The launch of a Tenochtitlán-class patrol vessel in Tampico.
Patrol vessels, tugboats and shrimp boats are among the more than 100 watercraft built at Naval Shipyard No. 1 in Tampico, Tamaulipas, over the past 65 years.
Located on the Gulf of Mexico in the south of the northern border state, the naval shipyard is the most productive among seven in the country, according to its project director, Captain Jesús Manuel Gómez Álvarez.
The shipyard was established in 1930 but its boatbuilding records only date back to 1955. Gómez, a 30-year veteran of the navy, told the newspaper Milenio that 104 hulls and entire ships have been built at the yard since then.
The boatbuilding process has changed over the years, he explained, noting that naval boatbuilders now use cutting-edge technology that allows them to complete their work more quickly. Gómez also said that the shipyard now employs both male and female workers among its 600-strong workforce whereas in the past boatbuilding was considered the exclusive pursuit of men.
The naval captain explained that boats are built upside down, a strategy he said makes it easier to weld the different parts of a vessel together.
When a boat is ready to be launched, an official ceremony is held, Gómez said, explaining that the required electrical and plumbing work is undertaken once a vessel is in the water.
After a vessel is fully equipped and naval engineers have verified that everything is working as it should be, it is delivered to its final destination, he said.
More recently, a Oaxaca-class patrol vessel was completed and launched in the Pánuco River, which flows into the Gulf of Mexico. It is currently undergoing testing prior to delivery and deployment.
Patrol vessels such as those built at Naval Shipyard No. 1 are used for a range of purposes including ocean surveillance, search and rescue missions and disaster relief.
The entrance to the cave, high above the Santiago River.
“Yes, we were in La Cueva Cuata for six hours and never got to the end of it; finally crawled out at two in the morning!”
Inspired by that report from a friendly stranger, we began our search for La Cuata Cave, which — we had been told — was set in a precipice overlooking the Santiago River in the Santa Rosa Valley, which is located about 50 kilometers northwest of Guadalajara.
It was January of 1990, in “the dead of winter,” but as we drove down the winding road into the deep Santa Rosa Canyon, we were pleasantly surprised to find all sorts of tropical fruits already ripening. We made our way through sleepy pueblitos with strange names like Achio and Chome, past tamarind trees, golden fields of corn, flowering apricot trees and enormous mango trees drooping with fruit. Throughout the dry season, the many springs in the area keep the vegetation eternally green — and the roads eternally muddy.
A local resident named Arnulfo had heard of La Cuata and was willing to take us to the cave, though he had never actually entered the place and was none too anxious about doing so now. Leaving our Jeep under a shady mango tree, we hiked northwest along a narrow trail that passed banana plants and papayas until suddenly we caught sight of the majestic barranca in the distance.
“The cave is right at the edge of the precipice,” explained Arnulfo. “I just hope I can find it …”
Surveying the guano-flavored lake.
That problem resolved itself a few moments later when we came upon a rancher who introduced himself as Don Guadalupe, “the one in charge of visitors to the cave.”
Well, we couldn’t quite believe we’d found a tourist cave in this lonesome spot, so we pried Don Guadalupe for more information.
“Pues, people come to this spot to pray, because, bueno, there’s something special about it. You see, when the world comes to an end — and it’s coming very soon — only seven places will be spared, and this cave is one of them! People call it La Cuata but we call it La Cueva de Tequilizinta.”
Pulling out my pocket agenda, I inquired as to the precise date when the world would be ending. “Why, in 1998!” exclaimed our guide with a knowing look.
A little while later, the trail ended right at the base of a sheer wall. Facing us was a dark hole in the cliff side and around the bend to the right was a drop of a good 100 meters straight down to the Santiago River.
I stepped into the cave entrance and I removed my pack. “Here’s the cave!” I shouted to my compañeros coming up the trail.
View of the Santiago River from the Tequilizinta lookout point.
“No, this isn’t it,” said Don Guadalupe. “We have two caves here. That’s why they’re called Cuevas Cuatas. The one we want is right above this one,”he said, pointing straight up.
Since this cave was located in a sheer cliff wall, my wife Susy queried how we were supposed to get to another spot above us. Don Guadalupe gestured toward the edge of the precipice: “Just follow me!”
Hugging the wall, this hardy little man began to edge his way right over the long drop down to the Santiago River. The rest of us looked at one another, gulped hard and, with Susy in the lead, cautiously followed our guide, imitating his every move and trying not to look down. After a few meters, the “trail” mercifully switched back and we moved upward to the entrance of La Cueva de Tequilizinta.
The mouth of the cave had been converted into a kind of chapel, complete with altar smothered in candles. Something told me the first prayers said there were probably of thanksgiving for having made it alive. Beyond the altar, the passage disappeared into darkness. Half crawling and “Groucho-walking,” we followed a sort of trail marked by many, many muddy footprints. The passage was about four meters wide and anywhere from a foot to just over a meter high.
We arrived at a fork. “Go to the left, not the right!” warned Don Guadalupe, explaining that the right-hand passage led to a trampa — a trap — devised by the Indians who had used this cavern in ancient times. Naturally, we pressed him for details.
“The last person who went that way stepped onto a rock that operates on a swivel. As soon as he put his weight on one end of it, the rock flipped over and that man slid down a chute that shot him out of the cliff wall. They found his body down by the riverside.”
Members of the Zotz Caving Club enjoy the mud inside the Sticky Room.
Naturally we heeded this warning and followed the left fork to a totally dark room where there was another altar — and plenty of mud.
Several weeks later we were back at Tequilizinta Cave with several friends. This time we had brought survey equipment and a length of nylon webbing to which we planned to tie Jesús, one of our compañeros who had volunteered to go first into the “Deathtrap” passage.
Groucho-walking once again, we made our way further and further from the entrance and daylight to the Y where Don Guadalupe had sternly warned us to keep left.
This time, however, we turned right and after some 30 meters we came — not to a violent death flying through the air, but to the edge of a wide pool of shallow water in which were floating numerous globules of gooey, black, vampire bat droppings. As I happened to be wearing tennis shoes, I was elected the honor of splashing around in this foul-smelling drink to see if the passage continued. It didn’t, but then the question came up: how are we going to survey this little lake?
“Well, John, seeing that you are already standing in it …”
Have you ever tried to survey an underground lake by yourself? Especially a smelly lake with a ceiling so low you can’t stand up straight? I won’t vouch for the measurements I took, but who’s ever going to check them out?
[soliloquy id="116768"]
One unexpected benefit from mapping the “Black Lake” was the discovery of lava stalactites on the roof. Both of Las Cuevas Cuatas, this one and the cave directly beneath it, turned out to be the very first lava tubes ever surveyed in Jalisco.
Having found nary a sign of the infamous death trap, we surveyed our way back to the Y and followed the other passage right into El Pasaje Chicloso, the Sticky Room, where the cave finally came to an end. As we dragged our bodies and bags of gear through the thick mixture of mud and clay — a veritable Paradise for Pigs — our flashlights, compass, tape and boots all slowly turned into indistinguishable globs of mud — and so did we.
On later visits to La Cueva de las Cuatas, we explored the top of Tequilizinta Mountain, where we discovered the long abandoned homes of the religious community that had once held ceremonies inside the cave and who, according to Don Guadalupe, “left Tequilizinta to follow a new Messiah, all of them except me.”
The hike to Tequilizinta is described in Outdoors in Western Mexico and you can find the driving and hiking route on Wikiloc. If you go for a visit, be sure to walk to the edge of the precipice, located only 25 meters east of the last house in the ghost town, for a spectacular view of the Santiago River, and just in case the world comes to an end while you’re up there, rejoice: you couldn’t be in a better place!
The writer has lived near Guadalajara, Jalisco, for more than 30 years and is the author of A Guide to West Mexico’s Guachimontones and Surrounding Area and co-author of Outdoors in Western Mexico. More of his writing can be found on his website.
Mexican health workers are more likely to die from Covid-19 than their counterparts in countries such as the United States, China, Peru and Brazil, data shows.
In a new report, the non-governmental organization Signos Vitales (Vital Signs) said that 2.6% of all Covid-19 fatalities in Mexico between May 22 and June 9 were medical personnel.
The figure is more than six times higher than the United Kingdom’s rate of 0.4% and more than five times higher than China’s rate of 0.5%.
The deaths of health workers in the United States from Covid-19 account for 0.54% of all fatalities from the disease in that country, Signos Vitales said, while the rates in Peru and Brazil are 0.86% and 1.22%, respectively.
The report said that health workers in Mexico have had greater exposure to the coronavirus than those in other countries due to a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) and training in the treatment of infectious diseases.
Signos Vitales also said that 71.3% of 1,915 health workers it surveyed were afraid of dying from Covid-19. Just under three-quarters rated the government poorly for its response to the pandemic.
The NGO also reported that 32,388 of 154,863 people confirmed to have been infected with the coronavirus to June 16 were health workers. In other words, two or every 10 infections detected were among medical personnel.
Speaking at the presentation of the report on Thursday, former federal health minister and Signos Vitales member Salomón Chertorivski said the government was too late in providing sufficient PPE to health workers, increasing their risk of contracting the coronavirus.
“It took a long time to arrive even though we had 2 1/2 months to prepare and learn what other countries did. … The first equipment … [came from] private donations,” he said.
The Signos Vitales report also apportioned blame to the government for the high rates of coronavirus infections and deaths among health workers.
“The first victims of the tardy and inefficient response of the authorities were health personnel,” the report said.
The light is about to turn red in southern Quintana Roo.
Authorities in Quintana Roo announced that “red light” coronavirus restrictions will apply in the southern half of the state next week due to an increase in case numbers and high occupancy levels in hospitals.
Restrictions will tighten in the municipalities of Felipe Carillo Puerto, José María Morelos, Bacalar and Othón P. Blanco, where the state capital Chetumal is located.
Hotels, restaurants and theme parks in the four municipalities are among the businesses that will only be permitted to operate at 15% capacity. Offices will be permitted to open with 25% of their regular workforce while the “red light” restrictions remain in place but bars, nightclubs, cinemas and theaters must close.
Quintana Roo Governor Carlos Joaquín said that the reimplementation of stricter restrictions in the state’s south was necessary because of the high number of cases and limited health infrastructure.
The Caribbean coast state was allocated an “orange light” on the federal government’s current “stoplight” map, used to indicate the risk of coronavirus infection, but Quintana Roo authorities issue their own risk assessment every Thursday.
While the south of the state will move back into the red next week, the north, which includes the popular tourist destinations of Cancún, Playa del Carmen and Tulum, will remain on “orange light” restrictions between July 13 and 19.
Hotel occupancy rates in the tourism-dependent state are still very low but Quintana Roo Tourism Minister Marisol Vanegas said Thursday that it’s predicted they will increase to 60% in the final month of the year.
“It’s already being estimated that we’ll have occupancy of about 60% or perhaps a little higher in December,” she said. “This means that we’ll have jobs for a lot of people in the state.”
Study indicates the capital's pollution is costly in terms of lives and the economy.
Air pollution in Mexico City is costly, according to a new tool.
It has been linked to about 11,000 premature deaths so far this year while its economic cost is estimated to have been US $5.5 billion in the first six months of 2020.
The findings are the result of a tool that measures real-time air quality, developed by the Southeast Asian office of Greenpeace and IQAir AirVisual.
Currently, Mexico City ranks No. 18 on the live air-quality chart of the world’s most polluted cities.
“The figures show that work to improve air quality in the city must be strengthened to reduce emissions in the industrial and transport sectors through greater public investment and stricter regulations,” said Carlos Samayoa of Greenpeace Mexico.
One way forward, says Avinash Chanchal, a climate activist at Greenpeace India, is a firm commitment to green energy sources. “Instead of lengthening the life of the fossil fuel industry, we should invest in renewable energy sources such as wind and solar,” Chanchal said.
In a statement, Greenpeace noted that there is strong evidence that long-term exposure to air pollution increases the risk of serious infections and death from Covid-19. Chronic exposure to air pollution is also associated with ailments such as hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and chronic lung diseases.
Thus far in 2020, Greenpeace researchers say that air pollution has caused the loss of an estimated 98,000 lives in the world’s five largest cities, which includes Mexico City, with a combined economic toll of US $56.5 billion.
March Against the Invention of the Coronavirus in Tuxtla Gutiérrez.
Citizens of the municipality Las Margaritas, Chiapas, demonstrated in Tuxtla Gutiérrez’s main square this week, railing against the coronavirus and claiming that the deadly pandemic was created by Microsoft founder Bill Gates to murder the elderly and sick.
More than 1,500 people joined the “March Against the Invention of the Coronavirus.”
“It was made to kill those over 60 years old as they hinder capitalism because they are no longer productive and are a burden to society, or those who are already sick with diabetes, lung cancer, emphysema and other diseases,” said the organization Luz and Fuerza del Pueblo Chiapas (“light and strength of the people of Chiapas”) through a statement on their Facebook page.
The group believes that the coronavirus is an invention created in a lab in England and financed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the world’s largest philanthropic organization and one that has pledged some US $250 million to aid in the coronavirus response.
A co-conspirator named by the activists is the Johnson & Johnson company, which in March donated US $50 million to support health workers on the front lines of the pandemic.
“The governments of the world do not dare to denounce and prosecute Bill Gates, the richest man in the world, in the international criminal court for crimes against humanity, because he is part of the wealthy who dominate the world,” march organizers stated.
Spraying against mosquitoes was also seen as a conspiracy against the people.
Protesters demanded that government spraying to prevent the spread of dengue through mosquitoes be ended, as they believe the government is actually spraying with harmful chemicals to make people sick.
Marchers took the opportunity to denounce the planned Maya Train and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec railway as monuments to capitalism.
Other grievances expressed during the march were the use of insecticides, deforestation, lack of supplies for hospitals, and more federal spending on the National Guard than health care.
As of Thursday, Chiapas had recorded 5,086 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and had seen 697 deaths.
The light remains orange for Mexico City next week.
High-risk “orange light” coronavirus restrictions will remain in place in Mexico City next week, Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said Friday.
It will be the third consecutive week that “orange light” restrictions that allow most businesses to operate at a reduced capacity will apply in the capital, Mexico’s coronavirus epicenter.
“The city remains orange with the already established activities … and health rules,” Sheinbaum told a press conference.
However, “red light” maximum risk restrictions will apply in some neighborhoods with high numbers of active coronavirus cases, said José Merino, head of the government’s Digital Agency for Public Innovation.
“While the city remains orange, we’ve identified neighborhoods where there is a high concentration of cases. There are just over 20 neighborhoods where 20% of patients with Covid-19 are amassed,” he said.
Merino said that the neighborhoods where stricter “red light” restrictions will apply will be announced on Sundays and take effect the following Wednesday.
Speaking about the broader coronavirus situation in Mexico City, Sehinbaum said that the capital is “doing well in general” and that the number of people in the hospital has declined.
There are currently 844 coronavirus patients in intensive care on ventilators and 1,645 in general care hospital beds, Sheinbaum said.
Mexico City has recorded 55,344 confirmed Covid-19 cases since the beginning of the pandemic, of which 4,271 are currently active. The capital has the highest death toll in the country, having recorded 7,450 confirmed fatalities as of Thursday.
The sprawling, densely populated eastern borough of Iztapalapa has recorded the highest number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Mexico City followed by Gustavo A. Madero in the north.
López Obrador and López-Gatell: their 'demagogic discourse' divides the country.
Mexico’s coronavirus pandemic is out of control, says one former federal health minister, while another predicts that a new lockdown will be needed to halt the rapid growth in new cases.
President López Obrador claimed in late April that the pandemic had been controlled but that is still not the case more than two months later, according to Julio Frenk, health minister during the entirety of former president Vicente Fox’s six-year term between 2000 and 2006.
Frenk said in an interview that data shows that Mexico has not passed the first wave nor the worst of the pandemic more than four months after the coronavirus was first detected here.
In that context, the former minister advocated for the mandatory use of face masks and stressed that contact tracing and widespread testing are essential to controlling the spread of Covid-19.
The current president of the University of Miami also said that preparations need to begin for a widespread influenza vaccination campaign because outbreaks of that disease are likely to occur while the coronavirus is still spreading.
Frenk charged that the federal government is seeking to deflect blame for its management of the coronavirus crisis by criticizing past administrations for the poor state of the public health system.
“Looking for scapegoats is typical of populist regimes,” he said, adding that there has been a lack of leadership in responding to the pandemic.
Frenk said that he and others are not criticizing the government “for the sake of criticizing” but rather “because we’re worried like millions of Mexicans.”
“I’m sure that my colleagues would be willing to speak to [Deputy Health Minister Hugo] López-Gatell to improve the situation,” he added.
Another critic of the government’s management of the pandemic is Salomón Chertorivski, health minister in the final year of the 2006-12 administration led by former president Felipe Calderón.
Speaking at a conference, Chertorivski charged that the ineptitude with which the government has managed the health crisis will necessitate the implementation of a new national lockdown. He noted that case numbers are still rising quickly and that hundreds of people are losing their lives to Covid-19 every day.
Frenk: lack of leadership in responding to the pandemic.
Chertorivski asserted that the first national (albeit voluntary) lockdown – known as La Jornada Nacional de Sana Distancia – was ended too soon as a result of President López Obrador’s impatience to resume his tours around the country.
The former health minister said that none of the internationally-established criteria for easing coronavirus restrictions was met before people began returning to their usual economic and everyday activities.
“There are three fundamental variables: reduction in the number of cases in the past 14 days, reduction in the number of deaths … and reduction in the number of people hospitalized. None of the three parameters was met,” Chertorivski said.
He claimed that the national social distancing initiative – in effect from March 23 to May 30 – didn’t succeed as a result of the government’s incoherent communication strategy and its failure to provide financial support to citizens that would have enabled them to stay at home.
The “stay-at-home” directive was a “profound failure,” Chertorivski said, because many people had no option but to continue working in order to put food on the table.
He urged authorities to do everything possible to stop the spread of the coronavirus virus before the onset of winter, echoing Frenk’s warning that it could coexist with the seasonal flu.
The government, however, has staunchly defended its management of the situation, and López-Gatell, Mexico’s coronavirus point man, has repeatedly claimed that the social distancing measures put in place by the Health Ministry have resulted in a “flattening of the curve” in comparison with with what would have hypothetically occurred had mitigation measures not been implemented.
However, “a flattening of the curve” in comparison with what might have happened is not how the term is commonly used.
In recent days, officials have made a concerted effort at the nightly Health Ministry press briefings to present data and graphs that show Mexico’s management of the pandemic in a more favorable light, even as hard data shows that Mexico ranks eighth in the world for case numbers and fifth for Covid-19 deaths.
Since Sunday, data on case numbers and deaths have not even been presented at the nightly news conferences.
The government’s overarching narrative that the pandemic is not out of control and that coronavirus restrictions have been effective — even as the outbreak worsens and criticism mounts — led communications consultant Luis Antonio Espino to conclude that “two epidemics coexist in Mexico.”
In an opinion piece published in The Washington Post, Espino writes that in one of the “two epidemics” – the one the government describes – Mexico has implemented an “impeccable strategy” in the fight against the virus.
From López Obrador and López-Gatell’s point of view, he writes, hospitals are not overwhelmed, the pandemic has been controlled and Mexico’s high fatality rate is the result of “Mexicans’ poor health conditions: obesity, diabetes, hypertension, all the product of neoliberalism.”
“The other epidemic,” Espino continues, is that reported by national and foreign media and by citizens on social media.
In “the other epidemic” – the real rather than imagined one – health workers have to protest in order to receive essential supplies and members of the scientific community propose the generalized use of face masks and advocate for increased testing and contact tracing, Espinoso writes.
“But nobody listens,” he claims.
The communications consultant charges that hospitals still have beds available because thousands of patients have died without having access to critical care or a ventilator and notes that infection rates among health workers in Mexico, and the country’s Covid-19 fatality rate, are among the highest in the world.
“The reopening of activities with the current levels of infections and deaths is considered much more risky than the authorities want to accept. In the other epidemic, the forecasts are bleak and Mexico is cause for international alarm,” Espinoso writes.
He accuses López Obrador and Lopez-Gatell of propagating “demagogic discourse” that divides the country in “two irreconcilable sides: ‘them’ — the economic, intellectual, media and scientific elite and the critics and opponents of the government, and ‘us’ — the benevolent people.”
Espinoso describes Lopez-Gatell, a Johns Hopkins University-trained epidemiologist, as a “propagandist” in a lab coat.
He asserts that “in the end, we will all pay” for the government’s management of the coronavirus pandemic and its biased, politicized presentation of the situation Mexico is facing.
“We don’t have a shared truth about the health crisis, there is no common understanding about what is happening and what we should do. … Keeping us … divided and distracted might be good for López Obrador’s political domination agenda but it’s very bad for us and our country.”
Sonoyta residents blocked a highway Saturday when authorities allowed US visitors to cross the border.
Given the exponential increase in cases of Covid-19 in the state of Arizona, the government of Sonora and Mexico’s National Immigration Institute (INM) installed checkpoints at the border to prevent non-essential crossings from the United States into Mexico over the July 4 holiday weekend.
But they were withdrawn Tuesday in spite of the original plan to leave them in place until July 20 in accordance with an agreement between the United States and Mexico to restrict tourism and recreational travel. However, it was an agreement that saw little enforcement south of the border for inbound traffic.
The temporary closure of the border in Sonora ended even as Arizona remains an epicenter of the pandemic in the United States. On Friday morning, officials reported 4,221 new cases of the coronavirus in the state in the past 24 hours.
Restrictive measures had been taken at the border crossings in Agua Prieta, Nogales and San Luis Río Colorado, but state authorities made an exception at the crossing between Lukeville, Arizona, and Sonoyta, Sonora, where tourists who had hotel reservations at the beach town of Puerto Peñasco were allowed entry.
The protesters expressed their concern about the lack of health services in their community and the risk of an outbreak posed by travelers.
The Mexico and U.S. governments announced travel restrictions in mid-March and then extended them in May and June. A further extension into August is likely, Foreign Minister Ebrard said on Thursday.
The auto parts business where former governor Duarte was arrested.
The auto business marked the rise and fall of César Duarte Jáquez. At age 20, before he became governor of Chihuahua, he began selling used cars brought from the United States in his native Hidalgo de Parral.
The business was prosperous and expanded to Ciudad Juárez and across the border to El Paso, Texas.
His rise was such that in 1990 he was recognized as one of the leading used vehicle dealers in the border region.
It turns out that Duarte, wanted in Mexico on corruption charges, went back to his roots while a fugitive from justice in the United States.
On Wednesday, Duarte was arrested at Chávez Used Auto Parts, a junkyard in Miami, Florida, which he is believed to own, by agents of the Federal Marshals Service after being a fugitive for more than three years. He is wanted for criminal association and embezzling 6 billion pesos (US $264.2 million at today’s exchange rate) during his term as Chihuahua’s governor from 2010 to 2016.
César Duarte faces extradition to Mexico.
Duarte is awaiting arraignment in a Florida federal court at which his bail will be set or denied, the latter being the most likely given his three years on the lam. Extradition to Mexico has been requested by authorities in this country.
When news of his arrest reached his home state, many Chihuahua city residents took to the streets to celebrate, driving around the town in parades of dozens of cars and grilling carne asada in the Plaza del Ángel.
