The grief of the parents of a newborn child who died in a Oaxaca hospital was exacerbated when they received an amputated leg in place of the body of their deceased son.
An 11-day-old baby boy who was born after 34 weeks’ gestation died from a congenital disorder in the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) Rural Clinic in Huajuapan de León last Friday.
The baby’s father and staff from a funeral home went to the Mixtec region hospital the next day to collect the infant’s body but left the facility with a coffin containing a human leg.
According to sources cited by the newspaper El Universal, the parents didn’t become aware of the mix-up until they arrived at Tacache de Mina, their hometown.
“The family noticed that blood was dripping from the coffin and checked inside; it was then they discovered it was a human leg,” El Universal said.
The parents subsequently returned to the hospital where they were able to collect their son’s body.
The family referred the case to a local prosecutor’s office, which launched an investigation that concluded that an IMSS employee was responsible for the mix-up.
But IMSS authorities in Oaxaca rejected the claim that a hospital employee was responsible, telling El Universal that the baby’s father was at fault because he took the coffin containing the human leg without checking its contents.
Pressed by the newspaper as to what part of its corpse delivery protocols had failed, IMSS simply insisted that the baby’s father was to blame.
“The man had all the documentation concerning the [deceased] newborn. He just got the wrong coffin. Instead of verifying which one really corresponded to his baby, he took another one that wasn’t [the right one]. It was he who made the mistake, not IMSS personnel,” the institute said.
“But no one from the hospital realized? Who supervises the release of bodies?” probed El Universal.
“There are authorized personnel in charge of that … but he [the father] was negligent and took the [wrong] coffin,” IMSS responded, adding that the father had admitted he was to blame.
The Oaxaca Attorney General’s Office confirmed that an investigation had been opened but said the IMSS employee who was allegedly responsible for the mix-up wouldn’t face charges because the apparent error was rectified.
“… A mistake was made but at a criminal level there is no responsibility because the body was subsequently delivered,” it said.
The macabre mix-up occurred two weeks after a premature baby was mistakenly pronounced dead and taken to a morgue at an IMSS hospital in Coahuila. The baby was rescued from the morgue but died four days later.
Mexico's Supreme Court issues its second abortion-related decision in as many days.
Two days after effectively decriminalizing abortion across Mexico, the Supreme Court (SCJN) ruled on Thursday that the protection of life from the time of conception is unconstitutional.
In response to a challenge to abortion restrictions in Sinaloa, the court ruled that state laws that protect life from conception are unconstitutional because state legislatures don’t have the authority to establish the time at which human life begins. The SCJN also determined that such laws violate women’s reproductive rights.
“It’s not the job of any state legislature or this plenary session [of the SCJN] to establish the origin of human life, especially in the absence of scientific consensus,” said Justice Alfredo Gutiérrez Ortiz Mena.
“It’s clear that the embryo and fetus must be recognized as constitutionally relevant beings and must be protected in accordance with that dignity and character. However, their protection can’t compete fully and unconditionally with that of born people,” he said.
The Supreme Court justices agreed that the sole purpose of laws in 21 states that protect life from the moment of conception is to inhibit abortion, even in cases of rape or when the mother’s life is endangered.
Two justices opined that state legislatures don’t have the authority to legislate on human rights issues.
The court’s ruling reinforces its view that abortion is not a crime. The SCJN ruled on Tuesday that the criminalization of abortion is unconstitutional, paving the wave for the legalization of early term abortions in the 28 states where the practice is illegal.
Outside cases of rape and those in which an expectant mother’s life is endangered, abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy is currently only legal in Mexico City, Oaxaca, Hidalgo and Veracruz.
Almost 200,000 electricity customers lost power on Thursday night after Hurricane Olaf brought strong winds and heavy rains to the southern portion of the Baja California peninsula.
With sustained wind speeds of 155 kmh and gusts to 185, Olaf made landfall as a Category 2 hurricane near San José del Cabo, Baja California Sur, at about 9:00 p.m. Once over land, Olaf was downgraded to a Category 1 hurricane before being degraded again to a tropical storm.
Only minor damages from the storm have been reported.
The Federal Electricity Commission reported that just under 192,000 customers in Los Cabos and La Paz lost power due to the storm. But service to 30% of affected customers was restored by Friday morning, the utility said.
The ISSSTE General Hospital in La Paz lost power at 12:40 a.m., provoking concern among people whose family members are receiving treatment in the facility.
The IMSS No. 6 Hospital in San José del Cabo was among buildings and homes affected by flash flooding in the Los Cabos area. Road access between San José del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas was cut off due to flooding and fallen trees and utility poles.
Some 20,000 tourists are currently in Los Cabos, where they took shelter in their hotels, according to the president of the local hotel association.
There have been no reports of loss of life due to the passing of the hurricane, which was about 100 kilometers west of La Paz at 10:00 a.m. CDT Friday. The United States National Hurricane Center said the storm is expected to move away from land on Friday night.
Heavy rain is expected to continue to fall in Baja California Sur throughout Friday.
A range of precautions were taken to minimize damage and the threat to human life. Civil Protection authorities ordered the closure of ports in locations such as Loreto, La Paz and Los Cabos, where large swells were reported, and the airports in the latter two destinations were closed since Thursday afternoon. The Los Cabos airport resumed operations on Friday morning.
Most economic activities were suspended in southern Baja California Sur, schools were shut and temporary shelters were opened in locations including Los Cabos and La Paz.
The United States has agreed to collaborate with Mexico on employment programs in the southern region of the country and in Central America, the federal government said Thursday after high-level talks in Washington D.C.
In a statement outlining the four central pillars of a relaunched U.S.-Mexico High Level Economic Dialogue (HLED), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) said the United States will provide technical support to attend to structural causes of migration in northern Central America.
It said the United States will collaborate with Mexico and Central America on the Sembrando Vida (Sowing Life) tree-planting employment program and the Youths Building the Future apprenticeship scheme.
President López Obrador has lobbied the U.S. government to support an expansion of the government programs to the nations of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
Cooperation on the programs falls under “Promoting Sustainable Economic and Social Development in Southern Mexico and Central America,” or Pillar II of the HLED, which was reactivated on Thursday after the forum’s suspension by former U.S. president Donald Trump.
Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard and Economy Minister Tatiana Clouthier led a Mexican delegation to meet with a U.S. contingent headed by Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
The White House said in a statement that the HLED will allow the United States and Mexico to rebuild and grow as dynamic partners as the two countries face new challenges.
With regard to Pillar II, the White House said the United States and Mexico “will identify complementary and cooperative opportunities to improve livelihoods through the creation of jobs and opportunities in the short, medium, and long term in El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, and southern Mexico, increasing its trade potential and spurring investment.”
It also said there will be increased technical cooperation between the U.S. and Mexican international development agencies.
The United States has seen a surge of migrants to its southern border since President Joe Biden took office in January, and his administration is determined to stem the flow while moving away from some of former president Donald Trump’s harshest migration policies.
The three other pillars of the relaunched HLED are Pillar I: Building Back Together; Pillar III: Securing the Tools for Future Prosperity; and Pillar IV: Investing in Our People.
The Mexico and US delegations at Thursday’s high-level talks in Washington.
Under Pillar I, Mexico and the United States will create a bilateral working group on supply chains to “identify areas of complementarity on new and existing chains in order to maintain their correct functioning in the face of possible disruptions,” the SRE said.
Clouthier told a press conference in Washington that Mexico raised the need to “sit down with industries or companies and be able to detail the components of semiconductors” in order to determine what parts would be manufactured in Mexico and what parts would be made in the United States.
The White House said the two countries will “build back together in an environment informed by the pandemic by improving the regional business environment and strengthening the resilience of U.S.-Mexico supply chains,” adding that “work under this pillar will include how to best facilitate economic recovery and strengthen infrastructure, trade facilitation, and innovation.”
In her opening remarks at the bilateral meeting, Vice President Harris said the coronavirus pandemic has undermined the global economy and that climate change and cyberattacks have posed risks to supply chains. The issues require a unified response from the United States and Mexico, she said.
Under Pillar III, bilateral cooperation will focus on mitigating cyber threats directed toward supply chains and improving the flow of data between the two countries, the SRE said.
Under Pillar IV, “the United States and Mexico will foster cooperation towards a more inclusive workforce that is better educated, more competitive, and better trained with the necessary skills to meet the needs of the 21st century economy,” the White House said.
The SRE said there will be a focus on providing skills training to vulnerable sectors of the population such as women, young people, indigenous people and members of the LGBTQ+ community.
Mexico and the United States also agreed that there is a need for greater bilateral cooperation on the issues of climate change and workers’ rights.
The United States’ so-called “Remain in Mexico” policy, which forces migrants to stay in Mexico as they await the outcome of their asylum claims in the U.S., was not discussed, Ebrard told a press conference.
A U.S. Supreme Court decision late last month obliged the Biden administration to reinstate the Trump-era policy formally known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, and Mexico had indicated that it would initiate talks on migration issues.
While “Remain in Mexico” wasn’t raised, Ebrard passed on a letter from López Obrador in which he lobbied the United States to offer more visas to Central American migrants. The president is proposing that migrants who participate in his administration’s employment schemes be given temporary visas to work in the United States, an idea the U.S. has not (yet) come to embrace.
Mexico did raise the issue of the pandemic-era border closure that has stopped nonessential travel from Mexico since early last year.
“Both Minister Clouthier and Ambassador [Esteban] Moctezuma raised [the subject],” Ebrard said. “[The reopening] was set out as a logical thing and it will be dealt with as soon as possible in order to boost the economic activity of both countries.”
The foreign minister described the bilateral talks as “a success,” asserting there was good will on both sides of the table. The two countries share a common vision, he declared.
U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said the HLED “drives improved job creation, global competitiveness and reductions in poverty and inequalities, and that is to the benefit of U.S. citizens and Mexican citizens alike.”
Antonio Garza, a former U.S. ambassador to Mexico, said the resumption of the high level dialogue was “a significant step in broadening the bilateral agenda.”
Both countries committed to holding minister level meetings on an annual basis and lower level talks every six months. Mexico will host the next HLED in 2022, Ebrard said, while López Obrador and Biden are slated to meet before the end of this year.
Biden and López Obrador: there are difficulties between the two countries.
Thursday saw the relaunch of the hitherto slumbering “high-level economic dialogue” between the U.S. and Mexico, which seems to be part of Washington’s efforts to repair its ailing relationship with Mexico post-Trump.
(You’ll remember that Donald Trump tried to build a wall, slapped steep tariffs on Mexican goods and was occasionally quite rude about Mexican people more broadly).
Sounds great, but what’s a “high-level economic dialogue,” or HLED as insiders know it by, I hear you ask? It’s apparently what happens when the U.S. wheels out the secretary of state, the commerce secretary, the U.S. trade representative, the secretary of homeland security and the vice president to discuss integrated supply chains, workforce development and education, and address the root causes of immigration with Mexican officials.
The HLED, a broad diplomatic framework, first existed under the Obama administration, but fell by the wayside in 2016. It provides space for diplomats across departments to boost relations with Mexico. Under the Biden administration so far, diplomacy has focused on the various trade enforcement actions taken under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), along with efforts by Kamala Harris, the vice president, to try to get a handle on immigration, and some amount of co-operation on tackling Covid-19.
The U.S. made Mexico an (arguably late) gift of Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines that can’t be used in America (because they’re not approved by its regulators).
US Vice President Harris and Mexico Foreign Affairs Minister Ebrard in Washington Thursday.
USMCA is going well, but some, including those at Monarch Global, a consultancy headed up by a former senior commerce department official under Barack Obama, argue that more should be done to evaluate critical supply chains and to work to support them, and that more could be done, too, to figure out which industries are critical to the long-term success of North America.
“In short, we need critical thinking about an industrial policy for the region at large,” Monarch wrote in a recent note. Industrial policy, if it means subsidizing crucial industries such as those linked to green energy or those key to national security, is in vogue in Washington at the moment.
Monarch added that co-ordinated tax, investment and labor policy would help North America reshore some supply chains that are now scattered across Asia as companies have searched for lower-waged labor and, in some cases (such as the processing of rare earth minerals), weaker regulatory regimes.
But there remain difficulties between the U.S. and Mexico. On trade, Mexico’s moves to restore state control of the energy sector have gone down badly with U.S. competitors, and a dispute over the rules on car parts’ country of origin is brewing under USMCA. Immigration remains a huge point of discussion. Because Trump is no longer in office, U.S. officials tend not to refer to “bad hombres” any longer, but anxiety about immigration from Mexico — particularly in the COVID era — remains high among Democrats.
Earlier this year, Republicans sought to portray large numbers of immigrants at the southwest border as “a crisis,” and it did momentarily look like failing to get a handle on the volume of children being held in U.S. facilities could be Joe Biden’s first big fumble as president.
That problem hasn’t gone away. It’s just been pushed out of the news cycle by apocalyptic images of children falling from departing U.S. planes as America’s military completed its awkward departure from Kabul. If anything, Afghan refugees are likely to turn attacking lawmakers’ attention back to immigration, which will necessarily bring extra scrutiny of the southwest border.
So what to do? The overarching theme for sure seems to be — try to make the economies of Central America more robust. Specifically, try to make them economies in which workers are paid a living wage and have access to what Democrats view as “good things,” such as education, healthcare and transport. This is not something the U.S. can easily achieve through the mechanisms it has available to it, such as the aid budget or the Development Finance Corporation, which can issue low-cost loans and grants.
Its trade deal is clearly supposed to help too, with its mechanism for trying to improve quality of labour and workers’ rights. In fact, as Edward Alden of the Council on Foreign Relations points out, U.S. trade representative Katherine Tai often sounds more like the labor secretary than the top trade adviser.
Meanwhile, former U.S. ambassador to Mexico Earl Anthony Wayne told us that inter-agency co-operation did mean Washington could “be more serious” in its thinking about trying to lower the number of people wanting to come to the U.S. to work, or to claim asylum.
Is anything going to happen fast? Almost certainly not. As Wayne pointed out: “It’s hard to do development, economic development, anywhere in the world … but it’s better to have an institutional and regular framework to talk about it than to not.”
The federal Health Ministry reported an additional 14,828 new coronavirus cases and 730 COVID-19 deaths on Thursday, while estimated active cases rose 2% to 99,630.
Mexico’s accumulated case tally is now just under 3.48 million, and the official death toll is 266,150.
The seven-day average of daily reported cases up until Wednesday was 13,632, while the average for deaths was 702.
The average number of new infections reported each day has declined by more than 5,100 over the last three weeks, according to the Reuters COVID-19 tracker.
Mexico City has recorded almost 916,000 confirmed cases during the pandemic, meaning that 26% of all cases in Mexico were detected in the capital. Mexico City also easily leads the country for COVID-19 fatalities with 49,209, or 18.5% of the total.
In other COVID-19 news:
• Everyone aged 18 and over will have had the opportunity to be vaccinated with at least one dose by the end of October, Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said on Twitter.
He also reported that almost 872,000 doses were administered on Wednesday, lifting the total number of shots given to just over 89.5 million. About two-thirds of Mexican adults have received at least one vaccine dose.
With 69 doses administered per 100 people, Mexico ranks 75th in the world for per capita shots, according to The New York Times vaccinations tracker. The United Arab Emirates ranks first with 190 shots per 100 people followed by Uruguay and Qatar.
• Six states have first-dose vaccination rates above 80%, the Health Ministry reported Wednesday. They are Baja California, Baja California Sur, Mexico City, Querétaro, Quintana Roo and Sinaloa.
Twelve other states have rates above 70%. They are Aguascalientes, Chihuahua, Colima, Durango, Hidalgo, Nayarit, Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí, Sonora, Tamaulipas, Yucatán and Zacatecas.
• There are 10,913 hospitalized COVID-19 patients, a decrease of 456 compared to Wednesday. The Health Ministry said Wednesday that 44% of general care hospital beds set aside for COVID patients were occupied, while 40% of those with ventilators were in use.
However, her parents said she wouldn’t attend the appointment on Thursday because the hospital where it was to take place treats COVID patients and their daughter could be exposed to the virus.
An architect's rendering of the new airport and its control tower.
Canada’s largest airline currently has no plans to use the new Mexico City airport, which is under construction at a México state Air Force base and scheduled to open in March 2022.
Air Canada’s sales director for Latin America and the Caribbean told a virtual press conference that the airline hasn’t yet considered using the new airport because it is still being built and there are unanswered questions about its viability.
“With regard to the Felipe Ángeles Airport, we’re not considering it at the moment; it’s not finished, viability studies and capacity studies for the Mexico City International Airport [AICM] still have to be done so it’s not in our plans,” Luis Noriega said.
He also said that he expects services between Mexico and Canada – which this week eased restrictions for fully vaccinated incoming travelers – to return to pre-pandemic levels by the end of next year. Air Canada currently offers 15 flights per week to Mexico but that number will increase to 28 in November, Noriega said.
The executive’s remarks came after Deputy Transport Minister Carlos Morán Moguel said the government will limit flight operations at the AICM to 61 per hour if airlines don’t voluntarily decide to use the Felipe Ángeles Airport (AIFA), which is being built by the army.
That number of takeoffs and landings is supposed to be the hourly maximum at the AICM but has been regularly exceeded since 2013.
“If the airlines don’t come here [to Felipe Ángeles] we’ll have to limit [flights],” Morán told the newspaper El Financiero during a tour of the new airport’s terminal on Tuesday.
“We’ll have to tell them: this is the [maximum] number of flights, you know there can’t be more.”
The deputy minister said that enforcement of the hourly flight cap will be effective in getting airlines to shift operations to the new airport once pre-pandemic air traffic levels are reached.
Morán said the government’s intention is to ensure that airlines understand the advantages of operating out of the AIFA, located about 45 kilometers north of downtown Mexico City.
General Gustavo Vallejo, the new airport’s chief of construction, said there are several airlines interested in operating out of the AIFA. He told reporters that the fees the airport will charge airlines will be published in the coming days and suggested that they will help spur interest in using the new facility, which is currently 70% complete.
Budget carrier Viva Aerobus and mainly domestic airline Aeromar are expected to be among the airlines that will operate out of the AIFA when it begins operations early next year.
Morán said the new airport won’t be affected by the United States’ downgrading of Mexico’s aviation safety rating from Category 1 to Category 2 because information to which he is privy indicates that the top tier rating will be reinstated before the end of the year. However, there is no guarantee that will occur and Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard is working to a different timetable, pledging that Mexico will regain the top rating in the first half of next year.
The AIFA is part of a three-pronged plan to reduce pressure on the AICM, which was used by 50.3 million passengers in 2019 before air traffic slumped in 2020 due to the pandemic. The federal government is also upgrading the existing Mexico City airport and that in Toluca, México state.
The AIFA will have an initial capacity of 20 million passengers annually but it could eventually handle up to 80 million. In addition to the airport, the army is also building a maintenance base, a hotel and a terminal for travelers on private jets at the Santa Lucía Air Force base site as well as rail and highway links to the facility.
Vallejo said the total cost of the project won’t exceed 79 billion pesos (about US $4 billion), although the Finance Ministry has estimated the price at about 85 billion pesos.
Threatening skies in Cabo San Lucas late Thursday afternoon. webcams de méxico
Hurricane Olaf is forecast to make landfall Thursday night in Baja California Sur between Los Cabos and La Paz, the National Water Commission (Conagua) said at 4:15 p.m CDT.
The forecast also said the storm would probably strengthen to Category 2 by the time it reaches land, sometime between 8:00 p.m. and 1:00 a.m. A forecast by Meteorología México put the time between 7 and 9:00 p.m.
Olaf was located 130 kilometers southeast of Cabo San Lucas at 4:00 p.m. CDT. Maximum sustained winds were 150 kmh with gusts to 185 and it was moving north-northwest at 17 kmh.
Conagua predicts torrential rains in Baja California Sur and very heavy rainfall in Sinaloa and Nayarit. Waves up to five meters high are predicted off the southern Baja Peninsula.
The hurricane warning issued earlier has been extended from Los Barriles to Cabo San Lázaro. Tropical storm warnings are in effect for north of Cabo San Lázaro to Puerto San Andresito and from San Evaristo to Loreto.
The hurricane’s forecast track as of 4:00 p.m. CDT. Hurricane warning areas in red; tropical storm warning areas are in blue. us national hurricane center
Mazatlán’s Carnival week includes two parades along the malecón with giant themed floats, hundreds of costumed dancers and music, music, music. Janet Blaser
One of the main reasons I moved to Mazatlán, “The Pearl of the Pacific,” was because there was so much to do here. Yes, I wanted to lie on the beach and drink margaritas, but I was also looking for things like a cultural scene, interesting places to go on day trips and ways to enjoy nature’s beauty.
I found all that — and more.
After more than a decade living in Mazatlán, I keep an ongoing list of “must-dos” for when friends and family come to town. Here are a few of my favorites.
1. Carnival
Mazatlecos love to have fun. And while we encourage you to celebrate every day, certain events in Mazatlán are especially worth experiencing.
Who doesn’t look good with purple hair?! Mazatlán’s Carnival is a week of festivities, with parades, concerts and general all-round fun. Janet Blaser
Mazatlán’s Carnival — the third largest in the world — is a week of nonstop festivities with parades, amazing gigantic floats with costumed dancers, three elected Carnival queens and a king, stupendous fireworks, partying in the street and music, music, music!
The Carnival tradition here started in 1898 and has only gotten bigger and better as the years have gone by. Dressing up, at least a little, is encouraged (as is dancing with the street performers), so buy yourself a neon-colored wig or some crazy glasses, and plan your week of revelry.
Olas Altas in Centro Histórico is “Carnival Central,” with the main street closed off, vendors selling food, beer and accessories and a half dozen stages with live bands from about 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. every night.
Admission is minimal, and families come early before it gets too crowded.
Carnival week also includes two fantastical parades, giant papier-mache figures set up along the malecón (pier), concerts by big-name pop stars at the baseball stadium and an always-incredible fireworks display that reenacts a historical battle.
Insider’s tip: stay somewhere out of the fray so you can sleep at least a little! Exact dates change each year; Carnival 2022 is scheduled for February 24–March 1, depending on the COVID situation.
Mazatlán’s five-mile oceanfront malecón offers a myriad of photo ops and great people-watching and is an easy, enjoyable walking tour. Janet Blaser
2. Take a picture
Mazatlán offers a smorgasbord of unique and memorable photo ops, from classic sunsets to the infamous site of El Chapo’s capture and arrest, where busloads of Mexican tourists love to have their photo taken. (In front of the Miramar condos on the malecón, with the yellow building and white sign in the background.)
Sunsets are magnificent in every part of town, from Cerritos to Centro, and while beaches provide a great background, other spots — like the top of the Freeman Hotel in Olas Altas — give a bird’s-eye view of the riotous colors as the sun goes down.
In the Golden Zone, the three islands offshore make a postcard-perfect backdrop at any time of day.
A city tour in a pulmonilla (Mazatlán’s iconic golf-cart taxis), will give you an album’s worth of spectacular photos of things and places you’d have never discovered on your own.
Check out the dozen-plus statues along the oceanfront malecón, each offering a one-of-a-kind photo op: next to the Mazatlán Mujer, sitting in the pulmonilla, on Mexican actor Pedro Infante’s motorcycle or, the new classic, in front of the giant multi-colored letters spelling out “Mazatlán” near the iconic Valentino’s nightclub complex in front of the beach and also in Playa Norte.
A city tour in one of Mazatlán’s iconic pulmonillas (open-air taxis) will show you the city in ways you never would have discovered on your own.
3. Island life
Mazatlán is blessed to have three beautiful, environmentally protected islands just offshore. In the summer, Deer, Wolf and Bird islands are verdant and green, thankfully undeveloped, with trails and paths leading up the cliffs and to the top, where spectacular views await. (The center, and largest, island, which receives small boat excursions, has basic but rustic facilities.)
There are very different views of the mainland skyline once you’re on the islands, and the water is clear and super-calm with no waves. From the Golden Zone, hire a Jet Ski to take you out and pick you back up, rent a kayak or paddleboard or book a day trip on a catamaran. Bring water, snacks, sunscreen and anything else you might need, and remember to pack your trash.
Another island option is Isla de la Piedra (Stone Island) — not really an island, just Mazatlán’s southern coast. The flat, walkable beach stretches for miles, flanked by plantations of coconut palms, and as of yet, there are no high-rise towers or major development.
Except for big holidays (when it’s packed with tourists), Stone Island is quiet and peaceful. One section of the beach is lined with simple restaurants; pick one and settle in under a palapa for a day of relaxation. “No shirt, no shoes” is the expected dress code, the seafood is as fresh as can be and the ocean is calm and swimmable.
While paid Stone Island excursions are available, they’re really not necessary. Get yourself to either of the two docks in Playa Sur, where a water taxi (30 pesos round trip) takes you across a short channel.
They say sunsets in Mazatlán are some of the most spectacular in the world, and the trio of islands offshore certainly add to the nightly show. Janet Blaser
Walk off the dock to the dirt road and you’ll see the main beach stretching in front of you. Alternately, walk down the road to the right, toward Cerro de los Chivos, where a small, protected bay and a handful of restaurants await.
4. Eat and drink
Step out of your “Mexican food comfort zone” and look beyond tacos and burritos! Mazatlán is a foodie paradise, and whether you want street food, casual beachfront dining or an elegant restaurant serving contemporary Mexican cuisine, it’s all here.
Mazatlán is justifiably proud to be one of the biggest shrimping ports in the world, and you’ll find fresh, locally caught shrimp (camarón) on every menu for every meal — at more than affordable prices.
Whether it’s an omelet de camarón for breakfast, a shrimp burger or brocheta de camarón for lunch or a shrimp pasta or entrée for dinner, you’ll be able to eat more shrimp than you’ve ever imagined. Seafood lovers will revel in the abundance (and low cost) of fresh tuna, mahi-mahi, snapper and dorado, prepared in a myriad of ways.
They say beer is cheaper than water in Mazatlán, and that may indeed be true: Pacífico has a brewery here, and cerveza is sold in eight- and 10-packs instead of those little ol’ six-packs. Recently, several mezcalerías (mezcal bars) have opened, and Los Osuna offers tours of its 100-year-old tequila plant about an hour outside of town.
Now’s your chance to eat more shrimp than you’ve ever imagined; Mazatlán’s shrimping fleets are some of the biggest in the world, and local menus reflect that abundance.
Not sure how to find a “good” taco stand? Check local Facebook pages, inquire at your hotel concierge desk or ask a taxi driver to take you to a popular one. Most open between 6 and 7 p.m.; a crowd is a good indication you’re at the right place.
Try a papa loca (fire-roasted potato stuffed with carne asada, salsa, guacamole, butter and sour cream), a criminal (a huge quesadilla filled with meat and cheese) or a camote (roasted sweet potato drenched with sweetened condensed milk) for an authentic Mazatlán experience. And if you can find ʼem, don’t pass up a paper bag of hot crispy, cinnamon-y churros.
5. Step back in time
There’s something quietly mystical about walking along cobblestone streets among beautiful turn-of-the-century buildings, and Mazatlán’s Centro Histórico, la corazón de la ciudad (the heart of the city), definitely has that vibe.
In the last decade, many of the abandoned old buildings have been renovated and brought back to life, some as private homes, but others are open to the public as art galleries, restaurants, shops, mezcalerías, boutique hotels, cafes and museums.
Interspersed with the hustle-bustle and commerce are peaceful tree-lined plazas with benches to sit on and watch the world go by while you enjoy a refreshing gelato or agua fresca. Plaza Machado, the main square, is surrounded by charming restaurants and anchored by the Angela Peralta Theater, a gorgeous renovated old building with a year-round calendar of music, dance and theater performances.
Nearby is the busy Pino Suárez Market, a typical Mexican mercado selling everything from souvenir T-shirts to fresh-caught shrimp. Across the street, the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, built in 1856, is worth a respectful visit to see the stunning architecture and stained glass.
You can easily spend an entire day (or several!) walking, eating, drinking, people-watching and shopping. Wear comfortable shoes, and don’t worry about a plan; there’s so much to do and see, and the perfect day will unfold all on its own.
This woman's home was flooded after the San Andrés River overflowed.
Victims of flooding in Ecatepec, México state, protested on Wednesday to demand government help to remove water and mud from their homes.
More than 20 Ecatepec neighborhoods, including San Pedro Xalostoc, Jardines de Santa Clara, México Colonial II, Ciudad Azteca, Hank González and San Andrés de la Cañada, were flooded on Monday after torrential rains – 2.4 centimeters in 90 minutes – struck the municipality, part of the greater Mexico City metropolitan area.
Some 800 homes were damaged, according to the México state government, two people died and at least 120,000 Ecatepec residents were affected by the floodwaters, which cut off some roads in the densely populated municipality.
Flood victims who say they haven’t received any help from authorities protested on the Mexico City-Pachuca highway for more than two hours on Wednesday, blocking traffic bound for the national capital.
“We’ve been without state support for 72 hours. There are no solutions to our requests,” said one placard, even though only 48 hours had elapsed since the flooding occurred.
Traffic at a standstill on the Mexico-Pachuca highway.
“Governor Alfredo del Mazo is not listening to us or helping us,” Víctor Ramírez, a San Pedro Xalostoc resident, told the newspaper El Universal. “The flood was on Monday afternoon. It’s Wednesday now, and he hasn’t come to tour the [affected] neighborhoods and see what we’re facing. What insensitivity!”
Flood victims also protested and blocked traffic at other locations in Ecatepec, including a busy avenue in Ciudad Azteca.
“We need help to remove water from our homes, we’re still flooded here. We’ve lost our possessions, … there are a lot of [flooded] homes and the water level isn’t going down. We don’t have electricity, we can’t cook and we haven’t eaten. We need help from the authorities,” said Javier Conde, a resident of México Colonial II.
“We’ve now been flooded twice,” Margarita Galán Vázquez, a resident of Hank González, told the newspaper La Jornada.
“They haven’t brought machinery or anything here to help us. … We lost all our possessions — clothes, living room furniture and our car. The San Andrés River overflowed here and flooded our home.“
Residents say they are dealing with overwhelming amounts of floodwaters and mud and need government assistance.
Although hundreds of residents complained about the absence of assistance from authorities, the Ecatepec municipal government said Wednesday that cleanup work was underway in 23 affected neighborhoods.
Mayor Fernando Vilchis said the worst affected areas were Polígonos II, Alborada de Aragón, La Esperanza, Santa María Tulpetlac and San Andrés de la Cañada and that his government was working in conjunction with state and federal authorities.
Soldiers and National Guard troops were due to begin delivering food packages donated by the state government to affected residents on Wednesday. But some cleanup and aid efforts have been hampered by further rain.
