The Mexico City government will establish 26 new Covid-19 testing points this week, including five outside Metro stations and one at a busy intercity bus terminal.
As of Wednesday, so-called “macro-kiosks” where members of the public will be able to get tested free of charge will be located outside the Mixocac, Etiopía, Pino Suárez, Tacuba and Tacubaya stations.
There will also be testing stations at the San Lázaro bus terminal, outside the Estadio Azteca sports stadium and at the Juana de Asbaje park among other locations with high levels of foot traffic.
In addition, authorities will set up macro-kiosks on the concourse of the municipal offices in 14 of the capital’s 16 boroughs.
The only boroughs where free testing won’t be available outside the municipal headquarters are Coyoacán and Tlalpan. However, residents of those boroughs will be able to access free testing at the stadium and park mentioned above.
After bars shut down Friday night in Mexico City due to new Covid measures, patrons moved into the street to dance.
The Mexico City government said the objective of setting up the new testing points is to identify coronavirus cases more quickly and isolate those who test positive.
The macro-kiosks will complement smaller mobile kiosks where authorities have been performing tests in hotspot neighborhoods in recent months. Authorities will have the capacity to conduct 10,000 tests per day at the testing points, double the current level.
Mexico City will remain at the orange light “high” risk level on the federal government’s coronavirus stoplight system this week but Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said last Thursday that the capital is close to regressing to “maximum” risk red due to a recent rise in hospitalizations of Covid-19 patients.
Even though the risk level will officially remain at high this week, Sheinbaum announced on Friday stricter coronavirus restrictions that require bars and cantinas to close for the next two weeks and limit the opening hours of a range of other businesses.
As of Sunday, Mexico City had recorded just under 180,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and 16,383 Covid-19 deaths.
Meanwhile, the national tally of confirmed cases passed 1 million on Saturday and rose to 1,006, 522 on Sunday with 3,269 new cases reported by the federal Health Ministry. The official Covid-19 death toll increased by 283 on Sunday to 98,542.
After media reports focused on Mexico passing the million-case mark, Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell called the figure ‘insignificant.’
Speaking at the coronavirus press briefing on Sunday, Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said that it was “insignificant” that Mexico had passed the 1 million confirmed cases mark.
“Yesterday the media continued to highlight the issue of accumulated cases and they talked about reaching 1 million inhabitants who have suffered Covid-19. It’s true but it’s a limited version of the information; in reality, if we look at the estimated cases we [already] have more than a million. … Therefore it’s a little bit insignificant [to pass 1 million confirmed cases] but in terms of news it appears attractive to report a round number whenever there is one,” he said.
“What’s important is to be aware of what this means; what it means is that the epidemic remains active,” López-Gatell said, noting that new case numbers are rising after beginning to decline at the end of July.
“Now [cases] are increasing concurrently with the flu season just as we’ve been predicting since March,” he said.
The Health Ministry estimates that there are currently 47,099 active cases across the country. Mexico City leads the country for estimated active cases with 13,258 followed by Nuevo León with 4,153.
In per capita terms, Durango has the highest number of active cases with 78.6 per 100,000 inhabitants. Querétaro is just behind with 78.3.
The Reurbano architectural firm's ethos is "urban recycling," which preserves historic buildings in old neighborhoods while updating them for modern use.
It’s an interesting juxtaposition: new construction in an old, established neighborhood, keeping at least the old facade as — well — a facade.
It provokes mixed feelings. What is kept makes me wonder how much was lost.
This kind of development is done by various companies, and Reurbano specializes in it. One thing that distinguishes the firm, however, is that Reurbano conserves as much of the old building’s interior as possible. Company spokesman Andrés Sañudo says this ethos is almost “dogma” in the firm.
Reurbano’s partners are not conservationists in the classic sense of the word but rather dedicated to reciclaje urbano (urban recycling), applying the concept of recycling to old, neglected buildings. The result is new spaces which combine old and new.
“We work with respect for the blueprint of heritage to preserve and improve the historical character of the buildings,” Reurbano says on its website.
Reurbano seeks out historic but derelict buildings with unique character, like this once-abandoned building in Mexico City’s Roma neighborhood.
The firm began in 2010, when founders Rodrigo Rivero Borrelli and Alberto Kritzler began working together on two renovation projects just west of the capital’s historic center. Since then, the partnership has grown organically, adapting itself to the needs of the projects it takes on.
Its work is like that done in major cities all over the world, such as the conversion of old warehouses and other spaces into residences. However, Sañudo stresses that the sociodemographics of Mexico City present unique challenges and opportunities.
Most of Reurbano’s work is done in the neighborhoods that straddle Reforma and Insurgentes avenues, just west of the historic center proper. Neighborhoods such as Condesa, Juárez and Roma were built in the 19th and early 20th centuries for the wealthy. They had been experiencing decline as residents fled to new, car-friendly developments to the west, but severe damage from the 1985 earthquake hastened the process tremendously. Real estate prices plummeted, and structures became abandoned.
These neighborhoods have since experienced a comeback, primarily because they are so close to Mexico City’s financial center and other major employers. However, many abandoned and derelict structures remain in sections of these neighborhoods that haven’t bounced back so well.
Such buildings are attractive to certain niche markets because they’re located in neighborhoods with established personalities. These structures cannot be duplicated, and “they have a premium,” says Sañudo.
But the difficulties working with such properties are formidable. First, there are problems with crime and blight. Making the properties sellable or rentable means making the areas they are in more attractive. This can be as simple as planting trees and adding benches for passersby to increase foot traffic. Often it means working with local neighborhood associations to convince them that Reurbano’s interventions are for the common good.
Before and after: Reurbano renovated this abandoned structure in Mexico City’s historic Juárez neighborhood (left), keeping as much of the original as possible.
One important long-term strategy Reurbano uses is to “cluster” projects on the same street or block so that the effect is cumulative, changing the face of that section of the neighborhood. Three of Reurbano’s early projects did just this, all located on Calle Havre, a small side street in Colonia Juárez.
When the street was all but a ghost town, the firm bought and reworked three old mansions there and even moved their offices to one of them. Since then, other developers have redeveloped five other structures on the same street.
The other strategy is to convert the buildings to mixed use. Upper floors have offices or residences, but the ground floor facing the street almost always has retail space. Reurbano does this to have the building “interact” with the neighborhood — to become part of it.
Redeveloping such buildings is complicated, time-consuming and expensive. There are more factors in the initial analysis, and there is always bureaucracy with heritage authorities. In addition, properties are on small lots, and most do not have garages or the ability to create one.
This means that Reurbano must market to a very different demographic than those who build suburban housing. Residences are targeted to professionals tired of long commutes and willing to shift their transport needs to public services, walking and biking. Such buyers are also attracted by the fact that many of these neighborhoods have small stores, restaurants and cultural centers close by.
Reurbano also has one other arrow in its quiver: often gentrification is preceded by the appearance of artists and other cultural entities who need cheap space — think SoHo, New York in the 1970s. To get this process going as soon as possible, Reurbano leases or rents spaces in its acquired buildings before renovations, sometimes free. The arrangement, Sañudo says, is win-win: the artists and cultural organizations get cheap space, and the area’s face begins to change long before any construction starts.
The firm has dipped its toes into a couple of areas outside its core zone — as far as Tacubaya in the west and Doctores and the historic center in the east. These areas are even more challenging as they are farther from employers and have stronger reputations for blight and crime. However, neither lacks for the “interesting spaces” that Reurbano seeks in potential projects.
The firm’s redevelopment process has been worked out over 10 years, with some problems along the way. Reurbano and other companies have been accused of gentrification practices that work against poor populations in the target neighborhoods. It received bad press a few years ago because of a building it acquired which had preexisting tenants. Mexican law and politics tend to favor occupants over owners. For this reason, they now stick only with truly abandoned buildings.
To date, Reurbano has 11 completed projects, three in progress and four others in planning. The firm has 35 employees, but it also outsources much of the work, meaning that a single project can employ up to 200 construction workers, architects, lawyers and others. Some of its projects have received recognition from architectural competitions and entities in Mexico and abroad.
Leigh Thelmadatter arrived in Mexico 17 years ago and fell in love with the land and the culture. She publishes a blog called Creative Hands of Mexicoand her first book, Mexican Cartonería: Paper, Paste and Fiesta, was published last year. Her culture blog appears weekly on Mexico News Daily.
Sandoval has already been accused by the US of links to drug cartels.
The man who governed Nayarit between 2011 and 2017, already accused by the U.S. government of corruption and taking bribes from a drug cartel, is now being sought by Mexican authorities.
A judge issued a warrant Friday for the arrest of Roberto Sandoval on charges of embezzlement and wrongful performance of duty. According to state authorities, Sandoval is not currently in Nayarit but is believed to have traveled recently to Jalisco and Nuevo León.
A request has been made to Interpol to put Sandoval on the international police organization’s red list.
Justice officials said the former governor could face up to 20 years in prison and would be required to reimburse the state with about 20 million pesos (US $980,000).
He accused Sandoval of misappropriating state assets and receiving bribes from the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
The former Institutional Revolutionary Party politician has denied all the accusations against him.
Sandoval’s attorney general was sentenced last year to 20 years in a U.S. jail for drug trafficking. Édgar Veytia had pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from cartels to enable them to smuggle drugs into the U.S. from 2013 until his arrest in San Diego, California, in March 2017.
The president urged the ex-governor Saturday to answer to the charges. Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he should confront the accusations and trust in the rule of law.
“… there exists an authentic rule of law, [and] there is no longer a crooked state as before.”
López Obrador urged reporters to investigate book fair chief Padilla, right.
President López Obrador identified a new adversary on Friday — the Guadalajara International Book Fair, which he claimed was dedicated to opposing his government.
The president aimed his criticism at book fair founder and president Raúl Padilla for inviting writers and intellectuals who were opponents of his administration to give presentations at the annual fair, Latin America’s largest.
Questioned by a reporter about a claim by Jalisco Governor Enrique Alfaro that the federal government was paying for a social media campaign knocking the state government, the president denied the claim and introduced Padilla into the discussion.
Observing that the two had their differences, he said Alfaro “belongs to this group of conservatives; he gets along well with the head of the University of Guadalajara, a historical leader, Padilla.
“Look, the Guadalajara Book Fair, the recent ones, [have been] dedicated against us, but not only that, they bring [Mario] Vargas Llosa, [Héctor] Aguilar Camín and all of those, [Enrique] Krauze,” the president said, referring to writers who have been critical of his government.
López Obrador appeared to be especially irked by Padilla’s remarks about populism when he accepted the Princess of Asturias award for communication and humanities on behalf of the fair last month.
“Books – and the printed word in general – feed on freedom, while at the same time expanding it,” Padilla said. “Political modernity appeared with freedom of the press, with the right to write and publish without restrictions.
“Let us defend this fundamental value, all the more so against the populist governments that today threaten our liberal governance and place democracy at risk.”
For the president, it was the last sentence “that really caught my attention.” He said it reflected “decadence” on the part of universities, intellectuals and “those who hand out these prizes.”
He invited reporters to investigate Padilla. “I’ll leave you with some homework to conduct an investigation to determine since when this man has been in charge of the university.
“And when you have done the research you can help us here so as to inform.”
According to the university, Padilla, 66, was rector from 1989 until 1995. He founded the book fair in 1987.
The book fair responded to the president with a statement saying the event was an initiative designed to promote the flow of ideas and reasoned dialogue. “Over the course of more than three decades it has given space to authors, thinkers and public figures from all countries, all ideological currents and all political affiliations.”
Samir Flores was one of 15 environmental defenders murdered last year in Mexico.
The Senate has ratified the first regional treaty in the world that explicitly links human rights protections with environmental ones with provisions that protect the rights of environmental defenders and promote greater access to justice.
The Escazú Agreement is a means to guarantee a safe environment in which individuals, groups and organizations that promote and defend human rights related to the environment can act without facing threats, restrictions, attacks or danger, according to the human rights organization PBI Mexico.
Its ratification may be timely. Since 2016, 879 socio-environmental conflicts have been identified in Mexico largely surrounding hydrocarbon extraction, hydroelectric, and mining projects. In 2019 alone, 15 environmental defenders were murdered in the country.
The treaty has now been ratified by 11 countries and will enter into force 90 days from the Senate’s signing.
Mexico has been a strong proponent of the Escazú Agreement and was the first to sign it at the United Nations in 2018. The ratification process had been stalled, however, as a result of delays by the defense and finance ministries to grant approval.
The treaty can already be applied at the national level, said Andrea Cerami, human rights coordinator at the Mexican Center for Environmental Law (CEMDA).
He said the treaty offers new legal tools that civil society can use to push back against alleged environmental threats of megaprojects being implemented by the administration of President López Obrador.
For example, one article dictates that before obtaining environmental authorizations, governments must ensure the public’s right to information and “open and inclusive participation” in decision-making processes regarding development plans and activities that impact the environment and human health.
The public must be informed about the type of environmental decision under consideration, its main environmental impacts, the nature of the process involving public participation, and the authorities responsible for decision-making.
The treaty also guarantees the right of access to justice for environmental defenders through provisions like the reversal of the burden of proof and redress mechanisms like financial compensation.
According to some experts, Mexico is one of the only countries in Latin America that already has a regulatory framework favoring environmental defenders. But scarce resources and poor communication between different government agencies have limited those existing protections. They are also chiefly reactive in nature in that they focus on reacting to threats against defenders, said Cerami.
The treaty provides new tools to resist megaprojects such as the Maya Train on environmental grounds. photo illustration
In 2018, the United Nations special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples reported that while the government offered consultations to indigenous communities regarding projects that would affect them, they did not meet international standards, they occurred only after projects had been executed, and were inconsistent with indigenous cultural norms of decision-making.
Though the Senate’s ratification of the Escazú Agreement represents a new commitment to providing more appropriate consultations, Cerami warns that if the government does not exert political will and allocate the necessary resources for the treaty’s enforcement, the Escazú will be ineffective.
He says Mexico‘s consultations to date have not complied with the international obligations it already has as a member of the UN, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and the International Labor Organization. And there is still no domestic legislation that guarantees a right to consultation.
“When it comes to violence in indigenous territories or communities where large projects are located, the common denominator is the granting of permits or concessions without consultation and free, prior and informed consent,” said the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in 2015. This practice “tends to trigger social conflicts and ultimately generate violence, and even claim lives.”
Last year, members of the National Indigenous Congress and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation called the government’s consultations on the megaprojects “deceitful” in that they attempted to supplant their “collective will while ignoring and offending our forms of organization and decision-making.”
Samir Flores, a Náhuatl environmental activist, was murdered last year, presumably for fighting the opening of a thermal power plant and construction of a gas pipeline in Morelos. In that case, the consultation with the affected communities was scheduled after construction of the power plant was virtually complete.
Capt. Castillo and angler Mike Witoshynsky with giant tuna.
An angler from Florida narrowly missed out on a million-dollar prize when he caught a giant tuna off San José del Cabo this week.
Mike Witoshynsky fought the 310-lb. yellowfin for an hour and a half in a “howling wind” and rough seas before landing the fish aboard the Regina 2, owned by Capt. Francisco Javier Castillo.
He caught the fish three days after the conclusion of the Los Cabos Tuna Jackpot, which was offering over US $1 million in cash prizes. The biggest yellowfin weighed in at 210 lbs.
Witoshynsky had been fishing for three days for black marlin when he hooked what Castillo said was the biggest tuna he’d ever caught.
Everyone on the dock along with neighbors and friends got a piece of the fish and the successful fishermen themselves ate machaca and tuna burritos that night.
Mexico City has recorded a sharp increase in hospital admissions. el economista
Stricter coronavirus restrictions will take effect in Mexico City on Monday while tighter rules in place in Jalisco for the past two weeks were eased on Friday.
Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said the capital will remain at the orange light “high” risk level on the federal government’s stoplight system next week but nevertheless announced some new restrictions due to a recent rise in hospitalizations of coronavirus patients.
Bars and cantinas that were allowed to reopen in August by tweaking their business model and operating as restaurants must close for two weeks starting Monday.
Gyms, museums, 10-pin bowling centers, cinemas, theaters and casinos, currently permitted to remain open at limited capacity until 10:00 p.m., will have to close at 7:00 p.m. as of Monday and at least until the end of the month.
All events that seek to gather large numbers of people including concerts and conferences remain banned as has been the case since late March. Professional sports are only permitted behind closed doors.
Gyms and other facilities will have to close earlier.
Sheinbaum said Thursday that the number of new patients hospitalized in Mexico City on a daily basis had increased from 20 to 100 over the previous five days.
The capital has been Mexico’s coronavirus epicenter since the beginning of the pandemic, and has recorded far more confirmed cases and deaths than any of the other 31 states.
As of Thursday, Mexico City’s official case tally stood at 175,946 and the Covid-19 death toll was 15,997. The capital leads the country for active cases with 12,948, according to federal Health Ministry estimates.
• In Jalisco, authorities determined that stricter coronavirus restrictions that were introduced on October 30 had been effective and decided to ease them as of Friday.
Shopping centers, department stores, markets and restaurants were given the green light to operate until 11:00 p.m. and the resumption of normal public transit services was authorized.
State government social development official Anna Bárbara Casillas said the extension of business operating hours – most establishments have been required to close at 7:00 p.m. for the past two weeks – will avoid crowding.
Places of worship are also allowed to hold services as of today albeit with a reduced capacity and town squares have reopened.
Jalisco Governor Enrique Alfaro said Thursday that the tighter restrictions implemented late last month “worked very well,” explaining that new case numbers declined and as a result active case numbers did too.
The state has recorded 102,165 confirmed coronavirus cases, according to state government data, and 4,402 Covid-19 deaths. The former figure is almost three times higher than the number reported by the federal government because it includes results from rapid tests and private labs and clinics.
Jalisco currently has 2,070 active cases, according to federal Health Ministry estimates.
• The Congress of Chihuahua – one of just two “maximum” risk red light states – approved a law on Thursday that makes the use of face masks mandatory.
The maximum fine for citizens not wearing a mask in public places is 434 pesos (US $21), while for people not using one in their workplace it’s 1,303 pesos (US $64). Mask scofflaws could face 12 hours’ jail time if they refuse to accept a fine.
Coronavirus cases and deaths in Mexico as reported by day. milenio
Money raised from the fines will be used to purchase medical supplies.
Morena party lawmakers voted against the law, which was proposed by Governor Javier Corral, on the grounds that it could lead to human rights violations, arbitrary detentions and the excessive use of force.
Chihuahua has recorded 31,884 confirmed coronavirus cases, according to state government data, and 2,588 Covid-19 deaths.
More than half of the cases were detected in the border city of Ciudad Juárez, which also leads the northern state for Covid-19 deaths.
The Chihuahua health system has been under intense pressure in recent weeks as many hospitals fill up with coronavirus patients.
In an attempt to drive new case numbers down, the state government announced a curfew on nonessential commercial activities last week that will remain in place until at least November 19.
• Nationally, the official coronavirus case tally and Covid-19 death toll are approaching 1 million and 100,000, respectively.
The former rose to 991,835 on Thursday with 5,658 new cases reported while the latter increased to 97,056 with 626 additional fatalities.
Even with the water park constructed around it in later years, El Salto Cascade still retains much of its natural beauty.
It all began as a beach holiday. Having heard that the oceanfront town of Cuyutlán, Colima, had “the most beautiful black sand beach you could ever hope to see,” we drove there one night only to discover that — in the month of October, mind you — the temperature was 34 C, the humidity was 82% and the water was full of manta rays.
“Let’s get out of this sauna,” said my friend Josh. “Do you know some cooler place where we can go for a swim?”
What immediately came to mind was a beautiful waterfall in Colima called El Salto de Peña Colorada, which has a pool of refreshingly cool water at its base: a truly idyllic place for a swim.
El Salto is located inland, 40 kilometers northeast of Manzanillo.
The winding road from the coast to Peña Colorada is nicely paved, but between these two points you are unlikely to find a gas station or a store of any kind, even in these days of ubiquitous Oxxos.
Colorful stalactites are found both inside and outside El Salto Cave.
“This is indeed a lonely road,” I told my fellow passengers, “and something funny happened to us as we drove along here some 30 years ago …”
I was a cave explorer in those days, and we had been on our way to El Salto, not only to splash in its delightful waters but also to continue our exploration of a fascinating cave located just minutes from the fall.
About an hour from our destination it began to drizzle.
“Looks like we won’t have a campfire tonight.” I told my wife, Susy. “Let me see how much alcohol we have for the cook stove.”
To my surprise, I found there was only one ounce left in the bottle. “We’re going to need a lot more than this if we’re staying over two nights. Let’s stop at the next pueblito.”
This we did. We were told, “Desgraciadamente, we have no farmacia here, but you might find alcohol in our little grocery store.”
The “grocery store” displayed no goods of any sort but contained several tables and chairs. Upon the latter sat three rather inebriated individuals. If we were going to find alcohol anywhere, this looked like the place, but I didn’t imagine they’d have the highly volatile sort that we needed for our stove.
However, the oldest barfly, who was also the owner of the establishment, immediately insisted that his homebrew was a lot stronger than the drugstore variety. We would have to keep this under our hats, he said, because he still hadn’t gotten around to informing the government about this particular “grocery item” he was selling.
“That’s OK with us, señor, but tell me, are you sure this alcohol of yours will burn?”
“¡Caray! Will it ever! But,” he asked through a tipsy hiccup, “who would want to burn it?”
We handed the man our nearly empty alcohol bottle, and he went off with it into a back room. Meanwhile, one of the other barflies waved at us and, in the best English he could muster, bellowed, “Come seets down here for take leetle dreenk weesh ush!”
When we politely declined — due to a pressing need to reach our campsite before dark — this well-loaded fellow struggled to his feet and staggered over to us, possibly imagining that his English would improve as the distance between us diminished. It allowed us to better appreciate the strength of the alcohol served in this “grocery.”
El Salto waterpark is a three-and-a-half-hour drive from Guadalajara.
Thus began a kind of dance in which my wife and I kept moving backwards to escape our newfound friend’s boozy breath and he kept reaching for us, obviously in need of some kind of support.
All the while, we could hear the gurgle of alcohol being poured in the back room. But how could it be taking 15 minutes to fill a 1-liter bottle?
At last, we tore ourselves away from the “Lush’s Lambada” and followed the gurgling sound until we came upon a most amazing scene. The old man was standing there pouring a huge, 3-gallon container of booze into our little bottle, only our bottle was still empty and at least 2 gallons of highly volatile alcohol had been spilled all over the counter and most of the floor.
I couldn’t believe he had missed the bottle entirely. Sure enough, we discovered that el viejito had removed the cover but not the inner seal that’s used on all Mexican alcohol bottles.
There we were, knee-deep in fumes, just waiting for some smoker to walk into the room. While I grabbed the jug and quickly filled our container, Susy paid the old man, and the two of us literally ran out the door, jumped into our Jeep and raced out of the pueblito, expecting to see the whole place burst into flames in our rearview mirror.
Back to 2020 and our drive to el Salto. Upon passing Peña Colorada, we saw a sign for the waterfall, turned off the highway and drove down a steep but nicely paved road to a locked boom gate, in front of which stood — the Iron Lady.
“Sorry, the balneario (spa) is closed, due to Covid.”
“Er, we don’t want to go to the balneario, only to the waterfall.”
“That’s closed too. Sorry.”
“But we just drove 80 kilometers to get here, and we’re dying for a swim.”
That argument, of course, produced no result. We drove back up to the edge of the highway, where we held a sort of war council. First came nefarious plans proposing a commando-type assault on the waterfall via a circuitous route through the brush. Then there was a great debate about mordidas (bribes), after which heads cooled with the realization that nobody was going swimming that day.
“But, John, you haven’t been to this place in 30 years! Didn’t you say you needed a picture of the waterfall to accompany your El Salto stories?”
Beyond these tall columns, the cave continues.
This was true. My ancient slides of El Salto are all scratched and colorless.
“OK, I will go ask the Iron Lady if I can run down to the fall for a quick picture.”
While my friends waited in the car, I marched back to the gate.
“Muy estimada señora,” I said, “We have given up on swimming … but I’m a reporter, and I need a photo of the waterfall. Can you give me five minutes?
The Iron Lady looked at my press card.
“Ha! I can have one of these made up for 50 pesos … besides, the seminarians are still down there.”
“Seminarians? They can go in, but we can’t?”
“They only wanted five minutes, just like you, but they’ve been there for an hour.”
“Well, it just so happens that I’m an ex-seminarian.”
That provoked raucous laughter. “A reporter, and now an ex-seminarian too! You really are desperate!”
At last, the seminarians departed, and the Iron Lady reluctantly let me pass.
Fifty meters beyond the gate, I could see why El Salto was now such a popular place: two huge swimming pools had been constructed here, chock full of the water slides kids adore.
Cavers love to go “where no one has gone before.”
As I continued down the road, I could see the hillside where El Salto Cave is located. We had been quite amazed the first time we squeezed through the small entrance hole and stood up inside the cave.
“This room completely took our breath away,” I wrote in those days. “Every wall shimmered with long stalactites. At the far end we found several tall, graceful columns about 30 centimeters wide. After squeezing through to another room, one of the cavers climbed up one side and stuck his head into a small niche. ‘Come, take a look here,’ he said laconically.
Standing on tiptoes, I pushed my head into the small opening. As I had expected, I found myself encircled by tiny, beautiful formations. I also found myself eyeball to eyeball with a little bat, which glared at me as if to say, ‘What are you doing in my bedroom?’ Just as it started to gnash its teeth at me, my friend casually remarked, ‘I think it’s a vampire.’”
Recalling those discoveries made in the 1990s, I reached the waterfall. Happily, it was as enchanting as ever, and the only new “development” was a railing, a wise safety precaution.
So, I can assure you that El Salto de Peña Colorada is still there and still well worth visiting, once the pandemic is behind us.
And who knows, maybe it will be the Iron Lady herself guiding you on a tour of the place.
The writer has lived near Guadalajara, Jalisco, for 31 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.
Residents are urged to celebrate the Virgin of Guadalupe in their homes this year.
More holiday traditions in La Paz, Baja California Sur, have fallen by the wayside this year due to safety concerns about the coronavirus: this time it’s Carnaval and the Christmas Market.
Mayor Rubén Muñoz Álvarez announced during a meeting of the municipal council that the annual carnival needed to be canceled, saying that after discussing the matter with state health authorities, he’s determined that the conditions to have a safe carnival simply do not exist this year.
The announcement came at about the same time as La Paz merchants said they were canceling the city’s annual Christmas Market to avoid the risks associated with the pandemic.
Both announcements follow the cancellation by Catholic Church authorities of festivities related to the December 12 holiday for the Virgin of Guadalupe. Church officials said they were acting in accordance with guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health and the state government.
The traditional market, said committee president Gilberto Romero Murillo, employs about 600 casual employees each year and attracts dozens of vendors, annually reactivating the city’s economy.
He lamented the decision to cancel the event but said that after consulting with state health authorities, the market’s committee concluded that putting on the event this year would not be safe.
He asked La Paz residents to continue patronizing businesses that remain open.
Mexico cannot change its laws in a way that is contrary to previous agreements, says business group.
Mexico needs to be a “serious and reliable” trade partner in order to take advantage of the new North American trade agreement and attract new investment, according to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Mexico (CanCham).
The business group said in a statement that Mexico has the opportunity to attract companies that supply the North American market but which are currently based in Asia.
But Mexico “can only aspire to do so if it behaves as a serious and reliable partner with a modern and long-term vision,” CanCham said.
The business chamber said the Mexican government especially needs to act responsibly in the energy sector, an area in which President López Obrador has shown strong nationalistic tendencies.
CanCham noted that the United States-Mexico-Canada agreement (USMCA), the new trade pact that took effect July 1, “recognizes the obvious” – that the three countries have sovereignty over their own natural resources.
However, it added that Mexico has nevertheless made “important commitments” under the terms of the USMCA and other trade agreements including the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP11
Mexico “cannot change its laws in a way that is contrary to what was previously agreed in other agreements,” CanCham said.
It also said that Mexico cannot discriminate against foreign investors over domestic ones, take steps that result in a “disguised expropriation” of investors’ assets, discriminatorily favor state owned companies such as Pemex or the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) over its private sector competitors, issue “capricious” government resolutions or allow its autonomous bodies to be negligent by not issuing new energy sector permits.
CanCham said the previous government’s 2014 energy reform, which opened up the sector to foreign and private companies after an almost 80-year state monopoly, is “consolidated” in the USMCA and other trade agreements to which Mexico is party.
Therefore, Mexico is obliged to treat Canadian and United States energy companies in the same way it treats state-owned companies, the business chamber said.
The federal government under López Obrador’s leadership has been criticized for changing the rules of the game in the energy sector. It has made attempts to shut new renewable energy projects out of the Mexican market, put an end to new joint ventures known as farm-outs in the oil sector and suspended oil-block auctions among other moves against private and foreign firms.
López Obrador, a fierce critic of the energy reform, has pledged to “rescue” Pemex and the CFE from what he describes as years of neglect by past governments. He has also vowed to make Mexico self-sufficient in gasoline by 2023.
In its National Development Plan, the government committed to establishing a sovereign, sustainable, efficient, low-emissions energy policy that guarantees energy security and accessibility.
CanCham countered that achieving that goal will only be possible if Mexico welcomes the participation of private investors, “in particular renewable energy ones,” and respects its commitments under the USMCA, TPP11, its free trade agreement with the European Union and the Paris climate agreement.
Canada has significant business interests to protect in Mexico. Canadian companies invested some US $3.4 billion here in the first half of the year, a figure that accounts for 19.1% of total foreign direct investment in Mexico.
Former ambassadors to Mexico Pierre Alarie of Canada and Roberta Jacobson of the United States said in July that Mexico needs to do more to create a welcoming environment for foreign investors, while Canadian energy investors wrote to their government the same month to warn that Mexico could already be violating the USMCA by failing to respect existing contracts.
Current U.S. officials have also taken issue with changes to Mexico’s energy sector policies.
