Cultures mix easily at Zihuatanejo’s Orient Bay Restaurant

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December 16, 2020

The emergence of a natural salt dome in southeastern Veracruz triggered fears among residents that a volcano was forming, but state officials say their worries are unfounded.

However, the dome, which appeared in the municipality of Moloacán, does pose other possible risks, including contamination of water supplies, possible burns from contact with boiling saline-infused mud, and accidents due to possible soil erosion.

Officials said the saline was damaging flora and fauna exposed to the salt-infused mud near the dome and contaminating the water. The boiling hot mud is releasing vapors that had led to residents’ fears about a volcano.

Biologists with the Civil Protection agency said the phenomenon was caused by movements in the ground that are causing shifting and cracks that allow certain gases to escape.

State officials also warned area residents not to drink from local water supplies nor give animals water from nearby sources like streams. In addition, they warned residents not to turn the dome into a local attraction because of possible soil erosion around it.

Salt domes can occur in sedimentary basins where thick salt deposits dating back up millions of years have been buried by at least 500 feet of sediment. If the sediment layers exert enough pressure on the salt layer, it can cause some parts of the salt layer to push upward through sediment.

Salt domes have appeared in the area before. Three domes appeared in 2014 between Moloacán and the municipality of Las Choapas. The natural occurrence eventually disappears, they added, and predicted that new one would last anywhere from a few weeks to a few months.

Sources: Milenio (sp), Imagen de Veracruz (sp)

Lawmakers approve bill that regulates activities of foreign agents in Mexico

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December 16, 2020

DEA agents' activities will be restricted under new law.

The lower house of Congress approved legislation on Tuesday that regulates the activities of foreign agents in Mexico, removes their diplomatic immunity and allows for their expulsion from the country.

Passed by the Senate last week, the National Security Law reform attracted the support of 329 deputies while just 98 opposed it. The legislation was subsequently sent to President López Obrador for promulgation.

While it refers to foreign agents in general, the legislation is seen as being aimed primarily at United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Federal Bureau of Investigation agents who have long operated in Mexico.

Outgoing United States Attorney General William Barr has warned that the legislation would “only benefit the violent transnational criminal organizations and other criminals that we are jointly fighting,” making citizens of Mexico and the U.S. “less safe.”

López Obrador has defended it, saying that it affirms Mexico’s sovereignty and “puts things in order” with regard to the regulation of cooperation with foreign agents.

The legislation states that those agents must share information they gather here with Mexican authorities. They will be required to provide monthly reports of their activities to the ministries of Foreign Affairs and Security.

The law also stipulates that foreign agents will not have any immunity should they commit a crime or carry out an activity that corresponds exclusively to local security forces.

“Although according to international law they will have functional immunity if they stick to exercising consular functions, if they commit crimes they will be subjected to Mexican justice,” said Rocío Barrera, a Morena party deputy.

“They won’t have any immunity if they enter our country without being accredited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” she added.

Adriana Dávila, a deputy with the National Action Party, which opposed the legislation, described the law as a unilateral approach to multilateral threats such as organized crime, drug and arms trafficking, money laundering and terrorism.

She said that removing foreign agents’ diplomatic immunity and making them subject to trial in Mexican courts could result in an “international conflict with serious consequences.”

The legislation also stipulates that Mexican authorities will at at all times monitor the activities of foreign agents to ensure that they are complying with Mexican legal obligations and those derived from international security agreements to which Mexico is party.

One example is the Mérida Initiative, a 12-year-old security cooperation agreement between Mexico, the United States and Central American countries.

The legislation says that if a foreign agent, “in the opinion of Mexican authorities,” violates “general and specific provisions” applicable to him, “the government of Mexico will request his withdrawal from the government of the accrediting state.”

It also says that foreign agents in Mexico can only carry weapons that have been authorized by the Mexican Ministry of Defense. They will be prohibited from acting unilaterally to make arrests or raid private property.

Mexican officials will have to get permission from a new security panel to meet with foreign agents and will be required to promptly provide details of what they discussed to the Foreign Affairs and Security ministries.

Ioan Grillo, a veteran drug war journalist based in Mexico, said in a video posted to his YouTube channel that the legislation is a “real big, game-changing law.”

Mexican Law Puts Leash On DEA Agents

Watch this video on YouTube

Journalist Ioan Grillo says law is retaliation against US for arresting ex-defense minister.

“[It] really alters how the DEA has done business here in Mexico for almost 50 years,” he said, adding that it will “really restrict what American agents can achieve here in Mexico.”

After noting that there is widespread agreement that Mexican security forces are “extremely corrupt,” Grillo said that under the new law “any information about drug traffickers and what the [foreign] agents are going after goes to the Mexican federal government government,” adding that the information could “slip out and these people could perhaps escape capture that way.”

Grillo and other observers say the legislation is retaliation for the United States’ arrest in October of former army general Salvador Cienfuegos on drug trafficking charges. After being lobbied by Mexican authorities, who complained about not being informed about the plan to arrest the ex-defense minister, the U.S. in November surprisingly agreed to drop charges against Cienfuegos and send him back to Mexico even though he is not currently accused of any wrongdoing here.

Alejandro Hope, a Mexican security analyst, told The New York Times that the legislation is a symbolic effort to reassert Mexican sovereignty before Joe Biden assumes the United States presidency in January.

“They’re scared of the transition in the United States. They want to send a message that there are tools on this side” of the border,” he said.

In a congratulatory letter sent to Biden on Monday, López Obrador included a caution about Mexico’s support for non-intervention in the affairs of foreign countries, writing, “we are certain that with you as president of the United States it will be possible to continue applying” the principle.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Partying, gun-happy cops investigated in Michoacán

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December 16, 2020

Municipal and state security officials are investigating an incident in which at least 10 Michoacán state and Morelia municipal police officers were caught on video at a house party last weekend where a gun was fired into the air.

The 20-second video was recorded at night and not clear. But what was on the video was enough for municipal and state authorities to launch their own separate investigations.

Michaocán police said they had identified one of their female employees in the video.

Morelia Mayor Raúl Morón Orozco said he had instructed the police to open an internal investigation into the video.

Any officers found to be involved in the incident would be sanctioned according to municipal regulations, he said.

In the video, which shows what appears to be a small house party, multiple people dressed in what appear to be police uniforms are seen drinking and dancing inside a house. Later in the video, men in civilian clothes who Morelia security officials have identified as municipal police officers are seen on a patio outside.

One of them shoots a pistol into the air three times in the general direction of a street. A municipal police car can be seen parked in the background.

Sources: Mi Morelia (sp), El Universal (sp)

Tulum festival regrets not having canceled event that spread virus

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December 16, 2020

Festival-goers enjoy a previous, pre-Covid Art With Me event.

The organizers of a multi-day festival in Tulum, Quintana Roo, last month — described as a coronavirus superspreading event — have issued an apology.

In a statement to CNN, the organizers of the Art With Me festival said they regretted “not canceling the event entirely.”

Numerous cases of the coronavirus were detected in both Mexico and the United States among people who attended the November 11-15 festival or had contact with someone who did.

The event, which organizers describe as “an international arts, music and cultural festival curated to inspire us to be more connected to ourselves,” published recommendations on its website to prevent the spread of the virus but many attendees ignored them.

Video footage of nighttime parties at hotels, restaurants and cenotes (natural sinkholes) in Tulum show hundreds of maskless people dancing in close proximity to each other.

Marlene Góngora, a 40-year-old Mexican lawyer who attended the festival, told CNN that the risk of infection was far from her mind while she was enjoying the event.

“When people are gathering in front of the DJ, it’s obvious that nobody is wearing a mask because you are at the beach. At that moment, when you’re at a party, you’re not thinking of contagion,” she said.

The festival organizers said they cooperated with authorities to develop health measures that included temperature checks upon entry to venues, the distribution of face masks and their mandatory use “in certain areas.”

But “we learned that we cannot control people from adhering to guidelines, or staying away from other venues in the area that did not adhere to our standards,” they said.

“We stand behind our protocols and are grateful to the Mexican government for their incredible cooperation. However, in the end, we regret not canceling the event entirely. We apologize for any strain this may have caused our already overtaxed healthcare system and front line workers, and we hope others might learn from our experience.”

As of Tuesday, only 311 confirmed coronavirus cases had been detected in the municipality of Tulum compared to more than 7,000 in Benito Juárez, which includes the Quintana Roo resort city of Cancún.

Tulum Mayor Víctor Mas told CNN that up to 300 people are permitted to attend events in the municipality as long as venue capacity limits are adhered to. That allowed the organizers of Art With Me to hold the festival at five venues across Tulum, he said.

Tulum Hotel Association president David Ortiz Mena said that the owners of local hotels, which hosted some of the Art With Me events and accommodated attendees, agreed to comply with coronavirus restrictions including limits on restaurant and bar capacity.

However, he acknowledged that the rules were not always followed.

“Sadly, even though efforts were made both by the organizers of the event and the local government, this event clearly got out of hand,” Ortiz said. “I think the attendees to the event also have a responsibility. Clearly, people are not taking care of themselves.”

The hotel association chief said he was concerned that large events such as Art With Me, and the surrounding negative media coverage, could have an adverse effect on the broader tourism industry in Tulum.

“I think it’s one thing to have tourism, to have our beaches open, to have people visiting Tulum. But … if you do this type of event, it really puts us all at risk, not just the visitors, but our staff, the people who live here,” Ortiz said.

“And at the end of the day, not just human lives, but also the economy. People are supposed be able to make a living and there’s no excuse to put us all at risk. We should avoid this at all cost.”

Another multi-day festival, Zamna, is scheduled to go ahead in Tulum on New Year’s Eve but Mayor Mas said that it and other large events won’t be permitted unless the coronavirus risk level drops to green light “low.”

The risk level in Quintana Roo is currently orange light “high” on the federal government’s coronavirus stoplight system after switching to that color from yellow light “medium” at the start of last week.

Source: CNN (en)

Another 119 skulls discovered in Aztec skull tower in Tenochtitlán

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December 15, 2020

Skulls discovered in the Huei Tzompantli in what is now Mexico City. pau/inah

Archaeologists have discovered 119 human skulls in an Aztec tower located within a historic building near the Templo Mayor archaeological site in Mexico City.

The federal Ministry of Culture said that archaeologists with the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) found the extreme eastern side and the facade of the Huei Tzompantli, an almost five-meter-diameter circular skull tower that was dedicated to the war, sun and human sacrifice deity Huitzilopochtli and dates back to the final years of the 1400s and first years of the 16th century.

The discovery of the 119 skulls was made in March while the INAH was supervising renovation work on the historic building, located on a street behind the metropolitan cathedral and next to the Templo Mayor, the main temple of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán. Other sections of the tower, including 484 skulls, were first discovered in 2017.

“The Huei Tzompantli is without a doubt one of the most impressive archaeological discoveries in our country in recent years,” said Culture Minister Alejandra Frausto. “It’s an important testimony to the power and greatness achieved by México-Tenochtitlán.”

Rodrigo Bolaños Martínez, an INAH physical anthropologist in charge of conducting an analysis of the recently-discovered craniums, said that the skulls of men, women and at least three children were among them.

Raúl Barrera Rodríguez, the head of INAH’s urban archaeology program, and Lorena Vázquez Vallín, who led the team that discovered the skull tower, said it’s likely that some of the people whose craniums form part of the Huei Tzompantli were killed as a sacrifice to the gods.

“Although we can’t say how many of these individuals were warriors, perhaps some were captives destined for sacrificial ceremonies,” Barrera said.

“We do know that they were all made sacred, turned into gifts for the gods or even personifications of deities themselves,” he said.

Barrera said that human sacrifices were carried out daily in Mesoamerica as an offering to the gods. The objective was to ensure the renewal of nature and “the continuity of life itself,” he said.

The practice shocked and instilled fear in the Spanish conquistadores led by Hernán Cortés, who conquered Tenochtitlán in 1521.

According to the Culture Ministry statement, the conquistadores witnessed numerous sacrifice ceremonies at seven tzompantli (skull racks) that were known to exist in the sacred precinct of the Aztec capital.

Mexico News Daily

AMLO congratulates Joe Biden on US election win

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December 15, 2020

joe biden and lopez obrador — López Obrador was one of the last world leaders to congratulate Biden, left.

President López Obrador has finally congratulated Joe Biden on his win in last month’s United States presidential election after the U.S. Electoral College affirmed the former vice president’s victory.

“I write this text to congratulate you for the triumph the people bestowed on you and which has been confirmed by the electoral authorities of the United States of America,” López Obrador wrote in a two-page letter to the president-elect that was dated December 14 but not released until Tuesday.

Unlike the vast majority of world leaders, AMLO, as the president is best known, decided not to congratulate Biden after the U.S. media called the race for him days after the election was held.

Speaking four days after the November 4 election, López Obrador said that he would wait until U.S. President Donald Trump’s legal challenges were resolved before offering his congratulations to the successful candidate, explaining that he didn’t want to be “imprudent.”

Along with Vladimir Putin of Russia, Xi Jinping of China and Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, AMLO was among a small group of leaders who didn’t immediately congratulate Biden after the media declared his victory.

Some analysts said López Obrador’s objective was not to offend Trump, with whom he has maintained a friendly relationship, given that the U.S. president still had time to enact policies that could hurt Mexico. AMLO’s own experience in challenging the results of presidential elections he lost (2006 and 2012) was also seen as a factor in his decision to wait.

The president rejected any suggestion there could be future reprisals against Mexico for delaying his congratulatory remarks.

In his letter to Biden, López Obrador noted that they first met nine years ago, recalling he had told him personally and in writing about his aspiration to transform Mexico and eradicate political corruption, which he described as “the main cause of the painful inequality and violence we suffer.”

AMLO wrote that Mexico and the United States are linked by their proximity to each other and that “our people are united by history, the economy and culture.”

“The leaders must thus strive to maintain good bilateral relations based on collaboration, friendship and respect for our sovereignty,” he wrote.

But there was also what could be construed as a subtle warning.

“We are certain that with you as president of the United States it will be possible to continue applying the basic principles of foreign policy established in our constitution, especially that of non-intervention and [the right] to people’s self-determination,” López Obrador wrote.

AMLO thanked Biden for his “position in favor of the migrants from Mexico and the world,” expressing confidence that the incoming U.S. president will support the continuation of the development plan for southeastern Mexico and Central American nations.

“In this way, I believe that nobody will be forced to abandon their place of origin and will be able to live, work and be happy with their family among their people and culture,” he wrote.

“In that way we will manage to build the definitive solution to migratory flows from and through Mexico to the United States. I hope that soon, Mr. Biden, the opportunity presents itself to speak about this and other issues,” López Obrador said before signing off his letter to the president-elect with “warm regards.”

AMLO has managed to maintain a largely friendly relationship with Trump despite the U.S. president’s occasionally aggressive rhetoric toward Mexico.

The pair met in July at the White House, where López Obrador said that Trump has treated Mexico with respect since he took office in late 2018.

Trump declared that he had an “outstanding” relationship with AMLO and, in an apparent reference to the Mexican government’s deployment of the National Guard to block migrants’ path to the United States, thanked him for stopping the flow of asylum seekers to the two countries’ shared border.

Mexico News Daily

Dozens of families displaced by Oaxaca territorial dispute

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December 15, 2020

Municipal headquarters of San Lorenzo Texmelucan, whose citizens are accused of terrorizing residents of a neighboring municipality.

A dispute over territory has been terrorizing multiple families in tiny southwestern Oaxaca communities who say their homes have been burned down or they’ve been given two weeks to abandon the land they’ve lived on for a century.

The 10 remote communities that are part of the municipality of Villa Sola de Vega and are made up of 10–15 families say they have been living in fear for two months, and all point to one source of that fear: armed gangs of residents from the nearby municipality of San Lorenzo Texmelucan, who claim that the land belongs to them thanks to an agrarian court decision.

The small community of El Sargento was targeted first, the victims say. Armed groups burned down their houses, forcing them to flee. The latest aggression happened on December 8, when residents of Santa Caterina La Cañada say an armed gang arrived in the community, threatened the local police officer and his family and told him to inform the town’s residents they all had 15 days to evacuate, prompting some residents to leave town the next day.

Residents in the community of El Anis say they have received the same ultimatum.

Those who remain in the 10 communities say they live in fear of being chased out at any point. Some told the newspaper El Universal that they would be willing to acquiesce to legal claims to the land by San Lorenzo Texmelucan residents if those claims were backed with documents.

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The communities, which are rural, remote, and sparsely occupied, are located far from the municipal seat in Sola de Vega, which residents feel leaves them without law enforcement. Some say they do not believe the municipal government cares about what is going on and have petitioned the federal government for a resolution and to bring in the National Guard to protect them.

It would not be the first time that the federal government has had to intervene in the area. In 2006, a federal agrarian court ruling regarding a land dispute between San Lorenzo Texmelucan and another municipality in the same area, Santo Domingo Tojomulco, noted that a violent dispute between the two entities had lasted nearly two years and had resulted in several deaths in both communities, forcing the federal government to intervene and mediate.

A Senate document in 2009 noted that the two communities had been fighting over the land as far back as 1935.

Two years ago, Hermilo Ríos, a member of the Sola de Vega municipal council who represented the communities, was killed. He had been heavily involved in trying to find resolutions to the ongoing issue.

There were at least 400 outstanding land disputes in Oaxaca, the state government said a year ago. They had cost the lives of 78 people in the preceding three years.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Child’s body was bound for common grave; residents decided otherwise

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December 15, 2020

tijuana-burial — A man prepares a cross to mark the grave of Dulce María, whose body was never claimed after she was found dead on a Tijuana sidewalk.

A young girl whose body was found in a cooler in August was saved from being buried in an anonymous, communal grave after residents of the Tijuana neighborhood where she was found banded together to give her a more dignified resting place.

The girl, who authorities say was between 5 and 10 years old when she died, was buried Monday in one of Tijuana’s public cemeteries with a funeral attended by residents of El Pípila neighborhood and by the director of a local orphanage.

“I came because I have a son about her age,” said Aurora, a woman of about 50 who arrived at the burial with her 6-year-old son Aaron in tow. “Nobody deserves to die alone, completely unknown, least of all a creature so young,” she said as she and her son held flowers and a drawing Aaron had made to be buried with the girl.

Dulce María, as she was dubbed by residents after being found dead on August 30, was discovered inside an abandoned cooler on a sidewalk in El Pípila. Although authorities at first said they detected signs of violence, forensic experts later confirmed that she showed no signs of mistreatment, but instead there were indications of cerebral palsy and she had died of pulmonary sepsis.

The body remained unclaimed at a forensic facility for nearly four months while police, who made clear that they were not treating the case as a homicide, waited to see if anyone would come for her.

No one ever did, and so the unidentified girl was destined to be buried in a communal grave.

However, El Pípila residents decided that this would not stand. Working with a local orphanage, they contacted forensic authorities and asked to be allowed custody of the girl’s body for a funeral and the proper burial they felt she deserved. Authorities agreed and delivered her body to residents Monday.

Liliana Camacho, director of the Casa Hogar Sonrisa de Ángeles orphanage, gave a eulogy, saying that what had happened to her was not her fault, and that her life, however short, would be an example to others. Camacho said that in the girl’s short period on Earth, she had left behind a legacy: her life had inspired a community to come together.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Debate of controversial bank bill postponed until February

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December 15, 2020