Ocher mine in Quintana Roo is at least 10,000 years old

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July 4, 2020

A diver examines a rock pile believed to be a navigational marker in the ocher mine. CINDAQ.ORG

Divers have rediscovered an ocher mine in a submerged coastal cave system in Tulum, Quintana Roo, that is more than 10,000 years old.

Two cave divers from the Quintana Roo Aquifer System Research Center (CINDAQ), Sam Meacham and Fred Devos, located the mine in 2017 and showed it to Eduard Reinhardt, a geoarchaeologist at McMaster University in Canada, the following year.

The three men concluded that ocher – an earthy yellow, red or brown-colored substance used for a variety of purposes including rock art, body painting, the tanning of animal hides and possibly as a medicine – was mined in the now-submerged cave system thousands of years ago.

Radiocarbon dating confirmed that the earliest deposits of ocher were left there some 12,000 years ago while the most recent deposits originated about 10,000 years ago. Rising seas inundated the three-cave system approximately 7,000 years ago but by that time it is believed that the mine had already been abandoned for several millennia.

Dubbed La Mina (The Mine), the site is one of the oldest known ocher mines in the Western Hemisphere.

A research article published in the journal Science Advances on Friday details the rediscovery of the mine and the academic implications.

“The cave’s landscape has been noticeably altered, which leads us to believe that prehistoric humans extracted tonnes of ocher from it, maybe having to light fire pits to illuminate the space,” Devos said.

The divers found piles of coal on the floor of the caves and soot on the ceiling, indicating that fires were once lit there.

Brandi MacDonald, an archaeological researcher at the University of Missouri and lead author of the research article, said that there is evidence that ancient miners broke stalactites off the ceiling of the cave system and used them as tools to smash through limestone and extract high-quality ocher.

MacDonald said that there is no conclusive evidence that indicates how the ancient miners used the ocher, explaining that the hot and humid climate has corroded archaeological clues.

However, she said that the ocher’s unusually high arsenic content could have made it an effective insect repellant.

Diver Christophe Le Maillot examines evidence of mining activity. Sam Meacham, CINDAQ. A.C. SAS-INAH

MacDonald also suggested that it was used for decoration, a hypothesis shared by a University of Wyoming archaeologist who is excavating an ocher deposit in that state.

“The love of shiny red things is a pretty universal human trait. … It’s why we buy red sports cars,” Spencer Pelton told Science magazine.

Roberto Junco, head of the Underwater Archaeology Department (SAS) at the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), said that La Mina is a continuation of the Hoyo Negro, or Black Hole underwater chamber, where the skeleton of a teenage female known as “Naia” was discovered in 2007.

Experts have concluded that early inhabitants of the Yucatán Peninsula entered cave systems to search for water and to take shelter from predators. The discovery of La Mina indicates that they had another reason to go inside.

“We can now imagine ‘Naia’ entering the caves in search of ocher, an element that to this day is the most widely used inorganic body paint amongst African communities to create a red pigment,” Junco said.

“This opens up the possibility that the mineral not only had an ornamental value, but also a significance in terms of identity, or that it was used to create artistic manifestations, amongst many other hypotheses.”

INAH said in a statement that experts from Mexico, the United States and Canada will continue to conduct laboratory research in coming months to learn more about the mine and the cave system in which it is located.

Dominique Rissolo, an archaeology researcher at the University of California in San Diego and one of the research article authors, said that a 3D model of the site was created from more than 20,000 photos that were taken during almost 100 dives.

The model allows archaeologists to continue exploring the site virtually without getting wet.

“The team of explorers and researchers assembled for this project is delivering outstanding results,” Junco said.

“The SAS acknowledges … the work of each and every one of them, especially the explorers from the CINDAQ, and their commitment towards the underwater cultural heritage of Mexico.”

Source: Science (en)

‘How much are they paid to attack me?’ AMLO asks of ‘corrupt media’

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MND Staff

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July 4, 2020

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AMLO and García, who claimed journalists pay more taxes than the president has paid in his entire life.

President López Obrador said on Friday that attacking him in the media is a “lucrative business” and that dissenting columnists should hand over part of their earnings to a “good cause.”

Speaking at his regular news conference, López Obrador claimed that before he took office some columnists earned up to 1 million pesos (US $44,700 at today’s exchange rate) a month to write critical articles about him.

“Now they don’t earn that amount but they haven’t stopped receiving income. … Now I’m looking for a way to have them contribute because attacking me is a lucrative business. How much are they paid to attack me? They benefit from that so they should contribute something,” he said.

“If it’s 500,000 pesos, they should contribute 50,000 to a good cause and with that, they keep their permission, their license, to continue attacking me.”

The president accused media outlets that publish critical opinions about him and his government of being “sold or rented press,” insinuating that they are funded by his adversaries.

He attributed the attacks to his government’s fight against corruption as well as its dismantling of an “extremely costly bureaucratic apparatus” and termination of privileges and luxuries.

López Obrador said that Mexican Employers Federation chief Gustavo de Hoyos is one of the people behind the attacks on his government and asserted that large business owners are upset because they no longer receive preferential treatment from the government.

“They no longer benefit from the budget, we no longer allow the budget to be left with a minority, …it’s the people’s money and it’s returned to the people,” he said.

His suggestion that critical media commentators should share their wealth triggered a rebuke from Salvador García Soto, a columnist for the El Universal newspaper and a radio and television presenter.

“The president who is trying to intimidate the critical press with tax threats ignores that journalists pay more taxes than he has paid in his whole life,” he wrote on Twitter.

López Obrador has long been highly critical of media outlets that don’t cover him favorably, deriding them as prensa fifi, or elitist press.

Press freedom advocacy organization Article 19 has accused the president of increasing the risks for journalists in Mexico, saying last year that his “stigmatizing discourse” is reflected in the discourse of the rest of society and can even generate attacks against media workers.

Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists, with more than 130 murdered since 2000, according to Article 19.

Source: Forbes México (sp), El Universal (sp)

Mexican teachers working to overcome challenges during the pandemic

By

Leigh Thelmadatter

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July 4, 2020

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The Tec de Monterrey's Bauer and an online teaching studio.

Covid-19 has shut 1.2 billion students in 186 countries out of their schools and into online environments, leaving teachers and students grappling with many questions and very few answers.

Mexico has had distance education, in particular telesecundarias, to serve rural populations. But nothing done before could prepare for a complete demobilization of the entire 36-million student population.

In March, the Ministry of Education (SEP) announced the Aprende en Casa (Learn at Home) program, using state-run television stations and online platforms to provide K-12 classes. Private schools and universities were on their own.

The first private university to close was the Tec de Monterrey on March 12. By March 20, all universities were closed. SEP’s official closure date was March 23.

Mexico’s educational system was caught off guard despite the school closures of 2009 due to the H1N1 pandemic. The main reason for this, according to Ken Bauer of Tec de Monterrey, was that schools were only closed for a week in 2009. This time around, what was originally announced by SEP as a month-long contingency for the coronavirus is now indefinite.

Mexico is grappling with the sudden shift like the rest of the world, but its situation is unique in some ways. Like most developing countries, the main issue is the “digital divide,” a lack of access to online resources. According to the national statistics institute Inegi, 39% of Mexican students have no access to the internet for educational purposes.

Basic connectivity is an issue, not only for internet by phone line, but also for cell phone and television signals in rural mountainous areas. Less than half of Mexico’s students needing Aprende en Casa have access to public television signals. The government has distributed traditional school materials for extremely rural areas, but not enough. Schools such as the Escuela de Modelo in Mineral de Pozos, Guanajuato, are completely shut down for lack of resources.

Even in areas with internet, bandwidth is a serious issue. Mexico overall has far less than developed countries, limiting the number of students per household that can work and making videoconferencing impossible in many places. The lack of online materials in Spanish, and their absence in indigenous languages is a major issue as well.

Major universities such as the National Autonomous University (UNAM) and Tec de Monterrey are the most prepared, with online classes and experience developing materials and courses, according to Tzinti Ramírez Reyes, a researcher and collaborator on a recently published paper on worldwide response to the Covid-19 pandemic in education.

Smaller and regional universities such as the Technological University of the Mixteca (Universidad Tecnológica de la Mixteca) in Oaxaca have had to work almost completely from scratch. It is worse at the K-12 level.

All schools suffer from a lack of teachers (and students) with experience in online education, unable to take advantage of the resources they do have. The traditional classroom has dominated, both because of the digital divide as well as the cultural value placed on face-to-face interaction. Past attempts to use digital resources in schools had problems with planning and even corruption.

Schools and teachers have been forced to try and make up for this in just a matter of weeks, even days. This has meant cutting back lessons to the bare bones, not only because teachers are stressed but students, too. Teachers also find themselves making changes midstream as they find what does and does not work.

Rafael Quintero, a science teacher at the American School in Durango, says he had to make his chemistry and physics classes more qualitative and less mathematical and still have students understand the basic concepts. Teachers have also ditched assigned educational platforms in favor of Facebook, WhatsApp and the like. Not only are they already familiar, but they are accessible by cell phone, often free to use in many data plans.

For K-12 teachers, a major concern is keeping students on task and knowing who needs help. Aprende en Casa and other programs assume parents will step in as substitute teachers. This can be very problematic. Parents may not have the technical ability to help access online resources. Even worse, they may still have to work, with grandparents and others pressed into emergency childcare.

Students and teachers in private institutions and higher education fare best, not surprisingly. In the best of cases, there is access to various platforms such as Moodle, Blackboard, Google Classroom and Zoom that have already been used in one way or another. Teachers in these situations were the most upbeat about their online experiences and more likely to consider using online instruction after the emergency is over.

Only the Tec de Monterrey’s Bauer indicated a willingness to teach completely online, but he had already been doing so. Others were willing to consider using more digital resources, but some have become hardened against online education. The main issue for them is the negative effect the lack of their physical presence has had on their students.

K-12 teacher José Rodrigo Guerrero Ruiz stated he feels like a “bad teacher” because of this, and others indicated that students did not find online learning satisfying. Conversely, about half the teachers interviewed for this column stated they had students who did better in the new environment.

None of the teachers interviewed believed that classes will return to normal in the fall. The most optimistic believe that there will be a mix of online and classroom instruction to keep schools at low occupancy. Less-optimistic teachers believe that completely online instruction will continue at least through the end of the calendar year.

Ramírez recommends that when schools reopen there are diagnostics to see what the effect of the emergency has been. She and Bauer agree that serious effort needs to be made to prepare for the next emergency school closure, such as plans to appropriate television and internet service to provide educational resources. More importantly, alternate educational plans need to exist and be proven to work.

Special thanks to Oscar Luis Silva Méndez of Languageland Puerto Escondido, Ana Azuela of the Escuela Modelo Mineral de Pozos, Guanajuato, Rafael Quintero of the American School of Durango, Melissa Ferrin of the Universidad Tecnológica de la Mixteca, and Freddy of Northridge School in Mexico City.

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.

Mexico vastly underestimating virus death toll, studies show

By

Tony Richards

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July 4, 2020

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Mexico has been grossly underestimating its Covid-19 death toll, according to a growing number of independent studies suggesting there have been tens of thousands of deaths in excess of the official count, casting doubt on President López Obrador’s insistence that the pandemic has been tamed.

As of Friday, Mexico has officially reported 283,511 infections and 29,189 deaths among its 129 million population. But the true picture may be far worse.

One study by independent researchers Mario Romero and Laurianne Despeghel shows at least 3.5 times more deaths in Mexico City than the official data, an undercount of some 22,705 deaths in the capital alone.

In another, Raúl Rojas, a Mexican professor of artificial intelligence at Berlin University, calculated that Mexico could have as many as 6 million cases and nearly 78,000 deaths — almost three times the official count.

“I find it incredible that instead of giving numbers, they’re hiding them to conceal the seriousness of the situation,” he said.

More than half the world’s average daily deaths from the virus are now in Latin America, making it one of the global centers for Covid-19. Brazil has the world’s highest official number of daily deaths, but with an average of 4.7 new deaths per 1 million people in the last week, Mexico and Brazil are neck and neck in proportion to population.

Mexico is only counting cases and deaths that have been confirmed by a laboratory — and only 610,495 people have been tested. In part because of the low level of testing, some 67% of tests come back positive — an indication that many more cases are being missed.

Hugo López-Gatell, the deputy minister of health and coronavirus czar, said mass testing would be a waste of time and money, and the World Health Organization’s appeal to “test, test, test” had been understood in a “deformed, erroneous and distorted” way.

But without robust testing and tracking, experts fear Mexico will struggle to tame any new outbreaks as Latin America’s second-biggest economy reopens.

López-Gatell acknowledged in an interview with the Washington Post that total deaths in Mexico city from March to May were triple the usual level, according to an official but as yet unpublished study. The Financial Times’ requests for an interview have not been granted.

Until that study is published, or official mortality data is released next year, the closest estimates available come from Romero, a software developer and data analyst, and Despeghel, a consultant in economics.

raul rojas — Rojas: ‘I find it incredible that instead of giving numbers, they’re hiding them to conceal the seriousness of the situation.’

They tallied the number of death certificates issued in Mexico City since the start of the pandemic, regardless of the cause of death, and found a 126% increase in the past three months compared with the average for the same period from 2016-18. Official data on total deaths in 2019 is not yet available.

According to their latest count, published in the news magazine Nexos on July 3, there were 22,705 excess deaths in the capital by the end of June. Officially, Mexico City has confirmed 6,642 deaths from coronavirus.

“In the last week, we had 104% excess mortality — twice as many people than normal died in Mexico City,” said Despeghel. That compared with as much as 219% five weeks ago. “It’s coming down, but it’s still high.”

In Mexico City, excess deaths have risen more slowly than in some cities, such as New York, but “here it’s taking longer to taper,” said Romero.

Since countries’ methodologies for reporting Covid-19 fatalities differ widely. David Spiegelhalter, professor of the public understanding of risk at Cambridge University in the U.K., describes tracking excess deaths as “the only unbiased comparison you can make between different countries.”

López Obrador, who initially minimized the risk from Covid-19 and refuses to wear a face mask, now insists Mexico is past the worst — even as the number of cases keeps rising.

Officials have denied hiding the figures, but data has been uploaded to civil registry websites slowly and in the state of México a site publishing similar data was taken down altogether, Despeghel and Romero said.

In his study, Rojas noticed that official national statistics in June attributed 40% more deaths to May than had been reported at the time. To correct for administrative delays, he calculated that Mexico’s death toll needed to be multiplied by 1.4.

Although in the capital there appear to be at least three times more deaths than usual, he used the conservative assumption that nationwide figures were under-reported by 50%.

Correcting both for delays in reporting and under-registration, that implied 77,753 deaths in the whole country, he said. Assuming a 2% mortality rate, that meant as many as 6 million infections.

Romero and Despeghel’s findings chime with a separate analysis of death certificates from May by Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity (MCCI), a think tank. It found nearly four times more deaths in the capital attributed to coronavirus than in official data.

Two other studies, tracking calls to emergency services, also challenge the official count. In Tijuana, UCLA and Mexican academics with the Red Cross found 195 excess out-of-hospital deaths between mid-April and mid-May, versus eight in the official tally.

In Mexico City, Quinto Elemento Lab, an investigative journalism non-profit body, found that 1,179 people had died at home or outside hospitals of coronavirus-linked conditions between March 23 and May 27, while just 329 were reported officially.

At a news conference on Thursday night, López-Gatell acknowledged the same situation with excess deaths “is happening all over the country … We’re not hiding anything.”

He has already said that official data showed that infections “hit a peak then unfortunately continued,” exceeding official predictions in several cities. He now says the pandemic could last until October.

Statue of Christ on pre-Hispanic pyramid meets with objections

By

Susy Buchanan

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July 4, 2020

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The statue in place on a pyramid in Tierra Blanca.

A political organization and a group of local residents placed a large religious statue on top of a pre-Hispanic pyramid in the state of Veracruz last month, despite the fact that the ancient structure is protected by the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).

The event occurred on June 18 in the archaeological zone of Lomas del Manantial in the municipality of Tierra Blanca, when local politician and former mayoral candidate Manuel Dimas Cristóbal and a group of neighbors delivered a large statue of Christ the Redeemer to the site.

With the help of a crane and a dozen workers, they installed the five-meter concrete statue on top of the archaeological ruins known locally as “El Cerrito,” the site of long-ago indigenous rituals.

Participants posted images on social media of the installation of the statue, claiming they were upholding “Mexican traditions.”

However, others were quick to denounce their actions and a complaint was lodged with INAH regarding the placement of the statue without authorization.

The concrete statue of Christ the Redeemer.

Some called it an aberration, others a recurrence of the Spanish Conquest as they decried defacing a pre-Hispanic pyramid with a Catholic statue.

The institute sent a letter to the mayor asking for the statue to be removed from the area, which is protected by the Federal Law on Monuments and Archaeological, Artistic and Historical Zones.

In addition, INAH clarified that residents do not have permission to modify the area in any way, and asked for a guarantee that nothing similar happens again.

Local authorities have not complied with this request and Jesus still stands.

Source: El Sol de Orizaba (sp), La Silla Rota (sp)

As crime has risen, key security officials have held office for years

By

Susy Buchanan

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July 4, 2020

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Security Minister Cabeza de Vaca and Attorney General Zamarripa.

Homicide numbers in Guanajuato — the highest in the country — have been on the rise since 2009, government figures show, the same year that Attorney General Carlos Zamarripa Aguirre took office, where he is due to remain until 2028.

An additional spike in the state’s murder rate occurred in 2012 when Álvar Cabeza de Vaca became Guanajuato’s Minister of Public Security.

Both men have been criticized for failing to reduce violence in the state.

Whereas before either man took office, homicides hovered at around 31 per month, they nearly doubled to 60 per month in 2009, 100 per month from 2012 to 2018, and recently have soared to more than 150 per month. There were 308 murders reported in January alone, bringing this year’s total to 2,400.

Five more were added Thursday when that many police officers died in an ambush on the Apaseo el Alto-Jerécuaro highway, bringing the total to 56 police officers killed in 2020.

Nine out of 10 homicides committed in the state are never solved, and about 20% of all murders committed in Mexico occur in Guanajuato.

“The state’s capacity to prevent and contain violence and crime is insufficient and the quality of the investigations is poor. At the local level there are no plans or coordination strategy with the municipalities, while the federal government, for its part, is absent,” said Juan Alcántara Soria, a former attorney general.

“The Guanajuato prosecutor’s office has invested many resources in real estate and tactical equipment, but not enough attention has been given to the quantitative and qualitative growth of personnel,” Alcántara Soria added.

Various citizens groups have strongly criticized the fact that the same officials have been allowed to remain in office for so long. There were calls in February demanding Zamarripa and Cabeza de Vaca resign.

“This pair of officials has left a trail of destruction and death in the state,” said Saúl Arellano Almanza, a researcher at the Autonomous University of México. He called Zamarripa and Cabeza de Vaca “totally remiss in the fulfillment of their duty and responsibility, which today has the state bathed in blood.”

In late June, President López Obrador criticized the long period that Zamarripa has been in office, describing the length of his tenure “atypical” and calling for a change.

Last Tuesday, federal Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero announced his office would investigate Zamarripa in connection with an operation June 20 against the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel. Gertz called the arrest of the cartel leader’s mother and other family members a setup.

Source: Reforma (sp), Animal Político (sp), Zona Franca (sp)

Mexico City puts brakes on reopening after crowds flood streets

By

MND Staff

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July 4, 2020

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Authorities in Mexico City have decided to shut down the historic center this weekend after hordes of shoppers flooded the streets during the week and some businesses failed to comply with coronavirus restrictions.

Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said the two-day suspension of nonessential business in the capital’s downtown will give authorities time to review the reopening strategy and adjust rules aimed at avoiding new outbreaks of the coronavirus.

The Mexico City government said that businesses that fail to follow the rules, such as limiting the number of people inside and the mandatory use of face masks, will be sanctioned.

Non-compliant businesses could be shut down for 15 days and access to entire streets could be restricted if more than 30% of businesses flout the restrictions.

Sheinbaum said that all citizens have a responsibility to help ensure that economic activities can resume safely amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Mexico City transitioned to “orange light” restrictions this week after “red light” rules were in place for almost a month, even though the capital still has the largest active coronavirus outbreak in the country.

The change of status on the federal government’s “stoplight” system allowed more businesses to open, drawing large crowds of shoppers to the capital’s historic center.

Sheinbaum said the closure of downtown businesses this weekend was not “punishment” for anyone but simply recognition that the rules put in place did not work as authorities hoped and expected.

“We all have to sit down again and review what we designed, and between all of us generate the conditions for a much safer return,” she said.

Mexico City Interior Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez said that officials from the government’s Institute of Administrative Verification will oversee the reopening of businesses starting Monday and ensure that they are adhering to the rules.

It was detected this week that only 40% were complying with restrictions on the number of people that can enter at any given time and that only 50% of employees were wearing face masks and/or protective shields.

Some commercial plazas in the historic center jumped the gun, reopening this week when the government clearly stated that shopping centers could not welcome shoppers back until July 6.

The reopening of shopping centers and department stores has now been pushed back to Wednesday, July 8, Sheinbaum said, explaining that authorities are concerned that they could attract large crowds and thus generate a risk for public health.

Before Wednesday’s reopening, the government will meet with representatives of business groups to discuss the implementation of even stricter measures for shopping plazas and department stores, she said.

Rodríguez said that most street vendors are respecting social distancing norms and not hawking their wares near the entry to brick and mortar stores, subway stations and government buildings. However, some ambulantes, as the sellers are known, are not following the restrictions, she said.

As a result, the zócalo, Allende and Isabel la Católica metro stations, all located in the historic center, will be closed this weekend to avoid gatherings of vendors outside them.

Mexico City leads the country for both confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths, with 50,592 of the former and 6,848 of the latter as of Friday.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Federal lawmakers move to outlaw beauty contests

By

Susy Buchanan

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July 4, 2020

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The congressional Gender Equality Commission is moving to ban beauty pageants, seeing them as a form of “symbolic violence” against women.

If the recommended measure becomes law, government entities at all levels, from municipal to federal, would be prohibited from sponsoring such events, and privately sponsored pageants could be canceled.

On Friday morning, participating legislators in the lower house of Congress approved a draft decree to modify and add various provisions to the general law on Women’s Access to a Life Free of Violence.

The commission defines symbolic violence as “the expression, emission or diffusion by any means, whether in the public or private sphere of messages, patterns, stereotypes, signs, iconic values or ideas that transmit, reproduce, or justify the subordination, inequality, discrimination or violence against women.”

The draft decree outlines its objection to beauty pageants by decrying “the holding of contests, elections or any other form of competition in which the beauty or physical appearance of women, girls or adolescents is evaluated in full or in part based on sexist stereotypes.”

“We consider that beauty pageants are an instrument that exposes women through sociocultural patterns and under gender stereotypes and enhances the concept that a woman’s body is an object,” commission president María Wendy Briceño Zuloaga explained. “They limit the personal development of the participants.”

Beauty contests are an integral part of many festivals in Mexico, such as Carnival.

Source: El Sol de México (sp), La Jornada (sp), Sin Embargo (sp)

Traffic cop beats fitness instructor in impromptu pushups contest

By

Susy Buchanan

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July 4, 2020

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The officer and the fitness instructor at Friday's pushups challenge.

A one-legged police officer in Mexico City accepted a push-up challenge in front of the National Palace Friday and won.

The friendly competition occurred at a peaceful demonstration by gym workers whose workplaces have been closed since the coronavirus lockdown began.

As the workers engaged in some physical exercises as part of their demonstration, police looked on, triggering a challenge from a participant.

“I want to see obese and inactive police officers doing these exercises. I want to see who is in charge of security and whether they are physically prepared!” he shouted.

One police officer was happy to take up the gauntlet and the competition was on — a Mexico City traffic cop vs. one of the protesting gym workers.

¿Quien creen que gane el policía de tránsito o el joven que entrena en el gym? Se puso buena la competencia de lagartijas en el zócalo de la #CDMX pic.twitter.com/YKbiytJQYx

— Ricardo Rivera (@_ricardo_rivera) July 3, 2020

The competition would determine which of the two could do 50 push-ups first. As they squared off on the street the crowd initially cheered the muscular young man as he faced his opponent, a fully uniformed officer named Pablo Ramírez Lemus who lost a leg in a motorcycle accident seven years ago and wears a prosthesis.

The officer — a fitness coach for his squad — and the gym instructor started off at a good pace, clapping each other’s hands between each push-up, but the gym trainer’s rhythm began to fail after they reached 30, and he was barely able to make 50 before giving up.

Ramírez, however, breezed through 53 as onlookers, including his vanquished opponent, applauded and cheered.

One video of the competition posted to Twitter Friday had garnered nearly 4 million views by Saturday afternoon.

Officer Ramírez works out regularly with colleagues as he prepares to compete as a rower in the Paralympic Games in Tokyo in 2021. The missing leg has not slowed him down in the least.

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

12 suspected gangsters killed in clash with soldiers in Tamaulipas

By

Susy Buchanan

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July 4, 2020

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Scene of Friday's gunfight between soldiers and gangsters.

Twelve members of a cartel hit squad were killed by the army Friday in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, after an early morning attack by armed men dressed in camouflage clothing and traveling in pickups.

The dead were allegedly members of the Tropa del Infierno, or Hell’s Army, the armed wing of the Northeast Cartel, who attacked soldiers while they were patrolling the highway to the airport. No military personnel were reported injured in the shoot-out.

Investigators at the scene recovered two of the squad’s vehicles that were reported stolen in the United States, as well as 12 guns including two Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifles and eight AR-15s.

The Northeast Cartel, a faction of Los Zetas, is headed by Juan Gerardo Treviño Chávez, alias El Huevo. A reward of 2 million pesos (US $89,000) has been offered for information leading to his arrest. Treviño is the nephew of the former leader of Los Zetas who was arrested in Houston in 2016.

Hell’s Army first made headlines in August 2019 when one of its members, a 16-year-old boy known as Juanito Pistolas, was killed by Tamaulipas state police in an armed confrontation in which the young man was decapitated by gunfire.

Eleven other alleged Hell’s Army members were also killed in that incident and another the same day, which occurred not long after the hit squad took responsibility for an attack on a hotel in Nuevo Laredo that left one police officer dead and two other people wounded.

Source: El Financiero (sp), Infobae (sp)