No monkeying around: yummy plantains are a breed apart from bananas

February 17, 2020

A tasty-looking bacon-wrapped plantain bite.

The first time I ate plantains other than as chips was in Jamaica, many moons ago. I was on a press trip, and we’d been invited to a private home to have a home-cooked dinner of traditional local dishes.

One was a sort of stew, where instead of potatoes there were chunks of plantain. Slightly sweet, with a dense potato-like texture, they added a wonderful flavor to the spicy, savory mixture of vegetables and beef. I actually couldn’t figure out what they were and asked the host, who explained they were green plantains, used instead of potatoes, which don’t grow in the island’s hot tropical climate.

Since then, and especially since moving to Mexico, I’ve had plantains (platanos machos) cooked in many ways. One of my favorites is grilled in brochettas (what we’d call shish kebabs). Here in Mazatlán, vendors sell plantains baked in rolling ovens, which they serve drowned in sweetened condensed milk. I’ll buy them plain, then take them home to add butter and a bit of salt instead.

The first thing you need to know about this starchy cousin to the banana is that it’s completely different from the yellow fruit favored by monkeys. Plantains have a much higher starch content, and so must be cooked before eating. The texture and mouth-feel is more like a slightly sticky potato.

What happens, though, is that as they ripen the starches turn into sugars, and when cooked or fried those sugars caramelize and create an even sweeter yumminess. Depending on the stage of ripeness – which you judge by the color of the skin – your finished product will be more or less sweet. Plantains start out green, go to yellow and then turn completely black.

The plantain's stages of ripeness. — The plantain’s stages of ripeness.

The peel is thick and hard, and not easily peel-able like a “dessert” banana. Cut off the top and bottom ends with a sharp knife, then score one section from tip to tip and pry it back carefully with the knife. Once you have one section off, the rest should come easier and you can probably just use your fingers.

Peeling gets a little easier when they’re riper but you’ll still need to start with a knife. When the skin is very yellow or really black, it comes off easily and the plantain inside is sticky, soft and sweet; when fried, they’ll have pudding-soft insides and caramelized edges.

Plantains grow all over the Caribbean, West Africa and Latin and South America. In Puerto Rico and Cuba, you find mofongo, smashed fried green plantains with garlic and fried pork skin; in the Dominican Republic’s mangú they’re part of the traditional Las Tres Golpes breakfast; and in Ghana, where plantains are called “vegetarian meat,” street vendors hawk paper cones of spicy kelewele.

Pumpkin Spice Plantain Chips

Everybody’s favorite flavor, tropical style!

2 ripe plantains
2 tsp. coconut oil, melted
1 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. nutmeg
½ tsp. allspice
1/8 tsp. cloves
1 tsp. sugar
Salt

Preheat oven to 375 F. Peel and slice plantains thinly. Place in bowl, add coconut oil and mix well. Stir in spices. Carefully lay plantain slices on cookie sheet lined with parchment or lightly greased. Sprinkle with salt. Cook 20-25 minutes until crispy. Watch carefully as they burn easily.

Plantain chips: pumpkin flavor tropical style.

Bacon-Wrapped Plantain Bites

2 very ripe plantains
12 oz. uncooked bacon
1-2 Tbsp. maple syrup

Preheat oven to 375 F. Line a baking sheet with foil or parchment. Peel, then slice plantains into ½-inch chunks. Cut strips of bacon in half. Wrap each plantain chunk with ½ piece of bacon. Carefully place rolls on baking sheet, seam side down. Brush each with a little maple syrup. Bake for 30-40 minutes until bacon is crispy. Stick a toothpick in each and serve. – www.ambitiouskitchen.com

Caribbean Plantain & Bean Boats

2 Tbsp. coconut oil
2-4 cloves garlic, minced
¼ cup thinly sliced red onion
½ tsp. ground cumin
Salt & pepper
1 cup sweet corn
About 2 cups cooked or canned black beans
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1 jalapeno, chopped
2-4 medium-ripe plantains

Preheat oven to 375 F. Without peeling, slice plantains in half longways, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. On a greased baking sheet, lay the sliced plantains, skin on, face-down. Bake for 35 minutes or until fork tender. –www.nutritionstripped.com

Meanwhile, in a small pot, cook coconut oil, garlic, and onion for about 7 minutes or till onion begins to brown. Add corn, beans, tomatoes, cumin, salt, pepper and jalapeno. Cook for 10 minutes, adjusting seasonings to taste.

Once plantains have finished baking, remove the skin. Top with bean and corn mixture, and garnish with fresh cilantro, sliced avocado and a squeeze of fresh lime juice. Serve warm with rice or salad.

Cinnamon-Caramel Baked Plantains

If you like, top this easy dessert with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

2 very ripe plantains
2 Tbsp. coconut oil, melted
1-2 Tbsp. sugar or grated piloncillo
1 tsp. cinnamon
¼ tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 350 F. Peel plantains and cut into rounds about ¼-inch thick. In a bowl, toss gently with coconut oil. Lightly grease a baking sheet and spread out plantains in a single layer. Combine sugar, cinnamon and salt. Sprinkle evenly over plantains. Bake for about 25 minutes, turning once. Check often to make sure they don’t burn. Remove from oven, let cool and serve warm.

Baked Plantain Cubes

Use as a taco or tostada filling, on a salad, as a garnish for chili or just as a delicious snack.

Preheat oven to 400 F. Peel and slice unripe plantains into small cubes. In a bowl, drizzle with a little olive or coconut oil. Toss to mix and transfer onto a greased baking sheet. Bake for 20-25 minutes, stirring a few times, until browned and slightly crispy.

Janet Blaser of Mazatlán, Sinaloa, has been a writer, editor and storyteller her entire life and feels fortunate to write about great food, amazing places, fascinating people and unique events. Her work has appeared in numerous travel and expat publications as well as newspapers and magazines. Her first book, Why We Left: An Anthology of American Women Expats, is available on Amazon. Contact Janet or read her blog at whyweleftamerica.com.

Phony honey stinging beekeepers for over 10bn pesos annually

Cody Copeland

February 17, 2020

pot of honey — Is it real honey? Hard to tell.

Fake honey pouring into the Mexican market is becoming a serious problem for beekeepers and honey producers in Mexico.

The 100,000 tonnes of fake honey sold in the country each year have caused the national apiculture sector to lose an estimated 10.7 billion pesos (US $576 million) annually, according to the Bee Honey Regulatory Council.

With the national consumption of 100% natural bee honey in 2018 at 26,000 tonnes, the council calculates that the ratio of fake to real honey was four to one.

Jalisco led the country in honey production in 2017 with 5,815 tonnes. Other big honey producers were Chiapas, Veracruz, Yucatán and Oaxaca.

With 80% of Jalisco’s production being exported, it’s been deemed especially important to control the quality of honey produced in the state.

In September 2018, the Mexican Organization of Livestock and Food Certification gave its seal of approval to six producers in the state for good practices in the extraction and packaging of bee honey. Jalisco thus went from having zero such certifications to being the state with the most.

Former state Rural Development Secretary Héctor Padilla Gutiérrez said in 2018 that certification was a mandatory step in regulating the quality of Mexican honey, but the process has apparently been ineffective in combating the influx of fake honey into the market.

The production cost for a liter of real honey averages around 150 pesos while fake honey can be made for around a quarter of that price.

The worst part of the situation, according to Víctor Abarca, spokesperson for the honey council, is that the consumer is usually unable to tell the difference between real and fake honey, since the texture and makeup of the two are quite similar.

“Instead of consuming a beneficial product, they are [negatively] affecting their health because of the types of sugars the honey is adulterated with,” he said.

The Mexican Association of Honey Exporters said while the crudest form of adulteration, with sugar or corn syrup, is slightly detectable, other falsifications, made with syrups from beets, rice or potatoes — usually originating from China, Vietnam or India — are more difficult to notice.

Source: Reforma (sp)

CORRECTION: Estimated losses to honey producers were incorrectly reported in the earlier version of this story, although the headline was correct. The letter “b” became an “m” in the text of the story. We regret the error.

2 years after quakes, Mexico City’s Metropolitan Cathedral to be repaired

MND Staff

February 17, 2020

A major restoration project is required to repair quake damage at the cathedral in the city center.

The Institute of Engineering at the National Autonomous University (UNAM) will work with a private restoration company to repair earthquake damage at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Mexico City.

Facing the central square in the capital’s historic center, the cathedral sustained serious damage in the two major earthquakes that rocked southern and central Mexico in September 2017.

The bell towers and some of the walls of the cathedral were affected by the twin quakes as was the facade of the side chapel known as the Sagrario Metropolitano. In addition, crosses that adorned the eastern tower of the cathedral broke off and three sculptures created by the Spanish architect and sculptor Manuel Tolsá were damaged.

Some minor repair and reinforcement work was carried out in late 2017 and 2018 but a major restoration project hasn’t yet been carried out for a range of reasons, among which was an administrative issue related to obtaining resources, according to Antonio Mondragón, a director of the Historic Monuments division of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).

However, 54 million pesos (US $2.9 million) in funding is now available for the required restoration work and INAH will contract a company to collaborate with UNAM engineers in the first half of this year, Mondragón told the newspaper El Universal.

However, he conceded that the project might not actually begin for another year and estimated that the work itself could take “several more years.”

Mondragón said that specialists at the UNAM Institute of Engineering know the cathedral and the subsoil upon which it stands very well but explained that it is unable to carry out the restoration work on its own due to complex administrative and technical requirements.

“We need a company that can comply with contracts for large amounts [of money], with a consolidated technical and administrative team that can handle … such a big project,” he said.

Hundreds of historic buildings were damaged in the September 2017 earthquakes, which killed close to 500 people and rendered thousands homeless.

The federal government last year allocated 800 million pesos for the restoration of 279 important buildings in 10 states that were damaged either in the powerful 2017 quakes or the 7.2-magnitude temblor that caused damage in Oaxaca in February 2018.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Taking inspiration from Tehuantepec, as Frida Kahlo did

Leigh Thelmadatter

February 17, 2020

Made internationally famous by Frida Kahlo’s painting of herself in the traditional dress of the region, Oaxaca’s Isthmus of Tehuantepec and its abundant multiculturalism served as the inspiration for the current exhibit at Mexico City’s Salon of Fine Arts (Salón de la Plástica Mexicana).

Inaugurated on February 13, the exhibit features over 50 photographs, paintings, drawings, sculptures and objets d’art by members of the Salon and other artists, including Francisco Toledo, Rina Lazo, Mariana Yampolsky, Arturo García Bustos, Aurora Reyes, Blanca Charolet, Heriberto Rodríguez, Francisco Zúñiga, Álvaro Cortés, Helen Bickham, Roani, Salvador Pizarro and Enoc Mendoza.

Themes include women in traditional dress, fantastic animals, landscapes, and images from myths, legends and regional festivals.

Cecilia Santacruz, the director of the Salon, stated that the exhibit “… exalts the culture of the people of this region, one of the most culturally rich …” in Mexico.

Before the conquest the region was part of the Zapotec Empire which controlled important trade routes between what is now central Mexico and Central America. Today it is home to communities of Huaves, Mixes, Zapotecs, Zoques and Chontals, among others.

“The idea is to demonstrate the beauty of the region, of some of the most resilient cultures in the country, which has resisted many changes and even a (recent) earthquake. Culture that has been transmitted from generation to generation. Women and men who are proud to preserve tradition.”

Santacruz added that the exhibition also “… points to the dignity that people have through their traditions, which means a constant struggle.”

“On this occasion, the creators developed their own discourse. Some exalt the beauty of the landscape or traditional women’s garb. It includes a graphic work by the maestro Francisco Toledo that references the earthquake the region suffered and a photograph of a girl playing with a crocodile.”

Running until March 1 at the institution’s building at Colima 196, Colonia Roma, Mexico City, the exhibition is free and open to the public.

The Salon of Fine Arts is a government-sponsored society that was begun in 1949 by such artists as Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Gerardo “Dr Atl” Murillo and Frida Kahlo. It has inducted over 400 members past and present, particularly among the generations of the Mexican muralism movement and the following period known as La Ruptura (“The Breakaway,” 1950-1970).

Source: La Jornada (sp)

Five years after, Pachuca’s massive sinkhole still not filled

Cody Copeland

February 17, 2020

The sinkhole has become a permanent fixture in a neighborhood of Pachuca.

Residents of Pachuca, Hidalgo, are demanding government action almost five years after a sinkhole opened up in the northeastern neighborhood of Minerva.

They complained that the street remains closed and that the hole is affecting the lives and safety of over 1,000 citizens who live in the area.

Nery Silva Martínez, who has lived nearby since the ground collapsed, said that the sinkhole initially measured 12 meters in diameter and 25 meters deep.

After four and a half years of negligence, it has now grown to 40 meters in diameter and 100 meters deep.

Silva said that the sinkhole was partially repaired but the work was never finished, and the growing pit has only become more dangerous in the meantime. She and other residents have asked the government to repair the sinkhole many times but their calls have not been heeded.

The hole forces neighbors to take longer routes to avoid the hazard and blocks access to emergency services.

On February 12 state Deputy Roxana Montealegre submitted a request to Governor Omar Fayad and the mayors of Pachuca and the neighboring city of Mineral de la Reforma that the government reveal the results of a geological survey of the opening.

Having received no response, they threatened to protest outside the state claims court in Pachuca to demand that the problem be resolved.

Source: El Universal (sp), La Silla Rota (sp)

‘Little by little,’ criminal gangs being beaten down in Guanajuato: security chief

MND Staff

February 17, 2020

López Obrador and Durazo in Guanajuato on Sunday.

Federal Security Secretary Alfonso Durazo has offered a guarantee that organized crime will eventually be defeated in Guanajuato, Mexico’s most violent state in 2019.

Speaking on Sunday at a ceremony to open National Guard barracks in the municipality of Pénjamo, Durazo acknowledged the high levels of violence in Guanajuato – there were more than 3,500 homicide victims last year – but asserted that authorities are “gradually” improving the situation.

“Unfortunately, the issue of insecurity won’t be solved from one day to the next. I don’t want to be pessimistic but the problem … grew over many years – decades – and dismantling all this is not easy,” he said.

According to a 2019 study by consultancy firm Lantia Consultores, 11 criminal groups operate in Guanajuato including the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel, which are engaged in a bloody turf war in the state over the control of fuel theft, kidnapping and extortion.

Durazo described the dispute between the two criminal groups as “ferocious” but pledged that federal security forces would put an end to their operations.

The ribbon is cut at new barracks for the National Guard.

There is a “historic presence” of federal forces in the state, including the National Guard, the navy and the army, he said.

“We’re going to solve the [insecurity] problem; that’s the important thing,” Durazo said. “Little by little, the number of [criminal gangs] is being reduced.”

Taking center stage at the inauguration ceremony among several military and government officials was President López Obrador, who said that 18 facilities for the National Guard have either been completed or are under construction in Guanajuato.

The government’s aim is for the new security force to “lack nothing” to combat crime, he said.

The president also said that his administration will put an end to the corruption in the government and judicial system that has allowed criminals to buy their freedom.

“A message to those who devote themselves to criminal activities: listen up … crime will not be allowed to act with impunity. It’s not like it was before,” López Obrador said, asserting that on his watch, criminals won’t be able to buy off prosecutors, government officials and judges to avoid or get out of prison.

“We’re cleansing the government of corruption. It will no longer be the powerful don dinero [Mr. Money] who makes decisions about public life in Mexico,” he added, citing a Spanish turn of phrase to affirm that money will no longer play a part in interactions with the different branches of government.

“He who thinks his god is money, that he can solve everything with money, will be mistaken. It’s no longer influence or money that … will make decisions about public life in our country,” López Obrador declared.

Many Mexican judges have been accused or suspected of taking cartel money in exchange for granting freedom to suspects, while members of municipal, state and federal governments have been convicted of ties to organized crime or come under suspicion of being in cahoots with criminal groups.

Former president Felipe Calderón’s security chief Genaro García Luna was arrested in the United States in December on charges that he accepted multi-million-dollar bribes from the Sinaloa Cartel. He pleaded not guilty in early January and a lawyer for García said January 21 that his client is “very much looking forward” to fighting the charges against him at trial.

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

8,000 new beds to be made available for digital nomads

Cody Copeland

February 17, 2020

Hotel operator Selina, which specializes in accommodations for digital nomads, is looking to expand in Mexico and open up more parts of the country to freelancers and other types of remote workers who rely on telecommunications technologies to earn a living.

With an investment of US $150 million, the chain plans to add 8,000 hotel and hostel beds in several tourist destinations in Mexico over the next two years.

Selina operations director Paulo Pena said that Mexico is a strategic area for the company’s expansion plan, which includes new units in San Miguel de Allende, Sayulita, San Cristóbal de las Casas and Mérida.

“The plan is to have a total of 10,000 beds [in Mexico]. We now have 2,300 beds open. We’re working with a local partner [DD3 Capital Partners] … with a $150-million fund in order to develop the properties, and in conjunction with them we think we can achieve this goal,” he said.

Selina Los Lirios, recently inaugurated in Tulum, boasts 100 beds in both private rooms and 12-bed dormitories. Pena said that the property is emblematic of the unique service the company offers its guests.

The firm’s business model is to combine diverse accommodation options with coworking installations, restaurants and cultural and artistic activities that guests can make use of during their stays.

Selina, which specializes in revitalizing already constructed buildings, has seven properties in Mexico, many of which are in coastal towns. But it is looking to expand into colonial cities, the specially designated Magical Towns and areas with natural attractions.

Source: El Financiero (sp)

After faulty repairs, quake-damaged housing still perilous

Cody Copeland

February 17, 2020

A screw that has pulled out of the wall at housing project.

Just a week after repairs were finished, residents of a Mexico City housing development that was damaged in the September 2017 earthquake have already reported major safety issues.

Several people were killed when one of the buildings in the complex collapsed in the 7.1-magnitude quake that struck central Mexico on September 19, 2017.

The families moved back into the buildings, located in Tlalpan, on February 8 and immediately found potentially life-threatening problems with the work contracted by the Mexico City government.

The handrail of a fourth-story balcony came loose and fell to the ground, a victims’ group posted to Facebook on Friday. They also posted photos of window security bars coming loose, the screws barely holding the bars to the wall.

“What other hidden defects could there be in other buildings?” the post read.

The residents demanded that authorities review and approve the safety of all of the housing units that received government repairs.

Eight of the development’s 10 buildings received structural reinforcement, which included complete renovations of the floors, stairwells and electrical, gas, water and drainage networks.

Authorities reviewed the damages on Saturday accompanied by a legal representative of the construction company that performed the repairs.

“The solution is to add angled anchors with 3/8-inch rods and epoxy resin to the floors, studs and interior faces of the walls,” said the reconstruction commission in a press release.

It added that it would carry out a timely review of the apartments and common areas of the other buildings in the complex to find any other safety issues.

Source: Animal Político (sp)

Police use tear gas against march by families of 43 missing students

MND Staff

February 17, 2020

State police in Chiapas used tear gas on Sunday to break up a march by family members of the missing 43 students from Guerrero and students of a teachers’ college in Tuxtla Gutiérrez.

Parents of the missing young men, who were studying at the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers College when they were abducted and presumably killed in September 2014, and students of the Mactumactzá Rural Teachers College were marching towards the center of the Chiapas capital on the Libramiento Norte road when they were approached by some 200 riot police Sunday morning.

The Chiapas Secretariat of Security (SSyPC) said that the officers approached the participants of the “Caravan in Search of the 43” to seek dialogue and listen to their demands.

However, the students assaulted two officers, threw molotov cocktails, rocks and fireworks at the police contingent and vandalized a police car, the SSyPC said, adding that one police officer sustained a head injury and was taken to hospital.

The police used tear gas in response to the aggression “in accordance with the eviction protocol” in order to reestablish order, the secretariat said.

However, the Chiapas-based Ku’untik Human Rights Center charged that the police response amounted to government repression of the protesters, while parents of the missing Ayotzinapa students said that excessive force had been used.

Three Mactumactzá students, two of the missing Ayotzinapa students’ mothers and the 3-year-old granddaughter of one of them required medical treatment, the parents said.

The “authoritarian attitude” of the Chiapas authorities is “inconceivable,” they said in a statement, adding that their constitutional rights and freedoms were trodden on.

The Mactumactzá students are well-known for protests and have clashed with police in the past. They stole four buses last November after attacking a Tuxtla Gutiérrez garage owned by the bus line Ómnibus Cristóbal Colón (OCC) with molotov cocktails.

The students said they were protesting against the privatization of education and government repression. They also demanded more funding for their school.

Source: El Universal (sp), Notimex (sp)

Gang boss created elaborate criminal infrastructure in Guanajuato town

MND Staff

February 17, 2020

One of many houses owned by the cartel boss.

Fugitive cartel leader José Antonio Yépez Ortiz built infrastructure in a small Guanajuato town and the surrounding area that was specifically designed to aid and abet his criminal activities and help him avoid capture.

Santa Rosa de Lima, a community in the municipality of Villagrán, was the home base of the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel, a fuel theft and extortion gang, and a fortress for its leader, also known as “El Marro.”

According to a report by the newspaper Milenio, Yépez turned Santa Rosa de Lima into a town that perfectly met the needs of the criminal organization he heads. His properties there and in the neighboring municipality of Celaya also afforded him a life of luxury with his family and helped him to evade authorities.

Milenio reporter Jannet López Ponce described the criminal infrastructure that was once at the gang leader’s disposal and detailed its layout, explaining how it helped El Marro flee when authorities launched an operation to arrest him early last year.

A pink chapel on Leandro Valle, a street on the outskirts of Santa Rosa de Lima, marks the entrance to the town that was formerly Yépez’s undisputed domain.

Hidden behind trees on an unpaved nearby side street is a green house with a front yard that was used by the criminal gang for the manufacture and storage of homemade explosives.

That building may well have provided a space for the making of explosive devices left in a vehicle outside the Pemex refinery in Salamanca in January last year on the same day that a banner signed by El Marro appeared in the city demanding that President López Obrador remove federal security forces from Guanajuato.

Just 150 meters from the makeshift explosives factory is a yellow three-story structure that was once used as a cartel safe house, Milenio said, adding that a small business now occupies the ground floor. One-hundred meters further along Leandro Valle is the so-called “pink house,” where Santa Rosa de Lima gangsters dismembered the bodies of their victims and dissolved them in barrels of acid, according to authorities.

Two-hundred meters away in the center of the small community is a monument with two arches that El Marro reportedly had built in his own honor. Located in front of the town church, the structure alludes to the letter M, a reference to Yépez’s nickname.

A few meters away is a home that is now used by state police officers – who have wrested back control of Santa Rosa de Lima – to go to the bathroom, Milenio said. Yépez formerly loaned the house to residents for parties, occasionally also providing food, wine and musical groups.

According to Guanajuato security commissioner Sophia Huett, the purpose of making the home available for social functions was to maintain the social fabric of the town. In other words, it was a means for “El Marro” to ensure that he maintained the support and loyalty of residents, who set up road blockades and confronted security forces early last year to stymie the operation to locate and arrest him.

This 'prison' housed El Marro's rivals. — This ‘prison’ housed El Marro’s rivals.

At the end of a nearby dirt road, the fugitive criminal leader – Mexico’s most notorious huachicolero, or fuel thief – created his own prison to house rivals from whom he believed he could extract information that would benefit the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel, Milenio said.

When security forces seized control of the facility in the middle of last year, they freed six people — among them a police officer from the neighboring municipality of Celaya.

The makeshift jail had some of the features of a real one, such as cells with barred doors secured with padlocks. Mounds of dirt now surround the improvised lockup because authorities excavated the property to search for bodies, Milenio said. Those held there were reportedly told that they would be killed and buried on the grounds if they didn’t cooperate with their interrogators.

On the opposite corner is a house to which “El Marro” is believed to have retreated after he was personally involved in the interrogation and torture of people held in his prison. The home, which has a garden, swimming pool, bar and games area, is the largest seized by authorities in Santa Rosa de Lima.

Yépez was able to move between his network of properties in the space of just a few minutes, Milenio said, adding that their proximity to each other helped him to avoid capture.

A few kilometers from Santa Rosa de Lima is another enclave that was once controlled by Yépez and his criminal colleagues. On the outskirts of San José de Guanajuato, a town in the municipality of Celaya, is a warehouse that El Marro used as the front for a shell company his family created called Logística López.

The Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel stored stolen vehicles and goods in the warehouse as well as drugs and weapons. The property had a security camera system and a living room, bedroom and bathroom with a hot tub, Milenio said.

The warehouse has a door that leads directly onto one of Yépez’s most prestigious properties. Known as Casa Albercas, it boasts a large pool with a swim-in bar set in a garden decorated with stone statues of lions.

The home has an entrance onto a deserted street that allowed El Marro to access the Salamanca-Celaya highway and the Celaya airport in a matter of minutes.

A short distance away is the Alamo Country Club where Yépez had another luxury home in an exclusive residential estate. Painted in orange, the spacious house was the main residence for the criminal leader and his family, Milenio said.

While authorities have secured many properties linked to El Marro and his criminal organization, seized more than 100 vehicles, blocked access to bank accounts holding 35.4 million pesos and arrested scores of people connected to the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel, including El Marro’s wife (later released), they have not managed to achieve the central aim of the operation they launched early last year: take Yépez into custody.

Still, Guanajuato Attorney General Carlos Zamarripa told Milenio that the operation to capture El Marro and break up the cartel is continuing with the same intensity with which it began last year. Asked when Yépez might be captured, he responded: “It’s something that is under investigation.”

Federal authorities have claimed success in reducing fuel theft in Guanajuato but have failed to stem bloodshed in the state, which was the most violent in Mexico last year with more than 3,500 homicides. A bloody turf war between the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel is believed to be the main cause of the high levels of violence.

There is also evidence that Yépez’s criminal organization has expanded into Querétaro and Hidalgo, while increasing its focus on collecting extortion payments in Guanajuato, including the expat and tourism mecca of San Miguel de Allende.

Source: Milenio (sp)

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