Saturday, August 23, 2025

Alert over natural gas shortage lifted after Texas cancels export ban

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gas pipeline
The gas is flowing southward after export ban lifted.

The National Gas Control Center (Cenagas) has ended its “critical alert” for the national gas system after Texas lifted its temporary ban on natural gas exports earlier than expected.

Cenagas declared on Saturday an end to the alert, which was issued last Tuesday due to the limited amount of natural gas being sent to Mexico from the United States amid an extreme cold snap in Texas.

The termination came after Texas Governor Greg Abbott lifted the ban on shipping natural gas out of the Lone Star state on Friday. Announced last Wednesday, the suspension was to remain in place until Sunday.

Cenagas said Saturday that the risk to the operation of the national gas system had ended and that restrictions on consumption had been lifted.

The Mexican Natural Gas Association said that gas supply was normalizing but called on industrial, commercial and residential users of the fuel to continue limiting their consumption to help stabilize the distribution system.

Last week’s supply interruption, which the federal government attributed to the freezing of pipes in Texas, caused a blackout last Monday that affected some 4.7 million people in northern Mexico – Mexican power plants are heavily reliant on natural gas for electricity generation – and forced some manufacturers to stop work.

The Nuevo León industry association Caintra said the power outage and gas supply interruption caused manufacturers in that state to lose some 14 billion pesos (US $677.2 million) between Monday and Thursday of last week. Losses in Tamaulipas amounted to $266 million by Thursday, said Humberto Martínez Cantú, president of the Index industry group in Reynosa.

In Chihuahua, a least 120 manufacturing firms had to halt operations, resulting in losses of up to $60 million a day, according to Index.

Manufacturers in several other states, including Durango, Coahuila, Jalisco, Guanajuato and Querétaro, were affected by the natural gas shortages and suffered large losses. Automakers including Volkswagen, General Motors, Ford, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Kia and Mazda were among the manufacturers that temporarily shut down all or part of production due to the lack of gas.

President López Obrador discounted reports that the economic costs would be serious, accusing media outlets of exaggerating the extent of the impact of gas shortages because “they’re angry with us.”

“The anger of the media in this country is notorious … what interests them is attacking the government.”

On Sunday the president said he was “very satisfied” with the government’s response to the gas crisis.

“I’m very satisfied with the result, with the way in which the CFE [Federal Electricity Commission] confronted this crisis,” he said during an event in La Paz, Baja California Sur.

“… How long did it take us to resolve this problem? Five days, five days thanks to the work of … the Federal Electricity Commission technicians,” López Obrador said.

“I very much regret what’s happening in Texas, … they haven’t resolved the problem yet. We confronted it well because we were attentive, we took early decisions. Before the crisis erupted, an emergency meeting of the CFE with the Energy Ministry was held and they asked me if they could use more fuel oil from Pemex … to put all the country’s plants into operation and increase the energy in the entire network,” he said.

CFE chief Manuel Bartlett said last week that reestablishing electricity generation after the gas supply interruption was “a great feat,” asserting that the public utility’s workers averted a “total disaster.”

López Obrador said the lesson to be learned from last week’s events is “not to put all your eggs in one basket” with respect to energy sources for electricity generation.

“In Texas, I say it with complete respect, they don’t have options other than natural gas. This crisis comes along and they have no options, no alternatives. Here, when the natural gas price started going up and when it was decided they weren’t going to supply us, ships with liquified gas were immediately contracted and other actions [were carried out],” the president said.

“This is a very good lesson; you can’t bet on just one type of fuel. Of course, to the extent possible, you have to seek out non-contaminating fuels,” López Obrador added, brushing aside his government’s clear preference for fossil fuels such as natural gas, coal and fuel oil over renewable sources such as wind and solar.

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

Though now part of the mainstream, Chinelos still retain an aura of mystery

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Chinelos accompany the image of the Niñopa (a baby Jesus statue) in the Mexico City borough of Xochimilco during an annual procession.
Chinelos accompany the image of the Niñopa (a baby Jesus statue) in the Mexico City borough of Xochimilco during an annual procession. Alejandro Linares García

The Chinelos, costumed dancers who are a regional Mexican Carnival tradition, began as a way to “diss the man” several hundred years ago.

Unfortunately, the festivities were officially canceled this year due to Covid-19. Any events that did go on were clandestine. This is humorous because Carnival has a long history of allowing participants to skirt both convention and authority.

The Chinelos’ case is one act of defiance that evolved into a year-round tradition.

Mexico is not a noted Carnival country. The celebration was introduced here in the colonial period, but authorities frowned on the disrespect it encouraged among the general populace, especially the indigenous.

They eventually succeeded in stamping it out in most of New Spain. The celebrations seen in some coastal cities such as Mazatlán date only from the 19th century.

Chinelos dancers with highly-ornate garb performing for the opening of the Expo de los Pueblos Indígenas in Mexico City in 2018.
Chinelos dancers with highly-ornate garb performing for the opening of the Expo de los Pueblos Indígenas in Mexico City in 2018. Alejandro Linares García

But a few colonial-era annual celebrations survived in a number of small towns in Tlaxcala, Puebla and Morelos. The indigenous in colonial Morelos were forbidden from participating in the celebrations, so they created their own getups using old clothes and faces that were carefully covered to maintain anonymity.

This need to hide their identities was part of the Chinelos’ origin story. Hiding was extremely important to avoid authorities’ reprisals, as the purpose of dressing up was not only to participate but to mock the ruling classes.

The Chinelos of today originated in Tlayacapan, a scenic town in the north of Morelos.  The name is derived from Náhuatl, but like so many words with this heritage, etymologies vary. It may be derived from zineloquie which means disguised, or tzinelohua which means hip movement, a reference to the distinctive dancing Chinelos do. Another etymology focuses on the mask and the mocking aspect, using a combination of chichiltec (“blushing” skin) and niele (to mock). Take your pick which is correct.

Chinelos’ outfits have four principal elements: a long, flowing robe, often with a rectangular tunic over it; a mask; a large, plumed hat and a pair of gloves.

The robes are made of thick material, most often velvet. Hats can be up to a meter high with many large plumes. Both robes and hats can be heavily decorated with embroidery, painting and/or sequins depicting images from Catholicism or pre-Hispanic culture. Today’s masks are made of mesh (easier to breathe in) and feature blue eyes and beards. The gloves are mostly for effect, but they also help to hide identity.

The overall effect is androgynous, although the dancers underneath the costumes are almost always men, usually young ones able to withstand dancing in such garb for extended periods.

Examples of Chinelo dress from (L-R) Tlayacapan, Yautepec and Tepoztlán.
Examples of Chinelo dress, from left: Tlayacapan, Yautepec and Tepoztlán. Wikimedia Commons

These costumes are expensive to make, ranging anywhere from 4,000 to 100,000 pesos (US $$190 to $4,800) — sometimes even more! — depending on complexity, the type of materials used and sometimes the quantity and quality. For example, one of the most prized materials for costumes is Czech glass beads, each laboriously sewn onto the robe or hat one by one.

The demand for such garments means that there are artisans who make a living creating them. Those with the best reputations live in the town of Yautepec, Morelos. Such costumes are also in high demand with collectors, especially those that “have been danced.”

The Chinelos’ traditional purpose of mocking “one’s betters” was maintained for centuries. The basis of the costume is the Spanish of the early colonial period, but other elements were added over time.

One aspect was the addition of gloves and the upturning of the beards found on the masks. This was taken from French fashion of the late 19th century, which the Mexican elite of the time diligently copied.

An influence more local to Morelos was the area’s large sugar cane farms and processing mills. These places brought their usually absentee owners wealth, but they left workers impoverished until after the Mexican Revolution.

Although participating in a Chinelos group is nowhere near as dangerous as it used to be, maintaining anonymity is still an extremely important part of the tradition. Costumes are hidden carefully when not in use. Dancers will dress up while in different houses and will even change all or part of their costumes periodically to keep from being found out.

100-peso commemorative coin with a Chinelo representing the state of Morelos.
A 100-peso commemorative coin with a Chinelo representing the state of Morelos.

Chinelos groups have spread and diversified from northern Morelos to the rest of the state, into southern Mexico City and Guerrero. Migration north also took the tradition to California, New York and other areas where Morelenses have settled.

The spread of the dance to other places led to variations in costume that can be associated with certain communities — and sometimes specific groups. The costume closest to the original is still that found in Tlayacapan.

Its robe and hat are white and blue, generally not ornate, although the tunic can be. In most other places, the robes are made of velvet and are more likely to be decorated.

Perhaps because the costume is most important, the dance is exceedingly simple.  The most difficult part is that you are jumping around in hot and heavy garments. Any ambient heat becomes stifling, so head bandanas to control the sweat become important.

Although definitely regional, the Chinelos are an important and still-growing tradition. Their performances are no longer limited to Carnival celebrations but are also seen at local festivals year-round and can be hired for private events.

Chinelos are even in the tourism business. The state of Morelos has made them representative of the state, putting them on all kinds of advertising, which further increases their importance and recognition.

Los 3 estilos de Chinelo en Tepoztlán.
Chinelos dancers in Tepoztlán, Morelos, in 2019.

 

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.

Federal auditor’s estimate of airport cancellation cost 3 times higher than government’s

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An architectural rendering of what was to be the Mexico City airport.
An architectural rendering of what was to be the Mexico City airport.

Canceling the new Mexico City international airport project at Texcoco, México state, will cost almost 332 billion pesos (US $16 billion), according to the Federal Auditor’s Office (ASF), an estimate more than three times higher than that of the federal government.

The previous government’s partially built airport was canceled by President López Obrador following a legally questionable public consultation in October 2018 that found almost 70% support for scrapping it in favor of converting the Santa Lucía Air Force base into a commercial airport and upgrading the existing airports in Mexico City and Toluca, México state.

According to the ASF’s estimate, canceling the Texcoco project will be slightly more expensive than building the facility, which had a projected price tag of $15 billion, although the current government says it would have cost more.

In a document submitted to the surveillance committee of the lower house of Congress, the ASF said it had determined that the total cost of canceling construction of the airport will be 331.99 billion pesos.

It noted that its estimated cancellation cost is higher than the 100-billion-peso estimate outlined by the Ministry of Communications and Transportation in a 2019 document.

President López Obrador
President López Obrador disputed the auditor’s findings Monday, claiming he has other information.

The ASF said the cost could be even higher than its projection due to higher than anticipated contract liquidation expenses and higher than expected costs related to legal action against the decision to scrap the project, which López Obrador long argued was corrupt, too expensive and being built on land that was sinking.

It explained that 49.3% of the estimated cancellation cost is comprised of non-recoverable investment expenses, advance settlement of contracts, expenses related to terminating the project’s financing scheme and anticipated legal costs.

The remaining 50.7% consists of liquidating airport bonds, settling contracts currently in the process of termination and paying costs related to current legal action against the cancellation decision.

López Obrador unsurprisingly rejected the ASF’s estimated cancellation cost at his news conference on Monday morning, claiming that the figure is “exaggerated.”

“I would like them to explain that piece of information, which is wrong – it’s exaggerated,” he said.

“… I have other information and it will be presented here. … Those from the Federal Auditor’s Office are providing wrong information for our adversaries and I believe that they shouldn’t lend themselves to these [disinformation] campaigns.”

Source: Infobae (sp) 

January homicides down 5.5% from 2020; femicides declined 10.6%

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Security Minister Rodríguez
Security Minister Rodríguez presents crime data at Friday morning's press conference.

Homicides decreased 5.5% in January compared to the same month of 2020 but increased 7.7% with respect to December, according to data presented by Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez on Friday.

There were 2,831 victims of homicide last month, 165 fewer than January last year but 204 more than December.

The figure for last month was 1.6% lower than the monthly average in 2020, which was the second most violent year on record after 2019.

Speaking at President López Obrador’s morning press conference, Rodríguez asserted that the government’s security strategy has been successful in containing homicide levels, although they remain very high.

Guanajuato retained its unenviable title of most violent state in the country with 335 homicide victims in January. Baja California ranked second with 284 victims followed by Jalisco, Michoacán, Chihuahua and México state.

Just under 50% of all homicides in Mexico last month occurred in those six states.

Almost 28% of the homicides were committed in 15 highly violent municipalities where the government is implementing localized security strategies and rolling out social programs to try to combat the violence.

Rodríguez highlighted that there were fewer homicides in 10 of them in January compared to the same month last year. They were Tijuana, Ciudad Juárez, Celaya, Culiacán, Guadalajara, Acapulco, Cancún, Irapuato, Iztapalapa and Salamanca.

However, homicides increased in Cajeme, León, Morelia, Chihuahua city and Tlaquepaque.

The security minister also presented data that showed that femicides – the killing of women and girls on account of their gender – declined 10.6% in January compared to the same month last year and 14.1% with respect to December. There were 67 victims of the hate crime last month.

Source: Reforma (sp) 

An 1800s mansion once for Mexico’s elites now endures time’s ravages

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The Muse, a statue by 19th-century French sculptor Antoine Durenne, still welcomes the rare intrepid visitor to the ruins of Jalisco’s Casa La Florida.
The Muse, a statue by 19th-century French sculptor Antoine Durenne, still welcomes the rare intrepid visitor to the ruins of Jalisco’s Casa La Florida.

Last year, members of the Guadalajara-based group Jalisco Desconocido located and explored the remains of the abandoned Hacienda de Ibarra, hidden deep inside a canyon at the north end of the city. More recently, the team was able to visit isolated and hard-to-reach La Florida, one of Mexico’s most elegant casonas (mansions) and one of the favorite haunts of president Porfirio Díaz.

La Florida, first known as Villa Aloha, is in the little town of Atequiza, Jalisco, just 10 kilometers north of Lake Chapala. It is said to have been constructed around 1876 by the powerful Cuesta-Gallardo family.

“For them,” said columnist “El Duque de Tlaquepaque” in the newspaper El Informador many years ago, “this was just a country house, but today we might catalog it as a sort of combination palace and pavilion. It served as a luxury rest stop where Porfirio Díaz and Carmelita and their elegant entourage could tarry for a few days before continuing their journey from the capital to the paradisiacal Lake of Chapala, which, at the end of the 1800s was très a la mode as the place to vacation during Semana Santa (Holy Week), thus inaugurating in Mexico (and of course it had to happen in Jalisco!) that phenomenon which today is known as TOURISM.”

The entrance to the two-story Casa La Florida was graced by a stunning statue popularly known as The Muse, cast by French sculptor Antoine Durenne, and all the walls were covered with beautiful murals. It is also said that the place was furnished with imported materials like Czechoslovakian stained glass, a French floor and Austrian crystal.

In 1896, La Florida was one of the few sites chosen by Lumière cinematographers Bon Bernard and Gabriel Veyre to film several of the first movies ever made in Mexico.

Luis Abarca preparing to photograph the ruins of La Florida.
Luis Abarca preparing to photograph the ruins of La Florida.

Jalisco Desconocido’s visit to La Florida is presented in a well-made video clip on YouTube. I recently caught up with the filmmaker, Luis Abarca, and asked him to tell me more about his latest adventure.

“I heard about this resplendent casa as a child,” Abarca said, “but only recently did I make an effort to visit it. The first thing I learned was that the place is situated on private land, so it looked like it would be impossible to go there, but I found out there’s an irrigation canal right next to the old building. Well, in Mexico all rivers, lakes and even canals are public property, so it was just a case of following the canal …”

Having arrived at Atequiza, Abarca’s group studied the layout of the area and soon discovered that the canal they sought was only some 500 meters from the Teatro (theater), another elegant building commissioned by the Cuesta-Gallardo family and now used as the local casa de cultura (municipal culture building). Jalisco Desconocido’s story, told by Abarca, follows:

“We started walking, and soon we found the canal, which was full of water. We could see there was a trail alongside it, but the trail was on the other side, so we divided ourselves into three groups to go look for some way to cross over. Finally we found a place where a tree had fallen across it. We could hardly see that log because it was hidden by lots of weeds! Well, the first guy to cross this “bridge” was really agile, and he just zipped over it like it was nothing. Then it was my turn. Bueno, I only took two steps, and I slipped because the bark covering that old log was rotting and coated with slimy fungus. The only way I could get across was by sitting and sliding along, like riding a horse,” Abarca said.

“So I got to the other side, but the next one to try was a lady who started walking and got halfway across. She panicked and almost fell off the log. ¡Híjole! There she was with her arms around the tree, hanging from it like a monkey, her feet dangling above the water! So I went back to rescue her,” he said. “Now, the water was ice cold, but it wasn’t deep, maybe one meter at the most. Still, there were all sorts of brush in and above the water, and if you fell, you would get tangled up in it. So I helped her get back on the log, and then we made it to the other side.”

The trail was between the canal and a chain-link fence that, the group had been told, had a hole in it at some point.

Men and oranges: colorized version of a photo taken at La Florida in 1908.
Men and oranges: colorized version of a photo taken at La Florida in 1908. Courtesy of INAH

“So we walked along, and sure enough we found a rusty, broken place where you could get through,” he said. “Next we came to a curious area. It was all flat and looked as if it had once been a lawn, but today the grass is really high. I’m 1.8 meters tall, and it was way over my head! So we couldn’t see a thing, and we started to come to trails going in different directions. All I could do was keep trying to head where my GPS said the old mansion had to be.”

The grass was growing so incredibly high because the Santiago River was nearby and its water had partially flooded the area. What this meant was that they were soon walking through a sort of swamp, up to their knees in mud.

“After about 10 minutes of this, we came to another fence, which we followed for a while until we came to another hole,” he said. “Once we got through that, there we were, in front of Casa La Florida, right at the main entrance. Here, you go up some stone stairs and you are on the porch that you see in all the old photos, the place where the statue of The Muse once stood, the place where you see Porfirio Díaz and personalities of the day posing. Back in those days, there was an orchard of orange trees in front of the house, and it was those orange blossoms that gave the villa its name: La Florida, the flowery place.”

According to Abarca, most abandoned haciendas have been stripped of everything that could possibly be carried away, but not La Florida.

“Here you can see doors and gates and learn about little things like the kinds of locks and keys they used. Everywhere on the walls, you can see the remains of what look like paintings originally made on cloth that had been fixed to the walls,” he said. “The second floor has no rooms, only a big terraza illuminated by oval windows. This house is among the best-preserved I’ve ever seen, and by far it is the most beautiful!”

Another visitor to La Florida who was smitten by her beauty was that flamboyant Informador columnist, who apparently got to see the place while it still retained some of its old splendor:

How the porch in the previous picture looks now.
How the porch in the previous picture looks now.

“Yes, el Presidente received the royal treatment in those sumptuous salons of La Florida, whose elegance, even after 100 years, remains unscathed and fills us with nostalgia for bygone days. The first time I entered the grand salon, I felt I had walked into Palazzo Gangi, where the immortal Luchino Visconti directed his most celebrated film, Il Gattopardo (The Leopard), where we were carried away by an ethereal waltz, along with the charisma of Burt Lancaster, the good looks of Alain Delon and the sensuality of Claudia Cardinale. Yes, it was that captivating and unforgettable scene that overpowered me as I stood within the aging walls of La Florida …”

Today, La Florida lies neglected and literally disintegrating, even though concerned citizens in the municipality of Ixtlahuácan de Membrillo have been battling for over five years to save this extraordinary house from the elements and the encroaching tendrils of nature.

But, says the newspaper Milenio, the old building is now the property of a company dedicated to making chemical solvents and explosives, whose owners apparently have not yet heard the sound of that ethereal waltz echoing from the walls of the venerable Casa La Florida.

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="136743"]

Mexico-US land border restrictions extended another month

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us mexico border

The land border between the United States and Mexico will remain closed to nonessential travel at least until March 21, which will be the one-year anniversary of the travel ban’s original declaration.

The crossing ban, which has been in place by mutual agreement between the two countries since March 21, 2020, was set to expire Sunday.

The 30-day renewal comes as the White House has been holding meetings about potentially tightening requirements for crossing into the U.S. from both its northern and southern borders, reported the Reuters news agency.

With the United States still recording a seven-day average of over 72,000 Covid-19 cases and Mexico officially recording over 9,000, it is no surprise that the ban was extended.

According to U.S. officials, individuals with reasons deemed essential will still be allowed to cross. This includes people with medical, educational, employment and business reasons, people returning home as U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents, members of the armed forces and government workers on official business.

Travelers who fly between Mexico and the U.S. are not subject to the ban, although rules declared by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in January now require airline passengers planning to enter the U.S. to present negative Covid-19 test results before they are allowed to board their flight.

Sources: Univision (sp), Reuters (en)

Official count is 2 million coronavirus cases but university says it’s at least 17 million

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Seniors line up for vaccination in Mexico City.
Seniors line up for vaccination in Mexico City.

Mexico’s real coronavirus case tally is at least nine times higher than the total officially reported and could be up to 26 times higher, according to National Autonomous University (UNAM) estimates.

The official accumulated case tally rose to 2.02 million on Thursday but according to estimates on the UNAM Covid-19 Geographic Information Platform, there have been a minimum of 17.81 million cases since the virus was first detected here almost a year ago and a maximum of 53.43 million.

The minimum estimate assumes a fatality rate of 1% and that the official Covid-19 death toll – 178,108 as of Thursday – includes all fatalities from the infectious disease.

The maximum estimate assumes a fatality rate of 0.5% and that there have really been 1.5 Covid-19 deaths for every one officially registered.

Mexico’s case tally is widely considered a significant undercount because of the low Covid-19 testing rate. The health system has focused on testing people with serious symptoms of the disease, meaning that the vast majority of mild and asymptomatic cases don’t show up in official statistics.

The Health Ministry acknowledges that many cases go undetected and said early in the pandemic that its epidemiological surveillance system suggested that there were about eight undetected cases for each reported one.

However, for several months its case number estimates have been only slightly higher than the official tally. The Health Ministry currently estimates that there have been just under 2.22 million cases since the start of the pandemic, a figure only 1.1 times, or 10%, higher than the official tally.

Malaquías López, a public health professor at UNAM and spokesperson for the university’s Covid-19 commission, said the ministry’s estimated case numbers don’t square with a serological testing survey conducted between August and November last year that found that about a quarter of the population had developed antibodies against the coronavirus as a result of having it.

The National Institute of Public Health estimated that about 31 million Mexicans had been infected with the virus, a number that could have risen significantly given that December and January were the two worst months of the pandemic.

UNAM’s active case estimates are also much higher than those of the Health Ministry. The university estimates that there are currently a minimum of 455,577 active cases and a maximum of 1.36 million.

According to the Health Ministry, there are just 56,981 active cases, a figure that has decreased significantly this month after rising above 110,000 in late January.

UNAM’s figures suggest that the coronavirus is still running rampant, although health authorities contend that the situation has improved considerably compared to January, and declining hospital occupancy levels back up that claim.

But while the average number of cases reported daily in the first 18 days of February declined 38% compared to the average in January, average daily Covid-19 deaths increased 3% to 1,087, evidence that Mexico is still paying a heavy price for the Christmas-New Year’s gatherings and parties that fueled the pandemic.

Meanwhile, Mexico’s vaccination efforts are gathering speed after shipments of AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines arrived early this week. As of Thursday night, almost 1.32 million vaccine doses had been administered, mainly to health workers and seniors.

Mexico News Daily 

Another multiple homicide leaves 5 dead in Guadalajara

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police line

A multiple homicide on Thursday in Guadalajara’s metropolitan area (ZMG), the third in just over a week, has left five people dead.

The murders, which took place in a home in San Pedro Tlaquepaque, were discovered by municipal police after a 911 call around 5:50 p.m. reported gunshots being fired.

The incident follows on the heels of another multiple homicide in Guadalajara early Wednesday morning, where three men and a woman were shot and killed in a park in the Lomas de Polanco neighborhood.

At the site in Tlaquepaque, officers found bodies both inside and outside the home.

Police also found a man and a woman outside who were still alive but seriously injured. They both died hours later at a nearby hospital.

The incident is the second multiple homicide in the Magical Town in the last eight days.

On February 10, five people were killed and one seriously injured when unknown assailants entered a makeshift building that police said was known as a site of criminal activity and shot at the six people inside.

According to official numbers, murders in the ZMG declined 12% in 2020, but the statistics don’t include victims found in hidden graves, giving a limited picture of the security situation in the area.

Jorge Tejada, a security expert at the city’s ITESO university, told the newspaper El Universal last week that those statistics should be included.

“… These discoveries should be counted as homicides,” he said.

During 2019 and 2020, 406 bodies were found in hidden graves in the ZMG, according to state government data.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Ya chole! Mexicans go nuts with the phrase after president uses it to silence criticism

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Deputy Tagle
Deputy Tagle declares, 'Enough violence.'

President López Obrador is facing severe backlash after using a colloquial phrase to silence criticism of his defense of a ruling party candidate for governor who is accused of rape.

The president has defended former senator Félix Salgado Macedonio’s right to contest the June 6 election for governor of Guerrero even though he is under investigation for allegedly raping a teenage girl in 1998 and a woman in 2016, claiming that the accusations are politically motivated and a product of the electoral season.

Clearly annoyed with being asked about his support for Salgado at his press conference on Thursday – and already facing widespread criticism for not dumping the candidate – López Obrador used the phrase ¡Ya chole!, or enough already!, to try to shut down the line of questioning.

“I’m not trying to downplay the importance of the [sexual assault] complaint [but] you always have to ask who’s making it? … What’s behind it? … I exist because I doubt. So, enough [questions about the issue], as some people say, ya chole!” he said.

His remark triggered a flood of condemnation, with thousands of Mexicans, including numerous politicians, taking to social media to make it clear to the president that there are things they are fed up with too.

lopez obrador
Irritated by questions, the president declares, ‘Ya chole.’

Male chauvinism, the patriarchy, violence, kidnappings, medicine shortages, impunity, the ruling Morena party, the defense of criminals, the president’s morning press conferences, the federal government and López Obrador himself, among many other things, all got the ya chole treatment online.

“#YaChole with 10 femicides a day, #YaChole with six of 10 women suffering violence, #YaChole with impunity, #YaChole with the misogyny from the National Palace,” Xóchitl Gálvez, a National Action Party (PAN) senator, wrote on Facebook.

Ya Chole of macho accomplices of rapists, ya chole of violence towards women, ya chole of impunity, ya chole of incompetent authorities that don’t put a stop to femicides,” Martha Tagle, a deputy with the Citizens Movement party, said on Twitter.

Ricardo Anaya, a former PAN lawmaker and candidate in the 2018 presidential election, also took to Twitter to offer a ya chole to the president’s use of the term.

Ya chole with Salgado Macedonio? That’s the president’s message to victims? That’s precisely the root of the problem: those who, like AMLO, minimize [the actions of] and cover up for abusers instead of listening to and supporting victims, investigating thoroughly and acting firmly,” said Anaya, who appears to be positioning himself for another run at the presidency in 2024.

Some social media users, including Democratic Revolution Party Deputy Verónica Juárez, used the hashtag #NingúnVioladorSeráGobernador (No Rapist Will be Governor) in conjunction with #YaChole to denounce Salgado and the president’s support of him.

Senator Gina Andrea Cruz
Senator Gina Andrea Cruz is fed up with the lack of medications.

Women who protested against Salgado’s candidacy in Chilapancingo, the capital of Guerrero, on Thursday also pledged that they will not allow an (alleged) rapist to become the governor of their state.

The phrase ya chole has been part of colloquial Mexican Spanish for years but its usage increased after it was used by the previous federal government in a television commercial that defended its 2013-2014 structural reforms.

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

20 deaths blamed on cold weather in north as another front moves in

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snow
Snow has been falling in the north and more is expected.

The official death toll from the cold snap in northern Mexico has risen to 20 after two states reported six more deaths.

Most of the fatalities occurred in Tamaulipas and were either from exposure or from carbon monoxide poisoning caused by heaters. One death was reported in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, where a man died on the street from exposure.

Low temperatures accompanying cold front No. 35 prompted the state of Chihuahua on Thursday and Friday to begin distributing 13 tonnes of basic foodstuffs as well as cash payments to families, senior citizens and people with disabilities in various cities and towns.

According to the state’s Ministry of Social Development, Governor Javier Corral instructed the department to empty completely all its stores of provisions to help those in need.

“… It won’t be easy, but everything we have, we’re going to use immediately,” the ministry’s Ramón Galindo Noriega told the newspaper Milenio.

According to the national weather service, there’s more cold weather on the way.

Cold front No. 36 and Mexico’s 10th winter storm are delivering a new polar air mass that will result in snow or sleet in areas of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León and Sonora.

Temperatures will drop to lows of -10 to -15 C in parts of Coahuila, while areas of Chihuahua, Durango, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas will see lows of -5 to -10 C.

The front currently extends into the Valley of México, where higher altitudes in México state will see temperatures drop to -5 to -10 C. In Mexico City, forecast lows are 0 to -5 C.

The front is forecast to move over the west and southeast of the country and gradually move into the west side of the Yucatán Peninsula.

Sources: El Universal (sp), Milenio (sp)