Federal and state authorities in Nuevo León and Tamaulipas are reporting a total of four people missing in the wake of heavy rains and flooding caused by former Hurricane Hanna, now a remnant tropical depression lingering over northeastern Mexico and southern Texas, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.
Both states experienced intense rains, swollen rivers and flooding over the weekend, forcing some evacuations and causing road closures and power outages due to high waters and downed trees and power lines.
Three people are missing in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, and one in Nuevo León, where 709 storm victims were evacuated, according to Governor Jaime Rodríguez Calderón.
The governor declared a state of emergency, suspending all activities and shut down public transportation. Businesses recently opened again after lengthy Covid-19 closures have been ordered to close again. Rodríguez also asked the public not to leave their homes.
“The conditions are not favorable or safe for movement [right now],” Rodríguez said on Monday via Twitter. “The risk is high. I believe this is the most prudent thing to do to avoid putting the population at risk.”
In anticipation of flooding causing evacuations, neighboring Tamaulipas had shelters sanitized and ready to receive people Saturday.
In Reynosa, 21 neighborhoods saw flooding, according to state officials, and some areas had no drinking water. The floods caused major power outages, and emergency officials at times were using rowboats to travel inundated city streets. Staff at a maternity hospital waded in ankle-deep water overnight Sunday after rains flooded sections of the hospital.
The Federal Electricity Commission announced Monday that it had deployed nearly 300 workers in response to the crisis and had restored power to 53.5% of customers affected in both states.
While the world focuses on the Covid-19 pandemic, in politics it is business as usual. Deals are signed and laws are proposed amid the chaos, some, perhaps, in the hopes that a distracted public won’t put up much of a fight to their passage.
But in June, the Sin Maíz No Hay País (No Corn, No Country) campaign’s network of activists let Mexican politicians know that they were paying attention and that they planned to protect the rights of farmers.
Back in March at the beginning of the pandemic, a handful of proposed changes to Mexico’s intellectual property laws were presented by lawmakers in anticipation of the signing of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) that went into effect July 1. One law to be included in the docket changed the Ley Federal de Variedades de Vegetales (The Federal Law of Vegetable Varieties).
Presented by Morena party Deputy Eraclio Rodríguez Gómez, the changes would criminalize the saving or the exchange of seeds with a penalty of up to six years of jail time, as well as allow companies to claim the harvest of farmers they suspect of using their seeds without permission.
Despite a political push to push the changes quickly through Congress, a campaign by Sin Maíz No Hay País was successful in getting the proposed changes taken off of the congressional agenda and their discussion postponed for a future date. A new proposal for the law is expected when the Congress reconvenes in September.
Corn cultivated by the Mazahua indigenous people in México state.
The impetus for the changes comes with entrance into force of the USMCA, the updated version of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Trade deals like the USMCA oblige countries like Mexico and Brazil to adopt the latest version of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) Convention, or UPOV-91.
An intergovernmental, international body that now includes over 70 member countries, UPOV has been working since 1961 to privatize seeds around the world through intellectual property rights. Several versions of the UPOV convention have been written, each strengthening the rights of corporate plant breeders and seed manufacturers and restricting the freedom of small farmers to save, exchange and sell seeds. The UPOV convention essentially sets up a system for registering plant varieties in each country. It gives rights to a single breeder for that variety’s sole use and sale. Once adopted, the convention’s protections must be written into each country’s national laws.
Mexico ratified an earlier version, UPOV-78, within whose parameters activists are hoping they can remain, despite international pressure.
There are four major differences between the 1978 version of UPOV and UPOV-91. The first is that according to the 1991 version farmers cannot freely save seeds of protected varieties to use in further planting. This means that any seed farmers might purchase that is registered and protected cannot be used for the next year’s harvest, essentially obliging farmers to purchase new seed or pay royalties to use saved seed.
Secondly, plant varieties and seeds can now be patented. This means that any unprotected or unregistered seeds currently used by farmers that is “discovered” by a company is free game to be patented by that company. This portion of the convention sets the stage for the entrance of genetically modified seeds as it allows for the patenting of genes.
Thirdly, any breeder with rights to a certain seed that they believe has been used without proper payment now has rights to the farmer’s harvest that the seed was used for (before they only had rights to the seeds themselves). So a company that believes its seed to have been used improperly can take everything produced from that seed on a farmer’s land.
The final change is a prohibition against further breeding. This means that if a farmer uses a protected seed and cultivates it in such a way that further breeding produces a different plant, that new plant is considered a variety of the first plant and is also owned by the breeder with rights to the original seed.
The violation of “breeders rights”by farmers is punishable by fines, confiscation of product, and jail time in some countries.
Those opposed to the convention say that hundreds of generations of farmers in Mexico — exchanging, cross-breeding and selecting their seeds for particular environments — are what has given the country its current megadiversity. Fifteen percent of all plants in the global food system are native to Mexico, and there is concern that without exchange and natural selection, biodiversity in Mexico, especially of its 64 native species of corn, will diminish.
Activists and academics point out that the country’s poorest farmers depend on saving seeds from their land each year in order to feed their families. For some, this is their main source of food.
Supporters of UPOV point out that anyone can apply to have protected rights as a plant breeder, but 94% of hybrid and “improved” seeds are in the hands of private corporations, not small and medium-sized farmers. Additionally, in the process of applying for breeders rights, priority is given to companies that have previously applied for the rights in other member countries, so Monsanto, for instance, which has already been awarded rights to specific seeds in the United States, would get priority approval for breeders’ rights in Mexico.
Ratification of UPOV-91 does not override national laws already on the books, which is why striking down the changes to the vegetable varieties law was vital to opposing the convention. Mexico has four years to approve UPOV-91 and within that time the Sin Maíz no Hay País campaign plans to lobby lawmakers to pass further laws that will protect farmers’ rights to seeds.
They also plan to undertake an information campaign aimed at rural farmers, many of whom are unaware of the proposed laws and their ramifications.
The eight people believed to be part of a kidnapping gang.
A joint operation by Mexico City and México state authorities resulted in the arrest of eight people involved in a crime gang allegedly responsible for several kidnappings, all led by a man behind bars in Mexico City.
One of the group’s latest victims, according to authorities, an unidentified woman kidnapped from Valle de Chalco, in México state, was found dead May 24 in the same municipality despite the fact that her family had paid over 1 million pesos (US $45,000) in ransom.
Officials say the gang’s ringleader is Polo “El Hardy” Páez Medina, 27, currently serving a prison term in a prison in Iztapalapa. Authorities arrested him after discovering a cell phone in his possession they say he used to coordinate the kidnappings with those outside the prison.
The other seven members allegedly took orders from Páez and were involved in contacting victims, carrying out the kidnappings, sending videos to the victims’ families, and collecting ransoms in multiple payments in various bank accounts.
Members of the gang, which called itself Los Corazones (The Hearts), were arrested in various locations in Mexico City and the state of México, including two locations that authorities say were highly secure buildings where victims were kept by the group while they sought ransom payments.
The group of men who traveled via all-terrain vehicles from Guanajuato to Puerto Vallarta.
As many as 20 men were kidnapped in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, earlier this month after arriving in the resort city on a trip from Guanajuato, according to media reports.
The newspaper Reforma reported that about 20 young men were abducted on July 18 after traveling to the resort destination in all-terrain vehicles via Jalisco’s Sierra Occidental region.
Jalisco Attorney General Gerardo Octavio Solís Gómez said Saturday that about 13 or 14 men traveling in eight vehicles came under an armed attack in the Fluvial Vallarta residential area and that one of them was wounded and later died in the hospital.
“There was a series of shots. One person was left wounded at the scene, others managed to flee — some on foot, others in vehicles,” he said.
The deceased man has been identified as Joaquín Alba, a businessman from Guanajuato who supplied materials to the construction sector. At least 10 of the abducted men were also businessmen, according to Reforma.
Solís said that authorities in Jalisco are investigating the murder but asserted that they haven’t received any reports of missing people. He said that he had spoken with his counterpart in Guanajuato and that no missing person reports had been filed in that state either.
Following the attack, municipal authorities located three vehicles that apparently belonged to the men who were abducted.
An unnamed source quoted by Reforma said the assailants called family members of their kidnapping victims to seek ransom money.
However, Solís said that Jalisco authorities had no knowledge of any ransom requests.
The attorney general said that a “highly dangerous criminal cell” was believed to be responsible for the attack. One line of investigation is that the attack and abduction is related to a dispute between criminal organizations that operate in Jalisco and Guanajuato, he said.
Sources told Reforma that criminals, allegedly members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), were aware that the Guanajuato men were traveling through Jalisco and were waiting for them in Puerto Vallarta.
Murder victim Joaquín Alba.
According to the newspaper La Jornada, one “rumor” is that alleged CJNG members identified the men as members of the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel, a Guanajuato-based gang engaged in a vicious turf war with the Jalisco cartel.
Puerto Vallarta is known as a “red zone” for kidnappings, with at least 11 abductions reported there in the first five months of the year.
Writing in thenewspaper El Universal, security analyst Alejandro Hope said that a mass kidnapping such as that which apparently occurred in Puerto Vallarta can only happen if there is complicity between criminal groups and and government security forces.
Abducting 14 to 20 people “in the heart of one of the country’s main tourism centers” after firing shots “is no small feat,” he wrote. “That doesn’t happen if there isn’t someone protecting the criminals.”
Hope said that it was “probable” that the victims were located by their kidnappers well before they arrived in Puerto Vallarta and that they may have even been tracked since they left Guanajuato.
“That points to an increasingly marked phenomenon: criminal networks of the country’s central west cross state borders. What happens in Jalisco has an impact on Guanajuato and vice versa,” Hope wrote.
As the attack and kidnapping occurred in Puerto Vallarta, “the incident is international news,” the analyst said.
“It could become the final blow for the tourism industry which has already taken an enormous hit due to the pandemic. In that sense, the authorities of the three levels of government would do well to design and put into operation a specific security strategy for locations with a high influx of tourists,” Hope wrote.
“The incidents in Puerto Vallarta are no small matter. They are proof of the deterioration of the security conditions in the country’s central west and a sign of the freedom several criminal groups have to operate. Hopefully this will be a wake-up call for the authorities. If a mass kidnapping is allowed to happen without a greater response, the situation could get a lot worse in a very short time.”
Mexico’s flagship tourism website has been down since Friday, allegedly suspended for lack of payment, although the company that has been in charge of managing the website’s content since 2019 claims the page has been hacked.
Beginning Friday, Visit Mexico showed only a traffic cone and the message, “Suspended for non-payment. Excuse us, we are working on it right now. Come back soon.”
By Saturday afternoon the message had been amended to read that the suspension was not a hack.
Until August 2019, the site was administered by the Ministry of Tourism. However, due to the federal government’s austerity policy, which led to the disappearance of the Tourism Promotion Council (CPTM), the firm Braintivity assumed responsibility for managing the site, which is now funded by private business.
In 2019, Visit Mexico president Marcos Achar said the platform would be completely renewed to become a vehicle for the marketing of Mexican destinations. A goal for the site was to attract 55.3 million visitors to Mexico by 2024, which would generate revenues of some US $31.6 billion.
Achar and Carlos González, the site’s general director, posted a statement to Twitter Saturday morning announcing that Visit Mexico had been hacked and they were working on resolving the situation. An investigation is underway and security measures are being taken to protect the site, they said.
Earlier this month, Tourism Minister Miguel Torrucolikened the importance of the website and associated tourism campaign to the Pueblos Mágicos, or Magical Towns, program introduced by the government of former president Vicente Fox in 2001 and the Angeles Verdes, or Green Angels, roadside assistance program launched by the Tourism Ministry in 1960.
The website was meant to be a legacy project of the current administration and was set to make its formal debut in August with new promotional campaigns after it was redesigned and relaunched last year.
Tourism is a vital sector of Mexico’s economy that is struggling to rebound from the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. In past years, the industry has generated about 8.7% of the country’s gross domestic product, bringing in around US $14.7 billion and providing 4.1 million jobs.
On its website, the Ministry of Tourism announced last night that it “has requested Braintivity to explain the causes of this interruption, which will be announced in due course.”
Plates by artisan Jorge Wilmot, who had a lasting influence on ceramics in Jalisco.
Eight years after his death, the legacy of ceramics artisan Jorge Wilmot lives on in the establishment of the Guadalajara metro area as a source for world-class ceramics. His fusion of art, technology and design elements from the past reinvented the working of clay.
Wilmot was born in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, in 1928. He studied fine art at the Academy of San Carlos in Mexico City for only a few months in 1948, returning to work in Monterrey, where one job was in a factory making dishes.
In the 1950s, he made the important decision to go to Europe to study ceramics in France, Sweden, and Switzerland. Here he discovered Asian techniques, in particular crackled glaze, that would appear in much of his later work.
Upon returning to Mexico, he had an exhibition in Monterrey in 1958. This led to contacts with cultural authorities in Mexico City, where he discovered the traditional burnished pottery of Tonalá, Jalisco.
What is now a suburb of Guadalajara has had a very long history of fine ceramic and pottery work since before the arrival of the Spanish. Its large clay deposits are among the highest quality in Mexico.
Traditional design had a strong influence on this piece by Wilmot.
By 1960, Wilmot was setting up shop in Tonalá. His goal was to create a new kind of ceramic, based on the traditional wares, but integrating Asian and modern elements in both technique and design. One of his first steps was to work with the local craftsmen to both learn from them and to work toward conserving centuries-old traditions.
After mastering that, he set about using his international training and experience. One main change he made was to use gas-fired kilns on a large scale.
In 1960, Wilmot met American ceramicist Ken Edwards who had also come to Tonalá to develop new pottery. However, Edwards was interested in doing his own thing, a very heavily Oriental-influenced work, rather than reinvent local traditions.
After much trial and error, Wilmot’s workshop developed a distinct inventory. His work had Mexican motifs as a base, but with Asian elements in both technique and design, especially glazes.
It is rather austere compared to native Tonalá pottery, which often attempts to fill in all available space with tiny decorative elements because of its Baroque heritage.
The new work gained acceptance at fine galleries in various cities in Mexico and abroad, especially in Europe, Japan, and the United States. It caught the attention of the head of the minister of culture at the time, Fernando Gamboa, and the business expanded exponentially.
In 1960, Wilmot set up shop in Tonalá where his goal was to create a new kind of ceramic.
From then until his death in 2012 he would receive various accolades and have exhibitions of his work in some of the world’s most important venues.
Despite his work in reinventing Tonalá ceramics, he continued to be dedicated to preserving the old traditions. In 1986, he established the National Ceramics Museum (Museo Nacional de la Cerámica) in his former house and donated it to the municipality of Tonalá.
The museum still exists with an important collection of work from the pre-Hispanic period to the present.
Perhaps more importantly he established a school that trained generations of ceramicists in the new techniques and designs he introduced, most notably stoneware and other high-fire work. So many craftspeople benefitted from this that almost all of the ceramic that is not strictly traditional shows influence from him. It is one of the main reasons why Jalisco has some of the best artistic production in Mexico.
Workshops that are Wilmot’s “heirs” include Cerámica Netzi in Tonalá and Cerámica (Noé) Suro in Guadalajara. But his influence goes even further. The metro area now has a reputation for fine ceramic in general, attracting designers and master craftsmen to open workshops and design new products. One example of this is the Japanese-inspired work of The Norm in Tlaquepaque.
While Mexican ceramics have a reputation for timelessness, in reality the 20th century was a time of great innovation. Wilmot’s contribution is extremely important because he was able to innovate while maintaining respect for the past.
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.
López-Gatell has no intention of quitting his job.
Coronavirus czar Hugo López-Gatell said Friday he won’t resign as deputy health minister after opposition politicians called for his dismissal.
“I am committed to Mexico. I will not resign,” López-Gatell, who has a doctorate in epidemiology from Johns Hopkins University, told reporters at the Tabasco airport yesterday, just before his evening coronavirus press conference. “This is not about playing politics, it is about saving lives and protecting people,” he said.
His statements come after politicians from three parties demanded that he be ousted from his position as head of prevention and health promotion and chief strategist for the country’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
“We come to do technical work. We are technical officials dedicated to public health, and we come to do that work. The government of Mexico and President López Obrador have made it very clear since this pandemic began that in Mexico health decisions are made with technical and scientific criteria, and that’s our commitment,” he told journalists.
Leaders of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) the Citizens’ Movement (MC) and the National Action Party (PAN) have all asked for his resignation claiming that he has failed at managing the pandemic.
As of Friday, Mexico had registered 378,285 cases of the coronavirus, 7,573 more than on Thursday, according to the Ministry of Health.
In addition, 737 people died during that 24-hour period, bringing the death toll to 42,645.
National Action Party politicians Cordero, Anaya and Cabeza de Vaca deny receiving bribes from the Peña Nieto government.
Politicians with the National Action Party (PAN) have denied claims by former Pemex boss Emilio Lozoya that they received bribes in exchange for legislative support.
Lozoya, who is in federal custody after being arrested in Spain in February and extradited to Mexico earlier this month, is accused of money laundering, criminal association and involvement in bribery.
The newspaper Reforma reported on Friday that he told authorities that he paid a total of 52.38 million pesos to PAN legislators during the administration of former president Enrique Peña Nieto in order to garner their support for the Pact for Mexico, which introduced sweeping reforms in sectors ranging from energy to education.
A payment of 6.8 million pesos was allegedly made to former PAN presidential candidate Ricardo Anaya, who rejected the accusation in a message yesterday to Reforma.
“The information contained is absolutely false. I have never committed an improper act. In addition to being false, the information is absurd,” he said. “I supported the reform with enormous conviction.”
Loyoza says bribes were also paid to former PAN senators Ernesto Cordero and Salvador Vega as well as Francisco Dominguez Servién and Francisco García Cabeza de Vaca, current governors of Querétaro and Tamaulipas, respectively.
All four have denied the accusations.
The National Action Party said in a statement that Lozoya’s allegations are those of “a suspected criminal” who is accusing political enemies in order to save himself.
The party said the issue was a “smokescreen” intended to distract attention from “the failure of the López Obrador government in terms of the economy, … the appalling management of the coronavirus and the deaths that could have been avoided.”
A protest by Tzotzil Maya at the National Palace in Mexico City.
The federal government announced Thursday that it is preparing “20 actions of reparation” to compensate for a 1997 massacre in Chiapas that left 45 people dead.
Paramilitaries murdered 45 indigenous Tzotzil Mayan people — including 15 children and four pregnant women — in the village of Acteal on December 22, 1997.
Those slain were members of a Roman Catholic group known as Las Abejas (The Bees) that supported the Zapatista Army of National Liberation. They were praying in their church when they were gunned down by the paramilitaries, who were also Tzotzil Mayans.
The killers were labeled as members of the then governing Institutional Revolutionary Party, and an investigation found that local officials and police had done nothing to stop the massacre and later tampered with the evidence.
Dozens of people were arrested and convicted of the murders but most were released before serving their full prison sentences.
The Interior Ministry (Segob) said in a statement Thursday that the government is preparing “20 actions of reparation” – which it didn’t detail – for the victims of the massacre.
Segob said that its human rights department will sign a “friendly settlement agreement” with 30 victims of the massacre – family members of the deceased – that will include the provision of funds to carry out infrastructure projects in the region.
Acteal is located about 50 kilometers northeast of San Cristóbal de las Casas in the municipality of Chenalhó.
Segob said that the signing of the agreement will be a “starting point for the reconstruction of the social fabric in that area of Chiapas.”
The agreement complies with the will of the victims to move peacefully toward a range of reparation measures that include “recognition by the Mexican state of the events that led to the massacre,” the statement said.
Some of the compensatory infrastructure projects, about which no detail was given, will benefit not just the victims of the massacre but entire communities, Segob said.
“A categorical imperative for the government of Mexico is respect for the freedom and autonomy of indigenous peoples and communities,” the statement said.
“The government of Mexico firmly reiterates that the measures for the reconstruction of the social fabric are a necessary condition to move forward in favor of the pacification and cohesion of our country and, in particular, of all indigenous communities.”
While visitors are slowly starting to return, things are far from normal in Baja California Sur (BCS). The state’s Minister of Tourism, Luis Humberto Araiza, says that in Los Cabos the timeshare industry’s losses during the pandemic have amounted to US $150 million.
The destination is used to welcoming about 50,000 timeshare owners per month but there are currently around 15,000 timeshare owners in Los Cabos each month, Tribuna de Los Cabos reports.
However, at least now they have something to do. As of yesterday, 1,500 tour companies in the state were allowed to get back to business as providers of walking, diving, snorkeling, kayak and glass-bottom boat tours, among other activities, were allowed to reopen.
These businesses had been closed for four months, and in recent weeks had protested, demanding they be allowed to open.
Confinement has been rough everywhere, and BCS is no exception. Officials report that between March and July, more than 260 people filed for divorce in the state, with 157 in La Paz and 105 in Los Cabos.
Thirty-five people in Los Cabos have officially gone missing since the pandemic began, according to BCS Noticias.
Since late March, more than 6,000 people across the state have obtained free psychological help by phone.
Of those served, 3,800 reported symptoms of anxiety and depression, 1,160 were in violent situations, 1,000 called due to addiction issues and 90 needed support for grief, Health Minister Victor George Flores said.
As of Thursday, BCS had recorded 3,482 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 124 deaths, including that of Los Cabos Police Chief Celso Filemón Lázaro Pérez earlier this week.
Street food sanctions
Blanca Pulido Medrano, head of the State Commission for the Protection of Sanitary Risks (Coepris), said her agency has conducted 1,399 inspections of food stands and sanctioned 102 for not following proper sanitary measures, reports BCS Noticias.
‘Everybody and his brother’ has a food stand now.
“Right now with the pandemic many people were left without a job and now it turns out that everybody and his brother has a food stand, but this is very delicate,” Pulido said, admitting that closing down businesses in a time of crisis does not make Coepris very popular. “I spoke with business representatives, with doctors of the municipalities, and you have to be careful because the issue of food handling is a component from a health point of view, and we must take care.”
Caught
Four men were arrested for drug possession in La Paz, Comondú, Los Cabos and Mulegé, BCS Noticias reported Wednesday when they were found in possession of a total of 1,643 doses of methamphetamine. In La Paz, a 22-year-old was caught with 925 doses, and a man in Guerrero Negro was found in possession of 250 doses. In Ciudad Insurgentes, a man named Guillermo had 125 doses of meth on him, and a man who goes by the nickname “El Tortas,” or “Sandwiches,” who was in possession of 125 doses of methamphetamine as well as 218 grams of marijuana, was arrested in San José del Cabo.
Finally caught
A man who had been on the run for 16 years after he was accused of murder in July 2004 was captured by the military this week in Hermosillo, Sonora. José Atalo had been on the state’s most-wanted list for years after he allegedly committed murder on the highway between Santa Rosalia and Guerrero Negro, El Sudcaliforniano reports.
Atalo, who is now 75, was apprehended in a joint effort by the military and authorities in BCS and Sonora. He is thought to have been a leader of a criminal gang operating in the northern part of the state at the time of the murder.
Not caught
Two thermal imaging cameras have been placed in San José del Cabo’s estuary in order to prevent vandalism, authorities say. For years the fresh-water lagoon has seen its sand bar break open, draining its water into the Gulf of California and shrinking the habitat for migratory birds.
Some think the estuary’s sand bar has been deliberately opened in order to harm the estuary and eventually dry it up so hotels can be built on its beachfront land, and the cameras are meant to be a deterrent. The estuary is an important part of the ecology of Los Cabos, and was one of the area’s first draws for foreign visitors when centuries ago cargo and pirate ships would stop to replenish their water supplies as they traveled the trade route between Mexico and the Philippines.
Save the snakes
After being closed for four months, the critters housed at the El Serpentario de La Paz are getting hungry. The wildlife rescue and rehabilitation center, which has been around for 20 years, is home to 600 snakes, lizards, birds and other animals, including abandoned exotic pets.
Turtles enjoy donated food at the Serpentario de La Paz.
Normally open to school groups and other visitors, the non-profit center, which is run by volunteers, relies on ticket sales to feed their animals, which eat vegetables, fruit and chicken. Serpentarium workers are asking for community support to keep the animals they have rescued alive and in good condition.
