At least 55 migrants are dead and over 100 more are injured after a horrific truck crash near Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, on Thursday afternoon.
A tractor-trailer transporting more than 150 mainly Central American migrants overturned on the Chiapa de Corzo-Tuxtla Gutiérrez highway at approximately 3:30 p.m. as it rounded a curve at high speed.
The trailer became detached from the tractor unit and overturned while the tractor unit crashed into the base of a pedestrian overpass.
Forty-nine migrants were reported dead at the scene of the accident while six more sustained serious injuries and died in hospital. Most of those killed were Guatemalans, authorities said.
Chiapas Governor Rutilio Escandón said that 105 other people – 83 men and 22 women – were injured, and at least three were in serious condition. Children were among the injured.
Bodies of the victims lined up on the Chiapas highway.
The federal Attorney General’s Office said it will conduct an investigation into the crash. The truck passed through a state police checkpoint just 500 meters before it crashed but was not stopped despite officers having infrared cameras that could have detected the presence of people in its trailer.
Photographs and video footage showed shocking scenes in the aftermath of the accident, with scores of bodies and badly injured people lying on or next to the highway. Some motorists provided first aid and other assistance as they waited for emergency services to arrive.
The truck driver fled the scene and reportedly sought assistance in a nearby mechanic’s workshop. “He stopped at the door and asked us to go and help those injured in an accident a few minutes from here,” a worker told the newspaper Reforma.
“I thought he would follow me to help but he went in the direction of Tuxtla Gutiérrez.”
Some migrants who survived the accident also fled the scene, fearful that they would be detained by immigration authorities.
However, the National Immigration Institute said it would offer shelter, food and humanitarian visas to the survivors.
President López Obrador and his Guatemalan counterpart Alejandro Giammattei offered their condolences to the families of the victims.
“I deeply regret the tragedy caused by the overturning of a tractor-trailer that was transporting Central American migrants in Chiapas. It’s very painful. A hug to the families of the victims,” López Obrador wrote on Twitter.
The porous border between Chiapas and Guatemala is the main entry point for Central American migrants seeking to reach the United States. Near record numbers of migrants have entered Mexico this year, and many pay smugglers to transport them to the northern border.
Thursday’s tragedy came a month to the day after 12 migrants were killed when two transit vans collided on the Palenque-Playas de Catazajá highway in Chiapas.
Fired official Miguel Ángel Martínez was hired by former head of the president's legal office, Julio Scherer Ibarra, seen here, who resigned in August. President's Office
A senior legal official in the office of the president has been fired for authorizing a dress code that banned employees in the president’s legal office from having tattoos and piercings, as well as prohibiting them from posting their opinions of the president on social media.
Miguel Ángel Martínez Lara, the fired official who approved the dress code, was the subject of an exposé by the newspaper Reforma last week. He also distributed the code to workers via the messaging application WhatsApp.
After the first Reforma report came out, President López Obrador’s office ordered an investigation and released a statement denying that the office had issued such a dress code. If such a code existed, it was not legitimate or officially approved, the statement said and shared a link to the authorized code of conduct.
The investigation apparently confirmed the code’s existence as Martínez was dismissed on December 1 and no one has replaced him, according to Reforma. The scandal also took down other employees, an inside source told the newspaper.
“They fired [Martínez] because of the news, and other low-profile people like his secretary because of the scandal. They treated them the same,” the source said.
Lara Martínez was fired from his National Palace position on December 1, according to the newspaper Reforma. deposit photos
Martínez was part of the team of employees hired by Julio Scherer Ibarra, the previous head of President López Obrador’s legal office. Scherer was at times a controversial figure who was reportedly often in conflict with former Interior Minister Olga Sánchez.
Scherer was also named by several federal legislators as the author of a judicial reform bill addendum voted on in the federal legislature that would have extended the term of Supreme Court Chief Justice Arturo Saldívar by two years to 2024, a bid which, although opposed by Zaldívar himself, was passed by the legislature earlier this year, though it was ultimately rejected by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional last month.
Scherer resigned as head of the president’s legal office in August.
Former interior minister and current Senate President Olga Sánchez.
Former interior minister Olga Sánchez said Wednesday that she was a victim of sexism while serving in President López Obrador’s cabinet.
Speaking at a conference on violence and harassment in the workplace, the senate president and former Supreme Court judge said that people close to the president adopted macho attitudes toward her and devalued her work.
“[My work was] permanently devalued even though I took great pains to fulfill the responsibilities of the position of interior minister, one of the most important and difficult positions [in the government],” Sánchez said.
She said it appeared that the “few people” who sought to devalue her work did so in an attempt to “prove their superiority.”
“There have been times when … my opinion was not taken into account, … even if I was right and even if I was contributing something important,” she said in October 2020.
However, days later she walked back her remarks, saying that that it was only her “perception” that she has been discriminated against. Sánchez said that her “hypersensitivity” about issues related to the “patriarchal structure” caused her to perceive that there was misogyny in the security cabinet.
On Wednesday, the senator revealed she has also faced challenges since leaving the interior minister position, telling the conference that even her “closest collaborators” opposed her taking up the Senate presidency on the grounds she lacked the experience needed for the position.
“… You think that reaching the highest spheres of power that everything is easy, but it’s much more complicated,” Sánchez said.
“ … When you get there they undermine you and everyone around you permanently undermines your work,” she said.
Combatting imbalances between men and women in social settings and the workplace is a “vital mission of these times,” the senator added. She also said that women and girls have to value themselves and their work.
“Self-esteem and self-worth are what will take us forward, despite the belittling, the harassment and everything we’ve been suffering for so many years.”
Guillermo del Toro with his Nightmare Alley co-writer and wife Kim Morgan.
A film directed by Guadalajara native Guillermo del Toro is among the American Film Institute’s top 10 movies of 2021.
Nightmare Alley, based on William Lindsay Gresham’s 1946 novel of the same name, is an American neo-noir psychological thriller starring Cate Blanchett and Bradley Cooper.
Del Toro, director of Academy Award-winning films Pan’s Labyrinth and The Shape of Water, co-wrote its screenplay with his wife, Kim Morgan.
Among the other directors with films considered the year’s best by the AFI are Steven Spielberg, Denis Villeneuve, Paul Thomas Anderson and Jane Campion. The honorees will be celebrated at a private reception in Los Angeles on January 7.
The AFI movies of the year are Coda, Don’t Look Up, Dune, King Richard, Licorice Pizza, Nightmare Alley, The Power of the Dog, tick, tick… BOOM!, The Tragedy of Macbeth and West Side Story.
Nightmare Alley | Official International Trailer | Searchlight Pictures
The AFI also announced its top 10 television programs of 2021 on Wednesday. They are Hacks, Maid, Mare of Easttown, Reservation Dogs, Schmigadoon!, Succession, Ted Lasso, The Underground Railroad, Wandavision and The White Lotus.
“AFI is honored to shine a proper light upon the most outstanding screen stories of 2021 and those who worked collaboratively to bring them to screens large and small,” said Bob Gazzale, AFI president and CEO.
“From soaring in spirit to dark and dangerous, from heartbreaking to hilarious, these are the stories that have united us in uncertain times and continue to drive culture forward.”
According to Atlixco's tourism office, one million people attended the Christmas-themed walking tour in 2019. Photos by Joseph Sorrentino
A year after the pandemic led authorities in the city of Atlixco, Puebla, to cancel its famous Christmas lights walking tour, the Villa Iluminada (Illuminated Village), the tradition is back, and the city’s zócalo, streets and walls are once again strung with countless lights, attracting visitors from all across Mexico.
This is the 10th year of the event, which runs through January 9. In addition, there’s a Feria de Nochebuena, the Poinsettia Fair, where you can buy your live Christmas poinsettias, but that only runs through December 12.
According to Alejandro Pérez López at the city’s tourism office, one million people attended the event in 2019. Despite the ongoing pandemic, it’s expected to be well attended this year.
With a large crowd and narrow streets, social distancing simply isn’t possible, but there are precautions being taken to protect people’s health.
“Masks are required,” said Pérez. Also, at several stops along the way, hand gel is available.
Jorge Alberto Guerra, whose nine-member clown troupe, Payaso Chimbombin Junior, performs along the tour.
The lights on the trees and buildings in Atlixco’s zócalo — including the municipal palace and the Natividad de Nuestra Señora church — are turned on around 5:30 p.m. each night. At 6:30 p.m., the Villa Iluminada begins.
From the zócalo, the route wends its way up Hidalgo avenue for a short distance, the street lit by colorful flowers hanging overhead, before continuing along 16 de Septiembre street. Don’t worry if you’re as directionally challenged as I am: the route’s well-marked, there are few turns and all you really have to do is follow the lights and the crowd.
Although the tour is mostly flat and easy, it’s a good idea to wear comfortable shoes and also to stay alert: most but not all of the route has been blocked off (although some motorcyclists chose to ignore this part) but the cross streets are open to traffic. There are police at most of the crossings, but not all drivers pay attention to them.
But it’s worth the little precautions: several of the streets have been turned into colorful tunnels with snowflakes, stars and bells hanging overhead. Just before the end, at a plaza named Plazuela de la Danza about halfway up Cerro de San Miguel (St. Michael’s Hill), there’s a large gingerbread house featuring an illuminated flower.
And for kids of all ages, in the Plazuela de la Danza, there’s a performance by Payaso Chimbombin Junior, a Mexico City-based clown group.
“Chimbombin is a character with Mexican humor,” said Jorge Alberto Guerra Moreno, the director and one of the performers. “The character was created … when I was four years old when — with my father, who is a clown — we started a comic clown duo.”
A lit-up Iglesia Natividad de Nuestra Señora in the city’s zócalo.
Guerra put “Junior” in his group’s name to honor his father. There are nine performers and technicians in the group. “There is juggling, tumbling and music in the show,” he said.
There’s also a bit of audience participation, so if you’re averse to that sort of thing as I am, it may be best to sit in the back.
“What I like [about audience participation] is that people dare to come … and they liberate their collective fears,” Guerra said. “I like the laughter.” There was plenty of that on the night I attended.
Strolling to the end of the Villa Iluminada takes a bit over an hour, and it’s easy to work up a thirst and an appetite. Fortunately, there are lots of options to satisfy both. It seemed like almost every other house along the route has turned a room into a small restaurant.
At a small stand in front of his house, Daniél Guillermo García was offering ponche (punch), a delicious hot drink that helps warm you as the temperatures dip during the night. García was initially reluctant to reveal his secret recipe. But after some gentle prodding, he did at least give up a list of ingredients, including guayaba, apples, tamarind, sugar cane, plums, raisins and lemon tea.
“You have to know how to prepare it,” he said, without elucidating further. “This is authentic ponche. The fruit is the most important part so that the ponche does not get watered down.”
An acrobatic performance in the zócalo with some help from audience members.
Another hot drink — my personal favorite — is chile atole, a thick soup made with corn meal, corn kernels, spices and pretty much any kind of chile the cook likes. The most popular choice in Puebla is probably poblano chiles, although serrano, jalapeño and chicuarote can also be used.
If, like me, you’re somewhat obsessed with chile atole — or just want to be able to try it — be sure to buy yours early: the first three stands I stopped at had run out by the time I wanted mine. Every family has its own recipe for ponche and chile atole, and it’s worth trying a few varieties. If you do, you’ll be happy to know that there is also a plethora of bathrooms available for a mere 5 pesos.
There are also plenty of options for heartier fare, with quesadillas, tortas (hearty sandwiches) and gorditas available along the way. My companion and I opted for tostadas, which cost a mere 25 pesos. Four tostadas and two ponches set us back US $7. The tostadas were so good, I ate a third. What the heck, I figured: Christmas is coming, and it’s time to prepare by overeating.
Despite the crowds, there have been few problems, possibly because of the significant police presence. “There is a police officer every 100 meters [a little over 300 feet],” said Max Saavedra, a local policeman working on his day off.
At this time of year, he and other municipal officers work double shifts, something he doesn’t mind too much. “This is good because I can use the extra money for Christmas,” he said.
A short distance from the zócalo, in the Convention Center, 17 plant vendors were displaying their poinsettias at the Feria de Nochebuena, with an estimated 18,000 plants. Vicente Nieto Castillo, owner of the Vivero Encanto nursery, sells 25 varieties. Red ones typically account for 75% of sales, he said. Although now primarily used decoratively, “in pre-Hispanic cultures, the nochebuena was used as medicine,” he said, explaining that it was also used for dye.
Atlixco, famous for its nurseries, produces about 1.5 million poinsettias.
In addition to bringing some much-needed Christmas cheer, the Villa Iluminada has a major economic impact on Atlixco: according to the state’s website, the event generates about 320 million pesos (US $15 million).
Be aware that there’s some confusion surrounding the event this year because there are actually two simultaneous events: the free Villa Illuminada tour starts in Atlixco’s zocalo and a different event called BrillaFest costs between 150 and 600 pesos (US $7 to US $30).
• The Villa Iluminada tour runs through January 9, open every day from 6:30 p.m. until midnight. The Feria de Nochebuena plant fair runs through December 12 and is open from 10 a.m. until 11:45 p.m.
• Payaso Chimbombin Junior’s performances take place Monday–Thursday at 7:30 p.m. and on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.
Businessman and former Querétaro gubernatorial candidate Juan Carlos Martínez, 51, has been arrested in the United States for allegedly committing a US $30 million fraud and encouraging illegal immigration.
Martínez was taken into custody in Houston on Monday.
Martínez allegedly carried out the fraud through two of his companies: Mobile Coatings Management (MCM) and Uberwurx, a car repair and refurbishment company (known as RhinoPro in the U.S.). U.S. authorities say he marketed himself to potential investors as a way to get a coveted E-2 U.S. visa.
E-2 visas are designed to allow foreign entrepreneurs to work in the U.S. based on a substantial investment in a legitimate business.
Through Uberwurx, Martínez supplied E-2 visas to “investors” by selling them franchises and then giving them instructions on how to successfully apply for the visas. The investors obtained them ostensibly for the purpose of managing their Uberwurx franchises.
But in reality, Martínez was managing the franchises through his business, MCM. The arrangement left investors free to travel or live in the U.S. as they pleased. It is unclear whether the investors knew that their visas were fraudulently obtained.
However, Martínez did specifically instruct investors not to mention that their franchises were managed by MCM during the visa application process, U.S. authorities said.
Karina Hernández, a business associate of Martínez and part-owner of Texas Franchise and Business Consulting (TFBC), is also in custody. TFBC caters to Mexican nationals looking to start a business in the U.S.
“Martínez and Hernández perpetrated this scheme on at least 120 different investors between January 2017 and December 2021 with a loss of more than $30 million,” a U.S. Department of Justice statement said.
Both Martínez and Hernández are accused of four counts of wire fraud and four counts of inducing illegal immigration for private gain. If convicted, the pair face 20 years of prison time per count of wire fraud and 10 years per count of encouraging illegal immigration.
Rising prices of consumer goods and agricultural products contributed to the high inflation rate.
Annual inflation hit its highest level in more than 20 years in November, jumping more than 1% in the space of a single month.
Inflation rose 1.14% to 7.37%, the national statistics agency INEGI reported Thursday. The month-over-month spike was the largest since January 2017, while the annual figure is the highest since January 2001 when inflation reached 8.11%.
Core inflation, which removes some volatile items, rose to 5.67% in November. The 7.37% annual rate – more than double the central bank’s target rate of 3% – is slightly higher than the 7.22% consensus forecast of analysts surveyed by the Reuters news agency.
Higher prices for consumer goods, energy (including gasoline) and agricultural products all contributed to the high inflation rate, with annual increases of 7.24%, 11.26% and 14.36%, respectively. The prices of services rose by a more modest 3.59%.
Inflation was expected to rise last month due to higher global demand for goods amid ongoing supply chain disruptions.
The spike increases the likelihood that the Bank of México board will raise interest interest rates when it meets next Thursday.
The value of the peso dipped 0.3% on news of the higher than expected inflation, Reuters reported, but the currency had made gains in the first three days of the week. One greenback was worth about 21 pesos early on Thursday afternoon.
Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum on stage at the Palace of Mining on Wednesday.
Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum launched a broadside at past government officials on Wednesday, accusing them of corruption and betraying residents of the capital.
Delivering her third annual “accountability” report, the Morena party mayor railed against “the rulers of the city” in the “last period.”
It was unclear whether she was only referring to previous mayor Miguel Ángel Mancera and officials in his government or if her criticism extended to current Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, who held office in the capital between 2006 and 2012.
Sheinbaum and Ebrard are considered the frontrunners to win the Morena party nomination and succeed President López Obrador, who was Mexico City mayor between 2000 and 2005. An attack on her political rival wouldn’t be unthinkable.
“In the last period the rulers of the city forgot where they came from and betrayed the people,” Sheinbaum said.
“Frivolity and corruption as a form of supreme power increased. Bribes, nepotism, personal business and vote-buying … [was a] maxim. Real estate developments were authorized in exchange for apartments for the family. [There were] illegal authorizations in exchange for money, billions of pesos of public resources destined for [earthquake] reconstruction were stolen,” she said.
Sheinbaum, a protégé of the president who served as environment minister in his Mexico City government, said her victory at the 2018 mayoral election resulted in more than a “simple change of administration” in the capital because her government is “part of a national movement” born out of “decades of struggle.”
“Because of the decision of the Mexican people, it arrived to change the direction and destiny of the country,” she said, referring to the Morena party, which López Obrador led to federal power in 2018.
“We’re Mexican women and men who are proud of our history and conscious that there is no turning back, that the transformation is moving forward along the path of democracy and freedoms,” Sheinbaum said.
Speaking to more than 450 guests including federal cabinet ministers at an event at Mexico City’s Palace of Mining, the mayor also outlined achievements of her three-year-old government.
Homicides, theft on the Metrobús, burglaries and muggings are all down compared to 2019 and numerous projects to benefit citizens, including many public transit initiatives, are underway or have been completed, Sheinbaum said.
Sheinbaum also said her government is working to improve the Mexico City water supply system and noted that a mega solar plant, to be operated by the Federal Electricity Commission, will be installed in the capital next year.
“Today more than ever we are dedicated to consolidating the transformation of the city within the framework of democracy and respect,” she said.
“[We are] strengthening institutional coordination … [and] defending our principles and commitments that brought us to … government.”
Water quality testing in San Carlos, a popular tourist destination, showed bacterial levels up to 350 times the legal limit. Flickr
The port city of Guaymas, Sonora, and the nearby beach town of San Carlos are plagued by a sewage crisis that is affecting people’s health.
The situation is so bad that Governor Alfonso Durazo declared a sanitary emergency last month, allocated almost US $500,000 to deal with the immediate crisis and promised to invest in a long-term solution.
The sewage system in Guaymas, a city of some 120,000 residents, is obsolete, neglected and riddled with leaks, clogs and broken pumps and pipes, according to a report by Phoenix radio station KJZZ and the Arizona Daily Star.
The situation during this year’s rainy season reached a “crisis point,” the report said.
Major roads in Guaymas were flooded with raw sewage and wastewater inundated arroyos near people’s homes after flowing out of manhole covers.
Sonora Governor Alfonso Durazo declared a state of emergency in November due to the sewage crisis in the municipality of Guaymas.
Much of the overflowing sewage ended up in the Gulf of California, located between the Baja California peninsula and the Mexican mainland. Sewage flowed constantly from a manhole cover into the sea for almost two weeks in San Carlos last month. Water quality testing has showed fecal bacterial levels as high as 350 times the legal limit.
The absence of wastewater treatment plants in both Guaymas and San Carlos only exacerbates the problem. Wastewater is only treated by oxidation lagoons that make use of the natural interactions between sunlight, algae, oxygen and bacteria. But the runoff from the lagoons remains highly contaminated.
Local authorities have been promising a treatment plant since at least 2008, but one has never been built.
“This [sewage crisis] never should have happened. It never should have happened because there should have been a program earlier to attend to the issue so we didn’t get to this situation,” said Sonora Infrastructure and Urban Development Minister Heriberto Aguilar.
“The problem is that there was no maintenance of the system, and now we’re in a serious situation, very serious,” the minister, part of a government that took office in September, told reporters.
“… It’s a crime against nature, and having sewage flowing through the center of the city is unworthy of the people. We never should have reached this point. It means we’ve failed,” Aguilar said.
Silvia Montero, a doctor who works in the public health system in Guaymas, told the Arizona news outlets that exposure to sewage can cause Hepatitis A, diarrhea, eye and skin irritation or infections and even cholera.
“It’s a huge problem. A lot of people are getting sick because of the sewage,” she said, adding that dried wastewater that becomes bacteria-laden dust can also cause illness.
Exposure to sea and fresh water contaminated with sewage can also cause health problems. In addition, fecal contamination in sea water can cause harmful algal blooms and kill marine life.
One Guaymas woman who lives near an arroyo that often fills with sewage that overflows from a clogged pipe said it was stressful and infuriating to be in close proximity to the untreated wastewater “because it smells horrible.”
Teresa Cortez lives with her four young grandchildren and all of them suffer from headaches due to the stench.
“And if I, an adult, a grown-up, can’t sleep because of the stink, just imagine! I have a three-year-old grandson, and another who’s four,” she told KJZZ and the Star.
The state water commission stepped in to help fix sewer leaks in Guaymas this past November. Twitter
“The smell gets in the house, even with everything closed up. We can’t sleep. They complain about headaches. Their eyes and noses sting because of the smell that gets inside.”
Tomás Thomas, co-owner of the Marvida brewery in San Carlos, said he’s worried about the impact the sewage problem will have on tourism as well as the public health risks.
“You get very sad when you see the sewage that’s going toward the ocean,” he said. “… It could definitely hurt business, you know, and the image of our brewery on the marina.”
Solving the sewage crisis, as the new Sonora government has pledged to do, will not be easy, the former chief of the state water commission said.
“We’ve always seen Guaymas as a very complicated, very complex system with a lot of challenges. A lot, a lot of challenges,” Ivan Cruz said. “All the challenges … there are in every other water operating system in Sonora, Guaymas has all of them,” he said.
Among the challenges, the report said, are “obsolete and poorly maintained infrastructure; shallow pipes due to the city’s rocky soil; and a hilly landscape that makes it difficult and costly to pump sewage to oxidation lagoons.”
Cruz said that more money is needed to improve the Guaymas sewage system, but the system’s rates are seen as too low and large numbers of residents don’t pay their bills in any case.
“The reality is that, even when the department brings in 100% of what it charges, even then it’s not enough to cover operating costs,” he said.
“That’s one of the biggest challenges for Guaymas, to update its water rates so that … [they] reflects the real costs and can break this vicious cycle and start investing in the system.”
While the new state government has pledged to address the immediate problems, modernize the Guaymas sewage system and build a wastewater treatment plant, some locals are skeptical it will deliver on its promise given the failure of previous officials to keep their word.
Claudia Fourcade, a 24-year-old resident said she hoped the authorities would do what they said they would but added, “the truth is, we don’t even know who to believe anymore.”
Cartel hitmen in the streets of Villa Victoria Tuesday night.
A cell of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel attacked a Michoacán town with drones carrying explosives, spreading terror through the community before the National Guard responded and drove the attackers out of town.
The incident occurred Tuesday night in Villa Victoria, the municipal seat of Chinicuila, west of Coalcomán and east of the state border with Colima.
Villa Victoria residents were awoken by gunshots and explosions as cartel hitmen moved into the town. The newspaper El Universal reported that some families fled while others hid in bedrooms and bathrooms.
Drones armed with C-4 explosives targeted homes, causing substantial damage to buildings in the area.
Security footage shows gunmen shooting at homes and kicking down doors. Residents said gang members entered homes and beat the inhabitants, but no deaths or serious injuries have been reported.
“All those houses belonged to innocent people … they kicked down all the doors, but so far it’s all right, just people [who were] beaten,” one witness said.
The National Guard responded and drove gang members out of town but were unable to detain any of the aggressors, who fled into the nearby hills.
The gunmen reappeared and attacked the National Guard forces in the morning, and the ensuing conflict lasted at least two hours, El Universal reported.
