Eight members of the same family — including four children — were massacred by gunmen in México state early Monday morning.
Three girls and one boy, including a two-year-old baby, a man and three women were shot in the head at a property in Tultepec, a municipality 45 kilometers north of Mexico City. The victims, who had been sleeping when gunmen entered the property, were found murdered in their beds.
The man who was killed is thought to be the principal target of the attackers, the newspaper El Universal reported.
Neighbors heard gunshots and screams from the property and were afraid to go out, but contacted police. No arrests have been announced for what appears to be a targeted killing.
Bullet holes are visible on the property and police found bullet casings from three different weapons.
Mayor Sergio Luna Cortés said the attack was a “circumstantial situation,” without providing further details.
Luna met with security and justice officials on Monday to request security reinforcements. The National Guard promised to send more personnel.
The state Attorney General’s Office had little to say about the attack, but confirmed it had opened an investigation.
In the first two months of the year, Tultepec, the self-declared fireworks capital of Mexico, registered five homicides with firearms and one with a knife, while in the same period in 2021 there were only three homicides, according to data from the National Public Security System (SENSP).
In January and February there were 594 murders in the state. In 2021, México state was second only to Guanajuato for number of homicides.
The federal government has until now downplayed the importance of vaccinating children under 15 against COVID.
The federal government will offer COVID-19 vaccines to children under 15, state governors revealed Monday after a meeting with President López Obrador.
Governors told reporters outside the National Palace they were advised that the government has ordered a shipment of Pfizer vaccines to be administered to younger children, who have not yet had the opportunity to get a shot.
They didn’t say whether all children aged five and over will qualify, but health regulator Cofepris has given the green light for vaccines to be administered to minors who are at least five.
Hidalgo Governor Omar Fayad said the government would acquire the Pfizer shots via COVAX, a World Health Organization-backed initiative for equitable vaccine distribution.
“I don’t know how many doses [will arrive] but they said that US $78 million has already been paid to the United Nations,” he said.
Querétaro Governor Mauricio Kuri made similar remarks, telling reporters that “the president told us that he’s ordering the vaccines … for children.”
Durango Governor José Rosas Aispuro noted that children will be inoculated with the Pfizer vaccine, the only shot approved by Cofepris for use on minors.
The government’s decision is a significant policy reversal as health officials have asserted that inoculating younger adolescents and kids – with the exception of those aged 12 t0 14 with underlying health problems – is not necessary.
But a court ruling in February may have contributed to the government’s decision to change tack. A federal court ruled that children aged 5 to 11 have the right to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
However, the ruling obliged parents to go to court and obtain an injunction to access vaccines for their young sons and daughters.
About two-thirds of all Mexicans, including minors, are vaccinated against COVID with at least one shot, according to the most recent data. The vaccination rate could increase significantly once shots are offered to kids under 15 as there are almost 32 million children aged 0-14, data from the 2020 census shows.
The Health Ministry reported Monday that 193.9 million COVID-19 shots have been administered to 85.6 million people, 37.6 million of whom have received a booster dose.
The intensity of the pandemic in Mexico has eased significantly since the fourth omicron-fueled wave peaked in January.
Just 281 new cases and only two COVID-19 deaths were reported Monday – figures not seen since the very early days of the coronavirus outbreak in 2020.
Mexico’s accumulated case tally is 5.72 million – of which just 5,844 are estimated to be active – while the official death toll is 323,727. All 32 states are currently low risk green on the federal government’s coronavirus stoplight map.
Truckers blocked the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge on Monday to protest Texas' slow, thorough new inspection policy.
Truckers blocked an international crossing between Tamaulipas and Texas on Monday to protest the Lone Star State’s more stringent inspection policy for commercial vehicles.
Governor Greg Abbott last week directed Texas authorities to conduct more thorough inspections of all commercial vehicles crossing into the state from Mexico in order to detect drugs and migrants trying to enter the U.S. illegally.
“Governor Abbott announced on Wednesday aggressive actions by the state of Texas to secure the border in the wake of President Biden’s decision to end Title 42 expulsions” next month, the Texas government said in a press release, referring to expulsions to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Truck drivers say that the enhanced inspections, which began last Thursday, have resulted in them being stranded at the border for up to 16 hours.
On Monday, they blocked the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge to protest the lengthy inspections, which drivers say take about 45 minutes per truck and are not conducted after 10:00 p.m., leaving truckers stranded overnight.
Truck drivers are protesting in #Reynosa about the long wait times to cross thru @PharrTx bridge. Due to gov @GregAbbott_TX ‘s order for more inspection each truck now waits around 3-4 days to cross into the US. #RGV US Customs already notified them to prepare with food, meds etc pic.twitter.com/Pfd2ve02H2
The bridge normally opens at 6:00 a.m. but didn’t open on Monday morning. It is is the most important point of entry for food imports to the United States.
“Colleagues have fainted from the heat in the cabin – they don’t let you get out,” one protesting trucker told the newspaper Reforma.
“A lot of colleagues suffered hunger and thirst on the first day and they couldn’t go to the bathroom. They took lunch and water the next day, but they were still unable to go to the bathroom,” he said.
“They start [the inspections] at six in the morning and they leave at ten at night. … You have to wait until the next day to unload.”
Truckers said they were previously able to take as many as three loads of freight across the border per day, but now they can only transport one load every two or three days, which affects drivers’ earnings. “You spend what you earn on food,” one trucker said.
Texas State Senator Juan Hinojosa told the news website Border Report that 3,000 trucks per day usually crossed the Pharr-Reynosa bridge into Texas, but only about 300 per day had made it across since the stricter inspection process began.
“The truckers from Mexico are upset because they don’t have food. They don’t have bathrooms to use. They’re running out of fuel and some of the produce is rotting. So they are pretty upset,” Hinojosa said.
He and other Texas senators who represent border communities sent a letter to Abbott urging him to reconsider the mandatory inspection policy for all trucks.
Nuevo León authorities said that Governor Samuel García would travel to the Laredo-Colombia Solidarity International Bridge on Monday afternoon to lobby for swifter inspections.
“They’re now inspecting 100% of trucks … and that has been delaying the entire trade flow,” said Nuevo León Regional Development Minister Marco González.
“That’s why the governor will arrive to [the border town of] Colombia today,” he said.
“We have a meeting with businesspeople and customs authorities, … [including those] from Texas to look at the problem. The governor will make an announcement of an action … that will help speed up [border crossings],” González said.
But getting the Texas government to drop or change its recently implemented policy would appear to be a difficult proposition given its tough border security rhetoric.
“The Biden Administration’s open-border policies have paved the way for dangerous cartels and deadly drugs to pour into the United States, and this crisis will only be made worse by ending Title 42 expulsions,” Abbott said last week.
“With the end of Title 42 expulsions looming next month, Texas will immediately begin taking unprecedented action to do what no state has done in American history to secure our border. The new strategies announced … will further strengthen our already robust response to the Biden border disaster, and we will use any and all lawful powers to curtail the flow of drugs, human traffickers, illegal immigrants, weapons, and other contraband into Texas,” the governor said.
Amnesty International protest against the use of torture by authorities. File photo
The use of torture by government authorities remains a problem in Mexico, according to a former United Nations anti-torture official.
Juan Méndez, a lawyer, former UN special rapporteur on torture and an internationally renowned human rights activist who was jailed for 18 months in his native Argentina for his defense of political prisoners during that country’s military dictatorship, warned during the 2012–18 government led by former president Enrique Peña Nieto that torture was a widespread problem in Mexico.
One example of the problem during Peña Nieto’s presidency was the torture of suspects in the case of 43 missing students from the Ayotzinapa teachers’ college in Guerrero, as documented by the United Nations in a 2018 report.
In an interview with the newspaper Reforma, Méndez said that Mexico is still facing a human rights crisis – despite President López Obrador’s claim that such rights are no longer violated in Mexico – and asserted that a lot still needs to be done to stamp out torture
“My impression is that there is still a lot to be done so that there is complete validity of the prohibition of torture in Mexico,” said Méndez, who was tortured while imprisoned in Argentina in the 1970s before his expulsion from the South American country.
Juan Mendez, a former UN special rapporteur on torture, was once a victim of torture himself in his native Argentina.
“What I believe Mexico shows is that the militarization of the solution to the problem of organized crime is counterproductive,” he added.
Before he was sworn in as president in December 2018, López Obrador promised a gradual withdrawal of the military from the nation’s streets. But as president, he continued to use the military for public security tasks, and in May 2020 published a decree ordering the armed forces to continue doing so for another four years
Méndez said he believed that troops deployed to combat organized crime and violence feel “authorized to use techniques that are against the law,” such as torture. What’s worse, he added, is that “their commanders are not inclined to stop those violations.”
Non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a recent report that “human rights violations – including torture, enforced disappearances, abuses against migrants, extrajudicial killings, gender-based violence and attacks on independent journalists and human rights defenders – have continued” in Mexico since López Obrador took office.
Torture, HRW said, is widely used by Mexican authorities to obtain confessions and extract information.
“It is most frequently applied after victims are detained, often arbitrarily, but before they are handed to civilian prosecutors. Victims are often held incommunicado at military bases or illegal detention sites,” the report said.
In trying to create a public resolution to the Ayotzinapa 43 case, the government has allegedly frequently tortured people to obtain false confessions.
Méndez, author of a new book on human rights, told Reforma that Mexico requires an internal “democratic and social dialogue” to determine what measures would work in the fight against organized crime.
He also said that “transitional justice has a role to play in Mexico because there is a legacy of serious human rights violations.”
The UN has described transitional justice as “an approach to systematic or massive violations of human rights that both provides redress to victims and creates or enhances opportunities for the transformation of the political systems, conflicts, and other conditions that may have been at the root of the abuses.”
Méndez noted that transitional justice usually takes place after a radical change in the political regime of a country – from a dictatorship to a democracy, for example – or after a transition to peace from armed conflict.
“In Mexico, there isn’t a regime change and there hasn’t been … an armed conflict like in Colombia,” he said, although López Obrador claims he is bringing transformational change to Mexico.
“However, transitional justice measures, adapted to the Mexican reality, could be very useful in the democratic dialogue I mentioned,” Méndez said.
AMLO promised to withdraw the military from use in public life, but he’s actually increased it.
Any measure that helps combat the high levels of impunity in Mexico would be welcome. Impunity rates are extremely high for many crimes, including torture.
One case that could buck the trend is that in which marines are accused of sexually torturing two women and one trans man in 2011. Three marines are currently on trial, a development that the Centro Prodh human rights organization described as an important step toward justice.
The entrance to Puerto Balleto, the main settlement on Isla María Madre. Presidencia
An island off the coast of Nayarit where a prison with “walls of water” operated for over 100 years will open to the public as a tourism destination in three months, President López Obrador said Saturday.
Isla María Madre, the largest of four islands in the Islas Marías archipelago, housed a federal prison from 1905 until 2019, when the federal government closed the maritime penitentiary and opened an environmental education center.
In the next chapter of its history, the Pacific Ocean island is set to become an ecotourism destination where visitors will be able to observe seabirds, spend time on the beach and learn about local history. Tours will be managed by the Mexican navy.
“In three months, this island will open for visitors, who will have a lot to see, do, explore and enjoy,” López Obrador said during a visit to Isla María Madre on Saturday.
López Obrador noted that Isla Madre María – an island with a prison that was “famous for cruelty” – has already become a center for recreation, culture, defense of the environment and “knowledge about history and especially literature.”
Prisoners line up in the Islas Marías penitentiary center before its closure in 2019.
“What was a hell is becoming a paradise,” he said.
The president criticized the “unjust and aberrant decision” taken in “a not very distant time” to “overpopulate this island with prisoners,” claiming that inmates’ human rights were violated.
He is convinced that the island’s future will be rosier than its past thanks to the decision taken by his government.
Tourists will be able to reach Isla María Madre via boat from San Blas, Nayarit, and Mazatlán, Sinaloa, López Obrador said.
He said that a navy vessel with room for 270 passengers and two ferries to be purchased by the government will take visitors to the island, located about 100 kilometers off the coast of Nayarit.
Tardamos cuatro horas en la travesía desde San Blas hasta la Isla Madre. Como lo dije hoy por la mañana: en tres meses, la gente podrá visitar esta antigua prisión ahora convertida en centro cultural y eco-turístico. pic.twitter.com/mDGknhpjps
The president shared on Twitter images and video from his Saturday trip.
It took López Obrador and his companions, among whom were his wife and military officials, four hours to get to Isla María Madre from San Blas, but the new ferries will be able to complete the trip in 2 1/2 hours. Isla María Madre also has a refurbished landing strip on which planes that could fly tourists in from Mexico City in just two hours can touch down.
The president said that people of modest means will be able to visit the island, explaining that there will be cheap accommodation for families.
“It shouldn’t be an island for the elite; we’re going to seek a balance,” López Obrador said.
To avoid damaging the environment, no new buildings will be built to accommodate visitors. Instead, tourists will stay in existing houses where prisoners and prison employees formerly lived. The homes, which are being renovated or rebuilt, are currently occupied by workers preparing the island for tourism.
Arches covered in a colorful mural featuring South African antiapartheid revolutionary and former president Nelson Mandela – who spent 18 years imprisoned on Robben Island – will welcome visitors to Puerto Balleto, the main settlement on Isla María Madre, where prisoners used to work in salt mines and farm shrimp.
Tourists will be able to visit the town’s renovated square, its church – where one priest offered Mass to prisoners for over 30 years – and a museum, where they will learn about notable inmates such as writer José Revueltas, who was imprisoned on Isla Madre María in the 1930s for his political activism in favor of the Mexican Communist Party.
Revueltas wrote a novel called Los muros de agua (The Walls of Water), whose characters were imprisoned on the island and endured its isolation and harsh conditions.
In later years, some prisoners lived with their families in partial freedom and relatively good conditions, the Associated Press reported.
However, “that changed when President Felipe Calderón launched the war against the drug cartels in 2006 and hundreds of new prisoners were sent there,”AP said, noting that the inmate population reached 8,000 in 2013.
The protest in Monterrey began peacefully but shifted to violence after participants were denied access to the government building.
Protesters set the doors of the state government building on fire in Monterrey, Nuevo León, on Sunday, following the disappearance of 18 women in less than a month, including a 12-year-old girl.
Activists and relatives of the victims were spurred on by confusion surrounding the identity of a body discovered on Thursday, which was later confirmed to be 27-year-old Marí Fernanda Contreras. There was also anger about the earlier release of a suspect in Conteras’ case and the disappearance of another 18-year-old woman, Debanhi Susana Escobar Bazaldúa, on Friday.
The protest was initially peaceful but became violent after the group tried to enter the government building by force and were repelled by riot police.
The march had been heading toward the state Attorney General’s Office but returned to the government building after the protesters realized that the state Women’s Minister, Alicia Leal Puerta, was going to give a press conference there, which would also be attended by the head of the local search commission.
The protesters tried to push past the officers and some sprayed paint on the helmets of female police officers who said they were beaten by the angry citizens. Some of the group later set fire to the doors of the building.
A woman stands in front of the state government’s building after fellow protesters set its doors on fire. Screen capture
The state Attorney General’s Office said that citizens were to blame for creating confusion around Contreras’ disappearance. “Many doubts have been expressed about the investigation of the case of María Fernanda Contreras Ruiz, which come from the interpretation of the facts by the citizens themselves,” it wrote on Twitter.
The state government said on Friday that 11 of the women reported missing had been located and that in 14 cases women had gone missing after fleeing, rather than being kidnapped.
State Public Security Minister Aldo Fasci denied that the disappearances were due to a criminal gang kidnapping women. “The rumor that there is a gang kidnapping women has been totally discarded; that is not happening in Nuevo León,” he said.
However, Fasci gave some alarming figures on the rate of disappearances this year. “After the pandemic, the number of disappearances of people in Nuevo León unfortunately increased … We have an average of eight missing people a day,” in 2022, he said.
Fasci added that most of the women that had disappeared were minors: 275 were women and 117 of those were adults.
The protests in Nuevo León began on Saturday when demonstrators called for Fasci’s resignation and chanted “Mariana is not an ally, she is privileged” in reference to the governor’s wife, Mariana Rodríguez Cantú, who heads a state government organization dedicated to social causes.
Emilio Lozoya, former CEO of Pemex, Mexico's state-owned oil company.
Former Pemex CEO Emilio Lozoya – accused of corruption and imprisoned since November – has reached an agreement that will allow him to leave jail in exchange for over US $10.7 million in compensation, the newspaper Reforma reported Monday.
Extradited to Mexico from Spain in July 2020, Lozoya – the state oil company’s CEO between 2012 and 2016 – is accused of receiving more than $10 million in bribes from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht in exchange for awarding it a lucrative contract for work on the Pemex refinery in Tula, Hidalgo. He is also accused of taking a more than $3 million kickback from the president of Altos Hornos de México (AHMSA), a company from which Pemex purchased a dilapidated fertilizer plant in 2015 at an allegedly vastly inflated price.
Barring a last-minute change of mind by the federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR), the former Pemex chief is likely to be released from Mexico City prison Reclusorio Norte on Tuesday, Reforma reported, citing information from federal authorities.
The newspaper said that Lozoya has finally reached an agreement with authorities that will see him pay almost $10.8 million to Pemex in compensation for the Odebrecht and AHMSA cases.
The former official has also negotiated a conditional suspension of the two cases against him, Reforma said.
The Agro Nitrogenados fertilizer plant had been out of operation for 14 years when Lozoyo arranged for Pemex to buy it.
Pemex, which reportedly accepted the compensation offer last month, will receive $7.38 million for the Odebrecht case and $3.4 million for the “junk” fertilizer plant case.
An initial payment of $1 million will be made for each case after the agreement is signed, Reforma said. Lozoya will have to pay the full amounts by the end of the year.
The ex-official, a close ally of former president Enrique Peña Nieto, will put up five properties as a guarantee for the compensation amount. Among them are his home in the Mexico City neighborhood of Lomas de Bezares, his wife’s beach house in Ixtapa, Guerrero, and his father’s property in the Bosques del Pedregal neighborhood of the capital.
Reforma reported that the FGR will also suspend cases against Lozoya’s mother, sister and wife.
The former Pemex CEO in November offered to pay $5 million in exchange for the FGR withdrawing its accusations against him in connection with both the Odebrecht and AHMSA cases. But that offer was rejected.
President López Obrador said Monday that he approved of the pact between Lozoya and the FGR. “We agree with it because it means returning to the people what was stolen from them,” he said.
However, López Obrador added that Lozoya’s offer should be reviewed to determine whether it is fair compensation for the corrupt acts he is accused of committing.
It is surprising that the president doesn’t oppose the ex-Pemex chief’s offer to buy his way out of prison, given that he has made combating corruption and impunity central aims of his government.
Lozoya is one of the most high-profile Peña Nieto-era officials who have been detained on corruption charges. The previous federal government was plagued by scandals, including a massive embezzlement scheme, for which former cabinet minister Rosario Robles was detained. Robles is in prison but has not yet faced trial.
Community residents detained seven National Guard members in the town basketball court on Thursday. Video screenshot
Angry citizens in a town in Oaxaca detained seven National Guardsmen and declared war on the Mexican state on Thursday, before releasing the officers early on Saturday.
Citizens in the predominantly Zapotec town of San Cristóbal Amatlán, 130 kilometers south of Oaxaca city, blocked the entrance to the town with burning tires and detained the Guardsmen after disarming them on the town’s basketball court and puncturing the tires of their vehicle.
The citizens have been in a conflict with elected authorities for a year and accuse Mayor Juan Celso Santos and his council of corruption.
The security agents were trying to free an education councilor who was detained in the town on Thursday, but were outnumbered by the angry locals. Councillor Eufemia Flores Antonio had been offered protection by the Oaxaca Human Rights Ombudsman (DDHPO).
The protesters said in a statement that they were at war with the Mexican state. “We declare war against the Mexican state. We declare ourselves an autonomous municipality. We appoint self defense groups not to attack, but to defend the people of San Cristóbal Amatlán,” the statement read.
The standoff was resolved after negotiations between community members and state and federal officials.Twitter @JoseCarlosFO
They blamed security forces for intimidation and said they were inspired to action by the words of President López Obrador.
“We have been without a government for months. We declare that no government will intimidate us, we are indigenous people. We urge the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples to fulfill its word. As President López Obrador says, the people give power and the people take it away. We have made this decision because we are tired of being repressed,” the statement added.
San Cristóbal Amatlán has a long-running conflict with government authorities which has blurred the lines of who is in charge. Citizens have pressured local officials to leave their posts for a year and elected officials have been detained. Under pressure, local officials resigned from their posts, but a state court later ruled that they were forced to resign under threat of violence.
“The authorities were previously deprived of their liberty on April 14 and July 12 … which resulted in the early termination of their positions,” the court said in its ruling.
The Guardsmen were released on Saturday at 1:45 a.m. after negotiations with state authorities and the federal Defense Ministry. Local citizens and government authorities sang the national anthem together after reaching an agreement.
Politics are complicated in Oaxaca. The state is divided into 570 small municipalities — almost one quarter of the total in the country — many of which are semi-autonomous and are governed under the indigenous governing code known as usos y costumbres.
President López Obrador announced preliminary results and thanked supporters in a Sunday night video statement. Youtube screenshot
Fewer than 20% of Mexico’s eligible voters cast a ballot in Sunday’s polarizing recall referendum that was boycotted by much of the opposition.
President López Obrador was projected to win more than 90% of the vote, according to the National Electoral Institute (INE). The final result of the ballot, which asked whether López Obrador should see out the remainder of his six-year term, will be known in the coming days.
Turnout for the referendum was between 17% and 18.2%, according to INE’s projections, well short of the 40% needed for the result to be binding. The nationalist leader, who enjoys approval ratings of about 60% and won a landslide election in 2018, introduced the recall vote against himself.
In the first half of his term, López Obrador implemented sharp budget cuts and expanded social programs for the elderly and young job seekers. He also focused public investment on a handful of emblematic projects, including an oil refinery, a 1,400-kilometer tourist train ride and a new airport for the capital.
Mexico’s economic recovery has been sluggish, with investment held back by policy uncertainty and a near-record homicide rate. López Obrador has also clashed with the US over energy reform designed to favor the state electricity company, with a crucial vote set for this week.
But critics and the opposition said the ballot was a US $80 million farce designed to boost the president’s popularity. They fear that López Obrador wants to remain in power beyond Mexico’s one-term limit and that he is trying to undermine INE.
López Obrador — who has denied that he is seeking re-election — has called INE, a cornerstone of Mexico’s relatively young democracy, antidemocratic and accused it of acting illegally. He recently said he would push a reform to have INE’s board members directly elected.
Many voters, however, remain loyal to the president, who they see as a rare, incorruptible politician who spends time in the country’s small towns meeting regular people.
Mercedes Santamaría, from the president’s home state of Tabasco, said three years was not long enough to end corruption and impunity and that conditions were improving under López Obrador.
“I’m very happy that he redirected money that was previously for bureaucrats to line their pockets . . . while the people were dying of hunger,” the 65-year-old said outside a polling station.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2022. All rights reserved.
Tthis photo of Paricutín volcano, taken soon after it began erupting in 1943, has appeared in many children’s textbooks. USGS
Growing up in New Jersey in the 1970s meant that Mexico was almost like another planet, something that appeared in Clint Eastwood movies.
But since moving to Mexico, I have had two experiences that jarred memories related to Mexico from my primary school days — things I had read about in textbooks, then got a chance to find out they were really, really real. One was Teotihuacán. The other was the Paricutín volcano.
Paricutín did not become famous in the mid-20th century because of its size. It made it into the news and — decades later, into school textbooks — because it was the first cinder cone, or scoria, volcano to be documented in real time.
These are short-lived events geologically speaking, small volcanoes that suddenly emerge, erupt for a time, then go completely dormant.
Paricutín arose from Michoacán farmer Dionisio Pulido’s cornfield in 1943; its eruption officially lasted for nine years. By 1952, it had left a 424-meter-high cone, two towns completely buried in lava and ash and three others heavily damaged. Hundreds had to permanently relocate, resulting in the creation of two new towns.
Dionisio Pulido, the farmer who discovered the volcano on his land.
Since then, however, the volcano has become something of a blessing, bringing tourists to see the cone, which “smolders” because of water getting into the still-hot cone, and the partly buried church of San Juan Parangaricutiro.
It is worth the visit to get a taste of just how little Mother Nature cares for humans when she decides what she’s going to do.
For weeks before the eruption, locals reported sounds like thunder but no clouds, probably from the movement of magma. There were also hundreds of small earthquakes the day before the eruption started.
The spot where the crater arose in Pulido’s field had always been low, and corn did not grow well there. At the time of the eruption, he and his family were working that field.
Suddenly that spot swelled and formed a fissure more than two meters across, hissing and ejecting hydrogen sulfide. Within hours, the fissure was a small crater.
The entire town was alarmed as the volcano grew. Celedonio Gutiérrez, who witnessed the eruption on the first night, reported, “… when night began to fall, we heard noises like the surge of the sea, and red flames of fire rose into the darkened sky — some rising 800 meters or more into the air —that burst like golden marigolds, and a rain like fireworks fell to the ground.”
Facade of the mostly buried San Juan Parangaricutiro church. LBM1948/Creative Commons
Spewing ash, smoke and rock, the volcano reached 50 meters in height on the first day, and 100–150 meters by the end of the week. Within eight months, the cone was 365 meters tall, forcing a series of evacuations that extended outward as the volcano grew. Fortunately, the lava’s slow movement meant minimal loss of life.
Most of the growth and damage occurred in that first year, but it brought many journalists and scientists from Mexico and abroad to study the development of a volcano. Tourists also came to see the spectacle despite the danger of unseen flying rocks.
From then on, activity slowed and interest waned, leaving mostly a few scientists to see Paricutín’s last major burst of activity in early 1952.
The volcano captured the imagination of many in the mid-20th century. It made international news despite World War II. There are references to it in Hollywood movies from the time as well as in artworks such as those done by Diego Rivera and Dr. Atl.
Needless to say, it was a disaster for the residents of Paricutín and Parangaricutiro. Both towns were completely encased in lava. It destroyed the lives of local residents, not in the least that of Dionisio Pulido, who did not lose his sense of humor despite everything.
Before leaving his home for the last time, he placed a sign on the cornfield that read in Spanish: “This volcano is owned and operated by Dionisio Pulido.”
A nighttime image of the volcano taken in 1946. USGS
But since then, there has been a silver lining: the dramatic almost buried church alongside the still-treeless cone has brought tourists to the area ever since. Writer and tour organizer Tony Burton says that many people “of a certain age” come to Paricutín specifically because they read about it as a child.
Both the volcano and lava field over the church are accessible by foot or horseback and make for a very good initial introduction to the area’s natural beauty and local Purépecha culture. Climbing the volcano requires a guide, but the buried church doesn’t. While the attractions do bring in a significant number of tourists, the attraction has not significantly ruined the traditional way of life in the area.
The Purépecha community of Angahuan, about 32 kilometers from Uruapan, is the gateway to the volcano and lava field. Locals still weave rebozo shawls the way they always have, and food is still often cooked over wood fires, especially in homes and small family restaurants.
The town provides cabins and other accommodations with stunning views of the volcano, as well as a museum dedicated to it. The town and the volcano can be visited year-round, with comfortable temperatures in the daytime, although it can get chilly at night.
Paricutín has been called the youngest volcano in the world, but that is debatable. This particular volcano may never erupt again, but there will be another at some point in the future somewhere in Mexico.
Leigh Thelmadatter arrived in Mexico 18 years ago and fell in love with the land and the culture in particular its handcrafts and art. She is the author of Mexican Cartonería: Paper, Paste and Fiesta (Schiffer 2019). Her culture column appears regularly on Mexico News Daily.
