One of the dishes on the menu at Monterrey's Pangea, which placed 14th on the list.
Nine Mexican restaurants — including six in Mexico City — are among the top 50 restaurants in Latin America, according to The 50 World’s Best Restaurants list.
The three other winning restaurants are located in Cancún, Guadalajara, and Monterrey.
The top Mexico restaurant on the list was Mexico City’s Pujol, which placed fifth. It was also recognized with a special sustainable restaurant award for championing environmentally friendly menus and sustainable restaurant practices.
“In its tireless search for improvement, this restaurant leads the way in sustainability and continues to reduce its carbon footprint and waste,” The World’s 50 Best said on its Twitter account.
Pujol’s haute cuisine establishment in the upscale Mexico City neighborhood of Polanco is known for environmentally friendly restaurant practices like a meatless menu, waste composting, and using collected rainwater.
“Perhaps we are the first, but to take the first step is the only way,” said Pujol’s head chef Alex Bremont in an interview in 2019. “We like to lead by example.”
Pujol was praised for its innovative policies, such as creating its own garden and working closely with suppliers to obtain sustainably grown menu items.
In his acceptance speech, owner Enrique Olvera said, “It’s a goal that we have been working toward for many years. We don’t just want to be one of the best restaurants in the world, we want to be one of the best restaurants for the world.”
Other Mexico City winners were:
Panadería Rosetta, No. 9, described as one of the most romantic and popular restaurants in Latin America;
Quintonil, No. 11, named for an obscure Mexican herb similar to cilantro which it uses in many of its dishes;
Sud 777, No. 17, which promotes simple dishes with high-quality ingredients;
Nicos, No. 3, whose architect-turned-chef Gerardo Vázquez Lugo specializes in highlighting haute cuisine with traditional Mexican touches; and
Máximo Bistrot, No. 36, which sources up to two-thirds of its ingredients from local producers such as the gardens of Xochimilco.
Winners from outside the capital were:
Pangea in Monterrey, Nuevo León, which placed 14th, which was described as having “put northeastern Mexico on the map for international cuisine.”
Alcalde in Guadalajara, which was No. 15, was recognized for its aguachile verde with lobster and apple and for octopus in salsa recado.
Le Chique, Cancún, was No. 30 and known for its tasting menus and for highlighting cuisine from throughout Mexico.
Luigi Medina rediscovered skateboarding in his 40s. He's now on a mission to popularize Mexico's skateboard parks.
Skateboarding was invented in Santa Monica, California, in the 1950s when surfers — frustrated on days without good waves — came up with the idea of putting wheels on a board so they could “surf the streets.”
It probably reached its peak of popularity around 1963, crashed in 1965 and then, slowly regained popularity during the following decades thanks to the innovative techniques of skateboard pioneers and legends like California’s Tony Hawk.
In Mexico, one of the many aficionados of skateboarding in the 1980s was Luis “Luigi” Medina, today director of Guadalajara’s highly innovative and successful IMI College.
“Here in Guadalajara,” says Medina, “three skateparks suddenly appeared in those days, all of them private. One of them was called Skatopistas del Sol, and its bowl measured 4 1/2 meters from top to bottom. Now, I was 8 years old then, and I was terrified when I first looked upon that great bowl: it was very, very deep! Sad to say, these three skateparks disappeared as fast they appeared. The skateboard era suddenly evaporated, and come the 90s, you could hardly find a single professional skateboard for sale in Guadalajara.”
If Medina wanted to skate, he had to do it in the street.
Medina rappelling down a waterfall in Syange Khola Canyon, Nepal.
“I’d go to the train station,” he told me, “because the floor was really smooth … but then the police would show up. ‘You are creating a public nuisance!’ they would say, or ‘You are damaging public property!’ And we skaters would reply: ‘Why is there no skate park in Guadalajara? Why can’t we skate in a proper bowl?’”
At 18, Medina was hit by a truck, damaging his knees. He decided to stop skating and got involved instead in rock climbing and canyoneering. Medina, in fact, soon excelled at these sports and eventually became the organizer of international rock-climbing events that focused the attention of world experts on Jalisco’s excellent rock-climbing venues.
He also ended up representing Mexico at world canyoneering events such as the 2011 International Canyon Rendezvous, held in Annapurna National Park in Nepal.
A few years later, unfortunately, Medina fell from a 50-meter high waterfall. Amazingly, he survived, but rehabilitation was slow and painful. It was only after years of physical therapy that he felt ready to become active again.
“I thought, ‘My body has lost strength, elasticity, agility and reflexes. What sport should I practice to recover all this? Answer: skateboarding.’”
He returned to “street surfing” at 41.
Medina didn’t expect to find folks his own age when he took up skateboarding.
“I thought I would look pretty funny,” he says with a smile, “a viejito [an old man] skating among little kids, but it turned out just the opposite. I found myself among lots of very active older people ranging from 40–60 years old, and now I skate with them every week.”
Over time, Medina noticed that people like these would head for a skatepark with their children and grandchildren only to discover disreputable characters hanging around.
“These people were either drugged or drunk or both,” he told me. “I was worried myself about these characters. Are they going to start pestering me? Was I going to get mugged? There they were, shooting up in the skatepark, and when families would arrive and see this situation, they would turn right around and leave.
“That’s when I said to myself, ‘I need to do something to recuperate these public spaces that we’ve lost.’”
Doing some research, Medina discovered, to his surprise, that there were 40 skate parks in Guadalajara alone, and another 30 scattered all over the state of Jalisco. He decided to draw the attention of the public and the authorities to these forgotten parks by setting himself a personal challenge:
“I’m going to pick 50 of these parks and I’m going to go visit every single one of them during a period of 50 days.”
Luigi Medina’s 50-day challenge will end on December 21 at Puerto Vallarta’s skatepark.
Medina’s challenge brought surprises:
“I went to Parque Montenegro in Guadalajara and discovered that it’s truly enormous; the board is gigantic. So I went to see the people who built it and they said, ‘We were inspired by the skate park in Venice, California, which is the biggest in the world.’
The Venice skatepark, however, he explained, has no graffiti, while Montenegro Park is full of it, “just like every other skatepark in Mexico.”
Little by little, Medina came to the conclusion that Mexico already has a great collection of skateparks.
“All we have to do is rehabilitate them: remove the graffiti, check the soundness of the structures and then take measures to keep vagabonds and delinquents away, something the local police could easily handle.”
A frequent sight at skateparks: a father teaches his son to skate.
“I’m saying to the public, ‘¡Mira! ¡Mira! There’s a park here! And there’s another one over there, and another one over there!’”
Medina reports that his campaign has already produced results: five municipalities around the state have all responded to his proposals with support, asking him what he needs. Medina says local leaders are especially enthusiastic because the country is in the middle of a pandemic.
“Skateparks,” he says, “offer people a way to get exercise without getting the virus, with none of the dangers of infection you might find lurking in gyms.”
Near Lake Chapala, he adds, you can find three skateparks.
“One is right on the lakefront in the town of Chapala, and it’s now being renovated. In Ajijic, there’s one in excellent condition, also on the Malecon. And there’s another one — in ruins, unfortunately — in Jocotepec, and I’m talking to them right now about renovating it so people can go there to skate and then eat at a restaurant.”
As for the Guadalajara area, Medina has been meeting with the directors of Tourism, Social Communication and Youth in Zapopan, who have agreed to start out by fixing up 16 skateparks and then launching a series of tournaments: for boys and girls and adults and for beginners.
Fifty-six-year-old Álvaro Gutierrez performing a Frontside Grind.
“They will be held each time in a different skatepark so that the public will get to know all 16 of them,” he explains.
So far, Medina has visited 21 of the 50 on his list.
“And I don’t just pop in for a quick look. I go to get exercise and have fun. I skate for two or three hours without taking a break.”
Want to meet this one-man show for yourself? If you happen to live near Lake Chapala, Medina will be at the Ajijic skatepark on December 19.
If you know nothing about skateboarding but you want to give it a try, Luigi Medina assures me that you will be welcomed with open arms at any skatepark in Mexico.
“That’s the nature of this community,” he says. “So if you want to make friends, buy a skateboard!”
The writer has lived near Guadalajara, Jalisco, for 31 years, and is the author of “A Guide to West Mexico’s Guachimontones and Surrounding Area” and co-author of “Outdoors in Western Mexico.” More of his writing can be found on his website.
Querétaro begins rapid testing for the coronavirus.
Querétaro has followed the lead of Mexico City and is now performing rapid Covid-19 tests to speed up the identification and isolation of positive cases while two other states have announced new coronavirus restrictions.
Health authorities in Querétaro began using rapid antigen tests at mobile testing stations and other healthcare facilities this week.
Government spokesman Rafael López González said that 1,500 tests per day are now being carried out in the state, where the risk of coronavirus infection is currently orange light “high,” according to the federal government’s stoplight system.
Querétaro’s introduction of rapid testing comes after Mexico City began its rapid testing program late last month.
The Bajío region state has recorded more than 23,000 coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic and 1,650 Covid-19 deaths, according to state government data. López said that cases, deaths and hospitalizations all increased in November.
The state government announced stricter restrictions last Friday, reducing operating hours and maximum capacities for many businesses, but López warned that they could be tightened again.
In Puebla, which has recorded almost double the number of cases as Querétaro and more than triple the number of deaths, Governor Miguel Barbosa announced Friday that he was issuing a new decree that enforces tighter restrictions aimed at reducing new infections.
Until at least January 7, restaurants will only be permitted to open until 9:00 p.m. Monday to Saturday and 6:00 p.m. Sunday, he said. Their capacity is limited to 33% of normal levels. Operating hours of shopping centers will be reduced by two hours, meaning that they will now have to close at 9:00 p.m.
Puebla, currently a yellow light “medium” risk state, has recorded more than 42,000 confirmed coronavirus cases – the eighth highest total among Mexico’s 32 states – and 5,404 Covid-19 deaths, according to state government data.
The state’s Covid-19 positivity rate is almost 60%, a clear sign that authorities are not testing widely enough. Puebla’s case fatality rate of 12.7 deaths per 100 confirmed cases also indicates that a large number of infections are not being detected.
The national case fatality rate is 9.5, the highest among the 20 countries currently most affected by Covid-19, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Accumulated Covid case numbers by state. milenio
Authorities in Nuevo León have also announced new restrictions due to an increase in case numbers.
The state Health Ministry said that nonessential businesses will be required to close for the next three weekends. Restaurants are exempt but will be limited to delivery service. Among the businesses not affected by the rule are pharmacies, supermarkets, convenience stores and gas stations. The Health Ministry also placed a prohibition on alcohol sales on Saturdays and Sundays.
Nuevo León, currently an orange light state, has recorded more than 105,000 coronavirus cases, according to state authorities. Only Mexico City and México state have recorded more.
The Covid-19 death toll in the northern state is 5,691 and and more than 1,100 coronavirus patients are in the hospital.
Health Minister Manuel de la O Cavazos said in late October that the risk level in Nuevo León is in fact “intense red,” not orange as the federal stoplight maps indicates. New infections and Covid deaths have only increased since then.
The federal government will present a new stoplight map Friday night and any changes will take effect on Monday. Officially, there are currently only two red light states – Chihuahua and Durango – and two green ones, Campeche and Chiapas.
The risk of coronavirus infection in the other 28 states is either orange light “high” or yellow light “medium.”
Each stoplight color is accompanied by recommended restrictions to slow the spread of the virus but some states have chosen to follow their own guidelines rather than those drawn up by federal authorities.
The president of the national restaurant association, Canirac, said that if red light restrictions become more widespread, there will be a risk that restaurant owners won’t follow them.
Highlighting that restaurateurs were hit extremely hard financially earlier in the year due to enforced closures, Francisco Fernández said that some won’t want to comply with any new restrictions that are imposed on them.
“There could be disobedience of [rules regarding] opening hours and capacities,” he said.
The Canirac chief noted that 90,000 restaurants have closed since the start of the pandemic and 400,000 jobs were lost in the sector.
The pandemic and associated restrictions have also taken a heavy economic toll on other industries such as tourism. Data published this week showed that more than 1 million small and medium-sized businesses have closed permanently since the middle of last year, mainly due to the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
The coronavirus situation in Mexico City continues to worsen with hospitals coming under increasing pressure, while crowds of residents throng the capital’s streets.
Mexico City authorities reported 4,459 new cases on Thursday – 40% of the total registered nationwide – and 88 additional Covid-19 fatalities, increasing the capital’s accumulated case tally to 219,465 and the death toll to 17,916.
Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said Friday that the number of hospitalized coronavirus patients increased by 285 over the past week. Mexico City government data updated Thursday night shows that there are 2,993 coronavirus patients in general care hospital beds and 923 in beds with ventilators.
On paper there are still plenty of beds available across the city’s health system – occupancy is below 70% – but some Covid-designated hospitals are already filled to the brim if not overflowing with patients.
One such facility is the Ajusco Medio hospital, a city-run facility in the southern borough of Tlalpan. The Associated Press reported that numbers on a whiteboard of hospital director Dr. Alejandro Avalos indicate that total patient numbers are at 122% capacity, intensive care is at 116%, and the emergency unit at 100%.
President López Obrador: ‘Lockdowns are for dictators.’
“We haven’t been below 100% since May,” Avalos told AP.
Hospital occupancy in Mexico City reached its highest level of the pandemic in May but Dr. Marta Patricia Mancilla, head of the emergency department at Ajusco Medio, believes that peak will soon be exceeded.
“The worst is still to come and unfortunately, it is going to catch us very tired,” she said.
Health workers at the IMSS La Raza General Hospital in the capital’s north are also under intense pressure. The situation is so trying that a group of doctors and nurses last week signed an open letter threatening to stop treating coronavirus patients unless authorities declared a partial lockdown in the capital.
“If it was bad in May, now it’s worse,” one doctor who signed the letter told AP. He explained that there are fewer doctors working at the hospital because they have become sick or taken leave because of the fear of contracting Covid-19 and the intense work environment they face.
He also said that there is short supply of anesthesia medications needed to intubate gravely ill coronavirus patients and keep them on ventilators.
Federal authorities have taken note of the growing pressure on hospitals in the capital, leading President López Obrador to announce Friday that 500 additional intensive care beds will be installed in the capital next week.
He also urged citizens to stop flooding the streets and stay at home rather than gathering with family and friends as is common in the lead-up to Christmas.
“In this month, December, there are traffic problems, there are growing numbers of vehicles in the streets,” López Obrador said. “Right now, we cannot act like this.”
Many parts of Mexico City appear virtually as busy now as before the coronavirus was first detected here at the end of February. The historic center of the capital throngs daily with shoppers, street vendors and even strollers and tourists. Many bars and cantinas that were supposed to close two weeks ago continue to welcome drinkers, apparently passing themselves off as restaurants rather than watering holes. Many establishments flout capacity restrictions, seemingly with impunity.
While a majority of residents of the capital wear face masks, which are supposedly mandatory, a sizable proportion of the population do not. In Mexico City’s poorer districts, the number of those who eschew face coverings is even higher.
With case numbers and hospitalizations on the rise, there was speculation that Mexico City would regress to red light “maximum” risk on the federal government’s coronavirus stoplight system, which would go at least some way to satisfying the health workers’ plea for a partial lockdown.
Coronavirus cases and deaths in Mexico as reported by day. milenio
But Mayor Sheinbaum announced Friday that the capital would once again remain at the orange light “high” risk level next week, although she reiterated that an additional “alert” is in place due to the city’s close proximity to red.
The Mexico City government has tightened some restrictions in recent weeks despite remaining at the orange light level, and Sheinbaum, who contracted the virus herself in October, said that some new steps will be taken next week to try to slow the spread of the virus.
She said authorities will once again urge residents of the capital to stay at home and only go out if they really need to.
An intensive media campaign will be rolled out to warn residents of the increased risk of infection while city government offices will be reduced to a skeleton staff and all other workers will be strongly encouraged to work from home if they can.
Sheinbaum also said there will be stronger enforcement of health rules at commercial establishments and that Covid-19 testing, which was ramped up last month, will increase even further.
Meanwhile, Mexico’s national coronavirus case tally and death toll continue to rise at a concerning pace. The Health Ministry reported an additional 11,030 cases on Thursday, the third highest single-day tally of the pandemic after Wednesday and last Friday. The accumulated case tally now stands at 1,144,643.
Health authorities also reported 608 additional Covid-19 fatalities, lifting the official death toll to 108,173.
Both the case tally and death toll are widely believed to be much higher due to the low testing rate.
Federal authorities have faced strong criticism for not testing more widely, not advocating forcefully for the use of face masks and never implementing a strict lockdown. But López Obrador has defended the government’s response to the pandemic, describing the federal pandemic strategy as “very good.”
He has ruled out any possibility of a strict lockdown, saying Wednesday that leaders who impose lockdowns or curfews are acting like dictators.
Strict measures on people’s movement are “fashionable among authorities … who want to show they are heavy-handed,” López Obrador said. “A lot of them are letting their authoritarian instincts show. … The fundamental thing is to guarantee liberty.”
A wintry scene Friday morning in northwestern Chihuahua.
Thanks to a cold front, northwestern Chihuahuans awoke to their first snowfall of the year Friday, when five municipalities — Buenaventura, Bachiniva, Guerrero, Batopilas, and Galeana — were blanketed in white.
Local media reports this morning showed picturesque images of homes and roads covered in modest amounts of snow.
The municipality of Galeana was the first to report snowfall, around dawn.
According to meteorological predictions, the capital city and two other municipalities — Cuauhtémoc and Ojinaga — are expected to receive their own share of snow tonight.
“For the Northern Mesa, frigid conditions are expected, with frost in the region, and possibly snowfall or freezing rain in the mountainous zones of Chihuahua,” Conagua officials said in a statement released today.
Temperatures are forecast to drop to between -5 and -10 C in those areas.
A Mercado Libre plane is 'baptized' during the launch of the e-commerce firm's new fleet.
Amazon rival Mercado Libre has unveiled a fleet of four cargo planes that will operate out of the Querétaro international airport and speed up the delivery of products to destinations across Mexico.
The Argentine company’s logistics director, Omar Ramírez Reyes, told an event at the airport Thursday that 1 billion pesos (US $50.5 million) is being invested in the fleet and that its operation will generate 6,000 direct and indirect jobs.
“The formal operation of our air fleet is starting in Querétaro; it forms part of Mercado Libre’s logistics network,” he said
“Our fleet of cargo planes couldn’t have a better home than Querétaro. Thanks to them the products of our enterprises, small and medium-sized businesses and artisans among other Mercado Libre vendors will reach their destination in 24 hours, which translates into better businesses and opportunities.”
The four MeLi Air planes, each with a 40-tonne capacity, will operate on four different routes within Mexico. The company decided to purchase the planes and operate its own air routes due to an increase in demand for home delivery of online purchases brought about by the coronavirus pandemic.
Ramírez said that Mercado Libre, which was established in 1999 and now operates in 18 countries, is well prepared to respond to consumers’ needs amid the ongoing pandemic.
“Everything we’ve done in the past two decades, including our entry into logistics, allowed us to be prepared for the new normal,” he said.
Querétaro Governor Francisco Domínguez said that Mercado Libre and the state government will together “take off towards a more competitive Mexico.”
“[Mercado Libre] will consolidate itself here … as the largest e-commerce company in Latin America,” he said.
The governor noted that the large package delivery companies FedEx, DHL and UPS also operate out of Querétaro.
“From here you will connect with the whole country in just a few hours to the benefit of your customers,” Domínguez told Mercado Libre executives.
“… With your arrival in Querátaro a lot of entrepreneurs will send quality products to every corner of Mexico, reducing time and costs.”
Security forces seize stolen fuel in Hidalgo earlier this year.
Petroleum theft is on the rise after remaining below 2019 levels for most of the year.
There were 1,103 illegal taps on Pemex pipelines in September and 1,077 in October, according to information on the government’s online transparency platform.
In September, thieves stole 93 full shipments of fuel that were injected into the pipeline network and siphoned off another 106 in October.
On September 5, for example, Pemex injected more than 44,000 barrels of diesel into a pipeline that runs from Tuxpan, Veracruz, to Azcapotzalco, Mexico City. None of the shipment reached its final destination because fuel thieves tapped the pipeline and extracted the diesel somewhere along the way.
Among the shipments stolen in October was one of more than 60,000 barrels of diesel injected into a pipeline in Cadereyta, Nuevo León.
In the first 12 days of November thieves got away with 41 shipments of fuel including gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.
In that 12-day period, the newspaper El Universal reported, Pemex injected 423 shipments of fuel into the pipeline system and 177 of them – 41.8% of the total – were either partially or completely stolen.
Pipelines running through the states of Veracruz, Durango, Baja California, Guanajuato, Jalisco, Sonora, Puebla, México state and Yucatán are among those that are frequently targeted by fuel thieves, some of whom work for drug cartels that have diversified into the lucrative racket.
Pemex data shows that 8,919 illegal pipeline taps were detected between January 1 and November 24. In the first month of year there were 886 illegal taps, a 43% decline compared to January 2019.
The number of monthly taps remained below 2019 levels until September while the figure in October – 1,077 – was up 22% compared to the same month last year.
The data shows that fuel theft has continued at high levels throughout the first two years of the federal government although President López Obrador has claimed that the problem, which has cost Pemex billions of pesos, has been “practically eliminated.”
Vehicles abandoned by crime gangs in Michoacán are towed by authorities Thursday.
Firefights between the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and rival criminal group Cárteles Unidos raged in four municipalities in western Michoacán on Wednesday night, leaving six dead, two arrested and several vehicles and weapons abandoned and confiscated by police.
Members of the two cartels moved between Los Reyes, Cotija, Tocumbo and Tingüindín at different times and exchanged fire between each other or with security forces for extended periods beginning late Wednesday afternoon and into the evening.
In the first community targeted, Los Reyes, cartel hitmen arrived Wednesday around 5 p.m. in about 40 vehicles and began a bloody shootout as the CJNG attacked a Cárteles Unidos safe house, leaving five people dead. Six persons were also taken hostage, according to local media, although this was not confirmed by security officials.
It appears that the Cárteles Unidos, an alliance of the Sinaloa Cartel and other criminal organizations, were at least temporarily victorious in Los Reyes, as authorities later found a message there directed at CJNG leader Nemesio Osguera “El Mencho” Cervantes.
“Here in Los Reyes, don’t come in, Mencho. Tell your people to come get your narco-tanks; we left them full,” it said.
A glimpse of the lethal back & forth the Michoacán-Jalisco border area has been under for years – and that's only picking up steam as we near next year's elections. 100s of displaced just these past four weeks – and thus far no notable coverage of this acute humanitarian crisis. https://t.co/FUq08TbStj
CJNG forces eventually moved on to the municipalities of Cotija, Tocumbo and Tingüindín where local media reported a total of seven more people killed. However, the state Ministry of Public Security said that only six people were killed in total.
The ministry also reported a separate incident in Tingüindín, where they said there was an armed confrontation between civilians. Footage online purportedly filmed at the incident, however, shows state police forces in a shootout with unseen gunmen.
Security forces also came under attack by a sniper near Cotija the next morning as they were towing confiscated vehicles on the Tocumbo-Cotija highway. According to police, the unknown sniper attacked from a distant hill, injuring a police officer in the foot.
The man was hospitalized and was in stable condition, said Michoacán Public Security Minister Israel Patrón Reyes. No one else was injured in the attack, and authorities quickly regained control of the situation, Patrón said.
As of yesterday, state and federal security officials were regularly patrolling the communities where the shootouts took place, all located near the state of Jalisco border, at the request of residents.
All four municipalities where the shootouts occurred — as well as the nearby municipalities of Buenavista, Coalcóman and Tepalcatepec — where residents recently dug trenches in the roads to prevent CJNG members from taking control of their community — are widely considered disputed territory between the two cartels.
Michoacán battleground: the five municipalities being disputed by cartels.
Over the last several weeks at least 500 people in communities around the municipalities of Aguililla and Buenavista, fearing for their lives, have abandoned their homes, and another cartel cell, Blancos de Troya, has taken over the towns over and based its operations there. In Tepalcatepec, according to police reports made public, citizens have been warned to barricade their homes and the entrance to their community in anticipation of an eruption of cartel violence.
Meanwhile, in several communities in coastal Michoacán, where the Cárteles Unidos have an alliance with a local gang leader, Juan José “El Abuelo” Fariás, the situation is similar.
According to one observer, the escalating violence has left the state worse than it was when self-defense groups formed in the absence of official action against criminal activity.
“We are worse off than before,” Hipólito Mora, founder of the state’s self-defense groups, told the newspaper Milenio, explaining that violence has escalated steadily since 2014.
“The people are afraid because they see that organized crime is growing more powerful than the authorities. The police, the federal forces are going crazy, not knowing where to run because everywhere you look there are confrontations,” Mora said.
He accused authorities of knowing who the leaders of the crime groups in Michoacán are but doing nothing to arrest them.
“I think that the violence will grow even more,” he said. “The issue doesn’t seem to matter to the politicians.”
He said the practice has been used for tax evasion purposes and to avoid paying workers the benefits to which they were entitled.
But the business sector says that the proposal presented by the president discourages job creation and threatens economic growth. The Business Coordinating Council (CCE), an umbrella organization representing 12 business groups, said last month that it was both surprised and concerned about the initiative, and that the government had violated a commitment to consult the private sector.
Government officials including López Obrador have now met with business representatives three times to discuss the proposal, including an almost three-hour-long meeting Thursday night. But they have still not ironed out their differences.
Outsourced jobs are in yellow, total jobs in blue. Figures at the top indicate the percentage increase of outsourced jobs every five years. milenio/manpower group
After leaving the National Palace meeting on Thursday, CCE president Carlos Salazar told reporters that while agreement remained elusive progress had been made.
“We’re advancing, the issue is obviously complex and it’s taking more time than we would have liked,” he said.
Salazar said that the complexity stemmed from the fact that the government’s proposal would overhaul the labor market in which some 4.1 million workers – 11.5% of the formal sector workforce – were subcontractors or hired as outsourced labor in 2019.
The CCE chief said that business leaders will meet again with the president and other officials next Wednesday.
“The way in which the dialogue has been carried out has been very positive. The understanding of our concerns has been very good,” Salazar said.
However, the business leader used curt language earlier on Thursday to describe what he believes the government is trying to do with the proposed outsourcing ban, telling a press conference that it is aiming to dismantle an entire hiring system just because parts of it have been misused by a small number of companies.
“To remove a rotten apple” the authorities are trying to fell the entire tree, Salazar said. “Don’t fuck around.”
Francisco Cervantes, president of the Confederation of Industrial Chambers, said after Thursday night’s meeting that the private sector and the government were continuing to negotiate over when the proposed outsourcing legislation would take effect.
“We’re asking for six months [to prepare] … so that everything’s ready and productivity isn’t lost,” he said.
Among the government officials in attendance at Thursday’s meeting were Labor Minister Luisa María Alcalde, Economy Minister Graciela Márquez and Mexican Social Security Institute Director Zoé Robledo.
Once the two parties reach an agreement, lawmakers will have the opportunity to make amendments to the proposal before it faces a vote in Congress.
The remains of a home gutted by fire Thursday in Tijuana.
Four Baja California border communities were hit by fires Wednesday night and Thursday morning that burned 56 homes to the ground and left one person dead.
Seventy-five separate blazes, driven by Santa Ana winds that reached 100 kilometers per hour in some higher elevations, either destroyed or did serious damage to homes in Tijuana, Playas de Rosarito, Ensenada and Tecate, forcing residents to flee.
Many were left with little more than the possessions that they could grab while fleeing, such as one couple observed by an El Universal newspaper reporter as they walked to a shelter in Tijuana with nothing more than a teacup, some porcelain items, and a couple of blankets.
Tijuana resident Dalila Gallegos described the fires as “an inferno.”
“That’s the only way I can describe it; it was an inferno,” she said while organizing a collection center created spontaneously by neighbors Thursday to provide fire victims with supplies. “When I got there, the scene was like a movie: people running, in tears, shouting, ‘Have you seen my father?’ ‘Have you seen my brother?’”
A friend of hers lost her mother, she said, after their home suddenly caught fire and they had to evacuate. After making sure that the children were safely outside, the woman decided to go back into the house and died when the building exploded in flames.
Gallegos said she saw the woman’s family walking around the area afterward, asking everyone they could if they had seen their mother. Later the woman’s daughters searched for her among the ashes.
“They found their mother’s body under some burnt wood,” she said.
Tijuana’s municipal government set up three temporary shelters and was planning on distributing 8 million pesos to help victims. State Civil Protection officials reported that the Santa Ana winds are expected to continue until sometime this weekend.
Mayor Arturo González Cruz cited the Santa Ana winds — which at times sounded like the roar of jet engines, witnesses said — as well as a lack of water in some areas as reasons why the blazes ended up intensifying and impeding emergency officials’ ability to respond quickly.
The winds, which surge from the east and south, bring hot and dry weather creating a fire-friendly environment for wildfires in both Mexico and the U.S. from around October through as late as March.
