The latest crime data was presented Thursday morning.
Homicides increased 7.7% in October compared to September and Mexico remains on track to record its most violent year on record, according to data presented by the federal government on Thursday.
There were 2,944 homicides last month, 211 more than in September.
Data presented by Deputy Security Minister Ricardo Mejía at President López Obrador’s regular news conference also showed that there were 29,182 homicides in the first 10 months of 2020, a 1.1% increase compared to the same period of 2019, which was the most violent year on record.
Although 2020 is likely to become the most violent year in recent history, Méjia claimed that the government has stopped the “exponential growth” in homicides that began in 2015, asserting that a “containment line” has been established.
Mejía said that 52% of the homicides occurred in just six states. In descending order from the most violent, they are Guanajuato, Baja California, México state, Chihuahua, Jalisco and Michoacán.
Mejía noted that some states have recorded fewer than one homicide per day this year including Yucatán, Campeche and Tlaxcala. Those three states have recorded fewer than 100 homicides so far this year.
Femicides – the killing of women and girls on account of their gender – declined slightly in October to 76 from 79 the month before.
There were 801 femicides in the first 10 months of the year, an increase of 1.5% compared to the same period of 2019.
Mejía said that México state, the country’s most populous state, leads the country for femicides with 119 between January and October. Veracruz, Mexico City and Nuevo León follow, with 73, 64 and 57 femicides, respectively.
Mejía also said that reported incidents of domestic violence increased 3.4% in the first 10 months.
López Obrador acknowledged that the government has struggled to contain violence in Guanajuato, where the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel are engaged in a turf war.
“Criminal groups were allowed to establish themselves [in the state]. If there wasn’t collusion [with past governments] … the problem was [at least] not attended to and it grew a lot from below, from the neighborhoods and municipalities,” he said.
“So confronting [the problem] is taking time, it’s taking a lot of work but we’re dedicated to it. It’s the state with the most homicides, 12% of the national … [total]. We’ve achieved a reduction but we’re going to continue [combatting violence] and we’re going to continue insisting that there mustn’t be criminal association between authorities and gangs.”
Puerto Vallarta is among the destinations being chosen over London and Paris.
With the coronavirus pandemic keeping people at home and socially distanced for the United States’ Thanksgiving holiday on November 26, the usual high volume of air travel will be significantly lower. But those who do travel are likely to be visiting Mexico.
The insurance company Allianz examined 632,757 flight plans leaving U.S. airports from November 21 to December 1. As the company expected, scheduled travel was down about 75%, in line with other industry estimates. In comparison, the insurer analyzed 2.4 million flight itineraries for the same period last year.
This year, top international destinations were all in Mexico, including Cancún, San José del Cabo, and Puerto Vallarta.
Interest in Mexico helped push two perennial European Thanksgiving entries off the annual list: London and Paris are almost always among the top destinations for Thanksgiving travelers, according to Allianz, but not this year.
“Always a popular destination, Mexico has been a leader in tourism recovery since Covid-19 began — the country’s accessibility and safety protocols, like restricted capacity at resorts to enable proper social distancing, may be helping to drive demand along with the promise of a warm-weather escape,” Allianz said.
However, the official word in the U.S. is don’t travel at all.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a recommendation Thursday against traveling for the holiday. The agency told a news briefing that the first danger is infecting relatives during family gatherings.
From there, holiday-related infections could spread through the communities visited.
Previously the agency said holiday travel was risky and urged travelers to check on restrictions at their destination, wear a mask, maintain distance and get a flu shot. Now it says that postponing travel and staying at home is “the best way to protect yourself and others this year …”
Meanwhile, travel to Puerto Vallarta is on the rebound this month.
Allianz counted 710 flights destined for the Jalisco beach destination from the United States during November, compared to 697 in 2019. Currently, 15 U.S. airports have flights to Puerto Vallarta.
The city has also ranked high on the list of destinations sought by Canadians planning travel on Expedia. The tourism industry magazine Periódico Viaje reports that Vallarta is the No. 1 Pacific coast destination for travel in 2021.
It also reported that Air Canada has announced that its luxury product “The Jetz Experience” will operate flights from Vancouver from December 21-28.
A soldier helps a woman and her child escape flooding in Tabasco.
Households affected by flooding in Tabasco will receive 8,000 pesos (US $395) and vouchers exchangeable for domestic appliances just before Christmas.
Flooding caused by heavy rains brought by two cold fronts and a tropical storm has affected an estimated 900,000 people and more than 90,000 homes in the Gulf coast state.
Federal Welfare Minister Javier May Rodríguez announced Wednesday that a census to identify victims will start next Monday and conclude on December 6.
Speaking at the state government palace in Villahermosa, May said the relief payments and appliance vouchers will be distributed in affected communities between December 16 and 20.
“We want to make it clear that the assistance is for each [affected] home, not per family,” he said.
The Ministry of Agrarian Development and Urban Planning will be responsible for distributing the cash payments for home cleanup and repairs while the Welfare Ministry will manage the voucher scheme. The latter will sign an agreement with department stores where affected residents will be able to exchange vouchers for appliances.
Assisted by the army, some 2,000 government social program employees known as national servants will conduct the census in communities across all 17 municipalities of Tabasco.
“Even if it’s in a boat or canoe, we will arrive,” May said.
The minister said the head of each affected household will be required to show official identification to the census workers. Decals with QR codes will be placed on homes that have been visited to ensure that there is no duplication of the census process, he said.
It will be the second time this year that the government provides financial aid to people affected by flooding in Tabasco.
About 38,000 payments of 10,000 pesos each were distributed to flood victims last month. Many of those who received the aid were also affected by this month’s severe flooding.
Tabasco Governor Adán Augusto López Hernández, who accompanied May at Wednesday’s announcement, said that funds will also be made available to repair highways, drainage systems and water treatment plants that were affected by the flooding.
There will also be resources for river dredging and other flood prevention projects, he said, and measures will be developed to help affected farmers. A multi-year plan to prevent flooding in Tabasco’s towns and cities will also be drawn up.
President López Obrador announced last week that the federal government would implement a new plan to stop recurrent flooding in Tabasco and the neighboring state of Chiapas.
The same announcement has been made in the past by previous administrations but little actually materialized.
Lake Chapala, Jalisco, combines gorgeous landscapes and understated luxury.
In these pandemic times, when the coronavirus has made us all a little wary of taking public buses or airplanes, the iconic road trip is making a comeback. You’ll see it featured in most travel sites these days as a viable option for getting away and staying safe.
I thought I would try it out myself when I was presented recently with a weekend trip opportunity to Lake Chapala, Jalisco, with friends. The great thing about a road trip when you have time is to linger and to make pit stops at roadside cafes.
Our first stop on the way out of the city had to be La Marquesa, an over 4,000-acre national park in México state outside the city limits.
The park has lots of beautiful nature and horseback riding, but like all the best things in Mexico, it’s also known for its food. Lots of little stands line the highway as you pass through, with more inside the park. They are all similar in what they offer and charge, so it’s just a matter of choosing which place looks most appealing.
La Marquesa National Park is a great place to get tinga.
We drank steaming hot bowls of oyster mushroom soup, ate buttery tacos de barbacoa and had quesadillas with tinga de pollo (shredded chicken) inside. It was what we needed to set off with real determination on the six-hour road trip ahead.
While the hearty breakfast kept us from needing to stop for lunch, we dawdled a good bit along the route, stopping to take photos of the burnt orange- and deep amber-covered valleys of Michocán. Michoacán is one of the largest flower-growing states in the country, providing tons of tercipelo rojo and cempasúchil flowers that are so common during the Day of the Dead holiday. I could already imagine the trucks overflowing with these holiday flowers in the market in a few days.
We also stopped for a look at Laguna de Cuetzao, the country’s second-largest freshwater lake (Lake Chapala being the first). Bright white egrets stalked for fish at its marshy edges, and herds of cattle waded into the water’s edge to cool off in the midday heat. We made a mental note to come back soon to explore the lake in greater detail.
Arriving in Chapala around 7 p.m., we just missed the final rays of sunset over the lake, but the back deck of our Airbnb did provide an excellent view.
The house was great, if a little heavily religious in the decor, and for US $125 a night we had four bedrooms, each with their own bathrooms. We also had a large dining and living room and great views of Mexico’s biggest lake from the two large patios – one off the main dining room and the other a private deck connected to the master bedroom. We were about a 10-minute walk from the shoreline of the lake and so decided that the following day we would explore what the town had to offer.
The next afternoon, we headed out to the town’s popular malecón (boardwalk) which, while populated by tourists, was not overrun on this Friday afternoon. The water’s edge here doesn’t exactly make you want to take a swim, but there is something distinctly vacation-y about a cool breeze off the water and palm trees lining the sidewalk.
One of Chapala’s most popular spots is its boardwalk.
We took a stroll through the town’s market (that borders the malecón), also calmer and more enjoyable than when we returned the next day (Saturday) for a last-minute purchase.
The market is famous for its outrageous micheladas (beer combined with various different mixers and condiments) and cocktails that arrive at the table with an outrageous myriad of garnishes and overall “flair.”
The group ordered a cecinamichelada with about a half-pound of dried beef sticking out of the top, a piña colada complete with blue gummy candies and slices of pineapple, a pink panther (the same as a piña colada but with some kind of pink mixer in it) and a regular michelada, which includes your weight in cucumbers and carrots covered with chile and salt.One is all you need.
There are a handful of moderately priced seafood joints at one end of the malecón and we chose El Quetzal only for its lower music volume, as some of the others were eardrum-popping loud. It turned out to be the right choice – spicy grilled octopus, fried fish fillets, fish egg tacos, and peel-and-eat shrimp.
El Quetzal has a pool in the center of its outdoor patio if you want to take a dip. With average temps almost never dropping below 20 C year-round, you might just want to.
There are plenty of al fresco activities in and around Chapala – bike rentals, boat rides, hot springs – but we decided kayaks would give us the greatest sense of the lake and after a little bit of research we found a place that would rent us kayaks but not force us to take a guide – Hotel Tahawi just a few minutes outside Chapala.
Al fresco activities abound in Chapala, such as kayaking.
All their equipment was in good condition — lifejackets included — and an hour rowing around was a super steal, around $10.
The lake has a respectable windiness to it, but nothing too difficult to handle, and we paddled up the coastline a few miles, ducking marsh grass and greeting the fishermen out for lobina and tilapia in their john boats. While it’s no Laguna de Bacalar in terms of beauty, Lake Chapala is quite lovely, and I personally would have been happy to spend a few more hours exploring it.
The next day we headed a little further down the road to the Jocotepec malecón, in the town of Jocotepec, which was another world entirely from Chapala’s.
For folks who don’t like the crowds, helter-skelter market stalls and kiddie rides galore, Jocotepec is much more like a coastal park, with soccer fields, a running track, lots of grassy knolls and an eerily beautiful collection of bare-limbed trees stuck midway in the water.
There are stands that sell food and drink, and also one that advertised a spa but wasn’t open when we were there, but they are all constructed with a similar wooden-shack design and have much more space to spread out around them. Plus there were no hawkers of micheladas waving menus in your face and pleading with you to sit down at their locale.
That night, we stayed in San Juan Cosala at the chic La Vita Bella boutique hotel and spa. We had heard about the great hot springs in San Juan Cosala, accessible in various local balnearios and resort hotels, but weren’t sure we were ready to face all those folks maskless. We opted instead for the more intimate setting at La Vita Bella.
La Vita boutique hotel’s boasts three thermal swimming pools and a spa.
On the weekends, their three thermal swimming pools and tiny spa are open only to hotel guests, so we ended up being completely alone for our couples’ massage and a long dip.
During the week, non-guests can purchase a day pass for about $15 that gives you access to the pools and the rest of the hotel facilities, as well as a day-spa pass which includes a massage, breakfast and lunch for about 50 bucks.
For an even greater variety of pools and experiences, you can head up the road to La Vita Bella’s sister hotel Monte Coxala. Built in the 1980s, it’s a bit kitsch, but it’s immaculately maintained.
There are all kinds of options for relaxing — the sauna and thermal pool inside a massive Olmec head, a sauna inside a glass-roofed pyramid and several pools nestled away in the greenery of their property; there’s an infinity pool that looks out over the lake and its companion mountain behind it.
That night we decided to skip the Sunday crowds at most of the lakeside dining spots and opt instead for the Brew House in Ajijic. Owned and operated by craft beer brand Corazón de Malta, it was the balm to our quarantined souls – flights of three or six different craft beers, above-average bar food and a handful of customers nicely spread out. We ended up buying an assorted case of 12 beers to take home and they were easily drunk by the time the sun set.
You can get beer samplers at the Brew House in Ajijic.
The hotel has a Grecian whitewashed facade and 12 simple but elegant suites. It’s high on a hill away from most noise of the surrounding towns. A musical cricket was our only companion as we ended the evening out on our balcony enjoying the fresh air – free from Mexico City smog.
We took in breakfast with a view the next morning in La Vita Bella’s open air dining room and took one last long look at the lake before heading back to the city. We would hit the hottest part of the drive earlier than on the trip to Chapala, and so we decided to break it up by stopping at La Piedad, a town in Michoacán renowned for their carnitas (honestly the whole state is famous for them).
On the suggestion of a friend, we stopped at Carnitas Simitrio, a small, family-run restaurant right near the Lerma Rver. They sold truly some of the best carnitas I had ever tasted – tender, salty, not too greasy. So much so that we brought a kilo and a half back with us to eat later.
The remaining four-plus hours of the drive seemed neverending, as a return trip often does, but we made it back to the city knowing we had beer and carnitas in tow and felt a little less sad about leaving vacation behind.
Lydia Carey is a regular contributor to Mexico News Daily.
After a seven-month silence, former president Enrique Peña Nieto reappeared on social media on Wednesday but not to refute the corruption allegations that have been made against him.
The ex-president instead offered condolences to his successor, whose 56-year-old sister passed away this morning.
“I express my heartfelt condolences to President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and his family for the passing of Professor Candelaria Beatriz López Obrador. Rest in peace,” Peña Nieto wrote on Twitter.
It was just the third tweet this year from the ex-president who left office just under two years ago and vanished from public life.
On April 15 Peña Nieto offered his condolences after the death of former México state governor Ignacio Pichardo Pagaza and he did the same on April 1 after his communications and transportation minister, Gerardo Ruiz Esparza, passed away.
Before those tweets, the former president’s most recent social media remark was in June last year when he rejected a newspaper report that claimed that he was under investigation by United States authorities in relation to a bribery case involving the state oil company Pemex.
In more recent times, Peña Nieto has remained silent on social media despite the arrest – and subsequent release – of his defense minister, Salvador Cienfuegos, on drug trafficking charges, and the publication of details of a document in which the federal Attorney General’s Office alleges that he led and personally benefited from a criminal scheme within his government that paid bribes to lawmakers and committed treason.
It appears that the 54-year-old ex-president, who reportedly lives in an exclusive residential area near Madrid, Spain, is more focused on his love life than speaking online about the scandals that plagued his 2012-2018 presidency.
Peña Nieto announced on Facebook in May 2019 that his marriage to actress and singer Angélica Rivera had “legally concluded.” He is now in a relationship with 33-year-old Mexican model Tania Ruiz.
Ruiz, who is much more active on social media than her partner, took to Instagram last week to show that all is well in her relationship with the erstwhile leader.
In the “stories” section of her account, she posted a series of photos accompanied by phrases such as “Forever and ever!! My Love!!” and “Loving you today and if God wishes always.”
Some of the photos showed Ruiz’s hand – with a ring on her middle finger – clasping what is believed to be the hand of Peña Nieto. It appeared that an engagement announcement could be imminent but in her last “story,” Ruiz said that a wedding was not about to happen.
“I’m not getting married, I’m just very happy. I love my boyfriend!!” she wrote.
Her romantic posts may have been an attempt to cheer up Peña Nieto – they were published the same day as the Attorney General’s Office’s allegations against him were made public.
Despite accusations of wrongdoing, the former president is not currently sought by Mexican authorities but that could change should a majority of citizens vote in favor of putting ex-presidents on trial at a referendum planned for next year.
How can the mexicanidad — Mexicanness — of a car made in Mexico but designed in Germany be increased? By covering it in Mexican indigenous art, of course.
The Volkswagen beetle was designed and first made in Germany but is nevertheless considered a Mexican icon because millions of the vehicles were made at the automaker’s Puebla factory until production ceased last year.
Nine years before the last Beetle rolled off the production line, a group of eight Wixáritari, or Huichol, artisans from two families worked painstakingly for eight months to cover the exterior of a 1990 vocho, as the car is known in Mexico, with more than 2 million colorful glass beads and thus create a unique piece of vehicular art.
After thousands of hours of work the vochol – a portmanteau of the words vocho and Huichol – was born.
The more than 2 million beads, approximately 2,277,000 to be more precise, together depict geometric patterns as well as animals and other aspects of the natural world.
More than 2 million glass beads were used for the design.
They include snakes on the hood and deer, scorpions, birds and peyote flowers on the car’s sides. All are considered important symbols in Huichol culture and spirituality.
There is also a sun on the roof, which symbolizes the union between humans and gods, and four two-headed eagles that offer protection to the vehicle’s passengers. On the vochol’s rear is an image of shaman steering a canoe.
The phrases “200 years of independence” and “100 years since the Mexican Revolution” appear in the Huichol language on the fenders of the vochol, whose creation was sponsored by several public and private organizations including the Jalisco Ministry of Culture and the Nayarit Culture and Art Council.
The Huichol people are native to and continue to live in those two states as well as parts of Zacatecas and Durango.
Parts of the interior of the vochol including the seats and steering wheel are also covered in the intricate beadwork for which the indigenous people are well known.
The bead-adorned Beetle is perhaps the largest piece of Huichol beadwork art ever produced. It was first put on display at a museum in Guadalajara before being exhibited in numerous countries around the world.
It could be the largest piece of Huichol beadwork art ever produced.
When it is not on loan, the vochol can be admired at the Museum of Popular Art in Mexico City’s historic center.
When this new 1,000-peso bill is issued later this year it will be one of only two Mexican bills in circulation to feature women.
When I saw a new 200-peso bill begin to circulate without Sor Juana on it last year, I was crestfallen. Hidalgo and Morelos are cool and all; don’t get me wrong.
But after getting rid of the second-to-last woman on any Mexican bill — the artist Frida Kahlo had been featured on the back of the 500-peso bill, but that was changed in 2018 — they got rid of Sor Juana too? Not cool, Bank of México.
I decided to do some reading to find out what had happened, and discovered that Mexico had decided to move her to the 100-peso bill instead … but not until the following year.
“Well,” I thought, “at least she’s coming back.” Even so, I was nervous that the future plan would somehow get lost in the shuffle and we’d end up with an all-male cast on Mexican bills.
Fortunately, she has returned!
One thing I love about Sor Juana is that she’s such a respected figure in Mexican history that, as a woman, falls outside two of the most pervasive female archetypes in Mexican culture: she’s neither “la virgen,” the all-sacrificing and all-suffering perfect mother, nor “la malinche,” the ultimate disloyal woman who betrayed her people by fighting for the other side.
These are, of course, simplistic descriptions, but that’s just the nature of archetypes: they’re cultural shorthand.
No, Sor Juana was, quite simply, a badass. She was a writer, a philosopher, a feminist, a genius. I often wonder if she really wanted to be a nun or if she simply saw it as the safest option to pursue her intellectual interest without men who felt threatened by her accusing her of witchcraft. Actually, I don’t wonder; she made it very clear that she intended to be a nun so that she could study.
Might we work at creating another archetype for Mexican women in her likeness? I can think of five women right off the bat I know personally that would fit into that mold perfectly.
Anyway, back to women on bills.
All this is not to criticize. My own country, the United States, has had woefully few women featured on its own currency, and when they have appeared, it’s nearly always been on “commemorative coins” with the exception of Pocahontas on the back of $20 bills in 1865 and Martha Washington appearing briefly on $1 “silver certificates” in 1886. Harriet Tubman was supposed to replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill by 2020, but that was postponed until 2030.
I don’t know about you all, but the last time I went to the U.S. I didn’t use cash for a single thing. By the time 2030 rolls around, I’m betting our neighbors to the north will have to explain to children what bills actually are. I still hope that Tubman makes it onto the $20 bill, but it feels a little like showing up to a party after nearly everyone has left.
But in Mexico, cash is still king, and plenty of places that I frequent don’t take cards at all. As a result, I see Mexicans bills quite a lot and love seeing the beautiful new designs when they come out. It just would be nice to see a few more women on there, that’s all.
Here’s a bright spot: the Revolution-era feminist Hermila Galindo and revolutionary Carmen Serdán will appear with Francisco I. Madero on the 1,000-peso bill sometime this year. This is great news! It would be even better news if I actually ever get to see a 1,000-peso bill; I’ve been here for almost 20 years and never have! But you take what you can get, am I right?
Another upcoming bill change I’m excited about that I will definitely get to see is an “all-nature” one: the new 50-peso bill will not feature any major figures but rather the famed axolotl (a salamander native to the lakes of Xochimilco).
I haven’t been able to find an image of what will go on the reverse side, but it’s said to commemorate the founding of Tenochtitlán, so I have my suspicions.
So I’m glad Sor Juana is back, but if a salamander can make it onto legal tender, how about some more women too? The only other woman who’s appeared on Mexican peso bills in recent history is Josefa Ortiz, a.k.a. “La Corregidora,” who hasn’t been seen since the 1990s. Why not bring her back? Heck, why not bring them both back and add some more?
As you may have guessed by now, I have some more suggestions for future bills. I was not asked for any, but I’ve got some anyway! Here they are:
Elena Poniatowska, one of the most important Mexican journalists and authors of the 20th century would be an excellent choice. True, she was born in France, but she worked and lived (still lives, actually) in Mexico throughout her adult life and is a Mexican citizen.
Or how about Tessy María López Goerne, nominee for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, who has overcome health scares that would knock most of us out completely and keeps on being brilliant? Silvia Torres-Peimbert, the first Mexican woman to receive a doctorate in astronomy and former president of the International Astronomical Union would also be an excellent choice.
There are, of course, many other great choices, and I’d love to see Mexico take the lead worldwide on this one. Let’s give the guys a break.
Sarah DeVries is a writer and translator based in Xalapa, Veracruz. She can be reached through her website, sdevrieswritingandtranslating.com.
This Mustang is among 188 cars that will be auctioned.
A 1965 Ford Mustang will be among almost 300 lots on the block at the government’s next auction of assets seized from organized crime.
The Institute to Return Stolen Goods to the People (Indep) announced Tuesday that 288 lots will be up for grabs at the ninth “narco-auction,” which will be held in Mexico City on Sunday at Los Pinos, the former official residence of the president.
A total of 188 cars, including several classic cars, will go under the hammer as will six speedboats, trucks and forklifts among other seized assets.
The combined starting price for the lots is just over 13 million pesos (US $642,000). Proceeds of the auction will go toward funding the government’s social programs.
In addition to the Mustang, which has a starting price of just under 330,000 pesos (US $16,300), other notable vehicles to be auctioned include a 2016 GM Sierra Denali pickup truck and a 2014 Ford F-150 pickup. Both vehicles have a starting price of about 250,000 pesos (US $12,400).
A full list of the assets to be auctioned off is available on the Indep website (Spanish only). Entry to the auction will be limited to 150 people to ensure that social distancing recommendations can be observed.
All people who wish to attend must register by November 20. There will be no opportunities to bid for assets by telephone.
The government has already auctioned off a wide range of assets seized from organized crime including jewelry, boats, luxury vehicles, airplanes and real estate.
The former home of famed Mexican drug lord Amado Carrillo Fuentes was sold in May, while a mansion owned by accused drug trafficker Zhenli Ye Gon was purchased at an auction last year.
Indep has distributed millions of pesos in auction proceeds to other government departments since it was created by the federal government last year.
But the fledgling institute is apparently not squeaky clean. Announcing his resignation as Indep chief in a letter to President López Obrador in September, Jaime Cárdenas said that the institute is plagued by corruption, asserting that officials stole jewelry in the agency’s possession and manipulated the auctions it held.
Relatives of missing persons in Acapulco began their eighth search on Tuesday for loved ones’ remains in the Alta Cuauhtémoc neighborhood, this time finding human bones in El Veladero National Park.
It brings to a total of 83 bodies found in makeshift graves all around the port city this year by the Families of the Disappeared and Murdered Collective. President Guadalupe Rodríguez said the search and recovery operation, like the other seven, was undertaken without official assistance.
“No one has looked for our disappeared relatives, and the highest levels of the federal government have made us give up all hope of finding them. They have all the information they need, but to date they have not dealt with the families, and we so cannot identify [our loved ones],” Rodríguez said.
She said nothing has been done with genetic samples the families have supplied to authorities for uploading to a database in order that DNA of discovered remains can be matched to the missing.
The relatives are basically on their own, she said, which has been the same experience reported by other, similar search collectives around the country.
“They halted the roundtable meetings with our federal prosecutor’s office to review the progress of all the investigations,” she said. “They also stopped assistance to help the orphaned children [of the disappeared], who are dying of hunger.”
In addition, she said, the group had meetings scheduled for November 25 with the Executive Commission for Attention to Victims (CEAV) and the Minister of the Interior, but they had been canceled without explanation.
In the past, Rodríguez said, relatives would have been helped financially with the costs of travel to the digging sites and with transport of the remains, but that source dried up when the government eliminated more than 100 public trusts last month.
She did acknowledge that the group had been informed that members would receive financial support from the Federal Tax Administration (SAT) but the families did not have any sense of when that money would be forthcoming.
Aid is delivered by boat to flood victims in Tabasco.
Civil Protection authorities estimate that about 900,000 people have been affected by flooding in Tabasco, a figure significantly higher than previously thought.
The affected citizens live in 1,305 communities across the state, according to the Tabasco government.
Federal Civil Protection authorities said on the weekend that more than 300,000 people and 899 communities had been affected by flooding that was caused by rain brought by two cold fronts and a tropical storm and exacerbated by the release of water from the Peñitas dam in Chiapas. Severe flooding also affected parts of Tabasco last month.
The state government said in reports to lawmakers that they still don’t have an estimate of the economic damage the most recent flooding caused because no census or official damage assessment has yet been conducted.
However, the bill is likely to be in the tens of billions of pesos considering that comparable flooding in 2007 caused economic losses of some 33.2 billion pesos.
The director of the insurance company association AMIS said Tuesday that the majority of the people affected don’t have coverage for their homes, vehicles and small businesses.
“There is a lot of damage … but unfortunately a significant number of people don’t have insurance,” Recaredo Arias told a press conference.
He said that payouts were expected to be lower than in 2007 when insurance companies paid out US $407 million in Tabasco.
Arias said is was “sad” that the insurance sector can’t make a greater contribution to the recovery efforts because so many people don’t have coverage.
Meanwhile, five air force planes carrying 43.4 tonnes of supplies departed from the Mexico City airport on Wednesday morning to travel to Tabasco.
The army transported 65 tonnes of aid to the Gulf coast state by land on Tuesday, meaning that a total of 108.4 tonnes of supplies will be available for distribution to affected residents.
Families will be given food packages containing items such as rice, beans, canned tuna, flour, sugar, oil, tomato paste, pasta, cookies, coffee and powered milk.
Many Tabasco residents say that they have been abandoned by the authorities while large quantities of water inundate their communities and homes.
The decision – at odds with the president’s pledge to put the poor first – was criticized by residents of the low-lying areas of Tabasco to which the water was diverted.
