Mexico City restaurants to reopen Monday with restrictions

By

-

January 14, 2021

Only outdoor seating will be allowed and staff must take Covid tests.

After some Mexico City restaurants openly defied anti-Covid regulations this week and began illegally providing in-house dining to customers, the city government and restaurant owners have come to a tentative compromise that will allow restaurants to reopen Monday despite the city’s current shutdown of nonessential economic activities until January 19.

The agreement reached Wednesday is still not official but restaurant owners issued optimistic statements thanking the city, though even that statement was the source of a minor dispute between both sides.

Still, everyone appears to have agreed that under the new, stricter rules, restaurants will be free to serve in-house customers at tables outdoors. Under the current lockdown, they had only been allowed to serve takeout or delivery meals, a situation which owners said was killing their businesses.

Since December 19, the city and México state have been under stricter lockdown orders that suspended all nonessential economic activities. The shutdown was supposed to end Monday, but last Friday both governments announced that the suspension would remain in place for another week as the coronavirus situation continued to worsen.

Several restaurants and restaurant chains in Mexico City refused to follow the order after January 10, and reopened on Monday anyway, including Sonora Grill, Fisher’s, Tok’s and Potzocalli.

Current details of the agreement include:

Restaurants will close to in-house dining by either 4 p.m. or 6 p.m., after which they will be allowed to serve takeout or delivery meals. Statements by the restaurant owners and the city government about the closing time are contradictory, with owners thanking the city for agreeing to the 6 p.m. time and Mexico City officials telling the newspaper El Universal that it had agreed to 4 p.m.
Tables must be set up outdoors, either on the sidewalk or on outdoor terraces. Tables must be 1.5 meters apart, with only four people seated per table.
Restaurants will put their menus online with a QR coding system that diners can access with their cell phones to prevent the spread of the virus via physical menus.
Restaurants with 50 or more employees will have to test 5% of those employees for Covid once per week.

Regarding the dispute over closing times to in-house dining, restaurant owners told El Universal that the 4 p.m. closing is “unworkable” because Mexican diners typically don’t even eat lunch until 2:30 or 3 p.m.

Restaurant owners also said they agreed to a future scheme should Mexico City return again to the maximum Covid threat level on the coronavirus stoplight map.

According to the scheme, upon the city going red restaurants would reduce customer capacity to no more than 25% capacity indoors and 35% on terraces and in outdoor seating areas, with no more than six people seated at a table and a closing time of no later than 10 p.m. They would also use QR menus and ban live music. Businesses with over 50 employees would test 5% of their employees for Covid weekly

However, upon going back to orange on the stoplight map, owners said, restaurants would be allowed to return to previous Covid regulations: maximum 30% occupancy indoors and 40% outdoors, closing by 11 p.m., six diners per table, and live music allowed, among other rules.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Costly Pemex: former cash cow burned through US $15 billion in 2020

By

Jude Webber

-

January 14, 2021

0

Propping up the state oil company Pemex is costing the cash-strapped government at least 1.4 points of GDP a year, according to Moody’s Investors Service and a senior former public official.

Pemex is a priority of populist President López Obrador, who sees the former monopoly as a lever of national development. He is investing heavily in a new refinery despite the company’s downstream activities losing money hand over fist and the firm suffering negative cash flow overall.

“Supporting Pemex in 2021, for the company to cover its financing needs, could impose a financial burden of up to US $14.7 billion or 1.4% of GDP on the sovereign, in addition to the already budgeted transfer of $2.3 billion to build the Dos Bocas refinery,” Moody’s said in a report.

That, however, is just to keep things muddling along for Pemex, rather than allowing it to boost production significantly.

“If the government was to provide additional [capital expenditure funds] of $10 billion, which we estimate is the amount required on an annual basis to lift production on a sustained basis, the cost would rise to around $25 billion or 2.3% of GDP each year,” Moody’s said.

That chimes with the estimates of a senior public official, who told the Financial Times that Pemex had “burned through 300 billion pesos” (US $15.2 billion) in 2020 — some 1.5 points of GDP. “It’s an incredible amount,” added the former official, who expected the company to need state support “very soon in 2021.”

The government has resorted to increasingly creative ways to help the nation’s former cash cow, as the nationalist López Obrador continues to prohibit Pemex from sharing risk by partnering with private companies in exploration and production.

Nymia Almeida, Moody’s senior vice president and a Pemex analyst, said that last year Pemex had been given about half the aid it received in 2019. That it had managed to keep production about stable when its main fields were mature and declining at 25% a year was no mean feat, she said.

“The challenges are still the same: high tax and debt,” Almeida said. Pemex is already the world’s most indebted oil company, with net debt of $110.3 billion at the end of the third quarter of 2020 and $6 billion due this year.

Pemex’s debt has already been downgraded to junk but could be at risk of further pressure if Mexico’s sovereign debt rating is cut — something that is no longer most analysts’ base case for this year unless economic recovery is badly delayed.

“The main trigger [to downgrade] Pemex is the sovereign,” said Almeida. “In other years, it’s been the other way round.”

Facebookóatl? AMLO moves to create social media network for Mexicans

By

MND Staff

-

January 14, 2021

0

The newspaper Milenio offered these graphics for possible Mexican alternatives to the big social media networks.

A week after his United States counterpart was kicked off Facebook and Twitter, President López Obrador on Wednesday floated the idea of creating a national social media network to avoid the possibility of Mexicans being censored.

Speaking at his regular news conference, AMLO, as the president is best known, instructed the National Council of Science and Technology (Conacyt) and other government departments to look at the possibility of creating a state-owned social media site that would guarantee freedom of speech in Mexico.

“We care about freedom a lot, it’s an issue that’s going to be addressed by us,” he told reporters.

In addition to Conacyt, the ministries of the Interior, Foreign Relations and Communications and Transportation as well as the federal government’s legal council should analyze the possibility of creating alternatives to the large global social media companies, López Obrador said.

“To guarantee freedom, for freedom, so there’s no censorship in Mexico. [We want] a country without censorship. Mexico [must be] a country of freedom. This is a commitment we have,” he said.

AMLO renewed his criticism of Facebook and Twitter – of which he is an avid user himself – for suspending the accounts of United States President Donald Trump, saying that they have turned into “global institutions of censorship” and are carrying out a “holy inquisition.”

Nobody has the right to silence citizens even if their views are unpopular, López Obrador said.

“Since they took these decisions [to suspend Trump], the Statue of Liberty has been turning green with anger because it doesn’t want to become an empty symbol,” he quipped.

“Freedom in the case of the United States is the First Amendment in their constitution,” López Obrador said, adding that when the constitution was created it couldn’t have been imagined that there would one day be private companies with the capacity to limit people’s right to freedom of speech.

The president’s proposal to create a national social media network triggered chatter about what such a site would or should be called. One Twitter user suggested Facemex or Twitmex, apparently taking his inspiration from the state oil company Pemex.

The newspaper Milenio came up with three alternative names and logos for uniquely Mexican sites, suggesting that a Mexican version of Facebook could be called Facebookóatl (inspired by the Aztec feathered-serpent god Quetzalcóatl), Twitter could become Twitterlopochtli (a riff on the name of Aztec war, sun and human deity Huitzilopochtli) and Instagram could become Instagratlán (tlán, which in the Náhuatl language means place near an abundance of something – deer, for example, in the case of Mazatlán – is a common suffix in Mexican place names.)

lopez obrador — AMLO: ‘We care about freedom a lot.’

Milenio also spoke to technology experts about the viability of a national social network being created in Mexico.

“I don’t have any doubt that Mexico has the capacity to create its own social network,” said Ramón Sánchez, a political consultant in the areas of technology and communication.

He said Mexico could set an example for other countries around the world and expressed concern about the power of large social media companies to decide who should be silenced.

“We’ve allowed it to be transnational companies that decide if there is censorship or not and that’s very dangerous,” he said.

“What happens if Twitter says tomorrow that AMLO is publishing things that it doesn’t like? What happens if the president of Twitter censors the democratically elected president of Mexico? As we’ve relinquished our technological sovereignty and left our communication tools, even our information systems, in the hands of multinationals with private interests, we’ve relinquished our [right to] freedom of speech,” Sánchez said.

Rubén Darío Vázquez Romero, a technology analyst and columnist for the magazine Forbes, agreed that Mexico has the capacity to create its own social media network.

“It would be a very interesting democratic exercise because it would be a freer network; it’s a great opportunity to demonstrate openness to dialogue,” he said.

Some other tech experts pointed out potential pitfalls of a home-grown, government-owned social media site.

Octavio Regalado, a consultant who specializes in social media, said that it’s very unlikely that people opposed to the current government would sign up for a social network created by it.

Guillermo Pérezbolde, director of the digital consultancy firm Reputation Digital Institute, warned that a state-owned social media service could be an attractive target for hackers and therefore the government would have to invest heavily in security.

“Protecting information and the platform will be the expensive thing because they would have to host it on very secure servers,” he said.

Source: Milenio (sp)

The best advice for pedestrians in Mexico: show no fear

By

Joseph Sorrentino

-

January 13, 2021

0

When crossing streets here, plan on all types of oncoming vehicles.

Here’s a free piece of advice about crossing the street in Mexico: don’t.

Of course, you’re not going to listen to me, so I’ll give you some additional advice in an effort to help you avoid a visit to the emergency room — or worse.

First, get completely comfortable with the fact that Mexican drivers consider a red light to be a mere suggestion at best. Ditto for stop signs, yield signs and just about any other sign or rule you can imagine. Also, forget that quaint little notion about pedestrians having the right of way. Mexicans may be among the nicest people in the world, but put them in the driver’s seat and some sort of killer instinct kicks in.

If you absolutely have to cross a street here, the first important piece of advice is: don’t hesitate. Take your time and pick your spot, but then go for it and don’t look back.

Under no circumstances are you to break your stride. Mexican drivers are very good at playing “Time the Pedestrian,” and any deviation from your route or speed will have disastrous consequences, mostly for you. Drivers here operate under the belief that a body in motion will continue in motion unless acted upon by an outside force. So keep your body in motion or you will most certainly be acted upon by an outside force — in this case, a vehicle.

One of the most beautiful demonstrations of this rule I’ve ever seen was in Mexico City a few years back. This woman started to run a red light and was well into the intersection when she thought better of it and, without looking, started backing up. The two guys crossing the street directly behind her car didn’t break stride, didn’t flinch as she got closer. They just smacked the top of the car’s trunk in unison and continued across the street.

I would’ve applauded, but I was afraid it would cause me to alter my pace and end up as roadkill.

It’s extremely important to put a body between yourself and an oncoming car; this will cushion the impact. Of course, everyone else is trying to put a body between themselves and the oncoming car too, so you’re going to have to do some clever jockeying for position. Survive enough street crossings in Mexico and you’ll get the hang of it.

It’s equally important not to show any fear. Ever. Drivers can sense it and, like a shark sniffing blood, will close in for the kill. I have never seen a Mexican pedestrian looking afraid.

I remember how shocked I was the first time I visited Taxco. Cars there zip along narrow, winding, hilly roads while pedestrians walk calmly literally a few inches away. By the way, there are no sidewalks in Taxco. Do these pedestrians have fear? How could they not? But the key is that they don’t show it.

Before attempting to cross any street in Mexico, it’s critical to work on your peripheral vision because cars, buses, motorcycles, bicycles and assorted other wheeled contraptions will be coming at you from all sides — and from behind. I don’t care if you’re crossing a one-way street that’s been blocked off at both ends; if you want to stay alive, you have to assume that someone in a vehicle has decided that blocking off a street simply means that other people shouldn’t drive on it — that rule certainly doesn’t pertain to them.

Be particularly careful when crossing at a red light. In some states in the U.S., people can make a right turn at a red light. Not to be outdone, people in Mexico can go straight at a red light. I’m pretty sure it’s not legal, but it happens so often it might as well be.

So, if you insist on crossing the street in Mexico, these tips may help you survive. If not, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Joseph Sorrentino is a regular contributor to Mexico News Daily.

Artisan’s teddy bears a comfort for those who have lost loved ones to Covid

By

MND Staff

-

January 13, 2021

0

Chihuahua artisan Guerrero and one of her teddy bears.

Hundreds of thousands if not millions of Mexicans have lost family members from Covid-19 without being able to bid them farewell properly due to the risk of infection.

But an artisan in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, is giving some of them something to hold onto after their loved ones pass away: teddy bears made from the Covid victims’ clothing.

Eréndira Guerrero made face masks at the start of pandemic but as the infectious disease began to take lives in the northern border city, she discovered there was also demand for custom-made teddy bears among people who lost a family member.

One person who sought out the services of the seamstress is Araceli Ramírez.

After her 70-year-old father died two days after being admitted to hospital for Covid, she took one of his flannel shirts to Guerrero who used it to make a teddy bear.

Some of Guerrero's teddy bears — Some of Guerrero’s teddy bears, made for family members of coronavirus victims.

The artisan estimates that she has made about 200 bears for the family members of Covid victims, telling the newspaper El Universal that they become very emotional when she delivers their order.

“The majority cry and hug [the bear] because the item of clothing becomes something that reaches their heart,” Guerrero said.

To make each teddy bear even more personalized, Guerrero sews messages onto them at the family members’ request.

In the case of Ramírez’s bear, the message reads: “This is a shirt I used to wear, every time you hug it I want you to know I’m there. With love, dad.”

Guerrero has even sewn small speakers into the teddy bears she makes that are activated when pressed and recite a prayer, offer some words of affection or even play voice messages from the deceased Covid victim.

“These days we have audio of the people we love in our phones. If someone wants to, that audio can be placed in the piece we’re making,” she said.

Guerrero, who has been making arts and crafts since she was 13 and previously made teddy bears for the family members of victims of violence in Juárez, said she finds her work very gratifying because it helps people in mourning turn their pain into affection and love.

“It allows them to have a different [kind of] contact with the pieces of clothing of their loved ones. … The family members couldn’t close the cycle of their loss [because they couldn’t say goodbye in person] but when they receive their little bear they completely change. They look at it and embrace it with affection as if it was their loved one,” she said.

Ramírez said she wasn’t able to keep vigil over her father’s body because he died from Covid so she struggled to accept that he was really gone. She added that the pandemic prevented her from gathering with family members to say goodbye to her father at a funeral.

As a result she struggled to find an outlet for her pain. But her flannel shirt teddy bear is now helping her recover from her loss.

“I can talk to the bear, express what I didn’t tell [my dad] and feel like he is with me,” Ramírez said.

Source: El Universal (sp)

‘Stay at Home’ only works when it’s part of a more comprehensive plan

By

Sarah DeVries

-

January 13, 2021

0

Beaches in Cancún and other tourist destinations throughout Mexico welcomed thousands of visitors this Christmas despite the government's advice not to travel.

The authorities said it, and now it’s happening. This is going to be a rough next several months.

The combination of circumstances has been brutal: a more tired, more desperate and much poorer citizenry; floundering businesses fighting to stay open because the other option is to close forever and knock a bunch of workers into poverty while they’re at it; colder weather keeping more people inside together; a new, more easily spreadable Covid strain that is for sure already in Mexico; hospitals quickly filling up with not enough equipment or space to attend to them, with staff whose emotional crises I can’t even begin to imagine; a dismally low testing rate; an illness that’s now spreading like wildfire because, new strain or not, the more people catch it, the more people catch it.

People were already tired of the pandemic and its restrictions at the end of March. They were also tired of it at the end of July and at the end of October. By the time the holidays rolled around, they were really sick of it, and many could simply not resist the pull of tradition paired with a desire to gather with their families and friends. Heck, even the head of our coronavirus task force went to the beach.

All right, he shouldn’t have. It’s not that I approve, but really — I doubt the majority of us are in any position to be casting stones on others for their unsafe or hypocritical behavior. The difference with Hugo Lopez-Gatell is that he’s a well-known, recognizable public figure who just days before had encouraged people not do precisely what he ended up doing. Yes, that was hypocritical, which unfortunately is a very human trait no matter how good we try to be. You’d think he’d at least have worn a disguise or something.

In fact, let’s take a moment out of this despair-filled diatribe to grin as we picture him at the beach in dark glasses and one of those Rasta tams with fake dreadlocks hanging down from it, and maybe a fake mustache. (Really, do it.)

Okay, that’s done! I don’t know about you, but I could always use a laugh these days.

Now, back to where we were: remember, beaches and resorts were and are open for business. If the rule is “don’t leave for unnecessary travel,” then close the places we’re able to unnecessarily travel to. Water flows to where it can, yo. And you know what we’re mostly made of, right?

Of course, those pictures of him at the beach were enough to trigger the resignation of several doctors right when we need them the most. Other doctors have resigned out of exhaustion, and more still in protest over a lack of necessary equipment to do their jobs.

I don’t blame our medical personnel; they’re basically being asked literally to be Jesus Christ right now, and have been, one could argue, even since before the pandemic started. I was struck by their plea last week: “If you come into ICU, you will die.”

So the optics on Lopez-Gatell’s trip were not fantastic, and the doctors have a right to be angry. The optics aren’t great on President López Obrador either, who still seems not to see the point of wearing a mask or taking any precautions at all.

In fact, we’ve all got a right to be angry. And people directing that anger toward a government that sends mixed signals about what’s safe and what’s not and that refuses to give desperately needed financial support that could tide its people through this crisis seems like a pretty natural consequence of such behavior.

People do need guidance on what to do and how to behave until we finally get the vaccine to most people, and I think Lopez-Gatell and the Ministry of Health have done a fairly good job at it. But that’s only one piece of the puzzle. As I said last week, 45% of the population is in poverty and counting. And, sure, Mexico will come out with the lowest budget deficit in Latin America at the end of this, but so what?

Seeing restaurant owners and workers demanding to be allowed to work made me hang my head in sorrow and frustration. It’s not that they’re dying to serve people hamburgers and enchiladas because that’s their favorite thing in the world to do. It’s that there’s been no help. The kind of willful blindness that I only experience in my most frustrating dreams is currently ever-present.

“Restaurants are a source of jobs, not infections!” is the owners’ rallying cry. Well, I’d change that to “and infections,” which is not a moral judgment but rather an epidemiological fact.

But the question I’ve repeated over and over, to myself and to others throughout the pandemic, is this: “What do they expect people to do?”

Until most of the population is vaccinated, there are going to be many more illnesses and deaths. And until the economy can get rolling again, I fear crimes of desperation will also increase.

Hold tight, people. We’ve got some punches to roll with.

Sarah DeVries is a writer and translator based in Xalapa, Veracruz. She can be reached through her website, sdevrieswritingandtranslating.com.

Australian designer accused of copying traditional Oaxacan huipil

By

MND Staff

-

January 13, 2021

0

The Mazatec huipil, left, and the Australian design house's product, right.

An Australian fashion brand has withdrawn a dress from its 2021 collection after facing accusations by members of the Mazatec community in Oaxaca that it plagiarized the design of a traditional huipil, a loose-fitting tunic commonly worn by both indigenous and non-indigenous women in Mexico.

Mazatec people from the Cañada region of the southern state took to social media to denounce Zimmermann, a fashion house that has stores in several countries including the United States, England, Italy and France.

They claim that the company, founded in Sydney by the sisters Nicky and Simone Zimmermann in 1991, copied a Mazatec huipil design to make its Riders Paneled tunic dress, which was part of its 2021 Resort collection and retailed for US $850 on the Zimmerman website before it was withdrawn due to the criticism.

The cut of the Zimmermann garment, the birds and flowers embroidered on it and its colors all resemble a traditional Mazatec huipil.

Changes made to the original design – the Zimmermann dress sits above the knees and unlike a huipil is not intended to be worn with pants or a skirt – are disrespectful of the Mazatac culture and world view, according to members of the Mazatec community.

The Oaxaca Institute of Crafts also condemned Zimmermann and called on the brand to clarify the origin of its design.

Zimmermann subsequently issued a statement on social media, acknowledging that the tunic dress was inspired by huipiles from Oaxaca

“Zimmermann acknowledges that the paneled tunic dress from our current Swim collection was inspired by what we now understand to be a traditional garment from the Oaxaca region in Mexico,” it said.

“We apologize for the usage without appropriate credit to the cultural owners of this form of dress and for the offense this has caused. Although the error was unintentional, when it was brought to our attention today, the item was immediately withdrawn from all Zimmermann stores and our website. We have taken steps to ensure this does not happen again in future.”

It is far from the first time that a large fashion house has been accused of plagiarism of indigenous Mexican designs.

Among the other designers/brands that have been denounced for the practice are Isabel Marant, Carolina Herrera, Mango and Pippa Holt.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Xochimilco’s nearly 450-year-old Niñopa statue adapts to the pandemic

By

Leigh Thelmadatter

-

January 13, 2021

0

A 4 1/2-century-old “child” called the Niñopa is the most important religious icon in Mexico City’s borough of Xochimilco and the star of an upcoming celebration.

Despite its age and the pandemic, this image of the infant Jesus continues its important role in this formerly agricultural area. At 51 centimeters tall and weighing 600 grams, it looks much like any other baby Jesus that appears in manger scenes all over Mexico. But this statue is the star of Mexico’s last hurrah of the Christmas season – Candlemas on February 2, marking the presentation of the infant Jesus to the temple — these days done at a church.

This representation is indeed special, even with its own name — the Niñopa (or Niñopan). The niño part is from the Spanish word for “child,” but the “pa/pan” part is in dispute. It may be a shortening of padre (father) or patrón (patron), or it could be from the Náhuatl word for “place.”

What is known is that this image and the popular rites associated with it have a long history.

The Niñopa was created in 1573. Although legend says it was brought from Spain and made of orange tree wood, it was created in Xochimilco from a local tree, most likely by an indigenous artisan. There are several stories about how and why the image has its highly venerated status. One says that it belonged to the last indigenous ruler of Xochimilco, Martín Cortés de Alvarado.

The Niñopa dates back to the 16th century.

The historical context indicates that it was part of an effort by evangelists to substitute Catholic imagery into indigenous rituals. It is known that Huitzilopochtli, the god of war, was worshipped here in the form of a child. So it would not be too difficult to substitute one “child” with another. In fact, one of the persistent tales told about this image is that it hides a figure of Huitzilopochtli inside.

Like other famous religious images and statues, the Niñopa has been credited with miracles. These tend to be related to health, domestic peace and economic help. Almost all claims of miracles are local, but some have come from as far away as the United States, supposedly just from seeing the statue’s image on television.

In many ways, this image is thought of as a real child. Many believe that it comes alive at night, playing with donated toys and even wandering around outside. People state that in the morning they find the Niñopa’s belongings strewn about the room in which it sleeps, small footprints in the earth outside or its dirty clothes.

The Niñopa is indeed cared for as if it were a living child. It does not reside in the parish church; instead, each year, a family becomes the child’s “nanny” for 365 days.

The child is “laid down to sleep” each night and “woken” each morning with music before being dressed for the day. Care of the Niñopa, as well as ensuring that it does its official duties — such as attending Mass — is the responsibility of the family hosting him, who are called mayordomos.

Becoming a mayordomo is a serious and expensive undertaking. Chosen families prepare for years, even decades, for the honor of spending a year as the official caretaker of the statue. A room is dedicated to the child, often added to the house. In normal years, this room needs to be accessible so that the public can easily visit, and the image is taken out daily to visit the sick, go to Mass, and appear at festivals. Even routine outings are done with great fanfare, with the mayordomos footing the bill for dancers, food for everyone and more.

The Niñopa in its current location until February 2.

Important festivals related to the Niñopa are Children’s Day (April 30), the posadas before Christmas (December 16–24) and Kings’ Day (January 6). But by far the most important event is Candlemas, when the image moves onto a new family and home. The festival is important enough that it is covered every year by Mexico City media.

Concerns about preserving the condition of the centuries-old statue have led to some changes in how it is handled and how it performs its duties. Clothing cannot have zippers or other metal. Worshippers cannot touch the image directly, only its clothes. It has been on “sabbatical” on several occasions for restoration work by the National Institute of Anthropology and History — locally called “going for a check-up with the doctor.”

The year 2020 has not been normal for anyone, the Niñopa included. As you can imagine, the pandemic has all but shut down festivities related to the image, and visits at the mayordomo’s home are not permitted either. When the transition to the new mayordomo household occurs on February 2, few people will be authorized to attend the ceremonies in person.

However, the current mayordomos, the Paredes Valverde family, says the transfer will be shown live online. This promises to be a positive long-term development, maybe a precedent that will make the child even more accessible to more believers and those of us who are fans of Mexican culture.

There are several Facebook pages dedicated to the Niñopa, but the official is updated regularly with new photos and videos, and believers leave heartfelt messages in the comments section.

Leigh Thelmadatter arrived in Mexico 17 years ago and fell in love with the land and the culture. She publishes a blog called Creative Hands of Mexico and her first book, Mexican Cartonería: Paper, Paste and Fiesta , was published last year. Her culture blog appears regularly on Mexico News Daily.

AMLO’s flagship roadbuilding program hits a snag in Oaxaca

By

Michelle Aguilar

-

January 13, 2021

0

At left, how the road is supposed to look; at right, the damaged road in San Pedro Yolox.

A recently built road in Oaxaca that was part of a highly promoted federal program to connect remote towns to more populous areas in the state may have to be relocated.

A stretch of highway that connects the municipality of San Pedro Yolox, located in the northern Sierra region, to the rest of the state has sustained severe damage since it was opened just four months ago.

At least 30 meters of the 9-kilometer hydraulic concrete road is collapsing due to a geological fault, according to the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples (INPI).

The federal Ministry of Communications and Transportation is currently inspecting the damage to determine whether the road can be repaired or if it should be relocated.

INPI director of infrastructure Vladimir Ortiz Sánchez promised there would be a plan of action by January 18. The choices available to officials are either finding a way to contain the earth in and around the road or reroute that section of the highway.

Despite the collapse, the road has not been closed, and vehicles still travel on it despite the difficulties presented by the damage, authorities said.

The program that built the road has been touted by President López Obrador as a means of providing local employment and keeping infrastructure spending in the communities that benefit.

However, he has also been criticized for not using relevant specialists.

In some reports, poor drainage was cited for the damage in Yolox but a Oaxaca-based civil engineer said it was due to a lack of technical supervision and a failure to control the quality of materials used to build the road.

In 2019 and 2020, 58 roads have been built in Oaxaca under the initiative.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Authorities investigate buffalo hunters in Coahuila

By

MND Staff

-

January 13, 2021

0

Photo that appeared on hunting ranch's website until yesterday.

Federal environmental authorities have launched an investigation after a photograph appeared Tuesday showing two men next to an American buffalo they had killed in Coahuila.

The photo was taken from the Facebook and Instagram accounts of a hunting ranch near the northern border city of Piedras Negras that offered hunting trips for protected species such as American bison, as American buffalo are also known, and white-tailed deer.

The newspaper El País reported that several photos of bison that were apparently hunted between 2011 and 2015 were posted to the social media accounts of the Buena Vista ranch. The ranch’s Facebook and Instagram accounts, as well as its website featuring more images of slain wild animals, have now been deleted.

The circulation of the image showing two men posing next to a slain bison, one of whom is toting a firearm, came just days after Environment Minister María Luisa Albores celebrated the successful reintroduction of a second herd of the large mammals, in northern Mexico, writing on Twitter that the “beautiful animals” have returned to the plains of Coahuila after an absence of almost 100 years.

El País said there was no evidence that the buffalo that appears in the photo was reintroduced as part of Mexico’s conservation efforts but the hunting of the animal was nevertheless heavily criticized on social media.

The federal Environment Ministry said in a statement that it checked its records and determined that authorization to hunt bison had never been granted to the Buena Vista ranch.

The ministry said it was collaborating with the environmental protection agency Profepa and the Coahuila government to “clarify the facts,” adding that if it is proven that bison were illegally hunted those responsible will be held to account.

“The government of Mexico is committed to the conservation of this species and its habitat,” the statement said. “We are working for its recovery and … the inquiries to clarify the facts and enforce the environmental law will continue.”

Tens of millions of American bison once roamed Mexico, the United States and Canada but by 1880 there were only about 1,000 of the mammals in the wild in Mexico due to destruction of their habitat, disease and hunting, according to the National Commission for Natural Protected Areas (Conanp).

A herd of 23 bison from the Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota was reintroduced to the Janos Biosphere Reserve in Chihuahua in 2009, while a herd of 19 of the mammals from Janos was released into the El Carmen nature reserve in Coahuila last year.

“The establishment of herds in Mexico contributes significantly to the recovery of the species on a continental scale,” according to Conanp.

Source: El País (sp)