Sánchez gets five years, Cacho still waits for justice.
After more than 14 years, a former police official has been sentenced to jail time for the torture of journalist Lydia Cacho in December 2005.
Authorities announced Wednesday that Juan Sánchez Moreno, formerly of the Puebla Attorney General’s Office, was sentenced to five years and three months in prison and fined 12,113 pesos (US $645).
Sánchez was arrested in April of last year but three others allegedly involved in Cacho’s kidnapping and torture — former Puebla governor Mario Marín, businessman Kamel Nacif and another senior police official, Hugo Adolfo Karam Beltrán — are still fugitives.
Cacho spoke out in January to express her disappointment at the lack of progress despite years of investigations and substantial evidence.
“Almost 14 years have passed and we still haven’t achieved [justice]. The strength of the criminals was able to do more than the honesty of the press, the bravery of the victimized boys and girls and my efforts accompanied by invaluable social solidarity,” she said.
Cacho is the author of The Demons of Eden (2005), an exposé that implicated businessmen Jean Succar Kuri and Kamel Nacif in an international pedophilia ring, for which Nacif and others allegedly retaliated by orchestrating her kidnapping and torture in 2005.
The press freedom organization Article 19 stated its determination to ensure the execution of the arrest warrants of those who are still at large in order to guarantee justice. It also charged that Sánchez’s punishment did not fit the crime of which he was found guilty.
“. . . [the] punishment does not meet the gravity of the acts of torture or the command post occupied by Sánchez Moreno,” the organization said in a tweet.
Acapulco will kick off the 10th national danzón demonstration on Thursday with over 2,000 dancers from 18 states.
The four-day event has two sites, the Paseo del Pescador in the older part of the city and the Juan Ruiz de Alarcón at the Centro Internacional Acapulco, where dancers from 36 groups are expected, according to promotor and organizer Marcela Ávila Durán.
Danzón enthusiast Felicitas López Flores says danzón keeps people health. “As a physical activity, danzón stimulates the mind, as one must learn the steps. It exercises the body and contributes to people staying healthy.”
The dance is particularly popular among older couples due to its slow, fluid movements. Said Fabián Robles, another danzón fan, “. . . I came to danzón late, about five years ago. I have always liked to dance, since I was a boy, but I never took classes. When I retired, I asked my wife what do we do now and we decided to take classes . . .”
Danzón is popular in many places in Mexico, and couples can often be seen dancing in town parks and squares. But it did not originate in Mexico. It is a musical and dance genre that was introduced initially into Veracruz and Yucatán from Cuba, where it is the national dance.
It most likely has roots in English and French country dances, but as it spread to the New World it took on local rhythms and movements. This process has continued in Mexico, as the dance spread. Although considered by many today to be the dance of older people, it was considered scandalous when it was introduced in the 19th century, as the slow movements allowed couples to dance scandalously close.
One of the Acapulco demonstration’s purposes is to overcome danzón’s association with retirees and attract young people to the genre.
Mexico’s most notorious bank robber and public enemy No. 1 in the 1980s died last month, federal authorities said on Wednesday.
Guerrero native Alfredo Ríos Galeana, 69, who was serving a 25-year prison sentence for homicide, was hospitalized in Oaxaca in the middle of December and succumbed days later to sepsis.
“El Feyo,” one of the nicknames by which Ríos was known, is remembered for his prolific criminal career, his three prison breaks and his love of singing and acting.
He is believed to have committed about 100 bank robberies and once boasted that he had held up more banks than any other man in Mexico and the world.
“I’m not proud of what I did but I can say that I will never regret my actions,” Ríos once said. “I lived well, I liked money, to wander around and spend time with women, I had all the fun I wanted to . . .visited every state of the republic, enjoyed the best wine, women and food. And I was able to do all that because of robberies.”
Ríos was a police officer when he is believed to have robbed his first bank.
Born on October 28, 1950, in the small town of Arenal de Álvarez, Ríos moved to Mexico City at the age of 17 and enlisted in the army, eventually rising to the rank of sergeant in a paratrooper brigade.
In the mid-1970s he was accused of theft while serving in the military and spent two years in the Palacio de Lecumberri, a former Mexico City prison known as the Black Palace, before he was absolved.
Later in the 1970s, Ríos became a police officer, joining a new México state force called the Radio Patrol Battalion which was tasked with protecting the state’s banks, among other duties. He is believed to have committed his first bank robberies while still an officer in the force.
El Charro del Misterio (The Mysterious Cowboy), as Ríos was also known, formed a gang of bank robbers in the early 1980s, recruiting soldiers and officers that he met during his military and police career. Among the criminals with whom he collaborated were the notorious kidnappers Andrés Calietri and Daniel Arizmendi.
Ríos also wove a web of complicity with authorities that provided protection for his criminal band, the newspaper El Universal reported.
The gang, which made use of a range of disguises including police uniforms, wigs, fake mustaches and make-up and meticulously planned its escape routes, successfully robbed banks in several parts of the country including Mexico City, México state, Puebla, Morelos and Tlaxcala.
But the band’s early successes came to an end in Hidalgo in August 1981 when Ríos was arrested and sent to prison in the same state.
However, he escaped from the penitentiary in late 1982 and returned to a life of crime before he was captured again after robbing a bank in Mexico City in 1984. After just two months in prison in the capital, El Feyo managed to escape for a second time before he was arrested yet again in 1986 and imprisoned in another Mexico City penitentiary.
His third prison break came in a dramatic fashion in late 1986 when a gang of 10 armed men burst into a court hearing, fired their weapons and led Ríos to freedom before the eyes of officials.
By that time, the criminal had stolen 353 million pesos from Mexican banks and committed 15 murders, the newspaper Reforma reported.
With his crimes apparently weighing heavily on his mind, Ríos underwent a course of spiritual treatment that led him to repent for his criminal sins and declare that he was a changed man. He also adopted the pseudonym of Arturo Montoya and soon became known as “el hermano Arturo,” or brother Arturo, due to his preaching and newfound faith while a fugitive from justice.
Ríos also underwent extensive plastic surgery to change his appearance and sometime later snuck into the United States.
Ríos was last captured when he went to renew his driver’s license in the US. His fingerprints gave him away.
It was almost 20 years later that El Feyo’s life of crime caught up with him again: on July 12, 2005, Ríos went to renew his driver’s license at a Department of Motor Vehicles office in Los Angeles, California, where his fingerprints gave away his true identity and he was taken into custody.
The United States extradited Ríos to Mexico the same year and he was imprisoned in México state’s Altiplano maximum security prison, which has housed numerous notorious criminals including Guadalajara Cartel founder Rafael Caro Quintero, the convicted murderer of 1994 presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio, and former Sinaloa Cartel leader and convicted drug trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, who famously escaped from the jail via a 1.5-kilometer-long tunnel in 2015.
However, El Feyo couldn’t orchestrate his own fourth prison break and in 2015, a decade after he returned to Mexico, he was sentenced to 25 years in jail. Before his death, Ríos had been held at a federal prison in the Oaxaca municipality of Miahuatlán de Porfirio Díaz.
While El Feyo will mostly be remembered for his extensive criminal career and brazen prison breaks, he also leaves a legacy as a recording artist.
One album he recorded under the name of El Charro del Misterio (a name he stole from another artist) was Éxitos de Javier Solís, a compilation of covers of hit songs first sung by Solís, a famous singer of boleros and rancheras.
Ríos also performed in bars and other venues under a variety of different names, the newspaper El Financiero reported. Yet another of his nicknames was “the voice that sings to the heart.”
Ríos’ life is immortalized in two movies, the 2008 action film The Mexican Gangster and El Más Buscado (The Most Wanted), a 2014 Mexican-made feature.
El Feyo might now be gone but he definitely won’t be forgotten. Meanwhile, Mexico’s banks might well be rejoicing: Ríos once famously said that he would continue committing crimes once he got out of jail.
The federal government is taking steps to combat fraudulent conduct in the tourism industry.
According to the tourism news website Reportur, the tourism committee of the federal Congress and the government’s Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) will collaborate on a scheme designed to crack down on scams committed against people seeking to travel to destinations such as Quintana Roo, Baja California, Nayarit, Jalisco and Mexico City.
One of the main concerns discussed at a meeting between tourism committee president Luis Alegre Salazar and UIF chief Santiago Nieto was call centers that attempt to defraud potential tourists in the key markets of Canada and the United States.
Reportur said they operate as shell companies and that their detection is very difficult as a result.
In that context, Alegre asked Nieto to carry out a nationwide review to determine which companies are operating legally in the tourism sector and which are not.
He also asked the UIF chief to carry out an investigation into travel agencies that operate exclusively online, including those on social media sites such as Facebook, saying many are fraudulent.
Reportur said that in recent months, shell companies have swindled people selling vacation club memberships and timeshares by offering to purchase them and resell them at elevated prices. However, the fraudsters ask for a deposit of between US $4,000 and $6,000 to complete the paperwork for the sale.
The federal consumer protection agency (Profeco) issued an alert about the practice last year.
The online travel agency Expedia has also warned that fraudsters have passed themselves off as its employees to try to scam consumers by selling them non-existent tourism products. People in 17 Mexican states as well as Canada have been swindled to the tune of US $10,000, Reportur said.
We stuff them in our carry-ons, hide them in our checked bags and lie about them on customs forms. And we’re willing to pay extra – 30 or more dollars extra – and risk a really messy suitcase just to be able to bring them back with us to Mexico.
You know what I’m talking about.
Crunchy peanut butter. Miracle Whip. Licorice: red, black and Twizzlers. (So many Twizzlers!) Horseradish. Aged cheddar cheese. Vinegars. Butter. Chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate. Grits. (Mentioned more times than you’d imagine.) Sloppy Joe seasoning. Natural body products. Chef Boy-Ar-Dee Ravioli. Oh, and candy – lots of different kinds of candy. (We’ll get to that later.)
Turns out nobody’s shy about sharing what they bring back when they go north of the border (NOB), items they can’t find here, and what they just can’t — or don’t want to — live without. Psychologists might say there are deeper reasons, and that these qualify as comfort foods, specific to each of us, our families and where we grew up. (See story below.)
While most of the 800+ people who responded to my post in a handful of expat Facebook groups shared lists of fairly common items, the very first response was, well, surprising.
“Korean gochujang,” wrote Jill from San Pancho, a little town north of Puerto Vallarta.
Huh?
“It’s a chile paste for a delicious, rice-based Korean dish called bibimbap,” the Evanston, Illinois, native kindly explained.
“Now mind you,” she continued, “10 years ago we had a LONG list of things we had to bring if we wanted them. As a matter of fact, it was so long that we drove back and forth. But now, you can get almost anything.”
That sentiment was echoed by many longtime expat residents of Mexico. Nowadays so much more really is available — grape jelly, Oil of Olay, the aforementioned peanut butter — than, say eight or 10 years ago. And if you live in or near a bigger city, like Puerto Vallarta, Mexico City, Cabo, Cancún or Guadalajara, your options are even greater, as Sam’s Club, Costco, Walmart, Home Depot and even Bed, Bath & Beyond have opened up the consumer landscape immensely. Factor in Amazon México and you would think anything and everything you could possibly want would be available here.
Ah, but read on, folks. Mexico, in all her glory, always has a trick up her sleeve.
What the author brought back from a recent trip north.
“We do use Amazon México, but our street address has nothing to do with our location, so we have to ship to someone else’s address, which is inconvenient for everyone,” said Nayarit snowbird Sallie. “It’s often easier to bring stuff from the U.S. than hunt things down in Mexico.”
So what were the most mentioned items? Let’s have a look.
The majority of the hundreds of replies included a multitude of food items. Some quickly established themselves as “Most Popular:” Miracle Whip, Cheez-Its, sweet pickle relish, peanut butter (plain and crunchy), horseradish, molasses (kudos to you brave and dedicated bakers!), sharp cheddar cheese (“One kg per month that we’re here,” shared a Canadian snowbird.)
Canadians were well represented, as evidenced by items like canned salmon, Marmite, “real Canadian maple syrup” and Hawkin’s Cheesies.
“You can pretty much adapt to most things, though,” said longtime snowbird Barb. “I love my life here!”
Certain stores also featured heavily in your answers, with one in particular mentioned over and over.
“Anything from Trader Joe’s!!” exclaimed Linett from Mazatlán, Ann from Baja, Carole from Guanajuato, Katie from Mexico City and many, many others.
The things we miss enough to ferry back in our luggage are many and varied. Wheat Thins, ranch dip mix, McCormick seasonings (especially meat loaf and chile blends), spice blends, Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix, Velveeta, Thai peanut sauce, Ranch Style Doritos, gravy mix, and Lipton, Tetley, Twinings or other quality black tea.
And while food items were by and large what most of you mentioned, high-count, 100% cotton sheets (“I’m a sheet snob,” confessed Eric of Mazatlán), thick, fluffy terrycloth towels and “things from Target” were mentioned often, by both men and women.
“Please post your article,” pleaded a reader from Texas. “I’m wondering if there’s an opportunity to import some of these things and supply retailers.”
Catherine, a Brit who’s beenliving in Mexico for 10 years, sent a photo of her over-stuffed suitcase brimming with potential contraband.
“Just got back from London and here’s a glimpse of my suitcase contents,” she wrote. “White chocolate features heavily.”
Some people take empty suitcases and fill them with the things they miss.
Some things were difficult to understand the need for. Taco seasoning. (Believe it or not, this was mentioned more than once.) “Good salsa.” “Crispy taco shells.” “Fiesta brand menudo mix.”
Who are these people, I had to wonder.
“I know it’s crazy to buy Mexican food in the States to bring to Mexico,” explained the menudo-loving five-year resident of Ensenada. “It’s just so easy since spices and chile are all in one package. Lol.”
And other things you may as well forget about: Russet potatoes, collard greens, turnips, rutabagas, parsnips, Asian vegetables like pak choi and gai lan (“Trying to find a source for seeds so I can grow ‘em myself,” grumbled a San Miguel resident.)
Ahhh, and candy. So. Much. Candy.York Peppermint Patties, the aforementioned licorice (black, red, Aussie-style) and Twizzlers, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, red hots, Butterfingers, Good ‘n’ Plenty. “Candy without chile! Please!” begged a reader with a sweet tooth.
“We do manage to live without them but it would be nice to have them available, without paying double the price they are up north,” sighed a snowbird from Alberta, after sharing her list of a dozen or so items.
Turns out our pets have adjustment anxiety too.
“I’ve been here four years and finding anything reasonably priced for my cats has been a chore,” moaned a reader from San Luis Potosí. “This was echoed by Mérida resident Patricia: “I have spoiled north-of-the-border cats! They will not eat the treats I can occasionally find here. I’ve been mule-ing pounds of the stuff every four months!!”
Everyone has their own priorities as to what they use precious suitcase space to bring back. I know mine changes: one trip it was dark chocolate, in a multitude of forms; another trip bathing suits and underwear. Most recently it was organic salad dressings (yes, really), cotton towels and sheets.
Ann, a Baja resident for 15+ years, shared her method of acquisition.
“As I begin packing to visit my hometown of San Diego, I laugh. I have two suitcases nested together. No clothes. No cosmetics. Nada. When I get there, a trip to Trader Joe’s is No. 1 on my list. Face and body wash, dog treats, and my favorite foods to chow down on while I’m up north. Waiting for me will be a pile of stuff I ordered in advance from Amazon. New pajamas, underwear, cosmetics and vitamins, shower curtains. Those two suitcases will be bulging when I head south again. Trust me!”
Then there were the more, umm, specialty items.
Cheese was frequently mentioned.
“Decent inner tubes for my bike tires.” Feminine hygiene products. (“Impossible to find where I am in Mexico so I always stock up when visiting NOB.”) Breast milk storage bags. Certain art / knitting / craft supplies. Ultra-Strength 1000 Tums. Vitamins with readable labels. Shoes in half-sizes. (“PLEASE!”) Pickled okra.
A few things I’m not alone in missing are books, environmentally friendly cleaning products, calendars and greeting cards in English, real Q-Tips. (I brought four boxes back last trip.) And “A dozen real boiled bagels,” mused a reader in Mérida.
Problem-solver Linda of Playa del Carmen decided to try and be the change she wanted to see. Her extensive list included many of the most popular items as well as things like Pillsbury pie crust, Nilla wafers, cellulose sponges, canned green beans and Bisquick.
“I sent Walmart corporate offices a list of 30 items five times,” she sighed. “They didn’t care.”
Ultimately, we all learn to make do with what’s here in tandem with what we can bring down ourselves, learn to make or convince friends and family to bring.
“The longer you live outside your own country the less you miss,” said Holland native Ans. “We’ve lived all over the world and you find replacements, make it yourself or forget about it.”
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.
Sometimes eating and happiness do go hand-in-hand
We all know how “comfort food” makes us feel better. But why?
Wikipedia defines comfort food as “food that provides a nostalgic or sentimental value . . . characterized by its high caloric nature and carbohydrate level. The nostalgia may be specific to an individual, or it may apply to a specific culture.”
That’s it in a nutshell, and explains why so many of us have such strong cravings as we navigate our new lives in a new culture. Familiar foods from our past activate feelings of well-being and emotional security, and take on increased importance for exactly those reasons.
Eat what you crave and feel better.
Psychology Today adds that “people often use comfort food — food associated with the security of childhood, like Mom’s chicken soup — to treat themselves, both physically and psychologically. Its power may lie primarily in the associations it calls to mind, memories of secure attachment.”
Ultimately, though, eating foods high in fat, sugar or salt just makes us feel better all the way around. Wikipedia weighs in on that too, saying those kinds of foods activate the brain’s reward system, “giving a distinctive pleasure or temporary sense of emotional elevation and relaxation.”
In conclusion, you’re not imagining it: when you’re feeling down eating what you’re craving really will make you feel better. Just remember to do it in moderation!
Volaris overtook Aeroméxico to become Mexico’s leading airline in 2019, statistics show.
The low-cost airline transported 21.97 million passengers on domestic and international flights last year, while 21.8 million people flew with Aeroméxico, the nation’s flag carrier.
The number of passengers transported by Volaris is 19% higher than in 2018 and an all-time record, according to CEO Enrique Beltranena.
“We transported 22 million passengers in the year, that makes Volaris the largest Mexican airline by volume of passengers,” he said. “. . . No other Mexican airline has transported so many passengers in a year.”
Volaris took possession of new Airbus 320 and 321 neo planes in 2019, allowing the airline to increase the number of seats it put on sale by 230,000, or 16%, compared to the year before. It also began flying to more than 40 new destinations.
In contrast, Aeroméxico’s capacity was reduced because its Boeing 737 Max aircraft remained grounded due to safety concerns.
An analyst at Monex financial group said that a major factor in Volaris’ strong 2019 performance was that it operates more efficiently than its competitors.
“Volaris has a point-to-point business model, which allows it to keep its planes operating in 13.1-hour blocks . . .” Brian Rodríguez said.
While Volaris transported the highest number of passengers, its low-cost rival Viva Aerobus recorded the strongest growth in 2019. Just over 12 million people flew with Viva last year, a 20% increase over 2018 numbers.
The airline added eight new aircraft to its fleet and started flying 23 new routes.
“The enlargement of our fleet, capacity, sales and passengers set 2019 apart as a year of historic expansion for Viva,” said CEO Juan Carlos Zuazua.
The goal in 2020, he added, is to continue growing with the aim of transporting 14.5 million passengers.
A farmer shows off his long corn cobs in Jala, Nayarit.
The grower of the world’s largest corn cob is farmer Jesús Nazario Elías Moctezuma, who won the annual corn cob competition in Jala, Nayarit, in December.
The winning cob measured 39.5 centimeters long, beating out the next largest by only a half centimeter.
In addition to the contest, the event hosted a gastronomical exhibition in which the star of the show was the grain that has been a staple of the Mexican diet since long before the arrival of the Spanish.
The executive director of the Mexican Corn Tortilla Foundation, Rafael Mier, said the competition is an initiative for promoting production and distribution of the large species of corn, as lack of demand threatens its existence.
“This [species] produces an excellent corn that can be used to make atoles, tortillas, sopes, tlacoyos and even pozole, among other suggestions,” he said, adding that local authorities are working to recuperate the species.
“A number of organizations have united to achieve this, such as the National Forestry, Agriculture and Livestock Research Institute (INIFAP), the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the Mexican Corn Tortilla Foundation,” he said.
The 2016 winner with 45-centimeter cobs.
Mier has worked to save a number of endangered corn species, such as his 2016 campaign to save the Toluqeño palomero strain, which is used to make popcorn.
Studies by the Mexican Biodiversity Commission (Conabio) have shown that the maize species produced in Jala is characterized by its long lifecycle, height of the plant and above all the size of its cob, considered to be the biggest in the world.
The plants grow as tall as four to five meters and produce cobs longer than 30 centimeters on average, while some as long as 60 centimeters have been reported.
The species is grown elsewhere in Nayarit and in neighboring states like Jalisco and Sinaloa, but does not grow as large in those places as it does in Jala, which winner Elías Moctzezuma praised for the fertility of its soil.
Macolm Madsen was last seen in Puerto Vallarta in October 2018.
Justice appears unlikely in the case of a Canadian man who disappeared in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, more than a year ago despite the best efforts of his daughter to assist Mexican authorities.
Malcolm Madsen, a 68-year-old snowbird from Sutton, Ontario, who spent winters living in a treehouse on the Jalisco coast, was last seen on the night of Saturday October 27, 2018, in the Ándale restaurant and bar in Puerto Vallarta.
Security footage filmed inside the bar shows Madsen sitting at a table with a woman who his daughter Brooke Mullins identifies as his 43-year-old Mexican girlfriend, Marcela Acosta Ramos.
The footage shows Madsen leaving the table at one point and in his absence, the woman believed to be Acosta is seen preparing a substance that she would soon put into his drink. After Madsen returns, the couple are seen in close conversation before the woman opens her fist and drops what appears to be a powder into his margarita glass. She then stirs the drink with a straw.
Edited and condensed footage posted online by the newspaper Toronto Star shows Madsen sipping from his glass nine times in a 13-minute period before the woman repeatedly stops him from drinking more by pulling the straw away from his mouth.
Madsen and his girlfriend, Marcela Acosta.
Footage also shows Madsen and the woman leaving the bar together. The Canadian was never seen again.
On November 1, 2018 – five days after the disappearance – Brooke Mullins received a Facebook message from a friend of her father who said that he couldn’t reach him at Los Chonchos, a beach town south of Vallarta where Madsen lived when in Mexico.
Mullins tried to contact her father by calling him and sending messages to his cell phone and Facebook account. However, all her attempts to get in touch went unanswered.
Mullins told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) that she was not initially worried because she knew her father had poor internet and phone reception.
However, after hearing from friends and neighbors a few days later that Madsen hadn’t been seen at his home all week, the situation became one of “full panic,” she said. Her father was reported as missing but local police didn’t appear to take the case seriously, Mullins said.
“They thought maybe he wandered off or was taking a break from his life,” she said. “They were not interested at all.”
Mullins told the CBC that she was informed by Canadian authorities that there was little they could do because the investigation fell under Mexican jurisdiction.
“I’m not satisfied with the help I received from Canada, and I’ve spoken to everyone you could possibly imagine,” she said in a December interview. “I am not content with the way the Mexican government has dealt with this. I do not feel like anyone is interested or cares.”
Frustrated by the apparent police inaction after her father was reported missing, Mullins traveled to Jalisco in November 2018 to see what she could discover for herself.
A week after her father was last seen at the Ándale bar, the Ontario woman said the bar owner allowed her, her lawyer and a few of Madsen’s friends to review the security footage. Mullins said she “felt physically ill” after watching the video in which her father’s drink appears to be spiked. “There was that physical reaction of realizing how serious this really was.”
Mullins said she took the footage to police but an officer accused her of “doctoring” it.
By accessing GPS coordinates sent to her father’s email account, Mullins also discovered that Madsen’s Toyota van had traveled to several different locations on October 27 and 28, 2018.
What happened to Malcom Madsen? Watch shocking last known footage before he disappeared
She said the data – automatically sent to her father’s email address by GPS provider Trackimo – shows that Madsen’s van went to a shopping mall early in the evening of October 27, a remote jungle-like area north of Puerto Vallarta three hours later and a marina in the early hours of October 28 before returning to Acosta’s home.
The data is at odds with a statement Acosta reportedly made to police that the van had been in her garage all night. Mullins said that Acosta also told police that she and Madsen left the Ándale bar early because Madsen was drunk. Acosta claimed that she and Madsen slept at his home in Los Chonchos and that the next morning, he got up, packed his bags and left never to be seen again.
Along with the bar footage, Mullins took the GPS evidence to police believing that it would help them solve the case.
“I honestly felt like I was almost divinely guided. I just thought I had everything. You know, I thought how could they not see how damning this is and get involved?” she told CBC.
However, Jalisco authorities failed to make any progress in the case and there have been no arrests, the news website Vallarta Uno reported on January 10. The website said that Marcela Acosta contradicted herself about the last time she saw Madsen in a statement to the Jalisco Attorney General’s Office but noted that neither she, nor anyone else, faces charges.
Vallarta Uno also revealed that Mullins submitted a series of emails to police that provided an insight into the relationship between Madsen and Acosta. The latter would frequently ask Madsen for money and to buy cars and real estate for her, the website said.
In July 2018, Acosta sent an email to Madsen (who was in Canada at the time) to tell him that she, her mother and her son were sick and for that she reason she needed to continue withdrawing money using a bank card he had given her. Madsen reportedly responded that he had no problem with her withdrawing money when she needed to.
In other emails, Acosta asked Madsen to buy a house for her in Vallarta so that she could rent it out, threatened to withdraw all the money from his account and accused him of giving her a disease. Madsen told Acosta that he was going to buy her a restaurant but turned down her request to purchase a house in Vallarta, telling his girlfriend that she could rent out his property in Los Chonchos and keep the revenue it generated.
In addition, Vallarta Uno said that lawyers hired by Mullins discovered that Madsen made a call on October 27 to a man named Gabriel who operated a water taxi that the Canadian would use to travel between Vallarta and Los Chonchos. It is the last known call that the Canadian man made.
Although there have been no arrests, Vallarta Uno said there are a number of suspects in the case including Acosta’s son and brother, who may have been driving Madsen’s van on the night of his disappearance.
However, with little progress having been made, Mullins stood before a court in Ontario in late November to ask for her father to be declared dead. The court upheld the request.
Mullins and her lawyers hope that authorities in both Mexico and Canada will treat a suspicious death more seriously than a missing person case, CBC reported.
“It was very hard,” Mullins said, referring to her decision to ask the court to declare that her father was dead. “I’ve been holding on to that 15% still that he might be alive somewhere out there being held . . . But I do know he’s gone.”
An artisan works on one of the pieces of whimsical folk art.
The government of Oaxaca is taking legal action to protect the colorful artisanal wooden figurines called alebrijes from plagiarism and piracy by Chinese producers.
Oaxaca Economy Secretary Juan Pablo Guzmán said that a request has been sent to the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) to enforce a protection order for the folk art.
The registration called geographical indication will safeguard the Oaxacan heritage from inauthentic imitations.
“The IMPI has received the project sent by the government of Oaxaca for geographical indication for alebrijes, by which the wooden figurines carved by artisans would be protected at the national and international levels so that they won’t be subject to plagiarism and piracy,” he said.
The legal instrument will bring artisans better remuneration and worldwide prestige for their work, which will be protected and recognized across the globe, Guzmán said.
The government is working to protect textiles and the red and black clay pottery styles unique to the state in the same way, so that they also receive industrial protection from the IMPI.
“In Oaxaca artisans face problems such as competition from foreign products, primarily Chinese ones that are sold at lower prices and put them at a disadvantage, but also the fact that some foreigners take the models of the folk art and pirate them,” he said.
He added that the protection protocol aims to help with the production and commercialization of artisanal products, as well as advise artisans on intellectual property issues so that their creations and ideas are not stolen by others.
The daycare where children contracted food poisoning.
As many as 70 young children suffered food poisoning at an IMSS daycare in Guadalajara, Jalisco, on Tuesday.
They are believed to have taken ill after eating tainted panela cheese they were served at lunch at the daycare, operated by the Mexican health service.
Showing severe symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea, the children ranging in age from a few months to 4 years old were taken to several IMSS clinics in the city but were later reported to be in stable condition.
IMSS authorities have come under fire for allegedly attempting to keep the incident quiet by hiding information from firefighters sent to the school and using the institute’s own ambulances to transport the children, instead of involving organizations such as the Red Cross and the Guadalajara Green Cross health service.
But the institute emphasized that it followed emergency medical protocols with regard to the detection of symptoms, provision of medical services, notification of parents and the transportation of the children to medical facilities.
Not all of the affected children showed symptoms severe enough to require emergency medical care, and some parents were called to come pick them up at the daycare.
“My daughter was not taken to the emergency room, but they’re telling me she has diarrhea, so I’ll have to take her to the doctor,” said Nancy Barraza, a mother of children in the institute’s care.
IMSS authorities said that an investigation into possible negligence is being conducted and that it will take disciplinary measures if necessary.
