Weddings on the sly violate coronavirus restrictions

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August 14, 2020

A wedding in Guanajuato where few coronavirus prevention measures were being observed.

Morelos is currently orange on the national risk level stoplight map but one wouldn’t know it for all the secret weddings and other events going on in the city of Jiutepec in violation of the state’s social distancing regulations.

According to the newspaper Milenio, large social gatherings are going on repeatedly in the municipality and authorities have given up trying to shut them down.

One such event was an outdoor wedding involving about 150 people last Saturday.

In video footage, wedding guests are crowded together, drinking and dancing to live music and few are wearing face masks. Milenio said organizers did not take participants’ temperature to check for signs of Covid-19 infection and that attempts to call 911 and have authorities attend were ignored.

The report also claimed that 911 services have given up responding to such calls in the face of so many social events going on.

Party venues and musical groups are quietly offering their services despite pandemic restrictions, which will only be eased once the state moves to yellow on the coronavirus risk map.

Owners of event facilities admitted to advertising for customers despite the regulations.

Jiutepec officials later told Milenio that local Civil Protection head Francisco Javier Barona Téllez went to check on Saturday’s wedding but was not successful in shutting it down.

Meanwhile, a wedding in Guanajuato, also on Saturday, cost the facility in which it was held a fine of 25,000 pesos (US $1,135). Officials were alerted to a party at the Centro Fox, a facility in San Francisco del Rincón operated by former president Vicente Fox and his wife.

They found that coronavirus protocols were not being observed.

Sources: Milenio (sp)

As stealing fuel becomes more difficult, thieves turn to train robbery

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Susy Buchanan

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August 14, 2020

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With the government having clamped down on fuel theft, criminals in Guanajuato and Querétaro are increasingly turning to freight trains.

Last year an average of two railcars were robbed each week, but in the first six months of 2020 that number has increased to three per day, the newspaper Reforma reports.

The shift in targets is likely due to the pressure inflicted on the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel, notorious for fuel theft in the area. Its leader, José Antonio Yépez Ortiz, alias El Marro, was arrested on August 2 on charges of kidnapping, organized crime and fuel theft after an 18-month manhunt.

Freight companies and cargo transportation experts have identified hot spots for train robberies in Mexico’s Bajío central lowlands region: El Ahorcado in Querétaro and Empalme Escobedo and Apaseo El Alto and Apaseo El Grande in Guanajuato.

The exact number of train robberies that have occurred is unknown, as many go unreported, said security expert Marcos Solórzano Cataño, and the problem is not likely to go away anytime soon. Fuel thieves have the infrastructure and the protection of local residents already in place, making the transition from gas to cargo relatively easy.

Solórzano said thieves mainly target train cars carrying auto parts, grains, seeds, consumer goods and construction material.

Nationally, the number of train robberies has been declining. In 2016, 9,042 train robberies were reported whereas the first three months of 2020 have seen just 1,306.

The majority of train robberies occur in Puebla, Veracruz and Tlaxcala, government officials say.

Source: Reforma (sp), Excélsior (sp)

Coping with Covid-19: survivor creates a ‘common sense’ guide

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Susy Buchanan

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August 13, 2020

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Jorge Camacho has written the book on coronavirus survival.

Looking for a common sense guide to surviving a coronavirus diagnosis without going to the hospital? Meet Jorge Camacho Treviño, a man who wrote the book on it.

In an interview with news agency EFE, the Mexican engineer and teacher pointed out that his 11-step guide to navigating the disease was born out of his desire to fight the coronavirus from home.

Camacho is 50. He has high blood pressure, diabetes and is overweight, factors he knew put him at high risk for complications. He is also on a fixed income and worried his treatment might drain his bank account.

But he was determined to recover. So this admitted fan of survival stories about those who have conquered adversity decided to write his own.

With Mexico poised to surpass 500,000 cases, and after more than 56,000 people have died, Camacho hopes his guide will help others defeat the disease.

Camacho's virus survival guide. — Camacho’s virus survival guide.

The document (in Spanish) is available as a free download on the Facebook page “Camacho vs Covead.”

“Every Mexican who has my guide in his hands and follows the 11 steps is very likely to succeed and spend less money than in a hospital,” he said.

The measures Camacho proposes are:

Remain in regular contact with family members and the doctor. This helps keep the patient calm and puts the body in optimal condition to fight the virus.
Obtain medical equipment to measure body temperature, blood oxygen levels and blood pressure.
Keep a precise record of symptoms by day and time and also make a note of all vital signs. This will help you track the progress of the disease and whether it is safe to remain at home.
If your blood oxygen level drops below 90%, lie on your stomach and measure it again after 30 minutes when it is likely you will obtain a normal reading. Stay in bed as much as possible, and sleep on your stomach.
Stay home as much as possible and wear a mask at all times to avoid infecting family members. Designate just one person to help you with meals and medicine, and always maintain sanitary measures and keep at a safe distance.
There is no reason why you should not receive the best medical care available because your symptoms will be complicated. If you can’t afford to pay for your care, ask a relative for help. (Camacho estimates his treatment cost him 25,000 pesos, or US $1,125.)
Whether you meet with your doctor in his or her office or via Zoom, WhatsApp or FaceTime, describe all of your symptoms in detail including the day, time, intensity and frequency.
Eat healthily and make sure you get a lot of green vegetables and citrus fruits. Take vitamins if you have a loss of appetite as this can help boost your immune system. Keep up to date with new information on the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on the economy.
Quit drinking soda. Drink water and electrolyte solutions instead.
If you lose your appetite, eat canned foods, powdered smoothies or your favorite nutritional drinks such as Ensure or Glucerna.
Get all the lab and medical tests needed to provide your doctor with the information they need.

Camacho cautions that people can be unknowing carriers of the disease, as he tested negative for the coronavirus several times before the results came back positive. He also recommended that patients keep their minds occupied and avoid thinking negative thoughts.

Forty-two days after he first started showing symptoms, Camacho still struggles with consequences of the disease, including muscle fatigue and a persistent cough, but he is coronavirus free.

So far, his guide has been shared more than 1,200 times. “Thank you very much for taking the time to share information that can help someone else and for thinking about all people,” wrote one grateful Facebook user. “I wish you to recover 100% of your health and that you can serve as an example and inspiration to many people who need a light of hope in these times.”

Source: Forbes (sp), Infobae (sp), EFE (sp)

Carlos Slim Foundation to support distribution of Covid-19 vaccine

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Michelle Aguilar

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August 13, 2020

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Assuming it passes successfully through the Phase 3 trials it is currently undergoing, a Covid-19 vaccine developed by the University of Oxford in the U.K. and licensed to the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca will be packaged for Latin American distribution at Mexican laboratories, thanks to a deal between the pharmaceutical and the Carlos Slim Foundation.

Mexico’s role will be to package the 150 million to 250 million doses of the vaccine to be distributed in the region. AstraZeneca already has facilities in Argentina.

According to Argentine President Alberto Fernández, who announced the deal today, the agreement will assure Latin American access to the vaccine as soon as it becomes publicly available, possibly in the first six months of 2021.

“What this agreement makes possible is that Latin America, and particularly Argentina, will be able to have access to the vaccine six to 12 months before we would have had access to it had we not been able to make this agreement,” he said.

“AstraZeneca recognizes the urgency of the worldwide pandemic and will work in alliance with partners for the distribution of the vaccine in an egalitarian format,” the Slim Foundation said in a press release. “AstraZeneca is working with strategic partners in Latin America, including Argentina and Mexico, taking advantage of its capacity to facilitate the early availability of the potential vaccine.”

Fernández said the vaccines will be distributed fairly between the Latin American countries that request it. AstraZeneca has promised that the vaccine will be affordable, at only a few dollars a dose, and it does not expect to profit from it during the pandemic.

The vaccine’s trials with human volunteers are currently taking place in the United Kingdom, Brazil, and South Africa and are scheduled to begin in the U.S. this month. Early clinical results have made AstraZeneca’s vaccine, which uses a weakened version of a common-cold virus, one of the leading candidates to be launched globally, with researchers reporting that it is safe and creates antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2 virus with minimal side effects. The shot is expected to provide protection for about a year, probably using a two-dose delivery system.

President López Obrador said Thursday the government has allocated 25 billion pesos (US $1.12 billion) for the vaccine to make it free and universal.

“All Mexicans are going to have access to the vaccine, and there should be no need for the poor to worry,” he said.

Sources: El Financiero (sp), Reuters (en)

More states follow Oaxaca’s lead and move to ban junk food sales to kids

By

Susy Buchanan

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August 13, 2020

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drinking coca-cola — The national drink.

After Oaxaca banned the sale of junk food and sugary drinks to minors on August 5, at least 10 states and Mexico City have expressed an interest in following suit.

Oaxaca’s new law, which imposes fines and even jail time for anyone — other than parents — who provide unhealthy packaged foods to children under the age of 18, effectively putting junk food in the same category as alcohol and cigarettes.

The measure is seeing support from across Mexico, and across party lines.

A day after the law was approved in Oaxaca, the governor of Tabasco, Adán Augusto López, stated that he would present a similar initiative, although he has yet to do so.

“We must return as much as possible to [eating] traditional food, and we must start with the children so that they are educated,” López said.

In Colima, the Morena party put forward a bill in Congress banning not just the sale of foods high in fat, sodium or sugar to children, but also the advertising of such products in schools.

On August 10, Chihuahua jumped on board with an initiative New Alliance Deputy René Frías Bencomo, a former teacher, presented to Congress.

“It is intended that the sellers and vendors of these products receive administrative sanctions in case of incurring any fault, leaving the responsibility for the consumption of said products in the hands of parents and guardians,” Frías said. “It is alarming that Mexico ranks first in childhood obesity worldwide and second in obesity in adults. At the national level, Chihuahua is in first place in childhood obesity,” he wrote in his proposal.

Nuevo León’s Congressional Health Commission and members of the Morena party are working on a series of separate initiatives addressing junk food which would amend the state health law, a law on children’s rights and the law to prevent obesity.

“It is more expensive for the state to invest in hospitals and drugs than in prevention. We are not saying that the products are going to end, no one says that, but rather that minors do not consume these products, and they are not easily within their reach,” Deputy Luis Armando Torres stated.

The health commission is also seeking to limit the advertising of junk food.

Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum confirmed that a proposal similar to the one approved in Oaxaca is being considered for the nation’s capital, where six out of 10 children are overweight or obese.

Lawmakers in Hidalgo, Sonora, Guanajuato, Puebla, Baja California Sur and Guerrero are also considering following suit, as is Tamaulipas where support for such an initiative has crossed party lines, receiving the backing of both National Action Party (PAN) and Morena representatives.

Federal legislators from four different political parties planned to propose a nationwide ban today on the sale and marketing of junk food to children.

Source: Milenio (sp), Animal Político (sp), Excélsior (sp), BCS Noticias (sp)

Herbicide shortage will have major effect on harvests, farmers warn

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Michelle Aguilar

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August 13, 2020

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The agriculture industry is predicting an economic cost of 76 billion pesos (US $3.4 billion) this year due to lower harvests as a result of a government-induced shortage of a controversial herbicide.

Farmers are expected to run out of stockpiles of glyphosate, whose import has been banned by the Ministry of Environment (Semarnat), during the fall-winter farming cycle, according to the National Agricultural Council (CNA), an industry organization.

The shortage will hurt seven million farmers and other workers economically dependent on the agricultural industry, according to two agrochemical industry organizations.

“The inventories are running out. We as farmers don’t have glyphosate for the … fall-winter cycle. If [the government] doesn’t lift restrictions so that imports can continue, the only thing it’s going to achieve is a major drop in the production of foodstuffs in the country,” said CNA president Bosco de la Vega.

Eliminating the use of glyphosate would reduce harvests — chiefly in grains — by 30% to 50%, said CNA treasurer Francisco Chapa, who discounted assertions that glyphosate is harmful to humans.

An agrochemical industry spokesman said the industry has not been able to find a substitute for glyphosate that is nearly as effective. He also claims that the importation ban is not based on scientific evidence and is hurting agriculture.

In use worldwide since 1974, the herbicide is one of the most used in U.S. agriculture and forestry and is the main ingredient in the herbicide known as Roundup. Because glyphosate indiscriminately kills plant life, in agriculture it can only be used on crops genetically modified to tolerate it.

In recent years, its use has become controversial. According to Semarnat, the herbicide’s use has increased fifteenfold worldwide since 1996 and is used by 45% of farmers. In 2015, a committee of the World Health Organization classified it as a probable carcinogen, although previous WHO studies in which glyphosate was fed to laboratory rats determined that it was not harmful to humans. France and Colombia have banned its use and some countries in Asia have placed limits on it.

Studies in the U.S. have determined that glyphosate’s toxicity meets safety limits for humans. However, the National Pesticide Information Center, a collaboration between the University of Oregon and the Environmental Protection Agency, also notes that other products often contained in glyphosate compounds can cause skin or eye, nose, and throat irritation if users are directly exposed to spraying.

In Mexico, the National Council for Science and Technology has found links between the herbicide and the increased incidence of more than 20 cancer-related, endocrine, and other illnesses. Semarnat wants to see the gradual elimination of all use of the herbicide within four years, according to a plan rolled out Tuesday by Environment Minister Victor Manuel Toledo in an interview with the newspaper La Jornada.

President López Obrador came out in support of the minister this week, saying he supports Toledo’s plan to end glyphosate use.

In a press release last November announcing the ban on imports, Semarnat said the ban is not only to protect humans but also the environment, especially pollinators. Restricting glyphosate’s use will also reduce the agricultural industry’s use of genetically modified crops, the release said, since only such crops can tolerate the herbicide’s use.

Semarnat’s position appears to have put it at odds with the Ministry of Agriculture, which has called for studies to be carried out over the next four years to determine the safety of the herbicide.

Sources: Reforma (sp), La Jornada (sp)

Coronavirus cases set to reach half a million; still no decline in curve

By

Susy Buchanan

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August 13, 2020

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A health worker applies a Covid-19 test in Cuauhtémoc, Mexico City.

Six months after the Covid-19 pandemic began, Mexico has not yet managed to reduce infections and the number of cases is creeping toward half a million: as of Wednesday there were 498,380.

Specialists from the National Autonomous University (UNAM) say that although there have been advances and achievements in the fight against the coronavirus, there are factors that will make emergency health care increasingly complicated from now on.

Since social distancing restrictions were lifted in most of the country in June, cases and deaths have continued to increase. “The emergency services have not yet been saturated, but a significant number of deaths have also occurred outside of hospitals, as various research studies have shown,” UNAM public health expert Carlos Magis Rodríguez said, noting that if those patients had also been hospitalized the system would be overwhelmed.

“At this time we have not yet seen the decline of the curve in any of the states, like those seen in other countries,” he said, noting that there is a shortage of health care workers to attend to the patients who are already ill, let alone a surge in new cases when flu season begins in October.

During his daily briefing yesterday, Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell acknowledged that the winter flu season will likely put a strain on an already overtaxed system. “This would represent a significant challenge for the health system since there would be two similar respiratory diseases that could lead to a number of people being hospitalized. The challenge is greater with two diseases,” he said.

The daily tally of coronavirus cases and deaths. Deaths are numbers reported and not necessarily those that occurred each day. milenio

The Ministry of Health reported 737 new deaths from Covid-19 yesterday, bringing the total number of deaths to 54,666. Sixty-five percent were men, and the average age of the victims was 63.

There were 5,858 new cases reported in the previous 24 hours.

In Mexico, 42,530 people have active cases of the coronavirus, meaning they have experienced symptoms within the last 14 days, a number that represents 8% of total cases. So far, 336,635 patients have recovered, and hospitals across Mexico have an average of 41% occupancy.

Among states with more than 1,000 active cases, Mexico City is in the lead followed by Guanajuato, México state, Nuevo León, Coahuila, Jalisco, Puebla, Tabasco, Yucatán, Veracruz and San Luis Potosí. Together, these states make up 65.6% of the nation’s active cases.

Campeche, Chiapas and Chihuahua all have fewer than 170 cases each.

Source: La Jornada (sp), Reforma (sp), Infobae (sp)

In Mexico’s poorest town, junk food easier to buy than fresh fruit, vegetables

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Susy Buchanan

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August 13, 2020

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santos reyes yucuna — Bring your own vegetables.

Junk food is easier to come by than vegetables in Santos Reyes Yucuná, Oaxaca, Mexico’s poorest town.

Of the 1,300 inhabitants, 99.9% live below the poverty line, according to the social development agency Coneval, in conditions similar to those of Mozambique, Africa.

There are five small grocery stores in the Mixtec municipality, but not one of them sells fresh food or produce. In addition, due to drought residents have been unable to grow their own food.

There are no jobs so adults travel to other cities to sell goods, often leaving their children in charge of caring for their grandparents. Packaged and processed food is their only option.

Towns like Santos Reyes Yucuná have become what experts call “healthy food deserts,” where fruits and vegetables are scarce.

According to Baruch Sanginés, a geographer and demographer from Mexico’s National Autonomous University and the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences, what happens in Yucuná is a reflection of what is happening throughout Oaxaca and Mexico.

Junk food is readily available: Sanginés says 96% of residents of Mexico City have a store selling unhealthy, processed products within 100 meters of where they live, whereas 51% have similar access to a store selling fruits or vegetables.

In Mexico, there are 40 times more convenience and stores selling abarrotes than there are stores that offer fresh food.

The lack of accessibility to healthy food, in addition to the wide availability of junk food products, has led to what Sanginés calls an “obesogenic environment,” one which encourages unhealthy eating habits and the lack of exercise.

Sanginés says Oaxaca’s new law banning the sale of junk food to minors is a step in the right direction for Mexico, as education is not enough to combat the country’s long history of unhealthy eating habits that lead to obesity and diabetes.

“The problem is that the market plays in favor of products that have a more industrialized process in their creation. The market favors these products and the accessibility that the population has to these junk foods is much greater than the accessibility of healthy foods,” Sanginés says.

One might wonder what the children of Santos Reyes Yucuná will eat with Oaxaca’s junk food ban in place but the law does not prohibit parents buying such food for their children. Nor is it likely there will be much effort to enforce it.

Source: El Universal (sp), Imer Noticias (sp)

Family claims Puebla lynching victim was innocent

By

Susy Buchanan

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August 13, 2020

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A woman places flowers at the grave of lynching victim Manrique Mezquita.

A cable television installer who was lynched by an angry mob in San Marcos Tlacoyalco, Puebla, on Sunday was innocent, his family declared.

Manrique Mezquita Tadeo, who was beaten and set on fire, was so badly burned that his family could only identify him by his tattoos.

“It was shocking. He had no face, he was torn to pieces. His body was swollen and, burned; his guts were out. He already smelled bad,” his brother Lauro said after claiming the remains.

Mezquita, who lived in nearby Tehuacán, was working in San Marcos. When his shift was over he bought beer and went to a park to drink them with two other people.

What happened next is unclear, but witnesses say he got into a fight with men who accused him of attempting to kidnap a young girl from her home.

Police arrived and took Mezquita into custody where he was held for several hours. No report of an attempted kidnapping was ever filed.

But while Mezquita was in police custody, word that a kidnapper was in their midst spread quickly through the town, and by 9 p.m. residents rang the church bells, calling for residents to gather.

Anger quickly consumed the assembled crowd and armed with sticks and stones they stormed the police station, breaking down the doors and a portion of the wall with a police car.

Townspeople beat Mezquita mercilessly and prevented paramedics from attending to his injuries.

Onlookers watched the man die then dragged his body out in front of the station and set it on fire.

Mezquita, in his 30s and originally from Veracruz, leaves behind a young daughter, his four brothers and his mother, Ana María Tadeo, who is demanding justice. “My son was not a kidnapper. My son was a worker, a person who worked to support his family, and his life was taken from him,” she said.

“I want justice to be done and for those criminals who killed my son to know that he was no kidnapper, no criminal.”

Mezquita’s brother is leading the investigation into the death and says that video and photographic evidence clearly shows the faces of the principal aggressors.

Megacable, where Mezquita worked, denounced his killing. “We condemn the acts of barbarism and demand that the corresponding authorities clarify events, arrest those responsible and bring prompt justice,” the company said in a statement.

Puebla Governor Miguel Barbosa Huerta said Wednesday that the state Aattorney General’s Office has identified three of those allegedly responsible for the lynching and asserted that Mezquita was not a kidnapper. The state will take over policing in the town for the time being, he said.

“We will apply the law because doing justice by one’s own hand is not justice. People led by a state of emotion, prompted by people who act under some emotion or bad faith, can get involved in very serious events,” the governor said. “Today all the people who participated there are accomplices. In the coming days the case will be solved.”

According to a government official, there have been 108 lynching attempts in Puebla this year in which five people were killed.

Source: Milenio (sp), La Crónica de Hoy Puebla (sp), El Sol de Puebla (sp), La Silla Rota (sp)

Residents of a town in Veracruz venture out to hunt a mythical nahual

By

Susy Buchanan

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August 12, 2020

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The palm tree in which the elusive nahual was believed to be hiding. — The palm tree in which the creature was believed to be hiding.

Dozens of residents of Soledad del Doblado, a town located about 30 kilometers inland from the port of Veracruz, went on the hunt for a nahual Monday night.

Men, women and children armed with rocks, shovels and guns left their homes to kill or drive away the mythical creature that according to legend is half-human, half-animal, drinks human blood, and causes all manner of ills, including disease.

The search for the shape-shifter was broadcast on Facebook live as frightened residents congregated around a palm tree where someone said the creature was hiding.

Dogs barked frantically as people pointed flashlights into the fronds. When one person said he saw the nahual, identifying it as a grey mass, another began firing a pistol into the area in which the imaginary creature was said to be hiding. “Be careful, he can do something to you!I don’t know what might happen!” shouted a frightened woman.

At one point, the man filming the 28-minute-long video, which has recorded more than 35,000 views, exclaimed that the nahual had flown away.

Nahual ataca: soledad de Doblado

Watch this video on YouTube

Meanwhile, the gunshots drew the attention of police who asked people not to fire guns into the air and to return to their homes and respect coronavirus protocols.

The legend of the nahual is linked to pre-Columbian shamanism, and the word is derived from the word naualli, which means sorcerer or magician. In Mayan, Toltec and Mexica cultures the mythical creature plays different roles, and can appear as a jaguar, coyote, hummingbird or owl, among other animals.

Sightings of nahuals and other mythical creatures are relatively common across Mexico.

In April of this year, residents of Ocozocoautla de Espinosa, Chiapas, were kept awake for several nights by the howling of a nahual they claim is half man and half wolf, and offered photos of claw marks on the ground as proof.

And in June, residents of Arriaga, also in Chiapas, captured a man who ran on all fours as they chased him through town. Video footage showed the partially clothed man in what appeared to be a jail cell making strange braying noises and attempting to bite the bars.

Residents say he was a nahual and used witchcraft to turn himself into a wolf at night. While some internet users believe the video is proof that the creature exists, others suggest drugs, not witchcraft, were responsible for his odd behavior.

Source: Infobae (sp), El Heraldo de México (sp), Diario del Yaqui (sp)