Stores in the Medrano garment zone in Guadalajara remain closed.
It’s been a rocky economic restart for some businesses in Jalisco that were hoping to get back to work this week.
Governor Enrique Alfaro had announced that on June 1 some nonessential businesses that had obtained a state government health certification could reopen.
However, several such businesses expecting to open were asked to remain closed by municipal authorities, especially in areas of Guadalajara that are likely to draw large crowds such as the Medrano garment zone, the Obregón district where the San Juan de Dios market is located and the city’s historic center.
And in neighboring Zapopan, one of the wealthiest cities in Mexico, businesses were allowed to reopen whether they had the government health certification or not.
The resumption of nonessential economic activities is occurring despite the fact that the number of coronavirus cases in the state is on the rise, a trend that Alfaro says will continue at least for the next month. The state is still deemed to be at maximum risk by the federal government, much to Alfaro’s dissatisfaction.
In a statement posted to the state government’s website on Saturday, Alfaro claimed Jalisco had only 1.4% of the country’s deaths due to the coronavirus, despite being the third most populous state in Mexico.
“We said that first it was health and then the economy, and we fully complied with this principle, but our state cannot remain paralyzed,” Alfaro said. “Thousands of people lost their jobs and their source of income. Hundreds of businesses had to close or dramatically reduce their operating capacity. The blow has been brutal.”
Citizens need to get back to work and learn to live with the risk of infections, he added.
Nonessential businesses eligible for reopening include lumber yards, flower shops, furniture stores and beauty salons, although their status depends on approval from municipal authorities.
Schools, spas, movie theaters, nightclubs, casinos, gyms and shopping malls will have to wait, and social distancing measures are still in force. If people do not comply and the outbreak worsens in the future, the economy may have to be shut down again, Alfaro warned.
As of Monday, Jalisco had 1,802 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and had recorded 151 deaths.
The vehicle in which officers' bodies were found on Monday.
Authorities in Colima on Monday found a vehicle containing the dismembered remains of seven bodies believed to be those of a group of officers who disappeared in neighboring Jalisco last week.
Ten Colima state police officers were ambushed and kidnapped in Jalisco on Thursday after escorting a group of mining executives to the municipality of La Huerta.
The bodies were found in a white Chrysler Pacifica near a soccer field in the community of Cedros, north of Manzanillo, after police received a 911 call about an abandoned vehicle with a strong odor coming from it.
Colima authorities released a statement on Saturday confirming the kidnapping and claiming that “the officers … had the proper authorization to provide legal protection in the state [of Jalisco] and to carry their weapons.”
However, Jalisco Public Security Minister Juan Bosco Agustín Pacheco told a press conference that “I want to clarify that at no time did [the government of Colima] try to collaborate with us in the sense that they would notify us of the entry of the Colima police forces into the state, nor via an extraofficial phone call or other means of communication.”
For their part, neither the Colima Attorney General’s Office nor the state Public Security Ministry has issued an official statement to clarify or deny that the bodies found on Monday belonged to the missing police officers. Two other civilians were also reported missing in the region last week.
CORRECTION: The earlier version of this story identified Manzanillo as the capital of the state of Colima. In fact, the city of Colima is the state capital.
Although most of the country remains in the red on the government’s stoplight system for the reactivation of the economy, beer is back in production and on the shelves in several areas after a two-month drought.
Grupo Modelo halted production at the beginning of April, as beer was not considered an essential product by the federal government during the quarantine period, which ended on May 30.
Beer production and sales resumed on Monday in various states, as well as in Mexico City, where Grupo Modelo has a brewery. The company also owns and operates the world’s largest beer plant in Zacatecas, the only state in the country not in the red on the reactivation stoplight.
Supermarket chain Soriana and the convenience stores OXXO and 7-Eleven all announced that they were once again selling suds.
Beer sales also resumed online. Retailers Amazon and Mercado Libre added beer to their available products on Monday, charging around 430 pesos (US $19.75) for a case of 24 473-milliliter cans.
In Nuevo León, where the halt in beer production triggered panic buying in April, authorities announced that beer production would return to 50% capacity on the first day of the “new normal.”
Grupo Modelo and the country’s other large beer manufacturer, Heineken, have not released any information about the return to production.
Hospital admissions of coronavirus patients have exceeded the projections of the Health Ministry in seven cities, Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said on Monday, as Mexico’s Covid-19 death toll passed 10,000.
Speaking at the nightly coronavirus press briefing, López-Gatell said that intensive care hospitalizations of Covid-19 patients have exceeded forecasts for the Valley of México metropolitan area, which includes Mexico City and several México state municipalities.
Hospital admissions of seriously and/or gravely ill Covid-19 patients have also been higher than predicted in Villahermosa, Tabasco; Cancún, Quintana Roo; Acapulco, Guerrero; Culiacán, Sinaloa; Tijuana, Baja California; and Veracruz city.
López-Gatell said that Covid-19 cases are on the wane in the Valley of México, the country’s coronavirus epicenter, but are still above the numbers originally predicted.
The peak of the pandemic is still to come in several cities including Guadalajara, Jalisco, and Monterrey, Nuevo León, the deputy minister said.
Coronavirus cases and deaths as reported daily. milenio
The peak in the Jalisco and Nuevo León capitals is several weeks away, he said, adding that the epidemics in the two cities “will be the last [in the country], according to the predictions” and could continue until October.
Earlier in the press briefing, Health Ministry Director of Epidemiology José Luis Alomía reported that Mexico’s Covid-19 death toll had increased to 10,167 with 237 additional fatalities registered on Monday.
The total number of deaths is also well over projections. López-Gatell said May 4 that 6,000 people were predicted to die of Covid-19.
Just over a quarter of those confirmed to have died from Covid-19 did not have any identified existing health conditions that made them more vulnerable to the disease, according to Health Ministry data. Of that number, 1,482 patients were aged under 60, meaning that their age didn’t make them more susceptible either.
Of the 74% of deceased Covid-19 patients with existing health problems, 42% suffered from hypertension, 38% had diabetes and 27% were obese. Other patients who died had a history of smoking and/or suffered from kidney problems, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cardiovascular disease, immunosuppression, asthma or HIV.
Mexico City has the highest Covid-19 death toll in the country, with 2,713 fatalities as of Monday, followed by México state and Baja California, where 1,168 and 871 people, respectively, have lost their lives to the disease.
The number of active cases yesterday was down by 659. milenio
Alomía also reported that Mexico’s accumulated case tally had increased to 93,435 with 2,771 new cases registered on Monday. Of that number, 16,303 are considered active, a decrease of 659 compared to Sunday.
There are also 38,497 suspected cases across the country while 282,089 people have now been tested.
Mexico City currently has the largest identified active outbreak with 3,975 cases, followed by México state and Tabasco, where there are 1,921 and 853 cases, respectively.
Seven other states currently have more than 500 active cases: Puebla, Chiapas, Veracruz, Jalisco, Sinaloa, Guanajuato and Baja California.
López-Gatell said that there has been an uptick in cases in Villahermosa, probably due to an increase in people’s mobility, and that the virus remains very active in Mexicali, the capital of Baja California.
At the municipal level, Mexicali has the fourth largest active outbreak in the country with 465 identified cases, while Centro (Villahermosa) ranks fifth with 408 cases.
The two largest municipal level outbreaks are in the Mexico City boroughs of Iztapalapa and Gustavo A. Madero, with 814 and 653 cases, respectively, while Puebla city ranks third with 476 cases.
The city is currently testing 657 people per 100,000 inhabitants.
The Mexico City government has announced that it will aim to double the Covid-19 testing rate in the capital as part of efforts to limit the spread of the disease as restrictions are eased.
Health Minister Oliva López told a press conference Sunday that the current testing rate is 657 per 100,000 inhabitants, meaning that authorities will aim to test just over 1,300 people per 100,000 instead.
As Mexico City has a population of about 9 million people – not including the México state municipalities that are part of the metropolitan area – it will have to test a total of almost 120,000 people to achieve the goal.
López said that authorities will conduct contact tracing operations in an attempt to identify people who came into contact with those who test positive.
For his part, the head of the government’s Digital Agency for Public Innovation said that Mexico City’s testing goal is on a par with the rate in Seoul, South Korea, a country that has won praise for identifying and isolating people with Covid-19.
José Merino said that 114 clinics and hospitals in Mexico City will be equipped to perform tests.
The announcement that testing will be ramped up in the capital came just days after Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said that the federal government wasn’t interested in testing Mexicans en masse for Covid-19 because doing so would be “useless, impracticable and very expensive.”
He said on Sunday night that just under 275,000 people have been tested, a figure that equates to a nationwide rate of about 215 tests per 100,000 inhabitants, three times lower than the rate in Mexico City.
Mexico’s testing rate is dwarfed by those in scores of other countries including several in Latin America such as Chile and Peru.
As a result, the real number of Covid-19 cases is believed to be much higher than the 90,664 cases reported by health authorities on Sunday night.
Just over 25,000 of the confirmed cases were detected in Mexico City and 2,658 people have officially lost their lives to coronavirus in the capital, although the real death toll is believed to be much higher.
The federal government set the infection risk level in Mexico City at the “red light” or maximum level for this week but local authorities have nevertheless allowed some businesses to resume operations and parks will partially reopen on Tuesday.
Arte en Casa: artistic and cultural content through social networks.
Amid the repetition and drudgery of our current existence, it can be hard to conjure up even the very recent past. For the residents of Mérida, the Yucatán’s cultural hub, recalling the optimism of the “pre-virus” is an even more arduous challenge, and one that requires a level of cognition most of us have lost in the monotony of isolation.
There are, however, some leading lights of the city’s artistic scene that will remember the words of a still wide-eyed Mérida mayor, declaring that the capital of Yucatán will complete its journey to becoming a truly “avant-garde city.”
Big words. Slightly embellished words perhaps, but a reach that if not quite a confirmation of Mérida’s spot as the southeast’s city of art, certainly clinches the title for most ambitious. It’s this ambition that has recently set Mérida firmly on course to becoming a supportive and vibrant home to innumerous creatives; painters, musicians, filmmakers and artisans.
A formidable record remains from this self-belief in its own artistic capabilities with the first international art competition being confirmed back at the end of 2019, a large colonial house being reworked into a hub for incoming artists and cultural events, and an exhibition of 93 original Picasso works back in December. Over the last year especially, Mérida has constantly been applying one foot on the gas.
As the Covid-19 pandemic has developed, “nonessential” initiatives and programs in communities across the world have been put on the backburner. While local governments may be partially thankful for a scapegoat to blame for a lack of civic progress, they are also aware that the branding of the virus as a scapegoat in and of itself is an inherently ridiculous proposal — they need only point to its size and sharpened teeth to have these accusations laughed out of the door.
A formidable record: an exhibition of original works by Picasso took place in December.
But Mérida has avoided this discourse entirely, instead opting to propel its campaign of cultural programs through the crisis, giving them a fighting chance of surviving the next few months and emerging on the other side.
“Arte en Casa” (Art at Home) is one such vision being realized not only in exceptional circumstances, but possibly because of exceptional circumstances. When the building blocks of this project were initially slotted together, its deployment in the context of mass quarantine and social distancing was a use none of the creators could have fully imagined.
Despite this, in the month of June Arte en Casa will continue to diffuse artistic and cultural content through social networks so that the overflowing cup of Yucateco art can be appreciated and enjoyed from isolation. Three hundred and thirty-four projects have been selected to be included in the program’s plethora of content, supporting the work and creativity of artists throughout the city.
Arte en Casa is taking off, with 160,000 followers on Facebook already and each video posted reaching more eager eyes — but perhaps the demand shouldn’t greet us as such a surprise. Mental health during lockdown has become a hot-button topic over recent weeks, as more of us in quarantine have been coming forward with the unique pressures associated with a lack of stimulation. We may have found it refreshing to begin with, but psychologists and mental health professionals alike have been professing the benefits, even the necessity, of dynamic and engaging stimuli.
The power of art in these instances is appreciated and well renowned, proven to boost energy levels and feelings of satisfaction and happiness, combatting the declining mental health prospects threatened by prolonged distancing. We know now that we’re up against a tide of depression, anxiety and stress induced by everything from financial insecurity to health worries, and grief at losing those close to us.
In the shadow of this mental health crisis, it’s important not only to offer the tools of distraction, (the likes of which a few scrolls through the landing pages of Netflix will show us are ubiquitous) but also positive, constructive, affirmative content. Community art, local theater, and personal literature, if made widely available, has the power to offer those in lockdown the ability to feel, if only momentarily, free.
We are in the midst of an unprecedented experiment in mass human psychology, and the Mérida model won’t magically solve our problems. It will be very easy to turn up the nose and question the benefit of streaming productions of The Cherry Orchard to the masses because, yes, it sounds and seems at first glance to be ineffectual and even slightly tokenistic.
The truth is, however, that access to provocative, challenging, and vital art is currently a twisted hose. We can easily forget the constant contact we used to have with art before the pandemic, simply by existing in the outside world. By democratizing artistic materials in Mérida, a semblance of normality has been allowed to return, and really, isn’t that what is needed at a time like this?
It looks and tastes like an apple pie—but has no apples.
I have to say that apples – reliably crisp, sweet/tart, juicy – are one of the things I really missed when I moved to Mexico.
To be sure, there were mangos and papayas galore, incredible pineapples and fresh coconuts, but I still missed a good ol’ apple. Eventually, though, I discovered that “real” apples could indeed be found at certain times of the year, grown not in the hot coastal region where I lived but in the mountains a few hours inland.
(My guess is that those of you who live in those areas know this already.)
Granted, most of the apples you can find in Mexico are imported; like consumers everywhere, Mexicanos prefer perfect-looking fruit. These locally grown manzanas are smaller and not perfect, but have the flavor, crunch and aroma of an actual apple. Yay!
In a previous life I’d been the food writer at a daily newspaper in Santa Cruz, California, and my job sometimes included judging the apple pie contest at the local county fair. It’s not as fun as you’d think; people add all sorts of strange ingredients to their apple pies and you have no idea that the one you’re about to taste has, say, too much cumin in the filling. We learned to talk while smiling, to warn our judge-mates not to take too big a bite.
Imported apples are readily available; Mexican varieties at certain times of the year.
So when I learned about an apple-pie-made-with-no-apples-that-tastes-just-like-the-real-thing, I knew I had to make it and see for myself. It sure seemed like part of my job to test such an outrageous claim.
The Mock Apple Pie in question is made with Ritz crackers, and is apparently a Depression-era recipe. The crackers are soaked in a cinnamon-sugar syrup and baked in a regular pie crust – crumb, lattice, whatever. While you’re assembling it, it looks just like what it is: a cracker-filled pie shell. But once baked, it tastes like and has the mouth-feel of real apples. I kid you not! And with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream on top, it’s hard to tell the difference.
But don’t take my word for it. Since you’ve got all that time on your hands, try it yourself and see. Let me know what you think, OK?
Mock Apple Pie
You must use real Ritz crackers in order for this to taste its best – don’t substitute generic copycat crackers.
1 cup sugar (all white or half brown or piloncillo)
Mix sugar and cream of tartar in medium saucepan. Gradually stir in water. Bring to boil on high heat; simmer on low 5 minutes or until mixture is reduced to 1½ cups. Stir in juice; cool 30 min.
Heat oven to 425 F. Make pie crust: roll out one crust on lightly floured surface to 11-inch circle; place in 9-inch pie plate. Arrange whole crackers in crust. Carefully pour sugar syrup over crackers; dot with butter and sprinkle with cinnamon.
For top crust, make a crumb topping or roll out remaining crust to 10-inch circle; place over pie. Seal and flute edge. Cut several slits in top crust to permit steam to escape. Bake 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
Prawn, Jicama and Apple Salad with Mint & Dijon Dressing
Fresh lemongrass (hierba de limón) is available widely in Mexico not because of Asian cooking but because it’s traditionally used as an herbal tea.
1 cup matchstick-cut Granny Smith apple
1 cup matchstick-cut jicama
½ cup matchstick-cut carrots
½ cup fresh mint leaves
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. white vinegar
1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
1 tsp. chopped garlic
1 tsp. chopped fresh lemongrass (available in most grocery stores, or mercados)
2 sprigs cilantro
Cook shrimp in boiling water until pink on the outside and no longer transparent in the center, 3-5 minutes. Drain with cold water to cool completely. Peel, devein and slice shrimp in half lengthwise; set aside.
Toss apple, jicama and carrots together in a large bowl. Place mint, olive oil, sugar, vinegar, mustard, garlic and lemongrass in a food processor or blender and pulse quickly until slightly chunky. Pour dressing over apple mixture and toss gently. Cover and refrigerate salad and shrimp separately until ready to serve, then mix together and garnish with cilantro. –Allrecipes.com
Turkey Apple Sandwiches with Maple Mayonnaise
Say whaaat?! Yes, these flavors go together fabulously!
¼ cup mayonnaise
1½ tsp. maple syrup
½ lb. sliced turkey or smoked turkey
1 apple, thinly sliced
4 slices bread of choice
In a small bowl, combine mayonnaise and maple syrup; spread on bread, top with turkey and apple slices and then the remaining bread. –nytimes.com
An apple and turkey sandwich, a fabulous combination of flavors.
Quick Sautéed Apples
Serve for dessert with vanilla ice cream, as a side with pork or chicken, or for breakfast with granola or oatmeal.
4 apples, peeled and sliced (about 2 lb.)
½ cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
¼ tsp. nutmeg
2 Tbsp. water
1 Tbsp. butter
Mix first four ingredients in a bowl or large zip-top plastic bag. Transfer to saucepan, add water and butter, and cook for 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until apples are tender.
Janet Blaser of Mazatlán, Sinaloa, has been a writer, editor and storyteller her entire life and feels fortunate to write about great food, amazing places, fascinating people and unique events. Her work has appeared in numerous travel and expat publications as well as newspapers and magazines. Her first book, Why We Left: An Anthology of American Women Expats, is available on Amazon. Contact Janet or read her blog at whyweleftamerica.com.
'We haven't reached the plateau yet,' says Covid expert Macías.
Coronavirus restrictions shouldn’t be lifted until case numbers have been on the wane for at least two weeks, say two experts who spoke with the newspaper El Universal.
While federally mandated social distancing measures concluded Saturday in favor of state-based restrictions, Mexico has not even reached the end of the first wave of the pandemic, said Alejandro Macías, an infectious disease doctor, former government health commissioner and member of the National Autonomous University’s coronavirus commission.
“What we’ve seen is that the epidemic is on the rise and at least two weeks should pass without these increases [in case numbers] in order to talk about an end to the lockdown,” he said.
Macías expressed support for the federal government’s color coded “stoplight” system to determine each state’s readiness to lift restrictions but said that it’s too early to predict how the pandemic will develop.
Stoplight system a good idea, says one expert, but it’s too early to predict how the pandemic will develop.
“At this time I don’t think that we can apply a timetable to the virus,” he said.
He also said that health authorities need to ramp up Covid-19 testing, especially at businesses where employees are returning to work.
Rodolfo de la Torre, director of social development at the Espinosa Yglesias Study Center think tank, agreed that restrictions shouldn’t be eased until cases are seen to be declining for at least two weeks. He also said that more widespread testing is needed.
“According to the map presented by the government, 30 states [and Mexico City] have [widespread] active transmission. An opening [of the economy] is not viable without thinking about increasing the number of tests, at least in workplaces,” he said.
Both Macías and de la Torre suggested that President López Obrador’s decision to resume his work tours (he was in Quintana Roo on Monday) was the wrong one, the latter saying that “he should set an example and wait a little longer.”
Sharing Macías’ view on the development of the pandemic in Mexico is the United States-based New England Complex Systems Institute (NECSI), a research institute and think tank.
It said that Mexico is one of 52 countries around the world where the coronavirus pandemic is far from being under control. Among the other countries in the same category are the United States, Brazil and Russia, which rank first, second and third, respectively, for confirmed Covid-19 cases.
NECSI warned the 52 countries against reopening their economies before their outbreaks are under control due to the risk of large new outbreaks.
“Reopening too early runs the risk of triggering exponential growth again. This might erase all of the benefits gained from the lockdown so far. It could increase the total amount of deaths, overwhelm the medical system, and create a scenario where another lockdown is necessary.”
Romina and Santos Zanella at their gelato shop in Chipilo.
Like cafes all over Mexico, everybody seems to know everybody in the cafes in Chipilo, Puebla, a small pueblo about 2 1/2 hours from Mexico City and 20 minutes from the city of Puebla.
People greet each other with hugs, kisses and shouts of hello. Conversations tend to be happy and loud. The difference is that in Chipilo the shouts and conversations are often in Italian. That’s because Chipileños, as they’re known, have kept alive the language that they brought over from Italy 138 years ago.
Beginning in the mid-1800s, the Mexican government encouraged Europeans to settle in Mexico, hoping they would help modernize the country’s agriculture. Joining the wave of Italians that decided to seek their fortune in Mexico were 38 families from the Veneto region in northern Italy who made their way to Chipilo on October 2, 1882.
Italians that settled in other pueblos across Mexico eventually assimilated but Chipileños have maintained many of their Italian traditions and their language. And, of course, their cuisine. It can truly be called an Italian pueblo.
Chipileños worked hard, starting farms and dairies in the new land. “When they arrived in Mexico, they did not have money,” said Eduardo Piloni Stefanonni, the director of Chipilo’s Casa d’Italia. “They did not speak Spanish and it took a long time to establish a community. There was only work … they did not have time for anything else.”
Samuél Rosales in his Chipilo cheese store.
The dairies prospered and the pueblo eventually became famous for its cheeses and other dairy products.
Samuél Rosales Galeazzi took over a cheese store 12 years ago and today stocks it with a variety of Italian delicacies and cheeses — both classic Mexican, like Oaxaca cheese and panela, and Italian cheeses like provolone and mozzarella. He said that his cheeses are different from those found in other pueblos. “The milk here is different,” he said. “It is less acidic.”
Across the street from Galeazzi’s store is a gelato shop owned by Santos Zanella Galeazzi and his daughter Romina Zanella Pérez. “We use a family recipe,” said Zanella Pérez. “It is all artisanal, 100% natural and all made by hand using Italian techniques.”
When I mentioned it was the best ice cream I’d ever tasted she gently corrected me. “It is not ice cream,” she said, “it is Italian gelato.” As I left the store Zuri Merlo, who has served as my guide in Chipilo, said, “The secret ingredient is the cream. It is Chipileño.”
Of course, no Italian pueblo would be complete without restaurants serving honest-to-goodness Italian food. I’ve lived in Mexico for a year and a half and, as much as I love Mexican food, being Italian-American I missed my pasta.
As you might expect, Chipilo gives visitors many options. I’ve eaten at The Gondala (which is a little outside the pueblo) and Bella Pizza and they’re both excellent but I tend to gravitate towards Paolo’s Restaurante, which is on Avenida Cinco de Mayo, Chipilo’s main street, just across from the church.
[wpgmza id=”243″]
It may be my favorite spot because on my second trip to Chipilo, as I sipped a delicious coffee in Caffé Italiano, Paolo noticed me and said, “You are Italian, right?” This was unusual. I usually get “You are an American” or “You are a gringo.”
When I answered that I was, in fact, Italian, he gave me a big hug. When I learned he owned a restaurant just two doors down, I had to eat there. After the meal, which was terrific, he asked me a second question. “Do you like wine?”
“Of course,” I replied. He ducked into a back room and handed me a bottle. “A gift,” he told me.
Although Chipileños still hold tight to their Italian roots, the pueblo is changing. There are now more carpentry shops than dairy farms. “My grandfather had cows but my father no,” said Jorge Merlo Piloni, who owns one of the pueblo’s many carpentry shops.
“I worked with cows but my family never had them. In the future, the identity of the pueblo will be furniture, not cows. The price for milk hasn’t gone up, but the price of food for the cows, yes. It is more difficult to sustain the business.”
Furniture made in Chipilo is now sold in several European countries and in the U.S.
Chipileños have maintained their language and traditions for more than a century and a walk through the streets clearly shows it’s an Italian pueblo: Italian flags painted on poles, signs on stores in Italian, the Venetian dialect in the cafés and restaurants.
But when Pedro Bronca Mazzocco was asked whether he felt he was Italian or Mexican, he echoed what all Chipileños believe. “I’m Mexican,” he asserted. “I’m proud to be Italian but I was born in Mexico and I’m Mexican.”
Joseph Sorrentino is a frequent contributor to Mexico News Daily. He lives in San Gregorio Atlapulco, Mexico City.
The president resumed his cross-country touring on the weekend, but there weren't to be many meet-and-greets this time. file photo
Mexico is already recovering from the coronavirus-induced economic crisis, President López Obrador said on Saturday, pointing to the recent appreciation of the peso and the resurgence of oil prices.
In a video message recorded in Palenque, Chiapas, López Obrador said the crisis hasn’t destroyed the economy and “step by step we’re recovering” from the damage that it did cause.
He acknowledged that the peso dropped to a record low of more than 25 to the United States dollar in late March but highlighted that it was trading at 22.2 to the greenback on Friday. (The exchange rate was just above 22 to the dollar at 1:00 p.m. Monday).
He also highlighted that the price of Mexico’s export crude had recovered after dipping into negative territory in April as global demand for oil slumped due to the coronavirus pandemic. A barrel of Mexican oil was selling for almost US $30 at the close of trading on Friday, López Obrador said.
The president also noted that large companies such as Femsa (the world’s largest Coca-Cola bottler and the operator of the OXXO convenience store chain) and Walmart have begun paying back their multi-billion-peso tax debts.
AMLO celebrates an economy in recovery from his home in Palenque, Chiapas, on Saturday.
“The [economic] model we’re applying is yielding results and is for the benefit of all people,” he said.
However, the road to economic recovery is unlikely to be as smooth and quick as López Obrador would like.
While the nation as a whole has not yet returned to what is being called “the new normal,” the president has resumed one of his hallmark pre-pandemic activities: touring the country.
López Obrador traveled by road to Chiapas on Saturday and was to continue from there to the Yucatán Peninsula, where he will preside over a ceremony to mark the commencement of one of his pet infrastructure projects, the Maya Train.
No large campaign-style rallies of the kind the president held regularly before the pandemic – and even after Covid-19 was first detected in Mexico – are planned for the tour but opposition lawmakers and party leaders still criticized López Obrador’s decision to travel while the pandemic continues to rage.
The leader of the National Action Party (PAN) in the lower house of Congress said that people will ask themselves, “If he’s already going on a tour, why can’t my children and I go out to do our activities?”
The president has a responsibility to send an “exemplary message” to the Mexican people that will help to avoid new coronavirus infections, Juan Carlos Romero Hicks added.
He said that López Obrador’s decision to resume his national tours is one of a range of errors he and his government have made in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
PAN national president Marko Cortés said in a statement that the resumption of presidential tours could cause new outbreaks of Covid-19, while Democratic Revolution Party lower house leader Verónica Juárez Piña said that traveling the country while most of the country is at the “red light” risk level is “a grave act of irresponsibility.”
By going on tour, López Obrador encourages other people to break quarantine and thus “creates the conditions for infections and deaths to increase,” she said.
“From the beginning to the end, the president hasn’t [accurately] measured the magnitude of the pandemic and has always prioritized his political interests over the interests of citizens,” Juárez said.
Institutional Revolutionary Party national president Alejandro Moreno Cárdenas offered a scathing assessment of the federal government’s response to the pandemic, including the decision to end the national social distancing initiative while the risk of infection remains high.
“We have to raise our voices loudly because … when … almost the entire country is in a maximum risk area, they’re abandoning the healthy distance initiative without any plan to take care of lives and save hundreds of thousands of jobs that have been lost. We’re worried that infections, death and unemployment will continue [to increase] due to a lack of clear decisions,” he said.
Moreno also charged that the government has committed a series of errors in forecasting the impact of the pandemic.
“They were wrong about when the peak of infections would be; they were wrong about the number of deaths we would have; they were wrong about the fatality rate the virus would have in our country; they were wrong about the number of jobs that would be lost. … The federal government can’t blame anyone but itself for its inefficacy and inefficiency. There’s no excuse, … it wasn’t corruption, the conservatives or a conspiracy – it was them and their bad decisions.”
