Security forces in Veracruz arrested four presumed cartel members who were handing out packages of supplies to needy citizens on Saturday while openly carrying weapons.
The four were handing out packages emblazoned with the initials of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) in the municipality of La Perla.
After authorities received a report that the supplies were being distributed, state police, the army and the National Guard arrived on the scene to find around 400 people gathered to receive the donations.
They were greeted with gunfire by the presumed gangsters, who were subsequently overcome by security forces.
The Veracruz Public Security Ministry reported that security forces later found and seized a truck loaded with rifles, bulletproof vests, ammunition, magazines and other tactical gear, but did not specifically state that the seizure was related to the first incident.
Covid-19 cases by state as of Sunday evening. milenio
The spread of Covid-19 has stabilized in the metropolitan area of Mexico City, Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said on Sunday as the total number of coronavirus cases across the country approached 50,000.
López-Gatell said that the number of new cases reported on a daily basis over the past week in the Valley of México – the country’s coronavirus epicenter – has remained stable.
Mexico City has now recorded 13,762 Covid-19 cases since the start of the pandemic but only one in five cases – 2,838 – are currently active.
México state, which borders the capital to the north, west and east, has recorded 8,187 cases, of which 16%, or 1,355, are considered active.
Two municipalities that border Mexico City – Ecatepec and Nezahualycóyotl – have recorded more than 1,000 cases each since Covid-19 was first detected in Mexico at the end of February.
Covid-19 deaths recorded as of Sunday evening. milenio
López-Gatell said that the number of Covid-19 patients in intensive care in the Valley of México metropolitan area is predicted to peak on Tuesday of next week.
Data presented at Sunday night’s press briefing showed that 69% of beds with ventilators in Mexico City and 59% in México state are currently in use. Both percentages are well above the national occupancy rate for beds with ventilators, which is 32%.
Hospitals across many states can expect to face increasing pressure as the pandemic continues to grow.
López-Gatell reported that 49,219 people have now tested positive for Covid-19 and that 11,105 cases are considered active.
More than 2,000 new cases have now been reported on four consecutive days after 2,112 cases were added to Mexico’s tally on Saturday and 2,075 on Sunday. There are also 27,507 suspected coronavirus cases and 172,294 people have been tested.
After Mexico City and México state, Baja California ranks third for total case numbers, with 3,255, while Tabasco has the third largest active outbreak, with 644. The fourth and fifth largest active outbreaks are in Veracruz and Baja California, respectively. Just over half of all active cases in Mexico are concentrated in just five states.
Currently active Covid-19 cases by state. milenio
At the other end of the scale, five states have fewer than 100 active cases: Colima has 25, Baja California Sur has 61, Zacatecas has 65, Campeche has 91 and Chihuahua 97.
Colima also has the lowest coronavirus death toll in the country – just eight of 5,177 confirmed Covid-19 fatalities occurred in the small Pacific coast state.
Health Ministry data shows that the nationwide death toll increased by 132 on Sunday, 146 fewer fatalities than Saturday.
Based on confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths, Mexico’s fatality rate is 10.5 per 100 cases. However, in addition to the 5,177 confirmed Covid-19 deaths, 582 are suspected of having been caused by the disease, López-Gatell said.
Mexico City leads the country for confirmed deaths, with 1,332, followed by Baja California and México state, where 554 and 478 people have lost their lives to Covid-19.
Mexico has now been in phase three of the pandemic for one day shy of four weeks. The Health Ministry has reported 40,447 cases, 82% of the total, and 4,465 deaths, 86% of the total, during that period.
A Tigrada in Chilapa, Guerrero, where participants fight each other to ask the gods for plenty of rain. Unleonfoto
There are no tigers native to Mexico, but there are “tiger” rituals in the form of dance.
They go by various names including Tecuanes, Tlalcololeros, Tlaminques, Tigres, Cimarrón and Lobitos, but they have two things in common: the image of a fierce wildcat (most often called a tiger) and a purely pre-Hispanic origin.
The misnaming of the central character most likely comes from early colonial chronicling, which incorrectly called the native wildcats tigers.
Lacking formal research, knowledge of the history of tiger dances is spotty at best. It is known that the jaguar was revered in all of Mesoamerica, and one theory is that the dances have Olmec roots. Modern tiger dances are unknown in the territory of the former Olmec Empire — the Gulf of Mexico lowlands of what is now Veracruz and Tabasco — but appear in areas where the Olmecs had contact. If there is an Olmec origin, how it got transmitted is unknown.
Colonial documents indicate efforts to eliminate tiger rituals, but not only do they survive, they show minimal Catholic influence. There are no invocations to the saints or the virgin, and performances on patron saint days seems to be a more recent phenomenon.
The Viejo Lucas is a character that appears in various but not all versions of the tiger dance. andrés junco
The dance is most commonly performed in the state of Guerrero, but it appears to have spread from there into Morelos, Puebla and the state of México. It migrated out of Guerrero about 100 years ago, but no one seems to know how this occurred. There are also tiger dances in Chiapas and Central America but it is unknown if they are related.
The tiger dance may be originally connected to the agricultural cycle. Rural Guerrero is rugged and isolated, allowing it to maintain much of life from before the Conquest. In subsistence agriculture, on which 80% of the population still depends, a good rainy season is essential to survival.
In almost all cases, participants wear masks and costumes. Masks are of lightweight wood or leather but in Morelos they are made of heavy papier-mache. The main character wears a feline mask and often a jumpsuit that mimics the cat’s hide.
The most common name related to the dance is Tecuanes, a Náhuatl word which historically meant any dangerous animal, not necessarily a wildcat. The dance appears in different forms among the various indigenous, mestizo and even Afro-Mexican communities that practice it, but it always revolves around a hunt for the dangerous animal, which is often eating the livestock of a rich landowner.
Other characters include one or more hunters, assistants, and many other animal species. It may be comical or serious, and the tiger is almost always killed.
The dance’s importance in Morelos is highlighted by the fact that the state worked to have Tecuanes dancer and teacher Florentino Sorela Severiano declared a Living Human Treasure by UNESCO. The dance is also an integral part of the identity of Acatlán de Osorio, Puebla. In both states there are important festivals related to the dance, bringing together dozens of dance groups and thousands of dancers.
And the dance continues to spread as people migrate out of those states. It can now be found in various neighborhoods in Mexico City, and north of the border in California and New York. The dance continues to evolve as well, with changes to dance moves, costumes, and accessories.
Almost all of the other names are for regional variations. One, Tlacololeros, is a shorter version held exclusively in June and July to petition for rain in various parts of central Guerrero.
Perhaps the most interesting petition for rain is not a dance at all. The Tigrada is performed in Chilapa, San Luis Acatlán and Zitlala as a violent ritual with origins related to festivals in honor of the rain god Tláloc. It is performed somewhat differently in the three towns, but townspeople pour onto the streets at the beginning or middle of the rainy season basically to fight.
Most wear tiger costumes or masks, and the blood and/or sweat spilled is a kind of sacrifice. The harder people fight, the better the rainy season.
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.
Passports offer special prices for frequent flyers.
Domestic airline Aeromar is offering unlimited flight packages in order to boost sales and motivate clients to travel after the Covid-19 outbreak just about shut down the airline industry.
The airline’s Pasaporte Aeromar program offers three different packages that allow passengers to fly certain routes an unlimited number of times until the close of 2020. Passengers will only have to pay for the taxes for each flight they take.
Clients can choose either gold, silver or bronze packages, each with distinct routes and prices.
The gold passport costs 9,999 pesos (US $418) and is valid for flights between Mexico City and Ciudad Victoria, Colima, Ixtepec, Lázaro Cárdenas, Manzanillo, Piedras Negras, Poza Rica, Saltillo, Tepic and McAllen, Texas.
The 6,999-peso (US $292) silver passport is for flights between Mexico City and San Luis Potosí, Oaxaca and the region known as La Huasteca Potosina, as well as Guadalajara-Puebla and Guadalajara-Puerto Vallarta.
The bronze passport applies to flights between Mexico City and Acapulco, Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo, Puerto Escondido and Veracruz and costs 4,999 pesos (US $209).
Passport travelers will have to book flights at least 48 hours in advance and all flights are subject to availability.
While other Mexican airlines like Aeroméxico and Interjet significantly limited their services at the beginning of the pandemic, Aeromar continues to fly 70% of its routes.
The airline has also helped support the fight against the spread of the coronavirus with its Heroes in Lab Coats program, which flew medical professionals free to destinations where they were needed up until its final day on Friday.
Information about purchasing passports can be found at the Aeromar website, but in Spanish only. The packages are being sold until May 20.
Hurricane season began Friday on the Pacific coast.
The National Water Commission (Conagua) predicts that between 30 and 37 storms will form in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in 2020, with the most intense activity occurring in September and October.
In a virtual press conference, Conagua director Blanca Jiménez Cisneros forecast that some 15 to 19 storms will form in the Atlantic Ocean. Between eight and 10 will become tropical storms, four to five will develop into minor hurricanes and three to four are expected to become Category 3 hurricanes or higher.
The forecast for the Pacific Ocean predicts seven or eight tropical storms, four or five hurricanes of Category 1 or 2 and four or five hurricanes of Category 3, 4 or 5.
“This year, according to an analysis of ocean conditions from January through April, the season is expected to be more active,” Jiménez cautioned. However, she said the country is preparing its infrastructure for increased storm activity and rains.
Hospitals treating coronavirus patients will receive special weather alerts from the government, she said, which will be automatically updated every five minutes during a weather event based on meteorological radar and information garnered from satellite images.
Hospitals must continue to be able to operate effectively despite rain, wind, electrical storms or hail, Jiménez said, especially given the coronavirus pandemic.
In the event that shelters need to be opened, they will adhere to sanitary precautions as much as possible.
Conagua asks the public, especially those who live in high-risk areas, to heed all warnings and recommendations issued by Civil Protection during hurricane season, which runs from May 15 to November 30 in the eastern Pacific and from June 1 to November 30 in the Atlantic.
A group of doctors in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, has dedicated its services free of charge to senior citizens in the area who cannot obtain treatment for various medical conditions at hospitals and clinics due to the health system’s focus on Covid-19.
“Many people aren’t being treated, partly to avoid becoming infected with the coronavirus, but we know that it’s [imperative] that they receive medical attention because some suffer from chronic degenerative diseases, such as diabetes and cancer, and they can’t wait because their lives are at risk,” said general practitioner Serapio Cantú Barragán.
He said he and his colleagues are doing the work in order to help the most vulnerable in their community.
“We go to the most isolated neighborhoods where there are large numbers of elderly citizens, who need the most attention and can’t travel or be admitted to hospitals because … they are giving priority to coronavirus patients,” he said.
The volunteer doctors take ambulances to the neighborhoods in which they work, examine patients and, if necessary, arrange admission to hospitals in which they can be treated without the risk of contracting Covid-19.
Cantú said that the border city of Reynosa has a large population of people with diabetes, hypertension and malnutrition, factors which increase the risk of contracting the coronavirus.
The team has two vehicles equipped with loudspeakers, which they drive through the neighborhoods to announce their services. They also communicate closely with local churches in order to find those in need of attention.
In addition to medical care, they also provide needy families with kits of basic food and medications.
“It’s our duty, and … we have to do it for our fellow human beings. We’re in a situation in which we must be united. A pandemic isn’t just any old thing, we have to be very strong.”
“If they don’t have money, that doesn’t matter. What’s important is people’s health.”
The Mexican government has fast-tracked its efforts to put restrictions on private energy producers in an apparent bid to take back control of the electricity market.
The move gives the government control over who can generate electricity, where they can operate and how much they can produce.
The Ministry of Energy, Sener, published the new energy policy late Friday in the government’s official gazette. It imposes restrictive measures for the renewable energy sector that could effectively prevent its expansion in Mexico and consolidate control of electrical power in the government’s Federal Electricity Commission (CFE).
The new regulations give priority to using electricity from CFE plants whereas until now priority was given to the plants with the lowest production costs. Renewable energy’s costs run at about US $20 per megawatt hour; those of the CFE are as much as $141.
The expedited move by Energy Minister Rocío Nahle pushed the policy through without prior approval from the National Commission for Regulatory Improvement (Conamer) and without a regulatory impact study, which would have opened the new policy up for public comment.
César Hernández, head of Conamer, announced his resignation Friday evening on social media shortly before the new policy was published and after he had refused to green-light the new measures.
“This is a tremendous power grab by the energy ministry,” said Pablo Zárate, an energy specialist at FTI Consulting. He told the Financial Times, “They’re using Covid as an excuse to try to increase their power and achieve the political objective of control of the system.”
Opening the energy sector to private investment in renewables was part of the previous government’s energy reform. The current administration has been taking steps to retake control of energy, putting more control into the hands of the state-owned oil company Pemex and the Federal Electricity Commission.
The move to restrict renewable energy production is the second this month. Last week, indefinite limits were placed on the amount of electricity wind and solar projects can supply to the national grid, while grid trials for some 28 wind and solar projects coming on line were temporarily suspended. Those measures, too, were implemented on the grounds that electricity supply had to be protected during the coronavirus pandemic.
At the same time, generation at CFE plants described as old and inefficient was to be ramped up to improve reliability of the electricity system during the coronavirus crisis. Those plants burn surplus fuel that Pemex is unable to sell elsewhere.
That move triggered criticism from the European Union (EU) and Canada, where many of the foreign investors in Mexico’s renewable energy sector are based.
In letters to Energy Minister Nahle, the EU and Canada warned that the new measures pose a serious threat to continued investment in the sector.
“This agreement establishes various actions and strategies of operational control, which put at risk the operation and continuity of renewable energy projects of Canadian companies in Mexico,” wrote Graeme Clark, Canada’s ambassador to Mexico, on Friday.
He warned that in the short term the measures could affect investments totaling $450 million and 1,000 jobs.
Numerous large international companies, such as Iberdrola and Naturgy of Spain, AES and Sempra of the U.S., Enel of Italy, France’s Engie and Denmark’s Vestas have invested in renewable energy in Mexico.
The Social Security Institute in Hermosillo reported two instances of theft from seniors.
Some thieves in Hermosillo, Sonora, have taken to disguising themselves as heath workers in order to deceive senior citizens and steal their jewelry.
The modus operandi of the presumed swindlers is to arrive in an unmarked van dressed as medical professionals from the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS). They approach senior citizens outside their homes, discuss Covid-19 sanitation measures and finally offer to put antibacterial gel on their hands.
However, instead of hand sanitizer, the thief applies a type of oil that lubricates the hands and facilitates the theft of rings and other valuables.
IMSS reported at least two instances of this type of robbery in the Sonora capital, but it clarified that neither involved actual IMSS employees.
The most recent theft occurred on Friday when an 85-year-old woman was approached by an apparent medical professional while relaxing on her front porch. The man opened a dialogue with her, applied the sham sanitizer and made off with gold bracelets and other jewels she had owned since the 1950s.
In addition to her advanced age, the woman suffers from other underlying conditions and the theft affected her so gravely that it raised her blood pressure enough for her to need medical attention.
Sonora authorities warned that this could become a new trend in thefts during the coronavirus pandemic and asked anyone with information about such acts to report them to police by calling 911.
Covid-19 deaths as of Friday. The total is now higher than that recorded by China. milenio
After 54 days of nationwide social distancing, the number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 has risen to 45,032 after 2,437 new cases were recorded between Thursday and Friday.
There are 29,028 suspected cases and the number of confirmed deaths is now 4,767, up 290 since Thursday, a death toll that is now higher than China’s, where the virus originated last fall.
José Luis Alomía, Director of Epidemiology at the Ministry of Health, reported Friday that there were 10,238 active cases, which takes in people who have shown coronavirus symptoms in the last 14 days.
Friday’s Covid-19 press briefing was told that 128,253 coronavirus tests have been carried out in the public health system. Of those, 70,809 were conducted in government laboratories and 50,775, in hospitals. He added that 101,900 test kits have been distributed to the national network of laboratories and 300,000 additional tests have been ordered.
In addition, Alomía revealed that private laboratories have registered 16,450 positive coronavirus test results that have yet to be added to national totals because of insufficient data on individual patients, whether they are symptomatic or not, and whether they may already have been included in official statistics.
Covid-19 cases as of Friday. milenio
He stated that the government is planning to roll out a website next week where private labs can provide further information on positive-testing patients.
Alomía also noted that Baja California, Mexico City and the state of México remain hotspots for the disease, with each of the three states registering upwards of 3,000 cases. Tabasco follows with 2,177 cases and Sinaloa with 1,814.
Yesterday marked the second day that Mexico saw more than 2,400 new cases within 24 hours.
The government says 36% of hospital beds for those with severe acute respiratory symptoms are occupied, and 70% of beds with ventilators are still available nationwide, although that number drops to 41% in Sinaloa and 37% in Mexico City.
López Obrador: Mexicans are used to living together.
Ninety percent of calls made by women to denounce domestic violence and seek help are false, President López Obrador said on Friday.
The president made the claim in response to a question at his regular news conference about the documented increase in domestic violence during the coronavirus pandemic.
“I’m going to give you a piece of information that doesn’t mean that violence against women doesn’t exist,” López Obrador said. “I don’t want you to misinterpret me because a lot of what I say is taken out of context: 90% of those calls … are false, it’s proven.”
López Obrador said that the 90% figure doesn’t just apply to calls related to violence against women but also to calls made to the Mexico City metro that claim that the tracks have been sabotaged or there is a bomb in the system.
“The majority [of the calls] are false,” he said.
According to the Spotlight Initiative, a partnership between the United Nations and the European Union that is aiming to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls by 2030, Mexican women made more than 115,000 calls to the 911 emergency number in March to denounce violence, a 22% increase compared to February. The figure equates to an average of 155 calls per hour during the month.
López Obrador said that the Interior Ministry and the National Women’s Institute are taking action against the problem but sought to downplay its severity.
“In the homes of Mexicans, the children are there, the daughters-in-law, the grandchildren, and there has always been harmonious cohabitation. In other places, where this tradition, this culture, doesn’t exist it might be that isolation [to limit the spread of coronavirus] causes aggravation, confrontation and violence,” he said.
“[But] the Mexican family is different from families in Europe and the United States; Mexicans are used to living together, being together. … I’m not saying that there is not this confrontation in Mexico, of course there are differences in all families,” López Obrador said.
He added that his administration is opposed to all forms of violence against women, a problem that has triggered countless protests across the country and a national women’s strike in March.
“We’re against femicides, hate crimes, that must be made very clear. … We come from a years-long social struggle in defense of the poor, the helpless, the dispossessed, women. … Now the conservatives are saying that we’re not doing anything in defense of women – they’re wrong, we’re constantly dealing with the issue.”
