Cartel boss’s mother, 25 others arrested along with week’s payroll

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June 22, 2020

One of the vehicles set on fire to create blockades in Guanajuato.

The mother of Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel boss José Antonio “El Marro” Yépez and 25 other cartel members, including his sister and cousin, were arrested in Celaya, Guanajuato, on Saturday.

The arrests triggered a dramatic response: vehicles were set on fire to create road blockades at 47 locations in 13 municipalities.

María Ortiz, allegedly a financial operator for the fuel theft and drug trafficking organization and the mother if its leader, was arrested by the army and state police shortly after 2:00 p.m. at a home in the community of San Isidro Elguera where authorities say wages were paid to cartel members and associates.

El Marro’s mother had more than 2 million pesos (US $89,500) on her when she was detained as well as approximately one kilogram of a substance believed to be methamphetamine.

Soldiers and police also detained two women identified as Juana “N,” Yépez’s sister, and Rosalba “N,” El Marro’s cousin.

Cartel boss El Marro in an emotional video released on the weekend. — A screenshot from one of El Marro’s videos.

In addition, the authorities took sicarios (hired assassins or hitmen), halcones (hawks or lookouts for crime gangs) and other alleged cartel associates into custody. All of those detained allegedly arrived at the Celaya address to collect their fortnightly wages.

The National Defense Ministry said it had obtained a warrant to search the home prior to the arrests.

The newspaper Milenio confirmed that at least four other people with links to the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel were arrested after raids on properties near the border between Celaya and Villagrán, the municipality where the criminal organization has been based.

The arrests sparked a violent response from the cartel, whose turf war with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) has made Guanajuato the most violent state in the country.

Yépez ordered vehicles to be set alight on several roads in and around Celaya in order to create fiery blockades to hinder efforts to arrest him. Blockades were established at at least 47 different points in 13 municipalities, Milenio reported.

The United States Embassy issued a security alert warning its citizens to avoid highways in 10 Guanajuato municipalities.

Reaparece #ElMarro debilitado llorando pide el apoyo ante el operativo de ayer en #Celaya #GuanajuatoViolento pic.twitter.com/RZISCXWa5a

— Magic Zoo (@MagicZoo1) June 21, 2020

Cartel boss El Marro in an emotional video released on the weekend.

“The embassy has received reports of ongoing unofficial roadblocks in the municipalities of Celaya, Juventino Rosas, Cortázar, Dolores Hidalgo, Apaseo el Alto, Apaseo el Grande, Salvatierra, Tarimoro, San Luis de la Paz, and San Jose Iturbide. Active gunfire is reported in San Luis de la Paz,” the alert said.

El Marro later appeared in two videos posted to social media. In one – recorded just before 7:00 p.m. Saturday, according to intelligence authorities – he thanked the people who set the vehicles on fire and pledged to support them.

Sources told Milenio that the blockades prevented authorities from quickly reaching the property where Yépez was located, and gave him time to flee.

El Marro became emotional at the end of the first video, holding back tears as he promised to keep up the fight against authorities “even if I’m left alone like a fucking dog.”

In a second video, Yépez confirmed the arrest of his mother and raised the possibility of entering into an alliance with other criminal groups, such as the Sinaloa Cartel.

He accused the authorities of supporting the CJNG, one of Mexico’s most powerful criminal organizations, but pledged that his cartel will continue to operate despite Saturday’s arrests further weakening its structure. Authorities told Milenio that the video footage of El Marro is authentic.

Yépez has evaded capture for the past 15 months despite federal and state authorities launching an operation aimed specifically at his arrest. The authorities have said on several occasions that they were closing in on the criminal leader, and claimed almost a year ago that he had no resources to fund his criminal activities because his bank accounts had been frozen.

However, while they have arrested scores of Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel members and several of Yépez’s family – including his father, wife (later released) and niece – El Marro himself has remained elusive.

A media report in February said the fugitive criminal leader built infrastructure in the small town of Santa Rosa de Lima and the surrounding area that was specifically designed to aid and abet his criminal activities and help him avoid capture.

Reports have also said that Yépez’s cartel had a payroll that included politicians, municipal, state and federal police as well as state and federal prosecutors.

Mike Vigil, former chief of international operations for the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), said in March that although the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel is best-known for its illegal trafficking of petroleum products, it also sells other illicit goods, mainly cocaine.

He also said that Yépez is a big target for the DEA even though the gang he leads isn’t as large as other more notable criminal organizations.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Wealthy Mexicans find they can buy comfort but not protection

By

Jude Webber

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June 22, 2020

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The sign in Mexico City warns that the area is high-risk for the coronavirus. — A sign in Mexico City warns that the area is high-risk for the coronavirus.

The alarm bells started ringing in March. Coronavirus still felt like a distant phenomenon in Mexico, not something to cause the jet set to fret. But then three top businessmen went down with it after flying home from the U.S. ski resort of Vail by private jet, and the panic began.

The governor of the western province of Jalisco, home of tequila, quickly called for 400 people who had traveled to Vail and nearby Denver on two chartered airlines to self-isolate. Before long, the governor of the central state of Puebla was describing Covid-19 as a risk for the rich, saying “we poor are immune.”

Now, as even the most expensive private clinics have filled up, the realization has sunk in among the privileged that “there’s no money or influence that can get you a hospital bed,” as the head of one media group puts it, describing the anxious mood emanating from her phone chat groups. “They’re worried for their health,” she says. “Many [of Mexico’s millionaires] are no longer so young. They’ve locked down more than those without so much to lose.”

There are fears that the true death toll is higher than the thousands officially recorded — and many people are taking precautions. Among the rich it has been a “golden confinement” for many, says María Torres, editor in chief of society magazine Quién, as the wealthy retreated to their second or third homes in the countryside or by the sea.

“I’ve had a number of conversations from beach resorts,” said one consultant who has held Zoom meetings with Hawaiian-shirted executives to the sound of waves crashing in the background. After Vail “they’ve been extremely careful not to expose themselves,” he added. They could see from the example of Jaime Ruiz Sacristán, Mexico’s stock exchange president and the highest profile fatality to date, that money was no protection. He was one of the three who returned from skiing in March with the virus.

Mexican stock exchange president Sacristán was an early Covid victim.

Initially, many thought they could simply take refuge on their yachts, says Adolfo Nieto, commercial director of Aerolíneas Ejecutivos, which sells and leases luxury boats and private planes. But “that dream didn’t last long” as the authorities soon closed lakes and seas to recreational craft.

After retreating instead to their holiday homes, some almost seem to be enjoying it. The consultant says: “They’d have no problem staying locked up for six months.” With live-in staff “it reminds me of colonial times — there’s absolutely no need to go out.”

While the 1% may be in isolation, they are not idle. Carlos Slim, the phone magnate and Mexico’s richest man, whose cousin contracted Covid-19 in Vail, sealed a contract to build part of the Maya Train that President López Obrador says will help develop the country’s poor southeast. He also donated 1 billion pesos (US $42 million) to buy ventilators and medical equipment.

But as Latin America’s second-biggest economy reels — more than half a million jobs were lost in April alone and analysts expect gross domestic product to contract this year by about 8% — Mexico’s rich have also felt the pain personally. The fortunes of Mexico’s top 1% of earners account for an estimated quarter of total incomes.

According to Forbes, no one in Mexico has been hit more than Slim, who had lost $12 billion by late May. Once the world’s richest man, he now ranks 17th with a net worth of $51.5 billion. But that is more than Mexico’s other billionaires put together and Slim’s losses this year are more than the fortune of Mexico’s next richest, Ricardo Salinas.

Many top Mexican businesses have turned their attention to repurposing factories to produce hand sanitizer, as Corona brewer Grupo Modelo has done, or to charitable efforts like Slim and Germán Larrea, head of a mining and rail conglomerate, who has donated a hospital.

Carlos Slim: no one has been hit harder financially.

But not all have let the crisis change their plans. Salinas, a media, banking and retail magnate, has argued vocally for business as usual — especially because the informal sector is half of Mexico’s economy and does not have the luxury of a safety net in locking down. He appealed in vain for the country not to grind to a halt. He kept open his Elektra shops, which sell white goods in lower-class areas, saying that with economic paralysis “we’re not going to die of coronavirus but of hunger.”

But as the new normal takes hold, many of the wealthy are thinking of staying in their second homes for good — magazine editor Torres says enrollments at a private school in the lakeside retreat of Valle de Bravo near Mexico City have rocketed. The rich are starting to enjoy the fruits of their fortunes.

“We see high net worth individuals who previously hadn’t considered private jets, despite having the means, now seeing them not as luxury but as the only option,” says boats and planes vendor Nieto. In the 2008-09 recession “the first thing they sold were their toys;” now jets are “a tool they won’t get rid of.”

As one major citrus producer, who has been flying by private jet to meetings across the country and the U.S., puts it: “With coronavirus, it’s just safer.”

Sunday’s coronavirus deaths surpass 1,000; over 5,300 new cases reported

By

MND Staff

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June 22, 2020

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Construction workers were allowed to return to work June 1 in Mexico City.

The Health Ministry reported more than 1,000 additional Covid-19 deaths on Sunday while Mexico’s tally of confirmed cases rose by more than 5,000. It was only the second time that reported deaths have exceeded 1,000 in a single day.

Director of Epidemiology Jose Luis Alomía reported 1,044 additional fatalities, increasing the death toll to 21,825, and 5,343 new cases, lifting the case tally to 180,545.

Both the number of deaths and cases reported were the second highest since the beginning of the pandemic.

Alomía reiterated that not all of the deaths occurred in the previous 24 hours, presenting a graph that showed that many of the fatalities registered on Sunday occurred in May and the first half of June.

In addition to the 21,825 confirmed Covid-19 deaths, 1,892 fatalities are suspected of having been caused by the disease.

Active cases of coronavirus as of Sunday. milenio

Of the more than 180,000 confirmed cases, 24,225 are considered active. There are also 56,590 suspected cases, while 479,528 people have now been tested.

Mexico City leads the country for accumulated coronavirus cases, active cases and deaths, while México state ranks second in all three categories.

The capital has recorded almost 42,500 Covid-19 cases since the start of the pandemic, of which 4,284 are currently active. Mexico City’s official death toll is 5,451 but the real number of people who have died from Covid-19 is widely believed to be much higher.

México state has recorded just over 28,500 confirmed cases, of which 2,423 are currently active. It has also recorded 3,092 Covid-19 deaths. The most affected México state municipalities are located in the Valley of México metropolitan area, the country’s coronavirus epicenter.

Tabasco, Veracruz and Baja California rank third, fourth and fifth, respectively, for accumulated cases. The first two states have recorded more than 8,000 cases while Baja California’s tally is just below 7,800.

Apart from Mexico City and México state, six states currently have more than 1,000 active cases: Puebla, Guanajuato, Tabasco, Veracruz, Nuevo León and Jalisco.

Covid-19 deaths reported as of Sunday evening. milenio

Baja California has the third highest Covid-19 death toll in the country, with 1,741 confirmed fatalities. With more than 1,000 coronavirus-related deaths each, Veracruz and Sinaloa rank fourth and fifth, respectively.

Based on confirmed cases and deaths, Mexico’s coronavirus fatality rate is 12 per 100 cases, a figure well above the global rate of 5.2.

Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said that 65% of those who have died were men aged over 50.

“It’s probable that a significant proportion of them were fathers who were unable to be with their families [on Father’s Day] this year,” he said.

“Losing a father, like losing a mother or any family member is something that is extremely dramatic and, of course, … it’s painful. I understand this perfectly because I lost my father 21 years ago on Father’s Day. That’s why I want to express my condolences to all the families that have lost a father during … the pandemic,” López-Gatell said.

Source: El Universal (sp), Milenio (sp)

The secret to staging a film festival during a health crisis: drive-in theaters

By

Lydia Carey

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June 20, 2020

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The festival will be held September 18-27 in Guanajuato, San Miguel de Allende and Irapuato.

The Guanajuato International Film Festival (GIFF) is braving the post-Covid future with a throwback to the past — drive-in theaters.

“We’re really open to new technologies and new ways of telling stories, as well as new stories and new storytellers,” says Sarah Hoch, founding director. “This year, we’re about new ways of doing the film festival.”

From September 18–27, the festival moves forward with a nostalgic blast from the past. Its 300+ short films, world premieres and documentaries will be shown at drive-ins and picnic grounds across Guanajuato state so that attendees can keep a healthy social distance from each other. In a year when many massive public events have been canceled altogether, the GIFF remains committed to keeping its doors open – for the fans, the local economy, and for the love of cinema.

You could say that the pandemic has made this local film festival think outside the box, but that would only be true if they had been inside the box to begin with. The GIFF began 23 years ago in the midst of a moment of crisis for the Mexican film industry: only a handful of films were being made by national directors and even fewer were seen by the public. There was a need for more support, both financially and socially and spaces for new talent to show off their work.

Guanajuato’s was the first film festival in Mexico to support alternative formats to 35mm. They were one of the first film festivals to make inclusion (especially of the LGBTQ community) a priority. And the GIFF was vital to the rebirth of the short film genre in Mexico – which had been slowly disappearing since the 1950s.

drive-in theater — Coming to Guanajuato.

“There was such a need for a festival like ours, we weren’t institutionalized, but a non-profit. We were kind of mavericks, we broke all the rules, we attacked all the institutions, we made a lot of enemies but we’ve made a lot of breakthroughs,” laughs Hoch.

Breaking the rules included setting up screenings in some uncommon places – the outdoor steps of the Guanajuato University, graveyards, tunnels, plazas, gardens.

“If you can name it, we can set it up,” Hoch says, insisting that the GIFF team isn’t intimidated by the logistics of outfitting 22 screening sites as drive-ins or outdoor picnics. These sites will be set up in three cities hosting the festival this year – San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, and for the first time in the festival’s history, Irapuato.

The addition of this third city was a logical fit – the GIFF’s production arm has spent years working with Irapuato filmmakers and the city is wooing the festival by setting up a high-end drive-in of its own.

For each of these locations, the festival will apply the santitary restrictions that have been set for both restaurants and movie theaters by Mexican health officials. Folks will be on hand to clean bathrooms after each use, wipe down surfaces, ensure that staff and visitors are wearing masks and using hand sanitizer as well as keeping a safe distance from one another – picnic areas 2 meters apart and passageways between cars will make it possible to maintain healthy distances even on the way to the concession stand.

Each location will offer a menu of gourmet snacks or full meals and maybe even a few junk food options harkening back to the days of drive-in corn dogs and slurpees. LED screens and surround sound will ensure that movies can be shown all day without reduced visibility or sound quality.

The majority of the festival’s locations won’t be announced until August but there are rumors that the Rosewood Hotel in San Miguel de Allende is planning its very own vintage car drive-in with space (there may even be old-school clip-on car trays) and several other parking lots and outdoor spaces are already starting their transformation for the festival’s new format. Drive-ins and outdoor screenings will have space for 200 to 500 cars or individual groups. Additionally there will be showings in two traditional movie theaters, with the same hygiene standards in place.

In addition to screenings, there will be conferences, panel discussions, kids’ activities, and other events for regular Joes to mix and mingle with the people in the industry. Filmmakers from all over the country and beyond are gearing up to land this fall.

“Everyone we told we were doing drive-ins was like, ‘I’m Coming,’” says Hoch, “A lot of their films were accepted at major film festivals that then got canceled. They were opening films for film festivals that never happened, and they so want an audience … They are super psyched about these spaces. The response from the filmmakers has been overwhelmingly positive.”

Still not convinced about leaving your house to mingle with other movie-goers? In the tradition of innovation the GIFF has announced a virtual campus that will allow people to participate from the comfort of their own homes. This video-game-like experience will provide access to all the events, talks, conferences and classes offered by the GIFF 2020.

As one of the first international film festivals to have a large amount of their content online and with Covid making more and more of our social interactions virtual ones, a virtual campus seemed like the logical next step in expanding their reach.

But if you love movies and the experience of watching them in a crowd, the question must be asked: is this the new normal for film festivals?

Director Sarah Hoch: ‘This year, we’re about new ways of doing the film festival.’

“There was this big thing about putting your films online before Netflix really took off,” says Hoch, “but now with everybody stuck in their house, everything’s online. I think when producers were finally putting things online, some of these older, slow-moving festivals were like, OK, we’ll put something online.”

In fact, many of the GIFF’s filmmakers refused to give the festival the digital versions of their work at the beginning of the year, insisting they would wait for the fall festivals to reopen. But as the crisis dragged on, producers and filmmakers changed their minds, equipping the festival with a healthy online catalogue of this year’s films.

“Producers are changing the way they are releasing their films and they are changing the way people are going to see them. Festivals will become an important part of how people hear about these films because billion-dollar investments with toys at McDonald’s and huge billboards are going to be a thing of the past. It will make festivals even more important, especially festivals with strong social media and a strong presence online and who are comfortable with new technologies,” says Hoch.

“I think that for those of us that have been working in technology for a long time, we’re going to take a lot of things we learned this year and continue it. Our festival will have 40 to 50% of its content online as well and 100% of our competition will be online,” she says.

Keeping the festival alive also helps local businesses like hotels and restaurants that have been the bedrock of the festival.

“Our biggest sponsors are restaurants and hotels and the tourism industry in both cities. They have been with us for 23 years. They needed something to jumpstart tourism again and we wanted to be that event – that was super creative, and super fun, but safe,” says Hoch.

For movie-goers ready to venture out, the GIFF’s new format is a way to experience the festival while still maintaining safe distance and health standards. For some it will even be a nostalgic trip to simpler pre-Covid times when worldwide pandemics were only on the big screen, watched from the safety of your own front seat.

• For festival details, visit giff.mx.

Lydia Carey is a regular contributor to Mexico News Daily. She lives in Mexico City.

Annual Sahara Desert dust cloud is en route to Mexico

By

MND Staff

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June 20, 2020

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The dust cloud currently making its way across the Atlantic.

A massive dust cloud from northern Africa’s Sahara Desert is on its way to Mexico and is expected to reach the Yucatán Peninsula next week.

Large amounts of yellow-colored Sahara dust arrive annually in Mexico, carried by eastern trade winds across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas. Satellite images show that the huge dust cloud, considerably larger than those seen in recent years, is currently making its way across the ocean.

More than 100 million tonnes of desert dust are picked up by storms in Africa and blown across the Atlantic every June.

Researchers have found that the dust – made up of particles of iron, silicon, mercury and phosphorus, among other chemical elements – has an impact on air pressure above the Atlantic Ocean and can help to suppress the intensity of hurricanes.

The dust also act as a natural fertilizer and has been found to play a key role in restoring minerals to depleted rainforest soils in South America’s Amazon basin.

However, research also shows that it may be harmful to coral reefs if it descends into the ocean before reaching land. One study found that the dust can trigger toxic algae blooms, also known as red tides, that have the capacity to kill large numbers of fish, shellfish, marine mammals and birds.

As it reaches the Yucatán Peninsula, the dust is likely to create spectacular, brightly-hued sunrises and sunsets. Meteorologists say its arrival could be accompanied by torrential rain.

The dust is not considered particularly harmful to human health but can cause irritation in the eyes and throat, trigger allergies and aggravate respiratory conditions such as asthma.

Yucatán Peninsula residents are advised to limit outdoor activities while it is present in the region’s air.

Source: Xataka (sp), Noticieros Televisa (sp)

The huipil, a ‘canvas’ for culture and identity, is truly indigenous

By

Leigh Thelmadatter

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June 20, 2020

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The three-part hipil, a variation found on the Yucatán Peninsula. gildardo sánchez

After the Conquest the Spanish imposed many of their cultural norms on the people of what is now Mexico, not in the least related to dress. As a result, many of the traditional indigenous garments seen today show European influence and even origin.

But some truly indigenous garments still survive.

Among them are wrap belts, wrap skirts, quexquemitls — a poncho-like garment, and huarache sandals.

The most important of these, however, is likely the huipil, a garment seen from central Mexico into Central America, indicating the extension of Mesoamerica. In Mexico, its use distinguishes the indigenous peoples of central and southern Mexico from those in the north. Evidence of the garment’s use goes back as far as 900 B.C., but its history is probably older.

The basic concept is simple. A long rectangular piece of cloth is folded over lengthwise to form a tunic-like garment. An opening is made for the head, with the sides sewn most of the way leaving space for the arms to come through.

A huipil bearing the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe is the work of Rosa Elvia Leyva Antonio of Rancho Grande, Oaxaca. Image is from the book Rosas y Revelaciones.

It is shapeless in the sense that it not cut to follow the contours of the human body. This is not because Mesoamerican cultures never figured out how to cut cloth. Rather, it is because such cloth was all woven by hand, and therefore very precious, similar to the rationale of the clothing worn by the ancient Greeks.

Perhaps because they are not seen as often by foreign tourists they are relatively unknown, especially compared to the blouse/skirt combination worn by mestizo women and many indigenous as well.

Despite their simple shape, a true huipil is neither quick to make nor cheap. The best are still hand woven on backstrap looms in complicated brocades and embroidered, meaning months of work. Such are not everyday garments, but rather for special occasions or they are made to earn money for the family.

Huipils can be long or short. The long ones are worn like dresses, and the short ones like blouses, with a wrap or European-style skirt. How they are designed and worn is dictated by community and tradition. This means that the community and the status of the woman wearing the garment can be discerned by it.

Although embroidery can and is done on all kinds of garments in Mexico, huipils provide a rather large canvas for large and/or repeating designs. Anthropologist Marta Turok states that “Huipils are part of a living legacy with profound cultural meaning. Most of the woven-in designs are sacred symbols and they represent the vast diversity of over 60 ethnic groups in Mexico.” Her groundbreaking work in the 1970s brought this symbology to light.

Huipils can be made from a single piece of cloth, but the longer ones are commonly made with three lengths of narrow cloth that have been decoratively stitched together. This is because the backstrap loom limits the width of the cloth that can be made.

A huipil from San Andrés Duraznal, Chiapas. Alejandro Linares García

There are some garments that may not be true huipils but are related to or derived from them. One is the Tehuana woman’s headdress, made famous by Frida Kahlo’s painting of herself wearing one. On the Yucatán Peninsula, the traditional dress is called the hipil (a variation of the word “huipil”) or the terno.

It is worn by mestizo women, not indigenous, and has three parts. The jubon is a free-falling yoke. This is attached to the “huipil” which hangs from the shoulders to the knees. The last is the fustan, a half-slip worn underneath that hangs lower than the huipil. All three are heavily embroidered and usually decorated with lace as well.

In the former Purépecha empire (today’s Michoacán), there is a garment called a huanengo or guanengo. There is some debate as to whether it should be classified as a variation of the huipil. It is always worn as a blouse but some variations look very much like huipils, some even having three sections. Others show strong influence from European yoked blouses, with simple sleeves.

For foreigners who visit huipil-wearing areas, the shorter blouse versions are the most popular, as these can easily be worn with jeans. Handcraft aficionados tend to buy and wear the longer versions as well. There have been recent controversies related to the copying of Mexican traditional garments by designers for foreign markets.

Such objections do not seem to indicate that there is a problem with “cultural appropriation” when foreigners buy and wear traditional clothing made in Mexico. Octavio Murrillo Álvarez of the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples (INPI) says that in his personal interactions he has not come across objections from Mexico’s native peoples in relation to non-indigenous wearing huipils or other similar items.

One obvious benefit is that it allows textile artisans to earn money for their work. Another may be that it helps make the wearing of such garments less stigmatized for the indigenous themselves, which unfortunately it is in much of Mexico.

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.

What Seybaplaya, Campeche, teaches us about community activism

By

Jack Gooderidge

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June 20, 2020

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Luis Antonio Góngora is 'the animal guy' in Seybaplaya, Campeche. — Luis Antonio Góngora is 'the animal guy' in Seyba.

In the age of environmental enlightenment, it seems that we are all more aware than ever of the impending climate emergency.

The galvanization of governments across the world at least to pay lip-service to the cause is to a certain extent encouraging, but in the milieu of promises, pledges, commitments, and inevitable complications, the impact of individuals working at a grassroots level can often be forgotten. It’s also the case that small-scale operations affecting positive action at a community level are often the ones displaying the most effective model for widespread, global change.

In Seybaplaya, just a few miles outside of the city of Campeche, one such organization — alongside a burgeoning international partnership — is doing its part to protect the endangered hawksbill sea turtle. Moreover, perhaps, this initiative is presenting a paradigm of how progressive environmental custodianship might look.

Seyba is an intimate town of 10,000. The worldwide population of hawksbill turtles is double that at 20,000 but falling rapidly, partly due to the perilous nesting environment of the community’s beach. Along this stretch of coast, the turtles come to lay their eggs for six months of the year, but their home isn’t what it used to be. The expanding fishing industry snags them at sea, the plastic waste left by beach-goers chokes them on land, and the confusing mesh of lights and sounds from the local dock ensure that many returning turtles don’t even make it to begin with.

Despite this, the hawksbills are creatures of habit, and they’ve chosen their home. The ensuing population damage is inevitably catastrophic, with an average of only one hawksbill turtle in every thousand hatched even making it to adulthood. Add in reckless industrial expansion and nonchalant littering left largely left to its own devices and the turtles have a lot going against them.

An adult turtle on the beach in Campeche.

Governments — largely because putting a cost benefit on conservation is complex — have been apathetic, and for too long the looming specter of industry has been out of sight and out of mind. But Luis Antonio Góngora Domínguez, founder of the organization Yuumtsil Káak Náab, has been single-mindedly defending the nesting place of the hawksbills and resisting their extinction with a fiery resolve.

Luis is the animal guy in Seyba: “Snakes, scorpions, you name it.” Turtle protection is a narrow slice of his ever-growing environmental portfolio, but it undoubtedly demands the most from him. On any given night during turtle season, you’ll find Luis patrolling the beach, marking nesting areas, clearing plastic and other dangerous obstacles, and generally ensuring that human interference is limited in the turtle’s laying process.

From his years of experience, Luis is efficient and knows where to be at any time, but the task is long, arduous, and understaffed. Even though support comes from local groups such as Ninth Wave and more recently international non-profit Plastic Oceans International (POI), the teams involved are small but fiercely committed.

Luis and his organization also find themselves in the role of educator, raising awareness in the community of the effect of environmental negligence. The town itself is a historical fishing community and to this day one in five families are involved in some way with the industry. It is Luis’s job not only to boost support for solutions to plastic waste along the beach, but to keep the residents sensitive to the effects of the fishing industry as it develops.

This is a particularly difficult conversation to have, but one that Luis has learnt to handle with care and tact and it is clearly seeping into the consciousness of the community. Perhaps these reflections are the truest glimpse as to the ever-growing legacy of Yuumtsil Káak Náab, the proof that environmental work can humanize us and foster not only sustainable practices, but sustainable attitudes built for the long-term.

Things are about to change for Luis; the arrival of Plastic Oceans changes the landscape for the work, at least as far as the international profile of the project goes. The temptation to roll one’s eyes is overwhelming; we’re all too used to community initiatives being adopted externally, only to be left high, dry, and unsustainable, but this situation is proving to be demonstrably different. POI is insisting that Luis and his team take the lead, having been inspired by his method of instigating foundational community change.

Tod Hardin, chief operating officer of POI, distilled his admiration of “their use of turtle conservation as an entry point to multi-level community engagement” in his commitment to supporting Luis’s initiatives. This isn’t a top-down funneling of mere resources, nor is it the characteristic “dead cat bounce” we’ve come to expect from the involvement of didactic yet ultimately ineffective financiers.

This could be a model of a new, progressive, and pragmatic form of environmental engagement that starts with community, and lives on through with them, generating that word which non-profit programs look to wherever they are to be found: legacy.

Luis’s work is exciting, and the awareness and passion that is continuing to permeate all levels of Seyba’s society tempts us to think bigger. With Luis and his team in mind, it’s time we start thinking about how we can approach the climate emergency as a community, with shared accountability and understanding — because these initiatives are all too often left to others, when really we ourselves are the agents of change we so desperately need.

This is what large scale environmental activism often lacks, a consensus as to where we want our world to go, and whose responsibility it is to get us there. For the residents of Seyba, they are beginning to answer that question in unison: community.

Jack Gooderidge writes from Campeche.

AMLO offers new version of story about release of El Chapo’s son in Sinaloa

By

MND Staff

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June 20, 2020

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Ovidio Guzmán surrenders to security forces in Culiacán.

President López Obrador said Friday that he personally ordered the release of one of the sons of convicted drug trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán after he was detained in a security operation in Culiacán, Sinaloa, last fall.

It was the third version of the story behind the October 17 operation, which was widely regarded as having been botched.

The arrest of Ovidio Guzmán López, allegedly a leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, triggered a wave of cartel attacks that terrorized residents of the northern city. To prevent widespread loss of life amid the unprecedented show of force, a decision was taken to free the suspected narco, who is wanted on trafficking charges in the United States.

At the time, Security Secretary Alfonso Durazo said the decision to release Guzmán López and withdraw security forces was made by military personnel at the scene.

Version two followed the day after when López Obrador said his security cabinet took the decision to release Guzmán López and that he supported it.

Security Minister Durazo, left, and a defiant Guzmán during his brief arrest.

On Friday, he offered a third version of events at a press conference in Cuernavaca, Morelos.

“I ordered that the operation be stopped and that the presumed criminal be set free,” López Obrador said, asserting that more than 200 innocent people would have been killed had he not taken the decision.

The government was widely criticized for it even though it may well have avoided a bloodbath in Culiacán, where at least 14 people were killed in the show of force by the cartel.

Security experts and others contended that the government simply folded when confronted with the overwhelming firepower of the Sinaloa Cartel. Prominent security analyst Alejandro Hope said at the time that the Sinaloa Cartel had been allowed to give a slap in the face to the Mexican state.

López Obrador’s admission that he ordered Guzmán López’s release triggered renewed criticism of the military operation and speculation about which version of events was in fact true.

“On October 18, 2019, the president of the republic asserted that the decision [to release Guzmán López] had been taken … by the security cabinet and that he simply supported it. The two versions cannot be simultaneously true,” Hope wrote on Twitter.

Independent Senator Emilio Álvarez Icaza accused López Obrador of “cowardice” for not initially owning up to the decision he apparently took.

“The truth is that it’s a belated confession and I believe that it has little civic value,” he said.

“At the time he hid it, he shifted responsibility to his collaborators,” Álvarez said, charging that the president had shown a lack of solidarity with his security team.

The senator also said that the events in Culiacán represented a “before and after” for the federal government in terms of its security strategy.

“If he [López Obrador] thinks that he will recover the confidence lost, … he’s mistaken,” Álvarez said.

Questions about the president’s relationship with the Guzmán family surfaced after he greeted El Chapo Guzmán’s mother during a brief encounter on the street in Badiraguato, Sinaloa, in March.

Last year was the most violent on record and homicide statistics for the first five months of this year show that 2020 is on track to be even more murderous.

Source: El Universal (sp), Reforma (sp)

As temperatures climb into the 40s, beaches reopen in Baja

By

Susy Buchanan

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June 20, 2020

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A decline in cruise ship arrivals has been costly for Cabo San Lucas.

Baja California Sur (BCS) began easing coronavirus restrictions on Monday, when most nonessential businesses were allowed to reopen (construction and mining sectors went back to work at the beginning of June).

Some hotels also opened for tourism at a limited capacity, and more are expected to do so on July 1.

The state reported that 67 businesses that opened across BCS despite not being permitted to do so have been closed down. Among those operating illegally were gyms, party and event venues, bars that don’t serve meals and a strip club in Cabo San Lucas.

As temperatures soared to 44 C in some parts of the state this week, beaches were once again opened to the public, although they will operate with limited capacity and hours.

However, reopening the economy has, predictably, lead to a dramatic uptick in cases of the coronavirus, which have more than doubled thus far in June, the governor stated, as he urged residents to follow sanitary protocols.

At least 11 workers from the salt works in Guerrero Negro have tested positive for the coronavirus and many of its 720 workers have been asked to self-isolate, the company confirmed on Friday to BCS Noticias. The evaporative salt plant, located on the Pacific side of the Baja Peninsula in the northern part of the state, is the largest salt works in the world, producing 9 million tonnes of salt a year.

The company says it is taking strict health precautions with its remaining workers, and that those who are sick are being provided with health care and food. “We will not let our guard down, we will take care of our families,” the plant’s director said.

One of the hardest-hit cities in the state economically speaking is tourism-driven Cabo San Lucas, where some 95 cruise ships have canceled their arrivals to the popular port city since the coronavirus pandemic began, and losses are estimated at US $19 million, BCS Noticias reports. The Tourism Ministry noted that 600,000 cruise ship passengers were expected to disembark in Cabo San Lucas this year, but only 200,000 have done so thus far.

As of Friday, BCS had 1,128 cases of the coronavirus and had seen 64 deaths.

Body cameras for La Paz police

La Paz’s director of transportation, Camilo Torres Mejía, announced last week that the municipality purchased 119 body cameras in March for the city’s police force.

The cameras, which are not in use yet pending training, are meant to protect both citizens and officers, Torres said.

“It is mutual protection, on the one hand, because we have honestly had several cases where citizens disagree with us and become aggressive, and this allows us to see how the event occurred. On the other hand, this will inhibit bribery known as la mordida,” he said, according to BCS Noticias.

Big fish

Bisbee’s announced this week that its annual series of fishing tournaments will go on as scheduled this year, albeit with health protocols in place.

The first tournament, the East Cape Offshore, takes place in Buenavista August 4 through 8, the Los Cabos Offshore will run October 15 through 18, and the main event, Bisbee’s Black & Blue Marlin Tournament, will take place in Cabo San Lucas October 20 through 24, Diario el Independiente reports.

Founded in 1981, the Black and Blue regularly sees 150 teams compete for millions of dollars in prize money. In 2006 the tournament awarded its biggest cash prize ever of US $4.16 million, the largest payout in sportsfishing history.

Small fish

Last weekend thousands of dead sardines washed up on the shores of Punto Chivato, causing quite a stir — and a smell — among locals who suspected that the dead fish were due to commercial sardine boats from Sonora who left the excess fish behind as they filled their hulls to overflowing.

Not so, announced the National Fisheries Commission on Tuesday. The dead fish were not a result of wanton waste, but rather the consequence of a net accidentally breaking on one of the fishing boats, causing the fish to spill into the water.

Water woes

BCS Noticias reports that on Wednesday the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) cut off power to Mulegé’s water pumps due to an unpaid debt of 5 million pesos (US $113,225), leaving the city without running water.

“We regret the decision of the CFE, since we consider that we are still within the contingency period, and the use of the vital liquid to maintain hygiene is important and necessary,” said the town’s water utility.

The municipality of Loreto could soon find itself in a similar situation as the CFE is threatening to do the same thing there.

Movie time

While indoor movie theaters will be one of the last sectors of the economy to open, Cabo San Lucas has found a workaround. News agency Metropolimex reports that a new drive-in theater, the first of its kind in Los Cabos, will open in a parking lot at the Cabo San Lucas marina.

Cine Club Los Cabos is set to open the Del Mar drive-in in July and has received the blessing of state health authorities.

Nationally and internationally, drive-ins are seeing a resurgence in popularity due to coronavirus concerns.

Mexico News Daily

Sonora search brigade finds ‘crematoriums’ used to burn victims’ bodies

By

Susy Buchanan

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June 20, 2020

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Site of the crematoriums found in Sonora.

A search brigade of women in Sonora has discovered clandestine crematoriums on a ranch in the Altar desert.

Sifting through the ashes under the searing desert sun, members of “Madres Buscadoras de Sonora,” or Searching Mothers of Sonora, a collective of mothers and family members of missing persons, found bone fragments, charred clothing and other personal effects belonging to an unknown number of victims.

The group of around 30 women, armed only with shovels and pickaxes for digging, were accompanied to the area outside Magdalena del Kino on Thursday by 10 members of the National Guard. The desert in the region is notoriously dangerous as it is one of the main drug and human smuggling routes to the United States.

Their destination, La Cebolla ejido, was received through an anonymous tip advising that hundreds of people had been burned at the site using wood and tires as fuel.

At one point during their two-hour journey to the site, a car started coming toward them at a high rate of speed but stopped when it saw they were accompanied by the National Guard, the women reported.

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The group found at least 10 crematoriums, some of which were five meters deep.

The brigade was able to sift through four of them, an emotional task for mothers of children whose whereabouts are unknown.

“The worst thing a mother can live through is finding your child in a handful of ashes,” brigade leader Cecilia Flores Armenta said.

Flores hopes that through DNA analysis of the bone fragments, those burned there can be identified and their families can find closure. In the past, the FGJE has promised the group protection during their search efforts, technical assistance from forensic experts, psychological attention and the support of the state’s forensic science laboratory.

Flores’ group was formed in May 2019 after her son, Marco Antonio, went missing in Bahía de Kino, located near Hermosillo, the state capital. The women say they have located 127 remains of disappeared persons across the state.

Citizen-led search efforts are not uncommon in Mexico, where the National Search Commission’s registry reports more than 61,000 Mexicans have been reported missing. More than 70 civilian search organizations are active across the country, the vast majority of which are made up of relatives of the disappeared.

Burning the bodies is one of the methods criminal gangs have used to dispose of their victims. Dissolving them in barrels of acid is another.

Source: El Universal (sp), Expreso (sp), La Jornada (sp)