A witness of the horrific accident in Jala, Nayarit, Monday in which a double tractor-trailer carrying propane gas rolled over and exploded says the accident was not caused by the truck driver, as was reported, but by another driver who cut in front of the tanker.
The explosion killed 14 people, 12 of them instantly while in their vehicles on the Tepic-Guadalajara highway. They were burned beyond recognition.
The body of one victim was found on the highway, presumably ejected from a vehicle, possibly the tanker truck, and later died. Local media reported Tuesday that a 31-year-old woman survived the initial crash but later died at a nearby hospital from burns.
Authorities have not identified the cause of the accident but speculated that brake failure on the part of the tanker truck, which was from Torreón, Coahuila, may have been responsible. They also believe that the truck initially collided with another vehicle on the highway, leading to a chain-reaction accident involving the other two cars.
But Jared Grymaloski, who was driving from Guadalajara at the time of the accident, told Mexico News Daily that he witnessed a car cutting off the tanker truck as it attempted to leave an off-ramp that turned out to be closed. When the car, a small white SUV, tried to re-enter the highway, the tanker truck was unable to stop in time, he said.
Said Grymalowski of the tanker truck driver, “He was just minding his own business.”
According to media reports, the off-ramp to Jala was closed at the time of the accident due to construction.
Just before the accident, Grymaloski said, he and his wife had been traveling behind the SUV and another vehicle. Both had been traveling at about the same speed with them for about 40 kilometers.
Just before the Jala exit the SUV had pulled ahead of the tanker and exited on the off-ramp. But realizing that the ramp was closed the driver tried to re-enter the freeway, Grymaloski said.
“The tanker driver saw what the white SUV was doing and locked his brakes up — a lot of smoke — and tried to swerve to the left but clipped the white SUV and then caught the red car that was trying to cut in front of the truck and literally drove over the top of the right front hood, which flipped the truck onto its passenger-door side,” Grymalowski said.
The tanker truck’s two trailers then began to jackknife and “wrapped around the red car and then burst into flames.”
“We had slowed right down, as we thought we might help the injured,” he added, “and then the fire started toward us; we got out of there pretty fast.”
The house of fashion designer Isabel Marant has issued a statement apologizing to Mexico and the indigenous groups whose traditional design patterns she used without acknowledgement in her latest winter-fall clothing collection.
Earlier this month, Culture Minister Alejandra Frausto Guerrero wrote an open letter to the French designer, questioning her use of indigenous designs in her clothing, citing in particular a Marant cape that Frausto said featured stolen design patterns long associated with the Purépecha of northwestern Michoacán.
The cape is featured on Marant’s clothing website for 490 euros (US $580).
Frausto also charged that the collection used designs belonging to other indigenous people in México state, Tlaxcala, San Luis Potosí and Oaxaca.
“I ask you, Ms. Isabel Marant, to publicly explain on what grounds you privatize a collective property, making use of cultural elements whose origin is fully documented,” Frausto wrote.
Marant’s design house initially claimed that the designer was simply paying tribute to the indigenous communities of Mexico, a country with which the designer said she was well familiar. It also said that Marant’s brand is firmly oriented toward highlighting traditional cultures around the world, and that the collection reinterprets indigenous patterns as a way of “valorizing and highlighting” the mix of cultures generally.
However, the latest company statement said that Marant had been “enormously saddened” that her focus on indigenous patterns had been perceived as cultural appropriation, and that the designer had wanted “to promote a craft and pay tribute to the aesthetic to which it is linked.”
Future Marant designs, the statement went on to say, would “pay tribute to our sources of inspiration.”
Frausto, who made public Marant’s statement of apology, said that while she recognized the importance of Marant’s apology, it was the indigenous communities themselves who would decide whether to accept it.
She also invited Marant to Mexico to visit the peoples whose designs she had used, to learn their languages and “their worldview represented in the language of each piece,” as well as the time and money that the indigenous makers had invested in their work.
Residents of Caparroso, chest deep in floodwaters.
Residents of flooded communities in Tabasco are criticizing the federal government for choosing to flood poor areas of the state in order to save Villahermosa, and denouncing the failure of authorities to provide humanitarian aid in a timely manner.
The decision – completely at odds with López Obrador’s oft-repeated maxim,“For the good of all, the poor come first” – caused severe flooding in the municipalities of Jalpa, Nacajuca and Centla. One community that was hit particularly hard was Caparroso, located in Centla.
Homes were flooded and crops were destroyed, leaving the community’s many farmers without a source of income. Days after the flooding started, residents still hadn’t received any assistance, the newspaper El Universal reported Tuesday.
Caparroso local Magali Méndez condemned the government’s decision to give preferential treatment to Villahermosa as the state struggled to cope with heavy rains brought by two cold fronts and a tropical storm.
“Nos refundieron en el agua por Villahermosa”
“This was a bad decision. [López Obrador] saved Villahermosa but the water ruined us,” she said. “They support those in the center [of the state], those who have money, and they never help the poor.”
Jackeline Valencia Ávalos, another Caparroso resident, also denounced the government’s decision.
“It’s a decision that the president took but he didn’t stop to think about us; as citizens we ask [the authorities] to support us … we haven’t received anything – that they haven’t even give us a single food package is unfair,” she said.
Floodwaters are so high in Caparroso, El Universal reported, that it is impossible for short people to venture outside their homes because they would be completely immersed. Residents also fear that snakes and crocodiles are lurking in the floodwaters.
To purchase supplies such as food, water and medicines, residents need a boat and a lot of strength to row through the murky waters, the newspaper said, adding that some people without their own means of aquatic transportation have had to pay their neighbors to take them to stores.
People are constantly monitoring the floodwaters for any signs that they are rising, fearful that their homes could be completely submerged.
A flooded home in Centla, Tabasco.
Hundreds of other communities across Tabasco, where more than 300,000 people have been affected by recent flooding, face similar situations.
A resident of Gaviotas Sur, one of the affected neighborhoods, staged a unique protest on Monday to condemn the delay in getting government assistance to flood victims.
In front of the government palace in Villahermosa, William Morales Alejo, a former municipal official who represented Gaviotas Sur, allowed another man to whip him some 20 times on his shirtless back.
Before he was subjected to the painful treatment, Morales accused the army, the National Water Commission (Conagua) and Civil Protection authorities of abandoning Villahermosa residents affected by the flooding.
“Thousands of families were left trapped; they didn’t even take them a can of tuna,” he said.
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“It was only the day before yesterday when the president came that the army started to distribute [supplies] in areas where the water went up to people’s ankles, [but not in areas where flooding was worse]. It’s not fair,” Morales said.
“I don’t know if this government lacks humanity but it’s not okay that … [López Obrador] sells a discourse at his morning press conferences that everything’s going well in Tabasco; it’s a lie – it’s day 12 [of the floods] and only yesterday help started to arrive.”
Meanwhile, Conagua director Blanca Jiménez came under fire on social media after she said in an interview that Tabasco residents have to be prepared to deal with flooding because “aquí les tocó vivir.”
Her use of the phrase, which roughly translates as “this is where you have the misfortune of living” was condemned as insensitive by many social media users.
Memo Arias, a newspaper columnist in Tabasco, was among those who criticized Jiménez.
Instead of telling people to prepare for recurrent floods, the Conagua chief should get to work on flood prevention projects in Tabasco, he wrote on Twitter.
Beds are raised above water level to allow people to sleep.
The previous federal government pledged to spend almost 20 billion pesos on such projects but only ended up spending 14% of that amount, while the current government has only budgeted 90 million pesos to build flood prevention infrastructure in 2021.
Trenches across highways are citizens' defensive strategy.
In an attempt to prevent Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) hitmen from entering their communities and attacking them, residents of two municipalities in western Michoacán have taken defensive measures by digging trenches across highways.
Residents of Coalcóman and Tepalcatepec, neighboring municipalities that border Jalisco, cut road access at La Limonera and La Pinolapa, the newspaper Milenio reported.
Dug with heavy machinery, the trenches prevent vehicles from traveling through the two municipalities to Jalisco and the Michoacán coast.
According to residents, CJNG gunmen have entered several communities in armored vehicles over the past week and launched attacks directed at their adversaries, among which is a group known as Carteles Unidos.
Residents say that the CJNG – usually considered Mexico’s most powerful and dangerous criminal organization – has taken control of several communities in the Tierra Caliente region of Michoacán.
The decision to dig the trenches came after members of a CJNG cell set fire to 11 vehicles last weekend in the Coalcóman community of Puerto de las Cruces, apparently to stop the entry of security forces from Jalisco after a cartel ambush.
Residents say the CJNG has been bringing weapons and people into Michoacán via Puerto de las Cruces, which adjoins the Jalisco municipality of Pihuamo.
The weapons and cartel personnel are taken through Coalcóman to a community in the municipality of Aguililla where the CJNG has a base, according to residents.
Aguililla was the scene of a cartel ambush just over a year ago that left 14 state police officers dead. The attack is believed to have been perpetrated by the CJNG.
Community authorities told the newspaper El Universal that the cartel was also responsible for an ambush last Friday that wounded three state police. The attack occurred on the Tepalcatepec-Coalcomán highway near the community of Los Aguacates.
As a result of the recent cartel violence in the region, about 200 families decided to abandon their homes and seek refuge in safer locations. Some are reportedly planning to leave Michoacán to travel to the northern border and seek asylum in the United States.
One of 11 vehicles set on fire by a Jalisco cartel cell in western Michoacán.
Some teenagers have fled their towns out of fear that the CJNG will attempt to recruit them forcibly, El Universal reported.
Authorities have identified a man nicknamed “El Negrito” as well as Miguel Fernández, aka “El M2,” as the main instigators of the violence in western Michoacán municipalities on or near the Jalisco border. El Negrito is believed to be the leader of a CJNG cell while Fernández is the suspected plaza chief in Aguililla.
El Universal reported that there is video footage of the former executing presumed members of rival groups in cold blood. The newspaper also said that there is footage of CJNG members setting residents on fire as a form of torture to obtain information from them about rival criminal groups.
Formed about a decade ago, the Jalisco cartel is led by Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, Mexico’s most wanted drug lord. It is notorious for violence and making videos that show off its significant firepower.
Oseguera hails from a town in Aguililla, and violence in and around the municipality last year was reportedly linked to his desire to move home.
Thirteen people are dead after the driver of a tractor-trailer carrying propane on the Tepic-Guadalajara highway lost control and rolled over, crashing into another car and causing a chain-reaction accident that involved two other passenger vehicles before it exploded.
The explosion took place around 8:30 a.m. near the Nayarit municipality of Jala. Authorities said the explosion had a reach of about two hectares.
The Nayarit Attorney General’s Office said that 12 of the 13 victims never escaped their cars and were instantly killed by the explosion and burned beyond recognition.
One victim was initially taken to a hospital in Tepic. Authorities speculated that it was someone in the gas truck, either the driver or a passenger.
The bodies were taken to forensic authorities for identification and investigation.
Lentils make a good blank canvas for the intense flavors in Mexican cuisine.
Although I’ve seen lentils in mercados all over Mexico, it never occurred to me till now to wonder what their place was in traditional Mexican cuisine. Turns out there are lots of unique lenteja recipes.
In some states, lentil dishes replace meat during Catholic holidays; in others, they’re paired with chorizo or poblano peppers, nopales or pork. My sense is that Mexican cooks like lentils for the same reasons I do: they’re cheap, easy and quick to cook.
They’re also a nice blank canvas for Mexico’s smorgasbord of chile peppers, spices, herbs and distinctive local ingredients.
Mexico is one of the top 20 lentil-producing countries in the world, with the majority grown in Michoacán and Guanajuato. There’s such a demand for lentils here, though, that thousands of tonnes are imported each year, mostly from Canada.
The most commonly found are green lentils, which come in two sizes: the smaller, or “French,” lentils cook faster and are a bit darker in color. There are also brown, yellow and red lentils. You can buy lentejas in bulk in your local mercado or packaged at any grocery store. Always remember to wash and sort through them in case there are any pebbles!
Lentils are grown in Mexico but are so popular, they’re also imported.
Lentejas Oaxaqueñas
Traditionally served during Lent, this is an unusual, delicious combination of smoky lentils, sweet pineapple and plantains.
¾ cup lentils
4 cups water
4 cloves garlic, halved
1 white onion, chopped
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 ripe plantain, peeled and chopped
1 fresh pineapple OR one (10 oz.) can unsweetened pineapple slices, cut into chunks
2 Roma tomatoes, chopped
¼ tsp. ground cloves
½ tsp. allspice
1 tsp. salt
Put lentils, 1 tsp. minced garlic, half of the chopped onion and water in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer about 20 minutes or until lentils are tender but not mushy. Drain and reserve liquid.Heat oil in large saucepan. Sauté remaining onion and garlic until onion is soft. Add plantain, pineapple and tomatoes; cook, stirring, until plantains are soft, 15-25 minutes. Add lentils, spices and salt and some of the reserved cooking liquid. Continue cooking until mixture thickens a little; add more cooking liquid or vegetable or chicken broth so dish has a thick, stew-like consistency. Serve over rice.
Lentil Soup with Nopales
½ cup lentils, rinsed
6 cups water
½ lb. fresh nopal, diced
Salt to taste
1 green onion, quartered
½ pound tomatoes, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
¼ cup finely chopped onion
1 jalapeño, minced
1 cup chicken stock
¼ cup chopped cilantro
Bring lentils and water to boil in large pot, lower heat and cook until lentils are mushy. Separately boil nopal with salt and the green onion until tender. Drain, discard onion and rinse the nopal.
Blend tomatoes and garlic to make a purée and set aside. Heat oil in small skillet, add onion and jalapeño; cook until softened. Add tomato/garlic purée; cook until almost dry and then add to lentils along with stock and nopal. Cook, covered, for 20 minutes on low heat. Stir in cilantro. Serve with warm tortillas or bolillos. – The Essential Cuisines of Mexico by Diana Kennedy
Lentil burgers are sturdy enough to grill on the barbecue.
Lentil Burgers
¾ cup lentils, washed
1¾ cups plus 1 Tbsp. vegetable broth or water
2 tsp. olive oil
½ onion, minced
Juice of ½ lemon
Salt
8 oz. fresh baby spinach leaves, chopped fine
2 big cloves garlic, minced
Salt & pepper
½ tsp. ground cumin
1 cup breadcrumbs
½ cup pecans, toasted, finely chopped
Bring lentils and 1¾ cup of broth to a boil in medium saucepan over high heat. Reduce to low, partially cover and simmer until lentils are soft and liquid is absorbed, about 30 minutes. Transfer to medium bowl with remaining 1 Tbsp. broth. Mash well; set aside.
Heat oil in large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add onion, lemon juice and ¼ tsp. salt and cook, stirring, until softened. Stir in spinach, garlic, cumin and 1 tsp. pepper; cook 3 minutes. Add breadcrumbs, pecans, spinach mixture and ¾ tsp. salt to lentils and mix thoroughly. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or overnight.
To cook: Preheat grill to medium-high. Form into six 4-inch patties and spray with cooking spray on each side. Grill until grill marks form, about 3 minutes per side. To cook in a non-stick skillet, coat pan with olive oil and sauté till browned, crispy and heated through.
Lentil Paté with Cumin, Cilantro & Lime
4 cups water
1small onion, finely chopped
1cup lentils, washed
1 tsp. ground cumin
Salt & pepper
1 cup cilantro leaves, slightly packed
¼ cup olive oil
2 Tbsp. fresh lime juice
Combine onion, lentils, cumin and water in a saucepan; add salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer until lentils are falling-apart tender, 25–30 minutes. Cool. In a blender, purée lentil mixture, cilantro, oil and lime juice until smooth; taste and season. Spoon into a bowl, drizzle with a little more olive oil and lime juice; top with more cilantro.
Try using the meat and water from a fresh coconut for this soup.
Coconut Lentil Soup
You can use the water and meat from a fresh coconut instead of canned or packaged. To make coconut “milk,” blend coconut water with some of the meat till smooth.
2 Tbsp. coconut oil
1 large onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
One 3-inch piece of ginger, peeled and grated
½ -1 jalapeño, minced
1-3 tsp. garam masala or curry powder
One 13½ oz. can full-fat unsweetened coconut milk
5 cups water or vegetable stock
1 cup lentils, washed
½ cup unsweetened shredded coconut
4-6 oz. fresh baby spinach
One 15 oz. can crushed tomatoes
Salt & pepper
Splash or two of soy sauce
1 tsp. vanilla extract
In medium saucepan, heat coconut oil over medium heat until hot. Add onion, stirring occasionally, until transparent and beginning to turn golden, 6-8 minutes. Stir in garlic, ginger and jalapeño; cook 5 minutes. Add garam masala or curry.
Stir in coconut milk, lentils, shredded coconut, tomatoes with their juice, and stock/water. Bring to a boil, then turn to low and simmer, 25-30 minutes, stirring occasionally until lentils break down and soup thickens. Add more water if needed. Stir in spinach and soy sauce. Season with salt and pepper. Turn off heat, stir in vanilla. Serve with a dollop of plain yogurt.
Janet Blaser has been a writer, editor and storyteller her entire life and feels fortunate to be able to write about great food, amazing places, fascinating people and unique events. Her first book, Why We Left: An Anthology of American Women Expats, is available on Amazon. Contact Janet or read her blog at whyweleftamerica.com.
Frenaaa supporters' tents in the Mexico City zócalo.
Protesters opposed to President López Obrador and his government continue to occupy Mexico City’s central square even though the movement’s leader said that their tents would be removed on the weekend.
Members of the National Anti-AMLO Front (Frenaaa) converged on the zócalo, as the square is commonly known, on September 23 after having camped for five days on a nearby avenue.
They are calling for the resignation of the president, commonly known as AMLO, asserting that his government has mismanaged the coronavirus crisis and associated economic downturn, and is turning Mexico into a socialist country among a range of other complaints.
Frenaaa leader Gilberto Lozano said Saturday that the tents that have occupied the zócalo for almost two months would be removed because protesters participating in a mass anti-AMLO march planned for this Saturday will need the space for a rally after they arrive from the Monument to the Revolution.
“It’s obvious that we have to clear the zócalo so that our mass gathering can end there,” he said in a video message.
“… During this weekend we’ll remove the camp,” Lozano said, adding that Frenaaa had “intelligence information” that suggested that the federal and Mexico City governments are seeking to stir up violence at the zócalo that would dissuade people from attending Saturday’s march.
Anyone still camping in the zócalo on Monday will not be considered part of Frenaaa, he said.
Government supporters, some of whom travel to the zócalo to yell insults at the protesters, claim that many of the tents are unoccupied and have been pitched to give the impression that the anti-AMLO movement is bigger than it really is.
The newspaper El Universal reported Sunday that there were few people among the tents and that those who were there appeared to making preparations to leave.
López Obrador addressed the ongoing protest camp at his regular news conference on Monday morning.
“They announced they were going to withdraw but they haven’t done it yet,” he told reporters at the National Palace, located opposite the zócalo.
“It appears that there are problems inside this organization [Frenaaa]. … If the aim [of the protest] is for me to go, there is already a mechanism; the [midterm] elections are coming [in 2021] … and then in 2022 there is the revocation of mandate process,” López Obrador said, referring to the referendum he plans to hold on his leadership.
“There is a pacific and democratic way, if the people tell me to go [I’ll go]; in democracy the people install [their representatives] and the people remove [them].”
The president said previously that he was happy that people were protesting against him because it meant that his government is changing Mexico for the better.
“Those who benefited for a long time are now protesting and they think that the times of abuse and corruption are going to return,” López Obrador said when Frenaaa first set up its camp.
“That’s why I’m happy because imagine if the conservatives didn’t protest, I would feel frustrated.”
One of the Puerto Escondido fishermen with the big catch.
A pair of Oaxaca fishermen caught a 220-kilogram black marlin in the waters off Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, after working four hours to land it.
José “Pepe” Sánchez and Pedro “Sata” García were fishing aboard their boat, La Punta, some five nautical miles from the Punta Zicatela. They hooked the fish Friday around 8 a.m. and then wrestled with it together for another four hours before pulling it on board.
The pair are already known for big catches: previously, they won the tourist destination’s international sailfish competition after catching 151-kilogram blue marlin.
Children in six states didn't their vaccines between January and October.
Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell has rejected a study that found that more than 1.6 million children were unable to access essential vaccines between January and October.
A study by the Mexican Vaccination Observatory found that just under 1.66 million children in six states – Durango, San Luis Potosí, Querétaro, Guanajuato, Hidalgo and Campeche – didn’t get the vaccines they required for a range of diseases including measles, hepatitis, diphtheria, polio and tuberculosis.
Of that number, 87% weren’t inoculated because the hospital or health clinic to which they went didn’t have the vaccines.
Asked about the study at a press conference on Sunday, López-Gatell claimed that the data was out of date.
However, he acknowledged that there have been problems with the national vaccination program, asserting that the government is today “trying to rebuild on the damage done, particularly between 2015 and 2018.”
The deputy minister said the government “inherited great vices” from its predecessor, asserting that it purchased vaccines from bogus companies set up for corrupt purposes.
“Some of these companies were barred [from selling vaccines] due to multiple irregularities. By being barred they left a void,” López-Gatell said.
“… The vaccines against tuberculosis and DPT [diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus] were the most affected. Also the vaccines against measles at one point,” he said.
López-Gatell said the government is currently purchasing the three vaccines from different producers around the world.
He said the Mexican government has been buying vaccines from the Serum Institute of India for 30 years without problem except for the 2015-18 period when fraudulent intermediaries got involved in the process.
In addition to the apparent shortage, many babies and children have missed out on essential vaccines this year because their parents didn’t take them to healthcare facilities out of fear of contracting the coronavirus, the newspaper Reforma reported.
Rafael Lozano, director of health systems at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington said that problems with Mexico’s network of infrastructure to keep vaccines cold have also caused people to miss out on getting essential shots.
López-Gatell said last week that Mexico wouldn’t purchase the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine – which the company announced is more than 90% effective – because it doesn’t have sufficient infrastructure to keep millions of doses frozen as required.
Two shoppers in Guadalajara got a good deal on a large purchase of whisky thanks to an error by a supermarket and intervention by Profeco, the federal consumer protection agency.
Profeco stepped in after a Soriana supermarket in the Jalisco capital refused to sell the couple 2,340 bottles of whisky at three for the price of two. The shoppers were taking advantage of a Buen Fin promotion that didn’t stipulate a limit per customer. When the store refused to sell them the liquor, they called Profeco.
Buen Fin, or Good Weekend, is similar to the United States’ Black Friday event. It began November 9 and wraps up Friday.
Profeco said it ruled in the shoppers’ favor because the promotional materials for the offer did not state anywhere that the promotion had a limit on the number of bottles that could be purchased.
The agency itself posted a video on its Twitter account showing the two in Soriana with a Profeco official in front of a large pallet containing their whisky. The agency warned business owners to be mindful of labeling restrictions during the Buen Fin sale, saying that the agency would rule in favor of consumers in the event of such errors.
Stories of retailers failing to indicate prices or restrictions adequately or correctly during Buen Fin — and the drastic monetary consequences to the retailer — have become the stuff of legend in recent years. Errors have resulted in consumers getting highly discounted prices on products.
Profeco tends to rule in favor of consumers. Last year, when Walmart in Durango and Mexico City mislabeled prices of electronics during Buen Fin, customers got unheard-of discounts: in Mexico City, customers got a 24,000-peso Samsung HD smart TV for 2,400 pesos.
In Durango, a mistake in which a comma was used instead of a decimal point on labeling, customers were allowed to buy a 32-inch Pioneer brand smart TV — intended to be sold for 3,788 pesos — for just 3.78 pesos.
