Attention to the people [and] the wellbeing of the people was abandoned [by past governments] and that allowed the creation and development of groups dedicated to crime,” he said at his regular news conference on Thursday.

While the army and the National Guard are on the ground in Guanajuato, underlying problems that cause the violence must be eliminated, López Obrador said, citing collusion between authorities and criminals as one of them.

He also charged that past governments abandoned young people and effectively forced many of them into lives of crime. The president questioned why they didn’t make greater efforts to help young people get into jobs or continue their studies, as he claims his administration is doing via programs such as “Youths Building the Future,” an apprenticeship scheme.

“Why [didn’t they] assign young people to work or study? Don’t leave them to crime, don’t let them get roped in.”

Source: El Universal (sp), Infobae (sp)

Ambassador says Mexico rejected offers of help to control arms trafficking

By

MND Staff

-

January 15, 2021

0

The federal government rejected a United States offer of equipment to help control illegal arms trafficking, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico said Thursday.

Christopher Landau, who announced last week that he would leave his post when the United States government changes on January 20, told a virtual press conference that the U.S. offered to donate “non-intrusive equipment to control arms trafficking on the border” but the Mexican government didn’t accept.

He also said that during visits to Mexico, former United States Attorney General William Barr offered to extradite arms traffickers who are detained in the U.S. but also sought here. But the federal government didn’t take up that offer either.

“We never received an extradition request during my tenure, which I was very sorry about because I would have liked to have seen one,” Landau said.

The ambassador said that more needs to be done on both sides of the border to stop arms smuggling into Mexico.

(The Foreign Affairs Ministry said in 2019 that firearms from the United States are used in seven out of every 10 high-impact crimes committed in Mexico.)

“For me it’s as if we were sending arms to Hitler during the Second World War; the people who buy illegal weapons from the United States here in Mexico – organized crime – are a problem not just for Mexico but also for the United States,” Landau said.

The ambassador charged that “a lot of people in Mexico” opportunistically use the arms smuggling issue to criticize the United States, and accepted that “there is more that we can do.”

However, he added that “there is also more that Mexico can do” to control illegal arms trafficking.

Landau referred to the events in Culiacán, Sinaloa, in October 2019 – when one of the sons of notorious drug trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán was arrested only to be promptly released when cartel gunmen launched an aggressive offensive – to emphasize the firepower of criminal organizations in Mexico and the need to do something about their continued access to weapons.

Mexico and the United States have entered into agreements to work together to stop the flow of weapons across the border but Landau’s remarks indicate that the cooperation is not as close as it could be.

“It’s imperative that we make more shared efforts on both sides of the border,” he said.

Source: Reforma (sp)

Elections authority wants to stipulate what AMLO cannot say during campaign

By

MND Staff

-

January 15, 2021

0

Elections institute chief Lorenzo Córdova and the president: don't expect any hugs.

President López Obrador will likely have to choose his words very carefully during the coming months.

The National Electoral Institute (INE) is considering putting strict limits on what the president can say in the lead-up to the federal and state elections in June.

The general council of the electoral body was to meet Friday to discuss what López Obrador can and can’t speak about before voters go to the polls June 6 to renew the lower house of federal Congress and elect state lawmakers and governors.

The newspaper Reforma obtained a copy of an INE document that proposes prohibiting AMLO from speaking about 10 different things.

They are:

Funding arrangements of the various political parties;
the internal machinations of parties;
the candidates that will contest the elections;
issues related to the nomination and selection of candidates;
the different stages of the federal and state electoral processes;
the alliances some political parties have entered into;
parties’ political platforms;
the election campaign itself;
the electoral strategies of the various parties; and
political polls conducted in the lead-up to the election.

The aim of limiting what the president can speak about is to ensure that there is a level playing field for the parties contesting the elections.

In response to a complaint filed by the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) after López Obrador made critical remarks on December 23 about that party’s alliance with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the National Action Party (PAN), the INE’s complaints commission ordered the president to abstain from making remarks about the upcoming elections to avoid violating equity between the participating parties.

However, the electoral tribunal subsequently said that such an order had to be approved by the INE’s general council, prompting today’s meeting.

The INE document obtained by Reforma said that it is “necessary, justified and urgent” to apply limits on López Obrador’s freedom of speech because if he continues to speaking about election-related issues the constitutionally-enshrined principles of electoral impartiality, neutrality and equity would be adversely affected.

The president’s comments “could favor or be detrimental to one or some of the political forces” contesting the elections, it said.

The ruling Morena party, which López Obrador founded after leaving the PRD, leads a coalition with a majority in both houses of Congress and is aiming to maintain the status quo in the Chamber of Deputies at the June 6 poll.

The PRI, PAN and PRD joined forces to increase their chances of stripping Morena of its majority. If they achieve that, they will be in a favorable position to scuttle the legislative agenda of the president and his administration.

Source: Reforma (sp)

National Guard assumes policing duties after candidate’s murder

By

Michelle Aguilar

-

January 15, 2021

0

The National Guard on duty in Juventino Rosas.

A day after the assassination of a Guanajuato politician while he was jogging in the city of Juventino Rosas, the National Guard and state police disarmed local police and took over security in the municipality.

A 2021 mayoral hopeful in the municipality of the same name, Juan Antonio Acosta, 55, was killed Tuesday after armed men ambushed and shot him seven times in the back not far from his home.

Governor Diego Sinhue Rodríguez said the Guard and state forces took over security in the municipality on Wednesday, a decision approved by the state Attorney General’s Office, he said.

“We are working with a plan. The state government and the military have initiated Operation Thunder in Juventino Rosas,” Sinhue told reporters Thursday.

Acosta, a National Action Party (PAN) legislator with a diverse career in Guanajuato state politics, was a two-time former mayor in Juventino Rosas, from 2006–2009 and 2012–2015.

He had just registered a few weeks before as a mayoral candidate for 2021.

His killing prompted condolences and condemnation from state officials, including Sinhue, state PAN president Román Cifuentes Negrete, who called him a man committed to Mexico, and federal Interior Minister Olga Sánchez Cordero.

Source: Reforma (sp)

With the housebound blues, you take the cure wherever you can get it

By

Bodie Kellogg

-

January 15, 2021

0

Covid-19 can make life feel like it did for Bill Murray in "Groundhog Day."

Life during a pandemic is unsettled at best, and boredom can come creeping up on you. I don’t mean the type of boredom where you forlornly stare at your feet and declare there is absolutely nothing to do. There are always things you are required to do and things you would like to get done, but I am talking about the type of boredom when the things you really want to do are not executable due to societal maledictions.

But we had locked down in March, and we needed a break from the mundane humdrum of life in isolation — something off the wall, some comic relief.

One evening, while enjoying a tropical sunset and a few adult beverages, I suggested to The Captured Tourist Woman (TCTW) that we could add some real excitement to our lives by hosting an online cockroach race. In my distant and somewhat misspent youth, I have raced many things, from motorcycles in Tijuana to starfish in Puertecitos. So, the thought of racing cockroaches was not beyond my ken.

This would be an event we could share with our friends via Zoom, I explained. I described the small arena we would build along with the betting we could gin up among our remotely participating friends. I, of course, would run my proud and shiny Black Stallion cockroach against TCTW’s Wonder Woman Roach. The betting would be fierce.

Since by then we were well into our fifth month of self-imposed confinement, TCTW actually gave me a thoughtful nod as she sucked an empty glass noise at the bottom of her 16-ounce mojito.

After months of boredom, you'll try almost anything for fun. — After months of boredom, you’ll try almost anything for fun.

During normal times, she would have issued a serious guffaw in my direction, and that would have been the end of such fine madness. But not now. With both of us gripped in the unrelenting virus blues, we were game for anything with the potential to elevate our melancholy. I determined that I would begin the search for hardy competitors first thing in the morning.

The next day, as I began looking in the corners and crevasses of our garage for ambulatory roaches, I started seeing a few tiny mouse turds. Since all manner of Mexican vermin are quite adroit at finding their way into even the tightest of houses, this was an issue. And, since I know our casa is far from tightly sealed, the thought of mice rummaging in our cupboards was just another brick in the wall of our confinement.

I quickly relegated the one active roach to the bottom of my garbage can and began the urgent search for more feculence de ratón.

It didn’t take long to trace their trail to our second-story living quarters and into the kitchen. Their droppings were so tiny that I began to wonder if we might have a pack of prepubescent scavengers. Within minutes, Google told me Mexico has a critter known as a pocket mouse. These tiny rodents looked to be half the size of a common field mouse, which explained the micromanure.

I approached TCTW with my revelation that a mini-mouse was possibly living quietly among us. Since she was leaning over her latest jigsaw puzzle, I knew she was only half-listening when she responded with “Oh, that’s nice. Is Mickey here too?” But as soon as she realized that I had found actual rodent droppings within the walls of our home, I had her full and undivided attention.

Our cockroach races were quickly fading into the coming Mexican sunset, so I set out instead for my favorite local tienda. I entered the store and went directly to the aisle dealing exclusively with the extermination of everything from bugs to large mammals. The fact that there were machetes also displayed in that aisle of death gave me a bit of a shudder as I searched for a mousetrap.

An entertainment option the writer did not consider.

I wanted the time-honored favorite: the Victor mousetrap. This spring-actuated device will dispatch a small rodent quickly, ending its short life humanely with a quick snap and no pain of a lingering death. I purchased three and headed home.

In the past, I had discovered that mice like peanut butter, and it sticks to the trip pedal quite nicely, so I applied a small dab of peanut butter onto the pedals of all three traps and placed these alluring artifices in different locations along the presumed rodent corridor to our kitchen.

The next morning, I went to see how many mice we had ushered into mousy heaven.

When I discovered all the traps still cocked and ready, I looked closely at the trip pedals and saw that each one had been licked clean — not a smidge of peanut butter left behind. Of course, my next move was to lightly touch the trip pedal, all the while knowing I would regret it.

As I suspected, there was nothing wrong with any of the traps.

Later that day, TCTW came home with a pack of two sticky traps. I have never liked the sticky traps because I don’t believe them to be humane. The poor mouse could struggle for hours before being properly executed. However, since our rodents were not large enough to trip the spring trap, we went for the cruel and unusual glue trap. We retired that night, confident that we would have a mired mouse in the morning.

Most unfortunately with hindsight, distracted by our zeal to catch the tiny invader, we both forgot that our robot vacuum was programmed to start its cleaning routine in the wee hours of the morning.

Over the span of my lifetime, I have used many different types of glue, but nothing in my past prepared me for the tangled mess of goo I encountered the next morning. The glue trap had caught the mouse as well as the robot vacuum. While studying the carnage on our kitchen floor, I realized that the vacuum had put up a hell of a fight — the mouse not so much.

Pieces of the brutally dismembered mouse carcass were pasted across the bottom of the appliance with mucilaginous gunk that had firmly adhered itself to any body part or surface that had the extreme misfortune to make contact with it. It looked as though one of the motorized drive wheels managed a full revolution before succumbing to total seizure.

The next eight hours were spent in cleaning and careful disassembly. I bought a gallon of Goof Off gunk remover, thinking at the time that it might not even be enough.

All I can say about that is, thanks to that fateful day, I have written a nice letter to the Roomba people, lauding the incredible power of their machine.

The writer describes himself as a very middle-aged man who lives full-time in Mazatlán with a captured tourist woman and the ghost of a half wild dog. He can be reached at [email protected].