Preparation is the key when cooking eggplant

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October 12, 2020

The purplish-black, pear-shaped eggplant is the most common.

My first memories of eggplant are not good ones.

Every Sunday, my mother would make the recipe from the New York Times Magazine for dinner. Whatever it was – cold cucumber soup comes to mind — it would be on our plates that evening. My siblings and I learned to dread Sundays.

“Eggplant fries” was one of those Sunday night dishes.

Now, if she’d just told us it was eggplant instead of saying they were a “new kind” of French fries, we might have been more open to at least trying them. Even today, the recollection of the soft sponginess of those breaded, baked sticks of eggplant makes me shudder whenever I see eggplant-anything on a menu.

Thankfully, as an adult I’m able to take a deep breath and look beyond that unfortunate childhood memory. I’ve learned that properly cooked eggplant is a delight in all kinds of dishes. The trick is in the preparation.

First, to peel or not to peel? It’s a personal preference; I always do. Salting eggplant before cooking to draw out the bitterness is another step that’s easily avoided (ahem) but it does make a difference. Simply lay out the slices of eggplant on a towel, sprinkle on both sides with kosher salt and let sit for 45 minutes. Pat dry — don’t rinse. Then proceed with the recipe.

You don’t need to do this with Japanese eggplants (the long thin ones) as they’re sweeter.

The most common types of eggplant are the purplish-black, pear-shaped ones and the aforementioned Japanese variety. In either case, look for firm fruits with shiny skin. Eggplant is a fruit in the nightshade family, as are tomatoes. The name “eggplant” came about due to the white-skinned variety, not seen very often.

Interestingly, although berenjena, as it is called in Spanish, is grown in Mexico and found in mercados all over the country, I didn’t find any Mexican recipes with eggplant that weren’t Italian inspired.

Swordfish with Caramelized Eggplant & Capers

The extra steps are worth the time — you’ll love this melt-in-your-mouth caramelized eggplant and tender swordfish in a caponata-like sauce. Use another firm white fish or even chicken if swordfish isn’t available.

1½ pounds eggplant, in 1-inch cubes
2 Tbsp. olive oil, plus more as needed
Salt and pepper
1 red onion, halved, thinly sliced
1 cup chopped fresh tomatoes
2 Tbsp. butter
2 garlic cloves, minced
⅓ cup dry white wine or chicken or vegetable broth
2 Tbsp. chopped, pitted Castelvetrano or other firm green olives
1 Tbsp. drained capers
1½ pounds swordfish, cut into 1½ -inch chunks
¼ cup chopped parsley
Garnish: Basil leaves, lime juice

Heat broiler. Set rack 4 inches from heat source. If grilling, heat grill.

In a bowl, toss eggplant with enough oil to coat; season with salt. Broil or grill until golden all over and charred in spots, 2-4 minutes per side.

Heat large skillet over medium-high. Add 2 Tbsp. oil; sauté onion till lightly browned. Add tomatoes and ¼ cup water. Simmer until tomato turns saucy, about 5 minutes. If needed, add splash more water. Add eggplant and drizzle of oil to pan; turn heat to medium-low. Cook until mixture is very tender, 10-15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer eggplant mixture to a bowl and set aside.

Without wiping out pan, raise heat to medium, add butter and garlic. Sauté 1 minute. Add wine, olives, capers and pinch of salt; bring to a simmer. Add swordfish, gently turning pieces so they don’t fall apart, until cooked through, 3-5 minutes. Return eggplant mixture and parsley to pan and gently stir. Heat until mixture bubbles, 1-2 minutes. Garnish with basil leaves and a squeeze of lime juice. –nytimescooking.com

Caponata Flatbread

1 lb. pizza dough
Flour
2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
1 tsp. honey
3 Tbsp. olive oil
2 plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise
1 small eggplant, peeled & halved lengthwise
1 red pepper, quartered
Salt & pepper
1 Tbsp. capers, chopped
¼ cup parsley, chopped
1 cup ricotta

Heat oven to 425 F and heat grill to medium-high. On a lightly floured surface, shape pizza dough into large rectangle, transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake 10 minutes. Remove from oven; increase heat to 475. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together vinegar, honey and 1 Tbsp. oil.

Brush tomatoes, eggplant and red pepper with 1 Tbsp. oil; season with salt and pepper. Grill, turning occasionally, until just tender; transfer to cutting board and cut into large pieces. Add vegetables, capers and parsley to bowl with vinegar mixture and toss. Spread ricotta on crust, leaving a ½-inch border all the way around, then top with vegetables. Brush rim of crust with oil and bake until crust is deep golden brown, 4-6 minutes.

Eggplant Parm Chips

Use a mandoline if you have one to slice the eggplant thin, or slice by hand, trying to make them all the same thickness. Serve with marinara sauce for dipping.

1 eggplant
2 Tbsp. olive oil
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
1 tsp. garlic powder
Salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 350 F. Cut eggplant into very thin rounds and salt as described above. Transfer eggplant to a bowl and toss with oil. Add Parmesan, Italian seasoning, garlic powder. and pepper and toss. Arrange eggplant slices in a single even layer (not overlapping) on a baking sheet. Bake until golden and crisp, turning once, 16-20 minutes. Let cool before serving.

Roasted Eggplant, Tomato & Ricotta Frittata

2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 eggplant, peeled, cut into ½-inch dice
1 pint cherry tomatoes
Salt and pepper
6 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
1 tsp. oregano
1 lb. ricotta

Heat oven to 450 F. In a large bowl, toss oil, eggplant, tomatoes and oregano. Season with salt and pepper. Roast on a baking sheet for 20-30 minutes, until eggplant is tender and tomatoes are bursting.

Lower oven to 375. In another bowl, whisk eggs, milk and red pepper. Grease 9-inch pie pan. Combine egg mixture with vegetable mixture. Pour into prepared pan. Top with ricotta. Bake 30-35 minutes or until set. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Janet Blaser has been a writer, editor and storyteller her entire life and feels fortunate to be able to write about great food, amazing places, fascinating people and unique events. 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.

Morena divided: fight for party presidency turns nasty

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MND Staff

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October 12, 2020

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Delgado, left, and Muñoz are vying for the Morena leadership.

Two Morena party politicians are engaged in a war of words as they both seek the national leadership of a deeply divided ruling party.

Mario Delgado, Morena’s leader in the lower house of Congress and a candidate for the party’s national presidency, accused rival Porfirio Muñoz Ledo, a veteran lawmaker, of seeking the party’s leadership in order to convert it into a movement opposed to the administration of President López Obrador.

“Porfirio Muñoz Ledo could convert Morena into an opposition party to the government of Andrés Manuel [López Obrador],” Delgado said at an event in Saltillo, Coahuila, on Sunday.

“That is the route he is proposing via ruptures [within the party], sectarianism and exclusion.”

Delgado claimed that with his “self-proclamation” that he has won the national presidency of Morena, Muñoz is attempting to carry out “a kind of coup” against the party.

Muñoz claims to have won a survey conducted to determine the new leader.

“That’s not a good sign for Morena or the country. What a contradiction it would be for our democratic struggle to have a spurious leader. With this level of impetuosity, Porfirio Muñoz could repudiate Andrés Manuel López Obrador at any moment or even attack him for his democratic conviction. This would place at risk everything that we’ve achieved, everything for which we’ve fought for more than 20 years so that López Obrador [could] reach the presidency and lead a true transformation of the country’s public life.”

Delgado also said that Muñoz’s desire to lead Morena was related to his ambition to set a Guinness World Record as the leader of three different parties.

“He was the leader of the PRI [Institutional Revolutionary Party], the PRD [Democratic Revolution Party] and now he’s obsessed in leading Morena as a personal whim in order to go into, as he says, the Guinness records,” he said.

The warring between the aspiring leaders followed a declaration by the National Electoral Institute (INE) that a survey of party members held to decide who would lead the party produced a tie between the two candidates.

Later on Sunday, Muñoz participated in a digital forum with party members in Puebla during which he rejected Delgado’s remarks.

“There is a campaign that [my] opponents have started and which I have already corroborated … [saying that] I want to take power from Andrés Manuel López Obrador; it’s the last recourse they have [to defeat my candidacy for the national presidency]. Andrés and I have been fighting together since 1989,” the 87-year-old deputy said.

“My adversaries are saying that untruthfully, stupidly and … dangerously. I personally blame Delgado, … this is extremely serious,” Muñoz said.

The lawmaker, who claims that he has already won the national presidency of Morena via an internal election process, said his aim as leader will be to pass on a party to his successor that is strong both in terms of ideas and members.

“Due to my age and the circumstances, I’m not seeking to replace anyone,” Muñoz said, adding that he will retire from public life once his term as national leader comes to an end.

He said on Twitter Sunday that he would be sworn in as national president of Morena at the party’s Mexico City headquarters at midday Monday. But he announced on Twitter this morning that an impediment had arisen.

“Today at 12:00 p.m. I was going to be sworn in as the legitimate president of the party. It turns out that the headquarters of the party were taken over in a violent assault brought about by the candidate I defeated. I demand the cessation of hostilities … [and] I ask the membership of Morena to declare themselves in favor of legality,” Muñoz wrote.

Delgado, who says that the internal election process has not yet concluded, wrote to the current national leadership of Morena to ask that they not allow Muñoz to be sworn in as president today.

Delgado says Muñoz is staging a coup against the party.

Allowing it would be an attack on the “democratic principles of our movement,” he wrote. “Do not allow a breach of legality. We demand respect of the process of this consultation.”

In a Twitter post this morning, Delgado said that a third survey consulting party members about who should lead Morena has still not been conducted.

“We’re waiting for the third survey for the leadership of Morena, such as is provided for in the rules the aspirants signed before the INE [the National Electoral Institute]. They are trying to manipulate the results in order to carry out an illegal act [the planned swearing-in of Muñoz],” he wrote.

It is not the first time controversy has surrounded the election of a new national leader of Morena, which López Obrador founded as a political party in 2014.

Voting to elect delegates to choose a new leader was marred by violence in late 2019.

Alfonso Ramírez Cuellar is currently serving as Morena’s interim national president. The most recent person in the position permanently was Yeidckol Polevnsky, who has been accused by the ruling party of embezzlement and money laundering.

Source: El Universal (sp)

New challenge for kids with cancer: thieves steal their medications

By

MND Staff

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October 12, 2020

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Children and parents protest medications shortage in Oaxaca. 'Help us, AMLO," reads the sign.

Mexico has long been plagued by a shortage of medications for children with cancer. Now the problem has been exacerbated by thieves who got away with a large consignment of drugs last week.

Health sector regulator Cofepris announced Saturday that it had been informed of a robbery from the company Novag Infancia in Mexico City last Wednesday.

A total of 37,956 doses of medication including the chemotherapy drugs raunorubicin, fluorouracil and cyclophosphamide were stolen from the company’s facilities. The medications were made by Argentine pharmaceutical company Laboratorio Kemex and were to be distributed by Novag to the public health sector.

A group of parents of children with cancer were told told about the theft at a meeting with federal authorities in the National Palace a day before Cofepris announced it publicly in a health alert.

Israel Rivas, one father who attended the meeting, told the newspaper El Universal that the parents had some doubts about the robbery because they were only shown Cofepris’ health alert and not any documents related to an investigation into the crime.

However, the theft is “very serious because they are medications that thousands of children need,” he said. “It makes us very angry … because the lives of our children [are at stake].”

In its health alert, Cofepris noted that cancer drugs are only available with a prescription and must be administered under the supervision of health professionals.

The regulator also said that the stolen medications, among which were also oxaliplatin, dacarbazine, mitomycin and etoposide, are for “exclusive use” of public health care facilities.

Cofepris warned people not to purchase medications destined for the public health sector, suggesting that they could be offered for sale on social media platforms and other websites. It urged citizens to report anyone selling cancer drugs among those listed as stolen.

In light of the theft and ongoing shortage of cancer medications, a group of parents said they would hold a press conference in Mexico City on Tuesday to announce the legal action they will take to ensure the supply of drugs for their children. They also said they would provide an update on their discussions with federal authorities.

The Mexican Social Security Institute, a major health care provider, said in early September that it had agreed to meet with parents of child cancer patients on a weekly basis to inform them of efforts to supply life-saving drugs and discuss concerns.

Parents of children with cancer have protested against medication shortages on numerous occasions since last year, most notably in Mexico City where young patients have died after their treatment was delayed due to a lack of chemotherapy drugs.

Young cancer sufferers have also passed away in other parts of the country due to their inability to access medications. In Nuevo León, six children died in a period of just five days last month after their treatment was delayed by a drug shortage.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Victims of violence find catharsis in embroidery at Sinibí Jípe

By

Michelle Aguilar

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October 12, 2020

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Rarámuri artisans and the products they make at the microbusiness in Chihuahua.

At Sinibí Jípe, an artisans’ microbusiness in La Soledad, Chihuahua, recovery from domestic violence is a slow but sure process, occurring thread by embroidered thread.

Of the 20 women at Sinibí Jíbe who create and embroider textiles for sale, 19 were once in abusive relationships. As members of the business, founded a year and half ago to give indigenous domestic violence victims emotional refuge and gainful employment, the women not only gain a path out of abuse but also supportive relationships with other former victims and various forms of counseling.

The business’s mission is threefold: to break the silence that surrounds domestic violence, to give victims economic independence and confidence, and to preserve the cultural identity of the Rarámuri, an indigenous people who have inhabited Chihuahua since before the Conquest, and number about 50,000–70,000, according to a 2006 census.

Founder Luisa Fernanda Martínez told the newspaper Milenio that working at Sinibí Jípe transforms women’s self-esteem and their sense of socioeconomic self-empowerment, highly necessary in the Rarámuri culture where, Martínez said, a woman is unlikely to feel comfortable reporting her abusive partner to authorities.

“But upon knowing that they have a job and that we are with them, it gives them the courage to say ‘enough’ and put a stop to it, to report [their abusers].”

Founder Martínez, center, and artisans at work.

According to Mexico’s National Institute of Indigenous Peoples (INPI), 59% of indigenous women in Mexico have experienced some kind of family violence, economic dependence, or labor discrimination. Thirty-four percent who responded to a government survey said they had been hit or verbally humiliated during childhood.

When new members arrive, they are often disheveled, uninterested and shy. But as time passes, they alter their dress and hairstyle, which Martinez sees as the first signs of emotional recovery.

“It is really great because you see them when they first come in, with heads lowered, disheveled.” After they have been working for a while they take better care of themselves. “Then I know that things are getting better.”

Nevertheless, she said, it’s a slow process, though eventually transformative. As new members adjust to their new surroundings, they receive counseling in regaining their confidence. Martínez hopes that the combination of support, counseling, and education is also planting a seed for the next generations of Rarámurí women, who have traditionally had little access to employment and economic independence.

Members’ artisanal products are recognized with a label that bears not only the business’s name but that of the woman who created it.

Earlier this year, Sinibí Jípe contracted with the airline Volaris to make thousands of face masks, which it handed out free to its customers.

The microbusiness recently received national recognition from the Ministry of Tourism and Mexico Desconocido tourism magazine, which together commissioned the women of Sinibí Jípe to create an embroidered blanket commemorating Mexico’s Pueblos Mágicos, or Magical Towns.

“Each prize and event that they invite us to makes the women more committed to the work that we are doing,” Martínez said. “The business enables them to be well and keep discovering themselves, breaking the silence in which all indigenous women live, so that they can be themselves — free indigenous women.”

Source: Milenio (sp)

Toll plaza hijackers get insistent in Jalisco; 20 plazas occupied Sunday

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MND Staff

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October 12, 2020

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Tourism sector workers collect tolls at Tlalpan. file photo

Toll plaza hijackers in Jalisco used intimidation on Friday to collect “voluntary contributions” from motorists, while at least 20 plazas across several states were occupied by protesters on Sunday.

The newspaper Reforma obtained video footage showing a group of people surrounding vehicles at a toll plaza in Encarnación de Díaz, a Jalisco municipality that borders the state of Aguascalientes.

In one video, a group of more than 10 young people stand in front of and beside a car to demand that the driver hand over an informal toll. Two people appear to strike the rear of the car, presumably after the driver refused to comply with the demand. A few seconds later, the vehicle was allowed to proceed.

Reforma said the same scene played out repeatedly for an hour. The newspaper didn’t identify the toll plaza occupiers or say why they were protesting.

Similarly aggressive tactics are also used by protesters in México state to illegally collect tolls, according to an unidentified person who spoke to Reforma.

“They’re becoming increasingly more aggressive before authorities arrive to remove them,” the person said.

However, toll plaza occupiers – among whom are protesters, students and unemployed people – are in many cases given free rein to extort motorists.

Police and the National Guard did nothing to put an end to the takeover of at least 20 toll plazas in five states on Sunday, Reforma said in a separate report, even though President López Obrador says the federal government is eliminating the problem.

Federal authorities reported that toll plazas in Sonora, Sinaloa, Morelos, México state and Mexico City were occupied.

In Mexico City, three separate groups collected tolls from motorists at a plaza in the borough of Tlalpan.

About 50 students from the Ayotzinapa rural teachers college in Guerrero took over the Mexico City-Cuernavaca highway plaza at 10:20 a.m. and collected “voluntary contributions” from motorists until 2:00 p.m.

The students subsequently handed over control of the toll booths to a group of out-of-work tourism sector drivers, who collected contributions until 3:10 p.m. before boarding buses to return to their home state of Morelos.

They justified their actions by saying that they had lost their incomes due to the collapse of the tourism industry amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The Tlalpan toll plaza was taken over once again at 5:40 p.m., Reforma reported. It said that a group of 100 extortioners with links to a man called Kenya Hernández occupied the plaza until 9:30 p.m. Sunday and were not bothered by authorities.

Hernández has been identified by federal authorities as one of the most violent leaders of criminal groups in México state that frequently occupy toll plazas.

He was allegedly involved in an attack at the toll plaza on the Mexico City-Teotihuacán Pyramids highway earlier this month in which two people were wounded.

Hijacking toll plazas, a lucrative activity that can reportedly yield occupiers more than 1,000 pesos per minute, has become a common occurrence in many states, costing highway operators billions of pesos in lost revenue.

Ruling party Senator Lucy Meza said last week that she would present a petition in Congress this week calling for authorities to put an end to the takeover of toll plazas.

The National Guard evicted protesters at eight toll plazas in Nayarit last month but Meza claimed that the security force has done nothing in other parts of the country to put an end to the problem.

Source: Reforma (sp)

Controversial Christopher Columbus statue ‘removed for cleaning’

By

Michelle Aguilar

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October 12, 2020

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The offending statue of Christopher Columbus.

Protesters had threatened to knock down Mexico City’s Christopher Columbus statue on Reforma Avenue Monday but it was conveniently removed Saturday — for restoration.

Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum denied that its timely removal was due to politics. But no one is saying whether the statue will be returned.

“It’s a project that is being done in conjunction with INAH [National Institute of Anthropology and History] and INBA [National Institute of the Fine Arts],” Sheinbaum said. “The roundabout, particularly, has been painted various times, and since then there have been thoughts about restoring it.”

The statue and the roundabout on which it sits annually attract protests and vandalism around October 12, known as Columbus Day in the United States but Día de la Raza (Day of the Race) in Mexico in recognition of the indigenous people Christopher Columbus encountered upon his arrival in the Americas.

In the days leading up to annual commemorations of the holiday, protesters were vowing to take the statue down today.

Sheinbaum dismissed the notion that the statue’s removal was motivated by the threat yet noted that the statue’s restoration could be an opportunity to reflect upon what Columbus represents.

The perspective that all Mexicans learned in school about the discovery of America — “as if America didn’t exist before Columbus arrived,” Sheinbaum said — as well as the story of Spanish explorer Pedro de Alvarado, who notoriously massacred indigenous Mexicas in 1520 during a religious celebration in the Templo Mayor, could be taken into account for next year’s celebration of the founding of Mexico-Tenochtitlán.

When asked by a reporter with El Financiero if the monument’s removal would be permanent, Sheinbaum said that decision was not solely hers to make.

A petition appeared online in July asking the city to remove the statue on the grounds that it represented a “monument to colonialism.”

Source: El Financiero (sp)

Senator to present petition calling for stop to toll plaza hijackers

By

MND Staff

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October 10, 2020

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Students collect tolls on the Mexico City-Toluca highway.

A ruling party senator will present a petition next week calling for authorities to put an end to the takeover of toll plazas, a lucrative activity that can yield occupiers more than 1,000 pesos per minute.

Morena party Senator Lucy Meza said she will present a petition in the upper house of Congress urging Capufe, the agency responsible for federal highways and bridges, to clear the toll plazas of illegal occupiers.

She said the takeover of plazas – a common occurrence in many states – generates significant losses for highway operators.

“The impact on [legitimate toll] collection is terrible,” Meza said, explaining that she has personally had to hand over at least 300 pesos (about US $15) per week to toll plaza hijackers while traveling to Mexico City from Cuernavaca, Morelos.

Protesters are the most common toll plaza hijackers but a growing number of unemployed people have taken to the highways to source income at a time when jobs are scarce due to the coronavirus-induced economic downturn.

senator lucy meza — Senator Meza: ‘It’s a federal crime but nothing happens.’

Meza was critical of the National Guard for not putting an end to the practice.

“The National Guard doesn’t do anything; they’re just observers, … they don’t prevent this situation,” she said.

“Every day that I travel to Mexico City, I suffer the same thing. The Oacalco toll plaza is always occupied and after that the Tepoztlán one is too. … It’s the same thing every day and at any time,” Meza said.

“What I don’t understand is why the National Guard doesn’t do anything. The National Guard is there, the Morelos police, who might as well invite them [to take over the toll plazas] are there [but they do nothing]. … It’s an attack on the highways, a federal crime, but nothing happens. I’ve spoken with the Communications and Transportation Ministry [of which Capufe is part] and the word is that they can’t do anything.”

President López Obrador has claimed that the federal government is putting an end to the practice and that it has avoided losses of up to 7 billion pesos. But the Association of Road Infrastructure Concessionaires contends that impunity remains a significant incentive for would-be occupiers.

The potential for monetary gain is also a significant incentive. Senator Gloria Nuñez of Nayarit said the takeover of eight toll plazas in the Pacific coast state – where the National Guard did evict protesters last month – caused losses of about 3 billion pesos (US $141.8 million) in legitimate toll revenue in the first nine months of the year.

A member of the National Guard watches as hijackers collect tolls.

“If we’re talking about 3 billion pesos in Nayarit, in all the other states where toll plazas are occupied [losses] could be around 7 billion pesos. They’re really alarming amounts,” she said.

According to a report published Friday by the newspaper Reforma, groups of toll plaza hijackers on federal highways can collect 1,000 pesos (US $47) or more per minute.

The newspaper confirmed that occupiers collected 200,000 pesos in a three-hour period from motorists passing through a toll plaza on the Mexico City-Cuernavaca highway in the borough of Tlalpan. No authorities attempted to arrest or evict the illegal toll collectors.

Reforma said it observed that nine of every 10 motorists handed over money.

Tourism sector drivers currently out of work due to the pandemic collected 25,000 pesos in 45 minutes at the same toll plaza last Saturday and about 160,000 pesos in 105 minutes a day later.

A group of people displaced by organized crime in Guerrero also recently occupied the Mexico City-Cuernavaca highway toll plaza in Tlalpan, Reforma said.

Families of missing persons occupy a toll plaza earlier this year.

Meanwhile, a group of 30 young people who commandeered a bus in Guerrero and illegally collected tolls at a plaza on the Mexico City-Acapulco highway, the Autopista del Sol, were arrested by state police Thursday but subsequently released after they each paid a 200-peso fine.

Chilpancingo Police Chief Romualdo Aguilar Carmona said that none of the 24 young men and six women were taken to the state Attorney General’s Office because the company from which they commandeered the bus, Estrella de Oro, didn’t file a complaint against them.

He said the young people tried to pass themselves off as students of the Ayotzinapa rural teachers college. Students from that school, attended by the 43 young men who were abducted and presumably murdered in 2014, have a history of commandeering buses to travel to protests.

Aguilar said the young people admitted that they occupied the Paso Morelos toll plaza to collect “voluntary contributions” from motorists to fund a weekend away in Acapulco.

The police chief said that 15 young people, who also attempted to pass themselves off as Ayotzinapa students, were arrested in August after trying to commandeer a bus traveling on the Autopista del Sol. They too were released after paying administrative fines.

Source: Reforma (sp)

2 arrested in Baja California in case of missing LA firefighter

By

Susy Buchanan

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October 10, 2020

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Aguilar, center, and the two suspects who have been arrested.

A couple has been arrested in Playas de Rosarito, Baja California, in connection with the disappearance in August of a Los Angeles firefighter who is still missing.

Frank Aguilar, a 20-year veteran of the Los Angeles Fire Department, had been on medical leave since March and traveled to a condo he owns in San Antonio del Mar in August to check on things. On August 20, he disappeared.

On Thursday afternoon Fanny Gabriela Gómez Castellanos, 32, and Santos González Casillas, 27, were arrested and found to be in possession of Aguilar’s bank card, which has been used since the man went missing.

The two denied any knowledge of Aguilar’s disappearance, but authorities believe otherwise.

The day he disappeared, Aguilar, 48, spoke by phone with his uncle and told him he was going to meet up with a friend in the Misión del Mar area of Playas de Rosarito.

Investigators believe that person was Gómez, who identified herself to Aguilar as Montserrat. Police found bloodstains on the highway where the two were supposed to meet. The blood matched Aguilar’s DNA and neighbors reported hearing shots fired that night.

It is believed that González tried to kidnap Aguilar after Gómez lured him to the meeting place, but Aguilar resisted and González shot him. Blood was also found in the suspect’s vehicle.

Aguilar’s condo was later found ransacked and his car and motorcycle were missing. González and Gómez appear on the condo’s surveillance camera footage the night he disappeared.

The suspects have been charged with forced disappearance and theft, and face 25 to 50 years in prison if found guilty.

Authorities say they will continue to search for Aguilar “as if he is alive.”

“We completely hope that we find answers from these people, but we are disgusted in these people,” said Bella, Aguilar’s daughter.

“I feel devastated, I need to know where he is because I don’t want him to end up on a hill, in a hole, in a grave, which I don’t know, “said Martha Carmona, Aguilar’s mother.

Suspicions that he may have been kidnapped surfaced early on.

“I want to say very clearly to anybody who would kidnap a member of our fire department that this is a member of not just of our city, government, family, but of our community here in Los Angeles,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said on September 2.

“We will work tirelessly to make sure that Frank is returned safely,” Garcetti added. “This is somebody who has put his life on the line for us, and we will do everything in our power to ensure that law enforcement in Mexico has whatever support it needs.”

The Baja California Attorney General’s Office said the FBI is assisting in the search for Aguilar.

Source: KTLA (en), Zeta Tijuana (sp)

Mayor shutters Audi plant in Puebla for not paying tax, water bill

By

MND Staff

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October 10, 2020

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The Audi plant in Puebla, which was closed by municipal authorities on Friday. — The Audi plant that was closed by municipal authorities on Friday.

Authorities in San José Chiapa, Puebla, shut down the municipality’s Audi plant on Friday due to unpaid property tax and water bills.

After several hours of failed negotiations between authorities led by Morena party Mayor Arturo Graciel López Vélez and Audi representatives, the plant was officially closed late Friday night, the newspaper El Universal reported.

Local authorities say the plant, which employs some 7,000 workers, owes the municipality 90 million pesos (US $4.25 million).

Accompanied by police from San José and three other municipalities, the authorities arrived at the Audi plant at about 4:30 p.m. Friday.

After speaking to factory managers for 1 1/2 hours, the authorities concluded that Audi would not acknowledge the debt and attempted to place “closed” stickers on the plant’s exterior.

But private security guards prevented them from doing so on the grounds that Audi’s legal representative was not present, El Heraldo de México reported. The negotiations then continued until San José Chiapa authorities, backed up by police, eventually did put up the “closed” stickers.

In a statement, Audi México denied that it was behind on its bills, stating that it is a company that complies with all of its obligations in a timely manner.

“The request received from representatives of the municipal government will be reviewed and evaluated by the company. Audi México maintains close and permanent contact with the authorities and will schedule an appointment for the clarification of these issues,” the statement said.

The company subsequently said it would meet with authorities in state government offices on Monday.

The San José Chiapa plant, where Audi assembles its Q5 vehicles, opened in 2016 and usually makes more than 100,000 cars annually. However, production dropped 60% to just over 36,000 vehicles in the first half of the year due to its forced closure due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Meanwhile, the Independent Union of Volkswagen Workers, or Sitiavw, is threatening job action if the company doesn’t give employees their fair share of profits generated by the company’s Puebla operations.

Sitiavw said Friday that workers will strike on November 6 if Volkswagen doesn’t agree to distribute 293.5 million pesos ($13.9 million) in profits in accordance with its collective contract with employees.

Volkswagen said in a statement that it was challenging the claim that it owed money to its workers and that it believed its arguments had “sufficient legal support.”

It also said that it is maintaining dialogue with union representatives to clarify the issue and ensure that all the agreements it has entered into are complied with in accordance with the law.

Source: El Sol de Luna (sp), El Universal (sp), El Heraldo de México (sp), Milenio (sp)

There are some hidden gems on the list of Mexico’s Pueblos Mágicos

By

Leigh Thelmadatter

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October 10, 2020

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The Guadalupe Chapel is one of the attractions in the Magical Town of Real de Catorce, San Luis Potosí. Óscar alemán

What makes some pueblos more “magical” than others?

You may have seen the signs for “Pueblos Mágicos,” 121 destinations designated Magical Towns by Mexico’s Ministry of Tourism (Sectur). It comes from a program started in 2001 to create an alternative to the decades long effort of promoting the beaches.

Instead of cities, the program focused on small towns as more representative of traditional Mexico. The selected towns have preserved architecture and ways of life from the pre-Hispanic period through the Mexican Revolution. In addition, the towns are economically marginalized, and the hope is that tourism can stem the flow of migration from them into the cities.

The first towns to earn the label of Pueblo Mágico were Huasca de Ocampo, Hidalgo; Mexcatltan, Nayarit; Tepoztlan, Morelos; and Real de Catorce, San Luis Potosí. They fit in well with the initial criteria — towns with a traditional way of life, infrastructure, historic significance, and close to a major city. Mexican city dwellers can easily make short trips to them.

The towns are promoted through their architecture, local environment, food, traditions, handcrafts, and other local products. Almost all have some connection to Mexico’s colonial past. However, the Pueblos can be categorized by type of history — former mining towns, pre-Hispanic settlements, type of environment — mountains, desert, lake, rainforest and/or social system.

Garden clock and monastery in Zacatlan de las Manzanas, Puebla. Alejandro Linares Garcia

Pueblos such as Mitla, Oaxaca, and San Juan Teotihuacan are promoted as complements to their famous archaeological neighbors.

Others are important because of their people and traditions. Pátzcuaro’s Purhepecha people are famous for their Day of the Dead traditions. The Sierra Norte of Puebla has a number of Pueblos because its isolation preserved many traditional societies. El Quelite, Sinaloa, is known for its rustic charm, its food, and a variant of the Mesoamerican ballgame. Tapijulapa, Tabasco, is noted for its social cooperatives that make and export handcrafted furniture.

Perhaps the richest source of Pueblos Mágicos are old mining towns. Their boom-and-bust nature means that elaborate building was done during the boom years, then lay in ruins nearly untouched after the bust. Almost all Pueblos of this type have colonial architecture, often with an elaborate church.

Many of these are in central Mexico including Taxco, Guerrero; El Oro, México state; Tlalpujahua, Michoacán; and Mineral de Chico, Hidalgo. However, similar towns can be found farther north and west such as El Rosario, Sinaloa, and Álamos, Sonora.

There is at least one Pueblo Mágico in each of Mexico’s states, but some have taken better advantage of the program than others. Those with the most Pueblos include México state (10), Puebla (9), Michoacán (8), and Jalisco (7).

The list of Pueblos has some really hidden gems, everything you would imagine. I personally recommend Orizaba, Veracruz; Teúl de González Orteza, Zacatecas; and Amealco de Bonfil, Querétaro. But others may be disappointing. Tepotzotlan, México state, has an awesome church, but it is overrun by the sprawl of Mexico City.

The main square in the Chiapas Magical Town of Comitán. Super Lapín

Some spots are worth visiting, such as Isla Mujeres, Taxco, and San Cristóbal de las Casas. However, these already had a flourishing tourism industry before designation, taking away from the idea of “alternative.”

Nevertheless, the list makes for a good starting point for those looking to see something more than beaches. Sectur does have requirements for Pueblos which include building maintenance, control of street vending, medical and public safety services, and internet/cell phone access. Towns must renew their status every year.

Not yet are there reliable, nationwide statistics as to the effectiveness of the program, but there is plenty of anecdotal evidence. A significant number of Pueblos have experienced growth. Álamos grew from 9,300 to 26,000 people after being named in 2005. The area north of Pachuca, Hidalgo, home to three mining Pueblos, is now filled with weekend homes for Mexico City residents.

Perhaps most importantly, towns clamor to be added to the list. Those that refuse to participate don’t worry that it will fail, but that the tourism will ruin their way of life.

Over 5.7 billion pesos were invested between 2001 and 2018, but the results have not been satisfactory to the federal government. Despite the requirement that spending benefit the entire municipality, the reality is that almost all the spending and benefit is concentrated in the historic center of the Pueblo, with local populations forced out as prices rise. The rest of the area sees little benefit, if any.

There have also been compliance and credibility issues. Due to demand, there was a sharp increase in the number of designations, even if the Pueblos did not meet standards. Some have been dropped, mostly because of crime and/or uncontrolled street vending, but almost all get reinstated. As of 2019, only 16 of 121 Pueblos were completely compliant with program requirements to maintain their status.

A carpet of flowers for Day of the Dead celebrations in Atlixco, Puebla. leigh thelmadatter

Although initial documentation stated that promotion would be both national and international, promotion has been almost entirely domestic. There is a lack of promotion on the internet and an absolute lack of promotion in any language other than Spanish. In October 2020, Sectur promised better international efforts, stating it needs to find out which towns would be most suitable. Perhaps the best place to start is to promote to the very sizeable foreign population that lives within Mexico’s borders now.

• Special thanks to Fernando Mendoza, founding president of the National Coordination of Pueblos Mágicos Committees (2015-2017) and currently the technical secretary of the Pueblos Mágicos del Noroeste.

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 Mexico and her first book, Mexican Cartonería: Paper, Paste and Fiesta, was published last year. Her culture blog appears weekly on Mexico News Daily.