They eased restrictions for an annual fiesta and 400 people were infected

By

-

February 11, 2021

The dance that was held during the King's Day fiesta in the Oaxaca municipality of Santiago Choápam.

A town in the Papaloapan region of Oaxaca has found out the hard way what can happen when restrictions are eased too soon amid a deadly pandemic: more than 400 people became infected with Covid-19 and at least 14 died after a large fiesta was held to celebrate Three Kings Day.

San Juan del Río, a town in the municipality of Santiago Choápam, went ahead with its annual fiesta in honor of the baby Jesus and the three wise men on January 5 even though Oaxaca was high risk orange on the coronavirus stoplight map and a statewide ban on large events and gatherings was in place.

About 200 people attended the event, according to local media, and the majority didn’t wear face masks or respect social distancing recommendations. Livened up by a band called Costa Brava de Veracruz, the fiesta ran late into the night as townsfolk let their hair down, danced in close proximity to each other and generally behaved as if they were living in a pre-pandemic world.

Not long after, some of those who attended the event began developing symptoms of Covid-19 and over the following days and weeks, the coronavirus spread virtually unchecked through San Juan, eventually infecting about one-third of the town’s 1,200 residents.

The situation had become so serious by January 28 that Santiago Choápam Mayor Evergisto Gamboa wrote to President López Obrador, Oaxaca Governor Alejandro Murat and federal and state health officials to ask for help and an “immediate intervention” to stop the spread of the virus.

San Juan del Río is a ghost town as residents isolate to avoid further contagion.

The mayor asked for Covid-19 vaccines, oxygen tanks, face masks and other personal protective equipment, disinfectants and provisions to be sent to San Juan. He called for medical personnel to be dispatched because various local health workers were among the sick.

Gamboa also issued a threat, saying that if there wasn’t an immediate response to his requests, all of the town residents sick with Covid would be transported to the center of Oaxaca city to die in “abandonment.”

Shortly after, the Oaxaca Health Ministry sent three brigades of health workers to the town as well as some of the items the mayor had requested. Health authorities in the municipality of Tuxtepec also sent supplies, including face masks, medical gowns and two gallons of hand sanitizer.

Now, almost two weeks after the mayor issued his plea for help, San Juan has the appearance of a virtual ghost town as the vast majority of residents remain in isolation at home, either still recovering from their illness or making sure they stay virus-free.

In addition to the 14 people, mainly seniors, who lost their lives to Covid-19, there are 14 coronavirus patients currently hospitalized, the newspaper El Universal reported.

“In a moment of carelessness, tragedy came” to San Juan, a local farmer identified only as Jaime told El Universal. “Now who knows how things will end up. … [The spread of the virus] was ferocious, it stopped for a while but then started up again.”

[wpgmza id=”289″]

Jaime said that people’s lives, and the life of San Juan, have come to a virtual standstill, explaining that only a few campesinos are currently leaving their homes to work in the fields.

“Now you don’t see any people in the town – it’s closed, the stores are closed. They don’t want anyone to walk around without a face mask because that complicates things,” he said.

Jaime said he lost family members to the recent outbreak of the coronavirus, including his aunt just a week ago. Most of the 14 people who died from Covid-19 in San Juan were elderly, he said.

They didn’t attend the January 5 fiesta but nevertheless became victims of it because their family members inadvertently exposed them to the virus.

Jaime acknowledged that the state government sent medicines and other supplies to the town but they were insufficient for the number of people who fell ill.

“There are people who are still sick,” he added. “Hopefully they save them because when one person dies someone else does too.”

Source: El Universal (sp), Sin Embargo (sp)

In the remote farmlands of Morelos, wildlife can take you by surprise

By

Joseph Sorrentino

-

February 10, 2021

0

Needles are not the only danger cactus farmers in Morelos face. Photos by Joseph Sorrentino

I was staying at Zenaida and Efraín’s home in San Agustín, a small pueblo somewhere in Morelos. I’d shown up a couple of days earlier, unannounced, with Emilio, who was organizing a meeting there.

I was working on a project to document the lives of campesinos in a few states, and Emilio agreed to introduce me to people in the pueblo. When he announced that I needed a place to stay, Zenaida and Efraín kindly offered to let me stay in their home.

The couple grew and harvested nopal, an edible cactus. Like all campesinos I’ve met, they were very poor but very generous. My living situation was pretty basic: I slept on a beat-up old sofa in a tiny room attached to their home.

The kitchen, like almost all kitchens in el campo, was set apart from the home and had a dirt floor. The bathroom, such as it was, was a hundred or so feet from the house. The toilet was just a couple of cinder blocks stacked over a hole in the ground, surrounded by a low wall.

The shower was to the left of it, a couple of feet away, and it was just a short stall also constructed from cinder blocks. A torn old curtain hung over its entrance. To shower, you hauled in really cold water from the well and poured it over yourself when you wanted — or needed — to get clean.

Zenaida and Efrain's kitchen in San Augustín, Morelos. — Zenaida and Efraín’s kitchen in San Agustín, Morelos.

I spent a day in the field with them, photographing as they harvested. It’s difficult work, and they wore heavy gloves to protect their hands from the cactus’s needles. Although it was December, it was hot and the sun felt very strong. This didn’t seem to faze them, but after a few hours I began to feel a headache coming on.

I sat in the shade of the truck, but the headache worsened. By that evening, it was so painful that it hurt to simply touch my forehead. All I could do was lie down and hope the pain would go away. Efraín bought some aspirin for me, and I guess they worked — I went to bed early and, happily, when I awoke the next day, the headache was gone.

It was probably my third night there when I got the urge in the early morning to use the toilet. The yard was partially illuminated with a couple of bare lightbulbs. I really couldn’t see much, just enough so that I didn’t bump into anything.

I slowly picked my way across the yard to the toilet. When I was just a couple of feet from it, an animal came bursting out of the shower stall, bolting between me and the toilet. I don’t think it touched me as it passed, but it came awfully close; there wasn’t a whole lot of room between me and that toilet.

I stood there and remember thinking, “That was weird. I wonder what the hell that was?”

All I thought at the time was that it moved like a cat but that it was way larger. Oddly, I didn’t feel afraid. Had this happened back in the States, I’m sure I would’ve run back to bed, pulled the covers over my head and waited until daylight. But hey, I was in Mexico, and I figured this sort of thing happened all the time.

Not knowing what else to do, I used the toilet and went back to bed. I didn’t say anything to Zenaida or Efraín because I thought they’d just laugh at me.

I spent a few more days there and then headed back to Mexico City, where I met a friend for a beer. I was telling her about all the times I’d almost been killed or injured on projects; there have been several.

When I told her this story, I asked her what she thought the animal might have been. She paused a moment.

“Where did this happen?” she asked.

“Morelos,” I replied.

“Morelos?”

“Yes, Morelos.”

She paused another moment then said, “Puma … it was a puma.”

Fortunately for me, either the puma wasn’t hungry or was more afraid of me than I was of it. I actually didn’t feel afraid when it happened back in San Agustín; surprised, but not afraid. That changed when I learned what that animal was.

I had to deal with the knot in my stomach for a couple of days.

Joseph Sorrentino, a writer and photographer, is a regular contributor to Mexico News Daily. More examples of his photographs and links to other articles may be found at www.sorrentinophotography.com He currently lives in Chipilo, Puebla.

Art installation made of 10,000 cigarette lighters pays tribute to those who quit

By

MND Staff

-

February 10, 2021

0

An art installation made of more than 10,000 cigarette lighters has been set up in Mexico City to pay tribute to people who have quit smoking and to encourage others to do the same.

Installed outside the Soumaya Museum in the capital’s Polanco district, the piece is the creation of Alfredo Blásquez, an artist and photographer who collaborated with tobacco company Phillip Morris México on the project.

On the installation’s base, beneath the colorful wall of lighters, appears the phrase #EligeElCambio, or Choose the Change, a slogan that is part of a Phillip Morris marketing campaign to encourage more people to give up cigarettes and instead use heated tobacco products, which are supposedly less harmful to human health.

Blásquez said the goal of Phillip Morris, which markets an e-cigarette product called IQOS, is to “achieve a future without smoke and reduce the number of smokers of traditional cigarettes.”

“This is the inspiration of the work,” he said, adding that people who give up smoking in its more traditional sense will no longer use cigarette lighters and plastic waste will decline as a result.

Over 10,000 lighters were used to create art installation.

“The artwork celebrates the decision of those people who chose the change and gave up cigarettes. … The installation urges us to rethink our consumption habits and [think about] caring for nature,” said Blásquez, who frequently works on projects that aim to raise awareness about environmental issues, especially the harm caused by plastic waste.

A shift in Mexico toward the use of e-cigarettes and vaporizers is believed to be one factor behind a slump in cigarette sales of almost 25% last year.

However, the coronavirus pandemic was likely the main reason why fewer cigarettes were sold in 2020. Some people apparently stopped smoking altogether or cut back due to concerns about how they, as smokers, would be affected if they contracted the virus.

Others may have reduced their tobacco intake because they had less disposable income last year as a result of the economic restrictions and/or the virus-induced downturn.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Jalisco mayor under fire over sexual harassment case

By

Michelle Aguilar

-

February 10, 2021

0

mayor of tototlan — 'Beautiful people like us are exposed to this sort of thing,' mayor said to harassment victim.

A government employee whose accusation of sexual harassment against a fellow worker was ignored has won the support of Jalisco Governor Enrique Alfaro, who called her “brave” and said he would personally follow up on the case “until the final consequences.”

Alfaro said the sexual harassment suffered by the woman — who was only identified as “Diana” — would not go unpunished. He has ordered state officials to provide the woman with legal aid and psychological counseling, he said.

“Neither Diana nor any other victim of these two attackers are alone,” he said on his Facebook account Tuesday.

The woman, a municipal employee in Tototlán, had filed a sexual harassment complaint against director of licensing Efraín Martínez. But after she filed the complaint, Diana said, Mayor Sergio Quezada also sexually harassed her in a meeting attended by all three where he tried to convince her to withdraw her accusation.

An audio recording of that meeting appears to back up her claims.

In the recording, Quezada said, “If he had raped you, or if it had been something more delicate … then, sure. But this situation doesn’t seem to me that complicated.”

He also made suggestive comments about Diana’s appearance and said, “This little dress you’re wearing makes you look pretty” and “how your husband must enjoy you.”

At one point, he also talked about how both he and Diana were sexually attractive people and that they both suffered from attracting attention from the opposite gender.

“Beautiful people like us are exposed to this sort of thing,” he said.

Alfaro said on his Facebook account Tuesday that an apology from the accused “is not enough.”

“An exemplary punishment is needed,” he said. “[Quezada and Martínez] don’t deserve to be public servants; they don’t have any business being there anymore. This is not a game; it’s a crime, and they have to pay.”

Alfaro also said that a task force was being established to address the issue that would include members of the Jalisco state Congress, his administration, and the state’s political parties. He also said that the Minister of Gender Equality would instruct Jalisco’s 125 municipalities to begin training to identify, prevent, and eradicate gender violence against women.

Sources: Proceso (sp)

Want to speak like a native? Learn the language of Mexico’s hand gestures

By

Leigh Thelmadatter

-

February 10, 2021

0

mexican hand gestures — Like every culture, Mexico assigns unique meanings to gestures. From top left to bottom right, the signs for “stingy”, “no”, “yes” and “money.”

Shortly after arriving in Mexico, I was confronted by a hand gesture at work that took me aback.

A person passed in front of me, and I let him by. The response was the raising of the palm to chest level with the back of the hand facing out.

I knew of a similar gesture, but I had not done anything that would justify something so rude. Using context and a memory of the theater, I assumed that the signaler meant “thank you,” which I confirmed with the Mexican sitting next to me.

It should not be surprising that Mexican hand gestures can differ, and there are sources on the internet that talk about some of the most common. Aside from the one meaning “thank you,” they include those for:

“Check please” – done by raising the hand and making a motion like writing something
“Cheap/stingy” – tapping a bent elbow with the palm, which refers to the idea of wearing a sweater or jacket even though the elbows have been worn out.
“Yes” – (can mean “exactly right”) – index finger up then bent slightly several times.
“No” – index finger up and wagged side-to-side (This one does not have the accusatory meaning it can have in other cultures; it is neutral.)
“Money” (sometimes “expensive”) – index finger and thumb curled up to a “u” shape, sometimes the hand goes up and down slightly.

To indicate drinking, especially alcohol.

But there are others you will likely see over time such as:

“Drink,” (especially alcoholic) – thumb and pinkie extended with thumb approaching the mouth.
“Far away” – waving the hand outward, usually at forehead level

Mexicans have several gestures involving bringing the tips of the fingers of one hand together, similar to a well-known one in Italy and New York. If the fingertips approach the mouth, the meaning is “food.” If the fingertips separate and come back together in succession, the meaning is “coward” or “fear.”

If one or both hands are making the gesture, moving up and down, the meaning is “a lot” or “crowded.”

The existence of Mexican gestures does not mean that there are no similarities. As a Western country with influence from television and movies, many gestures used in other countries, especially in the U.S., are used here or are at least known. These include but are not limited to:

The famous U.S. gesture for “OK;”
the V(ictory) sign;
slapping the palm against the forehead;
thumbs up and thumbs down;
one palm outward (both meanings, “stop” and “talk to the hand”);
curling the index finger (“come here”);
fingers crossed, but only the version in front of the person. The version where the fingers are crossed behind the back (false promise or statement) is known from the movies but not used in Mexico;
“knock wood,” but this is done with the fingertips in Mexico, not the knuckles, although the knuckle version is understood;
pointing using the index finger is common in Mexico, and the rules determining this gesture might seem to be similar as well.

The gesture for asking a waiter for the bill.

Some gestures can have a different meaning in Mexico:

Slapping the palms together as one hand rises and the other falls means “Let’s go” rather than “it’s finished” as it does in the States. (If this motion is followed by both palms moving outwards, then it has the “finished” meaning.)
Rubbing the thumb against the index and middle fingers can be used to urge someone to get going, rather than indicating money. Tapping the wrist with the index finger is used to ask for the time, not to pressure someone.
Holding up an index finger simply means the number one. It does not mean “wait a minute.” To indicate “wait,” Mexicans bring the tips of the thumb and index finger together with the other fingers curled — the gesture which means “a little bit” in some other countries.

Of course, we foreigners have gestures that are not recognized here at all. These include:

The tip of the index finger to the tip of the nose with the meaning of “exactly;”
the British gesture of tapping the nose three times to mean “don’t be nosey;”
the index finger twirled into the cheek to mean “cute” or “innocent;”
For more than a few U.K. folks, the “two fingers” sign is well-noted as lacking offensive meaning in Mexico. But many British expats admit to using it here anyway, especially when driving.

And speaking of the bad gestures … When I started this article, my Mexican husband immediately offered his expertise on these, of course. However, we will try to keep this B-/PG-/12A-rated.

The two most common offensive gestures are the middle finger (like the U.S.) along with one that means a**hole (the “OK” sign with a smaller circle and all fingers curved).
One hand cupped, usually held low, means that someone is very lazy (from the idea of testicles).
One that used to be very offensive but has lost much of its sting is the “put on horns.” It used to mean güey, a man who was unable to keep his woman from cheating on him, but today it simply means that someone is trying to fool or trick someone else or that someone is not being smart. This one seems to be falling out of use.
Still offensive is to extend the pinkie in the direction of a man, indicating something about size.
There are at least two that indicate that a man is gay, but I won’t describe any of them here.

“Putting on horns” is an old insult less used these days.

I will end with one that is not exactly a hand gesture. If you watch old Mexican movies from the 1950s or so, the “shave and a haircut knock” has the same meaning as it does elsewhere now. However, somebody in Mexico got the idea that its cadence is just like a really offensive expression, and that ended all pretense to innocence.

Today, it is more a sound than a hand motion, with variations worked out for car horns and whistling. Not recommended for imitation, though I admit using this knock occasionally to playfully annoy my husband and brother-in-law.

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.

Pre-Hispanic artifacts that Mexico says were looted auctioned in Paris

By

MND Staff

-

February 10, 2021

0

This mask, which Mexican authorities said is a fake, went for over half a million dollars.

Christie’s auction house sold 36 of 39 Mesoamerican and Andean archaeological artifacts that went on the block in Paris on Tuesday, including 30 Mexican pieces.

The auction went ahead despite the objections of the federal government, which argued that among the items in the “Quetzalcóatl, The Feathered Serpent” collection were pieces that were looted in Mexico.

The 36 cleared items sold for just under 2.54 million euros (US $3.1 million). An 87-centimeter figure of fertility goddess Cihuatéotl, which originated in El Zapotal, Veracruz, yielded the highest price, selling for 500,000 euros (US $606,000).

A Teotihuacán serpentine mask sold for 437,500 euros while a Mayan vase and an Aztec stone figure of a nobleman went for 137,500 euros and 122,500 euros, respectively.

María Villarreal, an official with the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), said in an interview that some of the items came from “clandestine excavations,” adding that INAH doesn’t know when they left the country and whose hands they were in.

A statue of the fertility goddess Cihuatéotl fetched the equivalent of US $605,000.

However, INAH says that three of the items sold – including the Teotihuacán mask – are fakes. Director Diego Prieto described the mask as “contemporary,” saying it was probably made a few decades ago by a master craftsman.

The INAH chief said that Mexico wouldn’t bother filing a formal complaint about its sale because it’s not a true pre-Hispanic artifact.

The other lots INAH says are fakes are a Xochipala mask, purportedly from Guerrero, which sold for 60,000 euros, and a frog carved out of stone, which went for 40,000 euros.

Culture Minister Alejandra Frausto expressed dismay over the sale.

“It makes me angry to see that they sold the pieces, they even sold the fakes,” she told a virtual press conference, adding that the government will continue to work to establish better “international tools” to aid the recovery of artifacts illegally extracted from Mexico.

Frausto noted, however, that Mexico has managed to recover more than 3,500 archaeological artifacts since the current government took office in late 2018. The recovered items could be displayed in a new exhibition, she said.

Mexico has tried to stop several auctions of pre-Hispanic artifacts in Paris but failed. The items it has managed to get back were returned from countries including Italy, Germany and the United States.

Source: Reforma (sp), Infobae (sp)

Ex-governor of Puebla ordered held in custody to face torture charges

By

Michelle Aguilar

-

February 10, 2021

0

Cacho and Marín: 14-year-old case advances.

A Cancún federal judge has ordered Puebla ex-governor Mario Marín Torres held without bail while he awaits a plea hearing in the kidnapping and torture of investigative journalist Lydia Cacho 14 years ago.

At his arraignment on February 4, Marín’s lawyers requested that his constitutional right of up to 144 hours to prepare a plea be doubled and that he be allowed to spend that time under house arrest instead of in jail. The request was denied.

Marín was detained in Acapulco on February 3 and taken to Cancún after a federal court issued a warrant for his arrest last year.

Marín allegedly had Puebla state police arrest Cacho in Cancún in December 2005 on defamation charges in retaliation for her book The Demons of Eden, which exposed a child pornography ring whose leader, Jean Succar Kuri, is now serving a 112-year sentence.

While she was driven 20 hours by the officers to Puebla to face charges, Cacho says she was continually threatened with rape, had a gun forced into her mouth and listened to the officers debating drowning her in the Gulf of Mexico’s Campeche Bay.

Cacho was later released from police custody on bail, and the defamation charges against her were eventually dropped.

The journalist’s book also talked about parties in which children were sexually abused, which she said were hosted by another businessman, Kamel Nacif, who later was connected to Marín and to Cacho’s kidnapping when a recorded telephone call between him and Marín surfaced.

Nacif — who remains a fugitive in Lebanon — congratulated Marín for having arrested Cacho, and told him he would send him cognac in appreciation and continually referred to Marín in the call as “my precious governor.”

The press freedom organization Article 19 celebrated the ruling to keep Marín in custody until his trial but also said in a released statement that more work had to be done to bring Cacho’s attackers to account.

“Justice will not be complete until the ex-governor is convicted and along with him, all those who planned [this crime] that remain fugitives,” the statement said, referring to Kacif as well as a former Puebla senior police official, Hugo Adolfo Karam Beltram, who is alleged to have been involved in Cacho’s arrest.

The organization also called for restitution to be paid to Cacho and her family, echoing a rebuke by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2018, which said that Cacho should be paid reparation.

Marín will be keeping some familiar company in the Cancún prison where he awaits his trial: Succar is serving his sentence there, and former Puebla police commander Alejandro Rocha Laureano, who was arrested in 2018, awaits trial there on torture charges in the case.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Shipments of Pfizer, AstraZeneca confirmed; CanSino vaccine gets approval

By

MND Staff

-

February 10, 2021

0

astra-zeneca — A shipment of AstraZeneca vaccine is to arrive from India.

Mexico is set to receive about 1.5 million Covid-19 vaccines early next week, which will allow the commencement of the second stage of the national vaccination plan – the inoculation of seniors.

President López Obrador said Wednesday that he had received news from Mexico’s ambassador to India that about 1 million doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford University vaccine will arrive from that country early Sunday.

“I’m going to give some good news that will hopefully become reality, because it always depends on circumstances and there are unexpected events, but this morning our ambassador in India informed us that a consignment of vaccines to Mexico has been authorized,” he said.

“They could arrive in the early morning of Sunday, about 1 million doses, this is very good news. It’s the AstraZeneca vaccine that’s going to arrive, a first shipment …” López Obrador said, adding that the application of the shots will begin immediately.

The president said that the AstraZeneca vaccines, which Spain and Belgium have chosen not to administer to people aged over 55, will be used to inoculate seniors and teachers.

The Querétaro plant where the CanSino vaccine will be prepared for distribution in Mexico.

He first announced in late January that the government intended to import a shipment of the AstraZeneca vaccine from India in addition to the to the 77.4 million doses it has already agreed to buy.

The announcement came after Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard published a letter to López Obrador from Pfizer that confirmed that 491,400 doses of its Covid-19 vaccine would arrive next Monday and that additional shipments would be delivered in subsequent weeks.

Mexico has an agreement to purchase 34.4 million doses of the Pfizer shot but to date has only received 766,350, 95% of which have been administered, mainly to frontline health workers.

Mexico has also struck deals to purchase 24 million doses of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine and 35 million doses of China’s CanSino Biologics shot but none has yet arrived.

The health regulator Cofepris granted emergency use authorization to the Sputnik V vaccine last week, while Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Martha Delgado said in an interview Wednesday that the CanSino shot was approved on Tuesday.

Ebrard said last week that the single-shot vaccine had been successfully administered to 14,425 volunteers in Mexico since last October. Mexico’s doses will be packaged at a pharmaceutical plant in Querétaro.

Meanwhile, Mexico’s accumulated case tally rose to almost 1.95 million on Tuesday with 10,738 new cases reported while the official Covid-19 death toll increased by 1,701 to 168,432.

A daily average of 9,165 new cases were reported in the first nine days of February, a 35% reduction compared to January. However, the daily average death toll is up 4% this month to 1,100. The number of fatalities reported Tuesday was the fourth highest daily total of the entire pandemic.

The national hospital occupancy rate for general care beds is 49%, according to Health Ministry data, while the rate is above 70% in three states: Mexico City (79%), Morelos (78%) and México state (74%).

Source: Milenio (sp), El Economista (sp), El Universal (sp), Expansión Politica (sp)

As Biden and AMLO reexamine immigration policy, balance is key

By

Sarah DeVries

-

February 10, 2021

0

A makeshift migrant camp in Matamoros by the US border.

“What do you mean you can’t move to the United States with your family? You’re from there!” exclaimed my South African friend in bewilderment.

“That just makes no sense, that you can’t just decide to live in your country with your spouse and children,” he continued. “What is wrong with the U.S., Sarah?”

Now that’s a loaded question if I ever heard one.

We had the conversation a few years ago, before the pandemic, when the thing that was most keeping me up at night was the separation of asylum-seeking families upon entering the U.S. and the infamous “kids in cages” privatized camps. (For the record, I also find “adults in cages” to be horrifying.)

But I didn’t need those stories to know that immigration was a mess. Back when I was married, I’d had the dream of returning to Texas to be close to my family, and especially to help care for my now-deceased mother. In the end, the will to make the move wasn’t there as I learned that you can’t drag your partner to another country if they don’t actually want to go. But I did learn quite a bit about the United States’ astronomy-level complicated immigration system, as well as the difficulty of “just doing things the ‘right’ way,” as my conservative compatriots often offer up with exasperation as a solution (I’d add here that entering the U.S. seeking asylum is perfectly legal; it is “doing things the right way”).

The implication is, of course, that “the right way” is as simple and straightforward as coming to live in, say, Mexico as a U.S. or Canadian citizen, which it most certainly is not.

The months-long (if you’re extremely lucky) to years-long (if you are of average luck) immigration process is surely a test of any relationship. And that’s if you’re married and simply want to live in your own country with your spouse. Imagine if you have little to no connection to the country.

For those of you who are thinking to yourselves right now, “Well, no one should get to live in a country just because they want to,” I invite you to think of the number of places around the world, including Mexico, that are available for most North Americans and expats to simply decide to settle with relatively straightforward immigration processes and without being treated like invaders in the meantime.

But I know. I know simply allowing our borders to be mostly porous is neither practical nor good policy when most of the human movement is primarily going in one direction. I think most people, including me, can understand the overwhelmed feeling as more and more desperate people show up, especially when the system we have for much lower numbers is already completely insufficient. Even for those among us who would sincerely like to help everyone, we recognize that this is simply not possible.

We want to be welcoming, but we also need to set limits. And this goes for both Mexico and the United States. How shall we accommodate the catch-22 of wanting to be fair and humane while not making that fairness and humanity seem like an open invitation for even more people to come?

I do disagree with the assumption that we simply can’t accommodate them. The truth is that immigrants to the U.S. — even ones who haven’t done everything “the right way,” tend to give much more than they take.

For now, it’s U.S. President Biden (and to a lesser extent, President López Obrador) in the hot seat, especially after Mexico passed a law to prohibit the detention of immigrant families and children in some major crossing areas along the Mexico-Texas border. This was the right thing to do on Mexico’s part, and I applaud them for it.

Of course, it puts the U.S. in a bit of a tight spot. Say what you will about Trump (and as my more faithful readers know, I do indeed have a lot to say about him), but he certainly made the U.S. seem like an apocalyptically unwelcoming place. Now that a tentative welcome mat has been set out again, it’s anyone’s guess how they’re going to handle things.

Immigration has always been a very tough issue, and the coronavirus has now made it feel even more impossible to deal with. Meanwhile, the United States Department of Homeland Security seems to be finding it very convenient. After all, it’s much easier to say “don’t come in because we need to protect everyone from the coronavirus” than “don’t come in because we don’t want you and are just too exasperated by people continuously knocking on the door.”

In the meantime, northern cities in Mexico have been the ones directly dealing with the consequences of U.S. policy; they’ve essentially become the United States’ “waiting room.” Individuals and families in Matamoros, for example, are sleeping under bridges and filling shelters in large numbers as they wait. And a report this past week revealed that many migrants are not having a fantastic time in Mexico either.

There are a lot of desperate people. And much like with the pandemic, it’s not anyone’s fault, even though it makes absolutely everybody grouchy. But there are certainly good ways and bad ways to handle this.

Mexico and the United States have a shared interest in the stability and happiness of those who live south of them. Surely, we can think of ways to support these countries in a way that ensures that help arrives to its people and not simply into the hands of those in power. Without being imperialistic about it, how can we help people in those countries feel that they have a chance of freedom and happiness if they stay put? No one is showing up with their families just because they saw a few episodes of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and wanted to meet Will Smith.

No matter what we do to help people in those countries, both Mexico and the U.S. are going to have to deal with great numbers of migrants and refugees for the foreseeable future. I hope we can figure out a way to keep our shared humanity at the forefront of our minds as we move forward.

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

AMLO inaugurates new air force base, the first stage of Santa Lucía airport project

By

MND Staff

-

February 10, 2021

0

A military passenger terminal is part of the new air force base at Santa Lucía.

A Mexican Air Force plane carrying President López Obrador and other officials touched down at the new Mexico City airport site on Wednesday morning as part of the proceedings to inaugurate the first completed section of the facility – a new military base.

A jet carrying the president, Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval, Navy Minister Rafael Ojeda, Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard and Health Minister Jorge Alcocer among others arrived at the Santa Lucía airport site north of the capital in México state some 15 minutes after taking off from the Mexico City airport.

Exhibition flights operated by the airlines Volaris, Viva Aerobus and Aeromar were scheduled to touch down on the new 3,500-meter runway — the first of three — later on Wednesday morning.

The new Number 1 Military Air Base, which was relocated within the Santa Lucía site, begins operations on the 106th anniversary of the founding of the Mexican Air Force.

López Obrador was to preside over a ceremony to mark the anniversary and inaugurate the new base, which will be used by the military for both humanitarian and security purposes.

A military aircraft carrying President López Obrador and other officials is 'baptized' — A military aircraft carrying President López Obrador and other officials is ‘baptized’ on arrival at the Santa Lucía airport.

The base, which has a projected lifespan of 50 years, includes 11 hangars for planes and helicopters, a passenger terminal and a logistics center among other facilities. The Ministry of National Defense described the new facility as modern, functional and efficient.

General Ricardo Vallejo, a military architect overseeing the army’s construction of the new airport, said Tuesday that Air Force aircraft will be transferred to the new base this month.

“In March, we begin the second big stage of the project, which is building the other part of the airport: the international air cargo area, the ground maintenance workshops, the logistics centers, the domestic cargo area …” he said.

Before flying to the site on Wednesday morning, López Obrador said that the Felipe Ángeles International Airport, as the new facility will be officially known, remains on track to open in March 2022.

“It’s a military and civilian airport, it’s the most important airport being built in the world and it’s a phenomenon of civil engineering because it’s being done in record time,” he told reporters at his regular news conference.

The president said the price of the project will be 230 billion pesos [US $11.5 billion] less than what the former government’s airport, which he canceled, would have cost. According to the government, the total cost of the new airport is projected to be 75 billion pesos (US $3.7 billion).

“It was a great decision we took, a wise decision,” López Obrador said, referring to the cancellation of the previous government’s project in Texcoco, México state, which he long argued was corrupt, too expensive and being built on land that was sinking.

He noted that work is underway on new transportation links to the Santa Lucía airport, including new highways and an extension of the Mexico City suburban rail line, and pledged that “basic communication” will be in place by the time the airport opens next year.

“By March we’ll have basic communication, you’ll be able to go from the center [of Mexico City] to the airport,” López Obrador said. “The Felipe Ángeles Airport will be inaugurated on March 21 next year, that will be quite an event!”

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