One delegation of Zapatistas is already en route to Spain on a vessel that left Quintana Roo May 2.
The president has ordered officials to address passport applications by members of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) needed to travel to Spain.
A delegation from the group best known for staging an uprising in Chiapas in 1994, set sail for Europe early last month to coincide with the 500th anniversary of the fall of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán.
Other members were set to follow them by air, but have run into problems obtaining passports. The group’s former leader, Subcomandante Galeano, said officials had told some members that they lack the requisite documents.
The president addressed the issue in Tuesday’s morning press conference. “I have already given instructions to the Foreign Ministry to check why they were not given their passports,” he said. “Nobody should be limited, much less our brothers, indigenous comrades, to be able to leave the country,” he added.
EZLN spokesman Subcomandante Moisés has called the trip an “invasion,” alluding to the voyage made by Spanish conquerors to Mexico more than half a millennium ago, but has insisted the 21st century conquest differs in its aims: “This is a journey for life,” he said.
The seven-strong seafaring delegation departed from Isla Mujeres, Quintana Roo, on May 2, aboard an old German sailboat. It has already arrived at Portugal’s Azores islands in the remote Atlantic, and will continue to continental Europe, planning to land at Vigo, Spain, before traveling to Madrid for August 13: the date on which the Aztec capital fell.
The EZLN has accepted invitations to meet with NGOs and other groups in 30 European countries and territories, according to Moisés, among which are Germany, Denmark, Hungary, Italy, the United Kingdom, Cyprus, Sardinia, Catalonia, France, Russia and Poland.
The group has stated it will not request an apology from Spain for historic bloodshed, maintaining that they were never conquered, and continue to resist colonial repression.
The EZLN rose to prominence when it staged an uprising in Chiapas on January 1, 1994 in opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement. The group still controls and governs large swathes of the state of Chiapas in caracoles, or autonomous zones, where government aid is refused.
Silver production was over 5,000 tonnes last year.
Mexico continued to dominate world silver production last year, despite a 9.5% drop on the previous year, according to World Bank data.
The 5,541 tonnes of silver produced in 2020 was far superior to second place China, which overtook Peru with 3,443 tonnes. Peru followed with 2,991 tonnes of output.
Global production of silver totaled 25,516 tons last year; a 3.7% decrease compared to 2019, largely due to Covid-19 restrictions which required several major silver producers to temporarily halt production. The precious metal is also subject to price fluctuations, which are influenced by the performance of industrial metals.
Mexico’s Fresnillo plc, the world’s largest silver producing company, said mine extraction of the metal has shown a steady decline since 2015.
The world’s supply of silver comes primarily from two sources: mining production and recycled scrap. In 2020, mining production contributed 81.1% of the total silver supply, with scrap contributing 18.8%.
Within mining, only 28.7% of silver come from mines dedicated to its extraction: 71.3% comes as a by-product from lead, zinc, copper and gold.
Other major silver producing countries include Bolivia, Chile, Poland and Australia.
Ignacio de la Torre (Alfonso Herrera) and his lover Evaristo Rivas (Emiliano Zurita) in a still from the film El baile de los 41. All photos courtesy of David Pablos
After a rising political star in pre-Revolutionary Mexico marries the daughter of the president, he pursues not only higher office but also a clandestine romance with a gay man. His balancing between two worlds involves him in a wider controversy that remains a challenging subject in Mexico.
This is the basis of a new Netflix feature film that takes its name from the controversy in 1901 that inspired it: El baile de los 41 or The Dance of the 41 by Mexican director David Pablos.
The title refers to a drag ball held by a secret club of gay men in a private home in Mexico City that was raided by the authorities, resulting in the arrests of 41 men. According to Mexican lore, there was a 42nd attendee — Ignacio de la Torre, the son-in-law of then President Porfirio Díaz. De la Torre’s wife was Díaz’s daughter, Amada Díaz.
El baile de los 41 premiered on Netflix on May 12. It screened at several festivals beforehand, including its debut last year at the Morelia International Film Festival and a showing earlier this year at the San Francisco International Film Festival.
Director Pablos, who worked on the screenplay with Monika Revilla, was enthusiastic about the film’s Netflix premiere.
A man in drag sings the Queen of the Night aria from the Mozart opera The Magic Flute in a still from the film El baile de los 41.
“I feel very, very lucky and happy and privileged because I know the kind of platform that [Netflix] is,” Pablos said, calling the streaming premiere “the real breakthrough, the real moment in which the film can go out into the world.”
As Pablos explains, Mexico has struggled to deal with the subject of homosexuality throughout its history. He notes the unpopularity of the number 41 in the army, on street addresses and in schools.
“This story is part of popular culture,” Pablos said, “and for me, it’s very important for presenting the coming out of the gay community, out of the closet here in Mexico. This [was] the first time homosexuality was talked about in the media, in newspapers. That’s why it became so important. Of course, the story back then became much more relevant not only because of homosexuality but also because the son-in-law of the president Porfirio Díaz was involved.”
Pablos credited Revilla — “a very close friend of mine” — with first learning about the Dance of the 41 and contacting him to suggest a film collaboration about it.
“Otherwise, I do not think I would have had the courage to decide to work on a film like this.”
The film stars Alfonso Herrera as Ignacio, Mabel Cadena as Amada, and Fernando Becerril as a mustachioed President Díaz in full military regalia, who personally decreases the number of arrested men from 42 to 41.
Scenes were shot in downtown Mexico City, including the Casa Rivas Mercado mansion, a rare example of period architecture that survived the Mexican Revolution. The mansion serves as Ignacio and Amada’s residence. The narrative also unfolds in the Mexican Congress where Ignacio works and at the gay club, including several explicit scenes.
This is not the first time that Pablos has taken on challenging subjects. His 2015 film Las elegidas (The Chosen Ones) was about prostitution and won him a Golden and two Silver Ariel awards, as well as a screening at Cannes.
El baile de los 41, however, necessitated a look into some puzzling historical questions. Among them is to what extent de la Torre was involved in the controversy.
“We know very little,” Pablos said. “Actually, Ignacio’s name was never mentioned in the media, in the newspapers. They did mention a few names, but Ignacio’s name was never there. There was no way to prove Ignacio was [at] this ball.”
Yet, Pablos said, not only did contemporary gossip identify de la Torre as the 42nd member of the group, but there was a more oblique connection made in a 1906 book about the controversy, Los cuarenta y uno.
“It’s a terrible book, I have to say,” Pablos said, describing its author as “very much in the mindset of that time of what masculinity was supposed to be.” Although de la Torre’s name does not appear in the book, Pablos finds signs of him within its pages: “There is a character [of whom the author] says, ‘This is one of the wealthiest men in Mexico. He is related to the president. He is part of the main inner circle of the president. He is the one [who is] like the leader of this clandestine group of gay men.’”
Porfirio Díaz’s daughter Amada (Mabel Cadena) prepares for her wedding to Ignacio de la Torre (Alfonso Herrera).
Pablos also looked at what happened following the scandal between de la Torre and his father-in-law.
“We do know Porfirio Díaz was very much disgusted with Ignacio,” Pablos said. “At first, [de la Torre] was his favorite son-in-law. Afterward, he became, like, unwanted.”
In the film, the ambitious congressman seemingly secures his political future by marrying Díaz’s daughter Amada. He presses his father-in-law for help in obtaining a governorship. Meanwhile, de la Torre develops a secret relationship with a gay man named Evaristo Rivas (Emiliano Zurita) and starts bringing him to the secret club.
“For me, part of the core of the film is this group of 42 men,” Pablos said. “It was important that when you would see them on screen, it would feel real.”
He sought a similar approach toward his protagonist, citing the unsympathetic account of de la Torre in Carlos Tello Díaz’s book El exilio about the Díaz family after the Mexican Revolution.
“Every time he mentioned Ignacio de la Torre, he also said Ignacio and Amada had a terrible relationship, they fought all the time,” Pablos said. “It even got to the point where he was beating her up.”
In writing the screenplay, Pablos said, “We did not want to make Ignacio a hero. We did not want to make him like a martyr. I wanted to make this portraying the real people, human beings, complex human beings, and portray this complex situation where he is at.”
Pablos found a resource in the Rivas Mercado mansion. He used the bright colors in its rooms as a contrast with Amada’s worsening relationship with her husband. As Ignacio refuses to give her a son, she tries to channel herself into other recourses, such as target practice outside and adopting a pet goat.
By the film’s end, Pablos said, the house is “a very important character.” Amada, he said, “becomes a prisoner in this house.”
The attendees of the Dance of the 41 also become prisoners and receive a brutal punishment in a scene that Pablos said left an impact on the actors who portrayed them.
“Most of [the] 42 men are gay in real life,” Pablos said. “So I think whether they want it or not, that touches on a wound I think any gay man has, especially in Mexico, which is a very heteronormative country, a very machista country … I don’t think a single gay man in Mexico has not been, at least once in his life, harassed or mocked or bullied or provoked. So this was, in a way, cathartic.”
Rich Tenorio is a frequent contributor to Mexico News Daily.
A family digs up a clandestine grave earlier this year in Tijuana, searching for the remains of a family member believed to be a victim of cartel violence.
In order to ensure that the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) maintained the ability to traffic drugs through Tijuana and into the United States, a group of cartel enforcers employed “rampant violence,” according to the U.S. government.
The United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California issued a statement Monday advising that a superseding indictment and arrest warrants were recently unsealed in a federal court against alleged Mexican drug cartel enforcement leaders in connection with their violent support of heroin and methamphetamine trafficking.
Members of the cartel enforcers group, known as Los Cabos, are charged with conspiracy to distribute and import controlled substances.
Among the accused are Edgar Herrera Pardo, also known as Caiman; Carlos Lorenzo Hinojosa Guerrero, aka Cabo 96; Édgar Pérez Villa, aka Cabo 89; and Israel Alejandro Vázquez-Vázquez, aka Cabo 50.
According to court filings filed by the U.S. government, the four men were leaders of Los Cabos. The group operated in Baja California to secure control of the region for the CJNG, generally considered Mexico’s most powerful and violent criminal organization.
From left, Edgar Herrera Pardo, Carlos Lorenzo Hinojosa Guerrero, Édgar Pérez Villa and Israel Alejandro Vázquez-Vázquez of Los Cabos.
“Los Cabos allegedly employed rampant violence to ensure that [the] CJNG maintained the ability to traffic drugs through Tijuana, Mexico, and into the United States through San Diego,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
“Indeed, in one approximately 6.5-month period of judicially-authorized interceptions of a group chat operated by leaders of Los Cabos, these individuals planned over 150 murders, the majority of which took place in Tijuana, according to the filings.”
The U.S. government alleges that the cartel enforcers’ “bloody reign of terror” included the murder in Tijuana in November 2018 of two teenaged United States citizens from Chula Vista, California.
“The government also alleges that Los Cabos targeted law enforcement in Tijuana, killing at least three police officers,” the Attorney’s Office said.
“Los Cabos allegedly engaged in this violence in support of CJNG, one of the most dangerous transnational criminal organizations in the world. The cartel has its hands in trafficking multiple deadly substances. It is responsible for moving tons of cocaine, methamphetamine and fentanyl-laced heroin into the United States,” it said.
“CJNG is also a prolific methamphetamine producer and chemical importer, using precursors procured from China and India. CJNG is one of the most powerful Mexican cartels operating within the United States,” the Attorney’s Office said, adding that the organization is “the most well-armed cartel in Mexico” and “has contributed to a catastrophic trail of human and physical destruction.”
Acting U.S. Attorney Randy S. Grossman said that authorities are determined to hold cartel operatives to account.
“For too long, powerful cartels have visited unspeakable violence on Tijuana, a city that is right next door to San Diego,” he said.
“We will continue our campaign to end the cartels’ reign of terror and stop the flow of drugs across the border by prosecuting the highest-ranking leaders and enforcers.”
Grossman praised U.S authorities, including Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents, for their work on the Los Cabos case and thanked Mexico’s federal Attorney General’s Office for assisting.
DEA Special Agent in Charge John W. Callery said that cartels such as the CJNG “not only perpetrate violence and murders that affect our neighbors south of the border, but their drugs cause death and destruction in our own communities.”
If arrested and convicted, the Los Cabos members face up to life imprisonment and a US $10 million fine for drug importation offenses and the same penalties for narcotic distribution crimes. There is a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment for both crimes.
Temperatures could reach 50 C in some parts of the state this week.
The Health Ministry has warned citizens in Sonora to take precautions to avoid dehydration and heat stroke after temperatures hit 46 C in recent days.
Clear to light cloud cover, subtropical winds, and little to zero probability of rain have all contributed to the heat wave. Temperatures could rise to as high as 50 in some parts of the state this week, said the National Meteorological Service Tuesday morning.
Last week there was a 33% rise in hospital visits for health problems related to the heat. Commander of the Red Cross in Sonora, José Luis Osegueda, confirmed that the organization is providing a “large percentage of services” to people with dehydration problems.
Health Minister Enrique Clausen Iberri said residents should avoid exposure to the sun from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., wear sunscreen and loose-fitting, lightly-colored clothes which cover the skin, and use a hat or umbrella for sun protection.
He urged citizens to seek medical attention if presented with any of the following symptoms: intense thirst, restlessness, reduced elasticity in the skin, sunken eyes, weakness, headache, dizziness, nausea, vomiting and an accelerated heartbeat, adding that the main dangers are heatstroke and dehydration due to profuse sweating, diarrhea or insufficient consumption of liquids.
“Care must be taken when faced with high temperatures. Above all, minors and older adults must be taken care of, they must not have long exposure to the sun … and should stay adequately hydrated,” he said.
Other safety recommendations for heat waves include: consuming a minimum of two liters of water per day, covering windows to reduce the heat inside, avoiding intense physical activity in the sun, eating fruits and vegetables and avoiding alcoholic or sugary drinks.
A waterfall in the Copper Canyon in Ocampo, Chihuahua, has dried up due to the severe drought affecting the area.
The 246-meter Basaseachi waterfall — the second highest in Mexico — is normally a tourist attraction, but has been reduced to a trickle of water falling onto the walls of the canyon.
The nationwide drought has affected all municipalities in Chihuahua this year, where crop losses of up to 90% have been recorded. Reservoirs have been at exceptionally low levels, sparking predictions of an economic and social crisis.
Residents of Ocampo said there has been alarm about the waterfall since April. They name an exterior cause: two mines which divert the river to serve their extraction activities.
Local councillor Javier Ruiz Acuña said the fate of the waterfall is the simple consequence of the nationwide drought and dismissed other theories. He added that the waterfall had dried up in other periods of water scarcity, and said that once the rain returned the water would run again.
Ocampo residents said the waterfall usually runs at full strength in August.
CFE chief Manuel Bartlett and Governor Miguel Riquelme blamed each other for the disaster at the Micarán mine in Múzquiz.
Bartlett acknowledged that Riquelme last week apportioned “moral responsibility” to him for the mine collapse, which occurred on June 4 after heavy rain, “for having lowered the price” the CFE pays for coal extracted in Coahuila.
“According to him, that caused the mining entrepreneurs to neglect the maintenance of their mines,” the CFE director wrote.
In another Twitter post, Bartlett asserted that Riquelme should have avoided the disaster by imposing safety measures at the mine through the Labor Ministry.
Governor of Coahuila Miguel Riquelme.
“Therefore, the person responsible for the lack of safety is Governor Miguel Riquelme,” he wrote.
The governor countered that mining — and therefore mine safety — is a federal responsibility rather than a state one.
“Mr. Manuel Bartlett, you should know better than anyone that mining and electricity are the exclusive purview of the federal government; state governments can only intervene on the request of federal authorities,” Riquelme wrote in a Twitter post that included an image of a relevant page of the constitution.
“Your ignorance is a very serious matter, and your shamelessness in allocating these responsibilities to those who don’t have legal authority over this sector is even more serious. #TheLiesOfBartlett,” the Institutional Revolutionary Party governor added.
Riquelme also accused Bartlett of provoking “a serious crisis in the coal mining region of Coahuila” that has left hundreds of families without income.
The CFE chief “has favored a few companies” for the state-owned utility’s coal purchases, he wrote.
Head of the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) Manuel Bartlett.
“From Tony Flores’ [companies], for example, the brother of then Morena party candidate now mayor-elect for the municipality of Múzquiz, [Tania Flores] … they’ve benefited from the purchase of more than two million tonnes [of coal] without a tendering process,” Riquelme wrote.
“Who allows and protects the coal monopoly? You or me?” the governor added, referring to a tweet Bartlett posted in which he accused Riquelme of “cynically protecting those who want to monopolize the purchase of coal, to the detriment of small producers.”
“Mr. Manuel Bartlett, as [federal] interior minister, the [vote-counting] system failed,” Riquelme wrote, referring to the 1988 presidential election won by Carlos Salinas amid widespread accusations of electoral fraud.
After a power blackout that affected over 10 million customers last December, the CFE claimed a wildfire in Tamaulipas was responsible and issued a document to support the claim. It later turned that the commission had forged the document, but it insisted nonetheless that the fire actually occurred. Bartlett dismissed the forgery as a minor issue.
Former governor of Chiapas Manuel Velasco is now a federal senator with the Green Party, which is currently allied with the Morena party.
The federal government detected a scheme in which the 2012–2018 Chiapas government led by Green Party (PVEM) governor Manuel Velasco appeared to embezzle more than 500 million pesos of public money, but it has not initiated legal action against any officials who served in the administration, according to an anti-graft group.
In a report published Sunday, Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity (MCCI) said the Federal Tax Administration (SAT) detected “irregular operations” carried out by the Velasco government between 2019 and 2020. It discovered the operations in audits of six companies that have been identified as shell or ghost firms.
MCCI, which obtained SAT documents, said its reporters visited the addresses listed for the supposed partners of the companies in Chiapas and Morelos and found that “humble” people with no business interests lived at them. Their identities were presumably stolen, MCCI said, adding that the tax addresses didn’t correspond to companies either.
“In one case, the address is a house with a sheet metal roof, and in another it’s a vacant lot,” the group said.
The amount allegedly embezzled via contracts awarded to the ghost companies for a wide range of goods and services is equivalent to about US $25 million at today’s exchange rate.
Velasco and his actress wife, who goes by Anahí, receive President Lopez Obrador in Chiapas in 2018 while Velasco was governor. Twitter
Not only has the federal government not launched legal action in relation to the alleged misappropriation of government money, the MCCI noted, the ruling Morena party in March formalized an electoral alliance with the PVEM, who Velasco now represents as a federal senator.
“This agreement was made … when the administration of [President] López Obrador already knew of the diversion of resources in Velasco’s government,” the group said.
As a result of the alliance, the PVEM is expected to increase the number of seats it holds in the lower house of federal Congress to 43 from 11. Speaking last Sunday — the day federal, state and municipal elections were held — Velasco spoke out in favor of the PVEM’s alliance with Morena, a partnership that allows the latter to keep its majority in the Chamber of Deputies.
A lawyer for the former governor distanced him from involvement in the alleged embezzlement scheme, telling MCCI that Velasco was not aware of all the transactions carried out by his government because he delegated decisions to members of his cabinet.
“When a person wins the executive tenure [governorship] of a state by popular election, it’s his obligation to put together a cabinet. Each [government] department has its own budgetary autonomy,” José Luis Nassar said, adding that Velasco didn’t have time to carry out his duties as governor and supervise how ministries were spending the public money at their disposal.
Among the government departments that allegedly diverted resources to ghost companies were the Development Ministry, the Security Ministry and the Ministry for Women’s Empowerment.
Nassar said he was in favor of an investigation and punishment of officials if it is determined that money was indeed stolen.
The MCCI’s revelation of the SAT’s detection of apparent embezzlement comes almost a year after two videos surfaced showing David León, an advisor to Velasco’s government, giving large sums of money in 2015 to Pío López Obrador, the president’s brother.
MCCI insinuated that the 1.4 million pesos given to the president’s brother in the two videos was embezzled public money.
The anti-graft group said it had contacted León, who said he didn’t work for the Chiapas government or as an advisor to Velasco and therefore didn’t know whether public money was diverted via ghost companies.
“However, there are journalists who have confirmed that when Velasco was governor, it was David León who contacted them in his name,” MCCI said.
“With respect to his participation in the videos with Pío López Obrador and the origin of the money delivered for [Morena party] campaigns, León said that he cannot speak about it because there is an open investigation,” it said.
President López Obrador has claimed that the money that his brother received consisted of “contributions” from ordinary people who supported the Morena party.
MCCI noted that the Federal Auditor’s Office (ASF) also detected a separate alleged embezzlement scheme that appeared to divert 685 million pesos to 26 presumed ghost companies during Velasco’s term as governor.
“Together, the irregular payments to ghost companies reported by the ASF previously and by the SAT now add up to about 1.18 billion pesos [US $ 59.4 million] during Velasco’s government,” it said.
Deputy Health Minister López-Gatell at a Covid press conference. The last one was held Friday.
More than 30 million Mexicans, or about one-quarter of the population, have been infected with the coronavirus, according to Health Ministry estimates.
The ministry said on Friday that the 2020 National Health and Nutrition Survey indicated that 31.1 million people in Mexico have had the virus. That figure is more than 12 times higher than Mexico’s official tally of confirmed cases, which currently stands at 2.45 million.
Tonatiuh Barrientos, an official at the National Institute of Public Health, said that not all of the people in the survey’s estimate would have had symptoms. Many coronavirus cases, especially asymptomatic ones, are believed to have gone uncounted in Mexico due to the low testing rate.
The health survey was conducted with members of almost 14,000 households between August and November of last year.
Mexico went through a second – and worse – wave of the pandemic in December and January after the first wave receded in the middle of 2020.
Mexico’s official Covid-19 death toll – currently 230,150 – is also considered a vast undercount due to the low testing rate. The government acknowledged in March that the country’s true Covid-19 death toll was almost 60% higher than official numbers indicated.
The publication of the estimate on the number of people infected came on the same day that the Health Ministry held its final nightly Covid-19 briefing, more than a year after officials began fronting up to the press on a daily basis to outline the pandemic situation and offer advice to citizens about how to avoid being infected.
Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell, the coronavirus czar who led the majority of the press conferences, announced earlier last week that the daily appearances would come to an end, explaining that the Health Ministry would convey information about the pandemic to citizens in another way.
In presenting daily briefings since early last year, the ministry has reached a point of “exhaustion,” the government’s pandemic point man said.
“We will always be open to having [future] press conferences and interviews, but now with a different regularity according to what’s necessary.”
After Friday night’s final press conference – the 451st – López-Gatell was met by supporters and admirers outside the National Palace in Mexico City and the deputy minister was presented with a cake and flowers, and serenaded by mariachi musicians.
The first Johnson & Johnson vaccines arrive Tuesday and will be administered in the northern border region.
“We have to keep looking after ourselves, [the pandemic] hasn’t ended,” he told his fans before posing for photos with them.
The end of the nightly coronavirus press conferences coincides with a significant decline in the intensity of the pandemic. Reported case numbers were down 35% in May compared to April, and Covid-19 deaths declined 51% to an average of 215 per day last month. Nineteen of Mexico’s 32 states, including Mexico City – the nation’s coronavirus epicenter – are currently low risk green on the federal government’s coronavirus stoplight map.
The end of the nightly pressers also comes as the government’s vaccination program continues to gather speed. More than 36.4 million shots have been administered across Mexico and the government has received more than 46.2 million doses of five different vaccines.
The government said Monday that a shipment of a sixth vaccine – made by Johnson & Johnson – would arrive on Tuesday, 12 days after the United States told Mexico it would send 1 million doses.
“I can confirm that 1.3 million doses of the Jannsen [single-shot] vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson will arrive tomorrow from the United States,” Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Twitter.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine was authorized for emergency use by health regulator Cofepris last month but has not yet been used in Mexico. The five used to date have been the Pfizer, AstraZeneca, CanSino, SinoVac and Sputnik V shots.
Mexico has previously received some 2.7 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from the U.S. government under a loan scheme, and has now begun donating some of its shots to other countries in the Americas.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) said on Saturday that the government would deliver 400,000 doses of AstraZeneca that were manufactured in Argentina and bottled in Mexico to Bolivia, Paraguay and Belize.
Bolivia and Paraguay will get 150,000 doses each and Belize will get 100,000, the SRE said.
“The decision was taken by the president of the republic, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and executed by the Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard Casaubon, with the aim of showing the solidarity of Mexico [with other nations] and fostering access to vaccines in countries of the region,” the statement said.
“… We hope to be able to prepare more shipments for other countries in the near future,” said Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Martha Delgado.
A diver with bags of waste recovered from a cenote.
Four tonnes of garbage were cleared from 24 cenotes in Yucatán last year, mainly in the form of plastic and glass bottles, and an equal number are on the agenda for this year.
The Ministry of Sustainable Development has cleaned a further seven cenotes this year through its environmental drive, and hopes to tackle 17 more. In one cenote — Chankom — 318 kilos of waste were removed last Thursday.
Divers and local residents have worked together to restore the natural beauty of the sinkholes, many of which have become tourist attractions.
“The work consists of the removal of waste at the depths of the cenotes, cleaning around the site and on the main roads around the community where you collect rubbish hidden in the flora. Also, the planting of native plants and the promotion of local participation,” the ministry said.
Head of the ministry, Sayda Rodríguez Gómez, said that part of the objective is to increase local awareness. “It is not just about improving the aesthetic aspect, but also about preventing health problems among residents and generating a consciousness about the environment and how to avoid contamination,” she said.
Cenotes are natural pits, or sinkholes, which have emerged from the collapse of limestone bedrock, exposing groundwater. The term comes from a word used by the lowland Yucatec Maya: cenotes were commonly used for water supplies by the ancient Maya.
