As more people work from home, the higher the demand for internet.
As Mexico braces itself for more quarantine and social distancing, technology experts warn that the massive shift in internet usage from the office to the home could cause speeds to drop significantly, as has been seen in other countries dealing with outbreaks.
“The crisis we’ve seen in the last few weeks has effectively produced a worldwide phenomenon of massive displacement of internet communications and data consumption,” said Félix Barro, director of the Cybersecurity Hub at Monterrey Tech’s Mexico City campus.
He said that countries like China, France, Italy and Spain have experienced the worst effects on internet performance, with speeds regularly at only 45% of full capacity.
“It’s because the whole world is trying to connect to the internet, downloading videos, making video calls, streaming. [They] weren’t prepared for these increases in network traffic,” he said.
Up to now, internet speeds and capacities in both fixed and mobile networks in Mexico have remained stable, according to global broadband speed assessment website Ookla.
The CEO of Megacable, Enrique Yamuni, said the cable company’s current internet capacity can take an increase of about 40% more traffic, but beyond that networks will become saturated and customers will begin to see much slower service.
AT&T and Movistar said that they are permanently monitoring their networks and haven’t seen a significant increase in data consumption.
Telcel and Telmex did not respond to an inquiry from the newspaper Reforma as to the status of their networks, but information security specialist Rafael Pazarán cited Telmex as the only telecommunications company in the country that is ready for a surge in traffic.
“Not all of the internet service providers are prepared for this increase in rates. Just one, Telmex, is prepared because it has response plans for pandemics,” he told the newspaper El Sol de México.
The main problem, however, is not the amount of internet traffic on companies’ servers, but where that traffic will be going.
Telecommunications specialist Fernando Borjón said that the most likely situation is that the wifi networks in people’s homes will become saturated, rather than a company’s infrastructure itself.
“What could happen in the home is there are suddenly many people connecting to a wifi network at the same time. The networks currently in people’s home are wifi 4, so if you have lots of people connecting, or neighbors joining your network, the local system is going to crash,” he said.
“Capacity is not infinite and the first bottleneck is the modem,” he added.
But beyond possible decreases in speed and overloaded modems, Pazarán said that internet users in Mexico do not have to worry about entire networks or service providers breaking down completely.
“If the question on everyone’s minds is if the internet is going to crash, the reality is no. The internet is [built] with very strong and robust architectures and technologies. … We could have no service, but that doesn’t mean the internet has crashed, but that the bridge to the internet [such as a modem] has crashed,” he said.
The price of Mexico’s export crude plunged to its lowest level in 21 years on Monday as demand continues to decline due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
A barrel of Mexican crude was selling for US $10.37 at the close of trading on Monday, a 20.3% decline compared to Friday.
The price is the lowest since March 1999 and represents an 82.5%, or $49, decline compared to the highest price a barrel of Mexican crude has yielded this year.
Global oil prices have taken a significant hit in recent weeks as the coronavirus pandemic worsens. A glut of oil in the international market as large oil producers such as Saudi Arabia ramp up production has also placed strong downward pressure on prices.
A comparison conducted by the newspaper El Universal found that a liter of Mexican oil sold on Monday for one-quarter of the price of the same quantity of bottled water and 1/23 the cost of beer.
The price slump is yet another hit for the heavily indebted state oil company, whose average per barrel production cost in 2019 was $14.20, 37% higher than yesterday’s price.
According to a report by the newspaper El Economista, Pemex may be forced into closing some of its fields where the cost of oil extraction and refining is well above current prices. Producing a barrel of oil from reserves in some fields costs Pemex as much as $24.
The plunging price for Mexican crude also affects private and foreign companies that are drilling in Mexico after being let into the petroleum sector as a result of the former government’s energy reform. Some companies could seek to make use of exit clauses if they deem that their projects will not be economically viable.
To March 30, the average price of Mexican crude this year has been $40.90 per barrel but analysts at Citibanamex are now predicting that the average 2020 price will be $22.
The government’s oil hedging program will cushion some of the blow to Pemex but public finances are still expected to suffer considerably as a result of lower oil prices. In its 2020 budget, the government anticipated an average per barrel price of $49.
Gabriel Farfán, a public finance consultant and director of a Mexico City-based think tank, said that the decline in oil prices has not yet been reflected in government revenue figures because only those for January and February have been published.
“On the last day of February, there was a per barrel price of $39, which is $10 less than what was established in the [2020] economic package. The interesting thing will be to see the quarterly report [for January, February and March],” he said.
According to data from the Finance Ministry, oil revenue in 2019 was just over 955 billion pesos (US $40.4 billion at today’s exchange rate), an amount that represented 17.7% of the government’s total income.
If the crude price continues to decline to an average of just $20 in the first five months of the year, the government’s oil revenue will decrease by 60-63%, predicted Tec. de Monterrey economist Raymundo Tenorio.
“That’s a significant reduction in government revenue. If, despite that, they want to maintain a primary surplus they will have to make a lot of cuts but I don’t see where [they can make them]” he said.
Underwater archaeologist Roberto Junco deposits the archive on the bottom of the Lake of the Moon. Alberto Soto SAS-INAH
Underwater archaeologists have returned 52 pre-Hispanic ritual objects to the place where they were found: the bed of one of the two crater lakes of the Nevado de Toluca volcano.
Members of the underwater archaeology team at the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) deposited the mostly spherical and conical resin objects on the bed of the Lake of the Moon earlier this month.
The objects, believed to have been made by the Matlatzinca people between the 13th and 15th centuries and placed in the lake by pre-Hispanic priests, are stored in a specially-made container that allows water and sediment to flow over them. As a result, they are protected from deterioration.
The trove of objects is the first in situ underwater archaeological archive in Mexico, according to an INAH statement. The decision to preserve the objects in their place of origin complies with recommendations in the 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage.
The objects were found at the Nevado de Toluca crater lake in 2007 and have been studied and analyzed for the past 13 years.
Enna Llabrés and Roberto Junco prepare the collection of artifacts for deposit on the lake bottom. Iris Hernández SAS-INAH
Enna Llabrés Torres, a researcher with the INAH underwater archaeology department who made the container in which the resin relics are stored, said that the objects could be removed for further study in the future as new technologies and methods of analysis emerge.
She explained that while the objects were studied over the past 13 years, they were stored underwater in conditions similar to those found at the Lake of the Moon, which is located more than 4,000 meters above sea level and has an average temperature of 3 C.
The conical objects measure 20-30 centimeters while the spherical ones are roughly the size of a baseball. INAH archaeologist Iris Hernández said that the Nevado de Toluca volcano has been considered a sacred site since pre-Hispanic times and for that reason, relics used in rituals and ceremonies have been found there.
She said that the conical objects – made out of resin of the copal tree – may have been specifically made to resemble the form of the volcano, located in modern day México state.
According to carbon dating tests conducted by experts at the National Autonomous University Institute of Physics, the ritual objects date back to between 1216 and 1445 AD.
The time period corresponds to the rule of the Matlatzinca people in the Valley of Toluca prior to their domination by the Mexicas.
Some support will be available to CFE customers in Yucatán.
The Yucatán state government announced on Monday that it will provide economic supports to its citizens to alleviate the negative economic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Governor Mauricio Vila Dosal told a press conference that his government would pay water and trash collection bills in full during the months of April and May.
He also announced that the state government will pay 50% of the electric bills of households that keep their consumption to 400 kilowatt-hours or fewer during the two-month period in an attempt to assist the poorest of the state’s population.
Vila said that the crisis is “hitting the national and state economies hard, especially among those who have the least.”
“We are doing this out of solidarity with all of you. And let it be made very clear, that in the face of this crisis and this adversity, we are all one. You are not alone. You have our complete support,” he said.
The state government will allocate resources to Yucatán’s 106 municipal governments to pay for the trash and water services, providing families with short-term relief from at least two bills so that they can focus their budgets on food, medicine and other immediate needs.
The energy bill payments will be arranged via an agreement with the Federal Electricity Commission.
Vila emphasized that the effort will allow his administration to support around 507,000 households, representing some 63% of the state’s population. He also urged yucatecos to modify their energy consumption habits in order to be able to receive the benefit.
Officials announce the emergency declaration at last night's press conference.
The federal government declared a health emergency on Monday due to the coronavirus pandemic, suspending non-essential activities until April 30 as the number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Mexico surged past 1,000.
The emergency declaration was announced by Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard at the government’s nightly coronavirus press conference following a General Health Council meeting chaired by President López Obrador.
Ebrard said that the aim of the measures in the declaration is to decrease the spread of Covid-19 and reduce the number of deaths caused by the infectious disease. While the health emergency declaration remains in force, the federal Health Ministry will have the authority to determine actions that must be taken by all three levels of government.
According to the declaration, all non-essential public, private and social sector activities, including the collection of data for the 2020 national census, must be suspended between March 30 and April 30.
Among the activities excluded from the directive are those related to healthcare in both the public and private sectors, public security, the delivery of justice, the operation of government social programs, energy supply, food production and sale, water supply, farming and fishing, infrastructure maintenance, financial services, telecommunications and transportation.
A worker disinfects bicycles belonging to Mexico City’s bike sharing program Ecobici.
Federal and state legislatures will also be permitted to continue legislative activities.
Ebrard said that businesses that don’t comply with the order to close, or refuse to continue to pay their employees during the one-month suspension of activities, could face sanctions or be forcibly closed. He also said that they could face criminal complaints if they place the health of their workers at risk by refusing to suspend activities.
Under the emergency declaration, the social distancing initiative that officially commenced on March 23 is extended to April 30 and schools will remain closed until the same date. The government ordered the suspension of all meetings and events that seek to gather more than 50 people and is urging all people to stay at home as much as possible.
Those aged over 60, pregnant women and people with chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension must strictly observe the stay at home order, according to the emergency declaration.
Ebrard urged all Mexicans to wash their hands frequently, maintain a healthy distance from each other and observe strict hygiene practices when coughing or sneezing.
He stressed that the human rights of all people in Mexico will be respected while the stricter restrictions are in place, asserting that the government will not implement a “state of siege” in which it could arrest those violating the measures contained in the emergency declaration.
The foreign minister predicted that Mexico will have a “difficult month” in April but stressed that if the stricter measures were not put in place the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic could last more than a year.
“It’s a matter of choosing what we want to do: concentrate all our efforts this [coming] month or have at least a year of enormous economic difficulties. What would happen [in the latter scenario]? Poverty would increase a lot,” Ebrard said.
At the same news conference, Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell announced 101 new Covid-19 cases, taking the number of confirmed cases in Mexico to 1,094. He also said that the coronavirus death toll had increased to 28 from 20 a day earlier.
In addition to the confirmed cases, there are 2,752 suspected Covid-19 cases and 5,635 people have tested negative for the disease, López-Gatell said.
The deputy minister reiterated the message that Mexico has a final opportunity to slow the spread of Covid-19 to reduce deaths and avoid the health system being overwhelmed.
“Right at this time, we have the opportunity to take advantage of the mitigation measures that imply a mass restriction [on movement]; millions of people have to restrict their movement so that this can have a positive effect,” López-Gatell said.
At the start of the press conference, Health Minister Jorge Alcocer called for calm amid the growing coronavirus outbreak and asserted that health authorities continue to act responsibly and with “sound judgement.”
“Don’t be alarmed, I can guarantee you that the health workers of the nation form an excellent team. [The situation] is not permanent, we’re learning about this new viral infection. Some of us have certainly [already] acquired immunity. … Together we will overcome the challenges that are presented to us.”
Lineups at Cancún airport as travelers attempt to flee.
Everyone hates flying, but when it takes you through that specific corridor of anxiety known as Cancún airport, the experience adopts a far more sickly nature.
More and more unfortunate souls are finding themselves forced down this path, partly due to the awareness of the escalating coronavirus problem entering the global consciousness, and partly due to the simultaneous and paradoxical lack of awareness, an ambiguity that tends to encourage the flight impulse over a more resilient desire to stand one’s ground.
On an unassuming Saturday morning, on a short trip to speak with one of the only airline companies still operating out of the city — Air Canada — about their upcoming operationality, the scale of how underprepared Mexico’s infrastructure remains becomes painfully clear.
Reactions to the Covid-19 outbreak have varied not only from country to country, but evidently from city to city. In Mexico, a country seemingly unperturbed by the impending spread, Cancun stands out like a sore thumb. The airport, which in the minds of fleeing tourists presents itself as the pearly gates of paradise, turns out to instead be a cruel obstacle course, unavoidable for any passing visitor wishing to return home.
As the world scrambles to understand the new state of play, and border closures become daily news, progressively more and more travelers are folding their cards and admitting that the stakes are in fact too high.
Cancún airport: a corridor of anxiety.
This explains the unprecedented (admittedly a word we’ve all heard too much of these last few weeks) congestion on entry. Early on, the queues are already outgrowing the flimsy crowd-controlling infrastructure.
What becomes clear is that the mass can be divided in two, those leaving today, boarding pass in hand aiming for the check-in desk, and those rather more dispirited groups with no flight, looking to leave by hook or by crook; but the Air Canada attendant is clear: no more spaces for at least another week. Anna from Amsterdam is due to fly in five days anyway, but tells me that with the rate at which the news cycle rotates, she has no idea if that will be possible. “I want out — now.”
But the real problem isn’t to be found here, it’s at the check-in desk. The queue shuffles forward, 300 strong, toward the lone check-in assistant at the counter. Crowd controllers are checking their watches and becoming increasingly worried that the queue isn’t falling as quickly as the minutes, and those trying to leave are restless. There are more staff handing out sanitizer than there are moving the machine and eventually the crowd becomes incandescent. Seemingly at random, the floor staff begin grabbing individuals and families from the queue. “Toronto?!”
The flight closes in three minutes as another spanner flies into the mechanism. Check-in assistants have been mis-checking visas, and so, with a booked flight already confirmed and no more for seven days, they hurriedly direct flyers to the other side of the terminal to get their visa stamped. The families are choosing their fittest and fastest, and thus begins the Cancún 2020 sports day, giving us a relay of shouting, swearing, and finally running to get the documentation required. There’s no other word for it: Cancún airport is mayhem.
The flight closes, and 40 travelers to Toronto are still standing in the queue, as they have been for 4 1/2 hours. Geraldine, from Toronto, is scared. She is 73, an expat, and thus in one of the highest risk groups for when the wider outbreak of coronavirus finally sweeps Mexico. As it stands, she won’t be leaving anytime soon despite having her flight booked and paid for weeks in advance. Asking around, the crowd aren’t short of similar stories; they have been totally failed.
This somehow feels symptomatic. At least in this context, the infrastructure, staffing, and administration are all unprepared for the social exodus. In the space of a week, non-natives in Mexico have managed to tally the deteriorating situation in Europe, a month or so ahead in the crisis timeline than Mexico, with the reality of being stranded in a country during the climax of a global pandemic.
The tepid response from the government to the ever-expanding coronavirus problem has done little to prepare workers on the ground for this human riptide which, had information been afforded in real time over the last month, would not only have stratified the waves of people leaving, but would have enabled a wider consciousness as to its inevitability.
In recent weeks, the administration has been sporadically dousing the panic with water and wafting the smoke into the other room. “Nothing to see here,” has been their line, with President López Obrador declaring last week that “We’re going to keep living life as usual,” and encouraging citizens to “continue eating out,” an instruction that stems from his desperate bid to preserve the economy.
His government’s initial PR onslaught at the outbreak, the unrelenting transmission that they are prepared and everything is under control, has fallen to the side and, in its place, the message that there was actually nothing to worry about to begin with has remained. Mass gatherings have only recently been discouraged, and bars up and down the main streets of major cities remain as bustling as ever.
The problem now for the government is that they have no control over what its population sees abroad. A message of calm distraction from the truth could only work if the fate of Europe’s major economies hadn’t already been sealed and then hand delivered to the screens of anyone who wanted a view.
Very soon, the mood in Mexico is going to shift, but we mustn’t underestimate the power that political spin has had on the general consensus up until this point. We may be about to find that the national strategy, essentially meditating in a house that is burning, while comforting in the short term, has woefully underprepared the institutions on which it is going to rely in the coming months. Airports yes, but hospitals, local governments, supermarkets seem to be sleepwalking into the new global reality.
Furiously battling against the tide does not have to be the alternative. Panic begets panic, and at the very least, Mexico has avoided some of the more graphic doom mongering perpetuated by similar economies throughout the world. But this isn’t about stirring the water or introducing artificial worry that serves nobody, it’s about recognizing a trajectory, acknowledging it, and preparing for the impact, because there will be one.
Anyone that says they can confidently quantify the collateral damage is being disingenuous, but until the leadership admits that the state of play is going to experience a tectonic shift, the country will be unprepared to brace itself.
Now that we’re all “stuck” at home, it’s a good time to start learning how to make dishes you usually only order when you go out to eat.
I’m ashamed to say pesto is one of those things for me. I’ve probably only made it a handful of times in my entire life. It was just easier to buy it ready-made or order it at a restaurant.
Basil, the main ingredient, is an easily and commonly grown herb, called albahaca in Spanish (pronounced al-BAH-ka, as the “h” is silent) and thought to bring good luck. That’s a belief not only in Mexico but in India as well, and it’s not unusual for shops and businesses to have a plant inside their establishment or outside the front door.
In ancient Egypt and parts of Europe, people believed basil would open the gates of heaven and ensure a safe journey, and sprigs were placed in the hands of those who’d died.
For cooking, the most commonly used type is sweet basil, with soft, rounded green leaves; this is what gives Italian foods (and pesto!) their distinctive taste. Thai basil, with smaller, “harder” leaves and a spicier flavor, is used in Indonesian and Asian cooking. The list of basil varieties is long – purple basil, lemon basil, Thai holy basil (not the same as Thai basil), cinnamon basil, to name a few – and each has its own unique aroma and flavor.
Fresh sweet basil grows well in Mexico.
Depending on climate and variety, basil grows year-round, and in most parts of Mexico that’s the case. It’s a pretty and easy plant to grow, either in pots or in the ground, from seeds or starts. You’ll want to pinch off any buds or flowers, because once the plant flowers, the leaves stop growing, the stem becomes woody and essential oils (i.e., flavor) decline.
Back to pesto! You might as well make a big batch and freeze some for later. (If you’re going to do this, leave out the cheese and add it after defrosting.) The easiest way is to line ice cube trays with plastic wrap and fill each space with pesto. Once frozen, pop ‘em out and store in a Ziploc bag or container.
Pesto
Pesto is traditionally made with pine nuts, but other kinds of nuts work fine. See what tastes best to you. This is great for making a tomato-free lasagna too!
4 cups basil leaves
5 cloves garlic (or to taste)
1/3 cup pine nuts, almonds, walnuts or pecans
½ cup olive oil
¼ cup Parmesan cheese
¼ cup Pecorino Romano cheese
1 tsp. each salt & pepper
Mix first four ingredients in blender or food processor until paste forms, stopping often to push down. Add both cheeses and salt. (If freezing, don’t add cheese.) Blend until smooth. Refrigerate until ready to use. –Bon Appetit
Pistou is an olive oil-based sauce that goes well with grilled meats, poultry, fish and vegetables.
Classic Pistou
Use this olive oil-based sauce from the south of France as an accompaniment to grilled meats, poultry, fish and vegetables, or add a dollop to any kind of soup.
4-½ cups basil leaves, torn into pieces
¼ cup chopped ripe plum tomatoes
¼ cup olive oil
1 cup grated Gouda or Parmesan cheese
1 Tbsp. (or more) minced fresh garlic
1 tsp. salt
In a molcajete or with a mortar and pestle, grind garlic and salt to a paste. Add basil by the handful and grind the leaves until almost smooth. Stir in tomatoes; gradually add olive oil until combined. Stir in cheese and refrigerate until ready to serve. – Food & Wine
Black Pepper Queso Fresco Bruschetta
Here’s a different take on a classic Italian appetizer.
8 oz. fresh queso fresco or requeson
¼ cup fresh basil leaves
1 tsp. fresh lemon zest
Salt & pepper
8 slices baguette, sliced ½-inch thick
Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
4 cloves garlic
3 Tbsp. toasted slivered almonds
Place cheese, basil, zest, salt and pepper in a food processor and process until smooth. Heat grill or broiler to high. Brush bread with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and rub with garlic cloves. Grill bread on each side for 1 minute or until slightly charred. Spread each slice with the cheese mixture and top with slivered almonds and pepper. – Adapted from Bobby Flay
Roasted Tomato Basil Soup
3 lbs. ripe plum tomatoes, cut in half lengthwise
¼ cup plus 2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. salt
1½ tsp. freshly ground black pepper
2 cups chopped yellow onions (2 onions)
6 garlic cloves, minced
2 Tbsp. butter
¼ tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1 (28-ounce) canned plum tomatoes, with juice
4 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
1 tsp. fresh thyme leaves, if available
1 qt. vegetable or chicken stock or water
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Toss together tomatoes, ¼ cup olive oil, salt and pepper, then spread in a single layer on a baking sheet. Roast for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. In a large pot over medium heat, sauté onions and garlic with 2 Tbsp. olive oil, the butter and red pepper flakes for 10 minutes, until onions start to brown. Add canned tomatoes and juice, basil, thyme and stock or water; then add oven-roasted tomatoes, including any liquid on the baking sheet. Bring to a boil and simmer, uncovered, for about 40 minutes. Blend in small batches or pass through a food mill fitted with the coarsest blade. Taste for seasonings. Serve hot or cold.
Salmon with Capellini, Lemon, Capers & Basil
Have all your ingredients assembled before you start! Especially watch the capellini, as it cooks very quickly and gets mushy in the blink of an eye.
½ lb. capellini
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 Tbsp. olive oil
½ tsp. each salt and pepper, plus more for seasoning
4 (4-oz.) salmon filets
¼ cup chopped basil leaves
3 Tbsp. capers
1 lemon, zested
2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
2 cups fresh baby spinach leaves
Cook and drain pasta and transfer to a large bowl. Add garlic, 2 Tbsp. olive oil, salt and pepper; stir gently. Add basil, capers, zest and lemon juice. Toss gently, set aside, uncovered.
Heat 2 Tbsp. olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Season salmon with salt and pepper, then cook until medium-rare, about 2 minutes per side, depending on thickness. To serve, place ½ cup spinach on each plate, top with pasta and a piece of salmon. – FoodNetwork.com
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.
The president greets El Chapo's mother in Sinaloa on Sunday.
President López Obrador claimed on Sunday that his political opponents – “the conservatives” – want him to self-isolate amid the growing coronavirus outbreak so that they can seize power.
The president’s claim came a day after Hidalgo Governor Omar Fayad, who attended López Obrador’s regular news conference on March 18, announced that he had tested positive for Covid-19. López Obrador leveled his accusation in a video message filmed on a hotel balcony in Culiacán, Sinaloa.
“Do you know what the conservatives want? For me to isolate myself [but] there would be no leadership [of the country] or there would be their leadership because in politics there are no power vacuums – the voids are filled and that’s what they want, for there to be a vacuum so that they can take control … in an irresponsible way,” he said.
López Obrador claimed that “the conservatives” – a term that he uses frequently to describe both his current political opponents and members of past “neoliberal” governments – want him off the political scene because they are angry about the changes his government is carrying out.
“As they dedicated themselves to stealing and looting and we said enough’s enough, they’re very angry,” he said.
“Those of us who have an important function, a basic one, can go out to the street and work. … You can’t close a tortilla shop, doctors and nurses have to keep working, the police [too] so that there are no robberies,” López Obrador said, adding that he, as president, must also continue working.
The president, widely known as AMLO, reasserted his message later on Sunday at an event in Badiraguato, Sinaloa, home town of convicted drug trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
Speaking after he had inspected the progress made on the new Badiraguato-Guadalupe y Calvo highway, López Obrador said:
“I can’t put myself in quarantine … because we need to have leadership of the country. Not only do the conservatives want me to move out of the way and disappear, they want the fourth transformation that we are leading to fail.”
AMLO added that he would be prepared to be tested for Covid-19 but only if he had symptoms of the disease such as fever, a dry cough and body aches.
López Obrador warns of power grab by conservatives in weekend video.
“If one doesn’t have those symptoms, there is no need to take the test: just [keep a] healthy distance [from each other],” he declared.
However, during his visit to Badiraguato, part of the Golden Triangle region that is notorious for opium poppy and marijuana cultivation, AMLO once again failed to observe his own government’s social distancing advice by shaking hands with nonagenarian María Consuelo Loera Pérez, El Chapo’s mother.
In a video first posted to social media, López Obrador is seen greeting the capo’s mother as she sits in the passenger seat of a stationary SUV on a dirt road. “Don’t get out,” the president tells Loera before extending his hand.
“I already got your letter,” he added during the brief encounter, which occurred on the birthday of El Chapo’s son Ovidio, who was released by federal security forces last October after his capture in Culiacán triggered a wave of violence in the city from the Sinaloa Cartel.
The main opposition political parties were quick to condemn López Obrador for greeting the former Sinaloa Cartel leader’s mother.
“President, your greeting of Chapo Guzmán’s mother angers all of us. It shows a lack of respect to the victims of drug trafficking and the [members of] the armed forces who risk their lives for our safety. It is urgent that you explain your links to the family and if there is a connection with the release of Ovidio,” National Action Party national president Marko Cortés wrote on Twitter.
The Institutional Revolutionary Party also called for an explanation from the president.
“We ask the president … [to provide] a clear explanation about the reasons for holding a meeting with the mother of a drug trafficker. It’s regrettable that while Mexicans are fighting against the coronavirus, he is maintaining an agenda that is not in favor of Mexicans,” the party said on its Twitter account.
López Obrador responded to the criticism at his regular news conference on Monday.
“Yes I greeted her. Our adversaries, the conservatives, made a fuss about it. … She’s a 92-year-old lady. I’ve already said that the fatal plague is corruption not a senior citizen who deserves my full respect regardless of who her son is,” he said.
AMLO also said that he would make public the letter he received from Loera.
“I’ll ask the lady to understand that we have nothing to hide. There is nothing that could embarrass her or me. She has every right to defend her son as a mother and I have the obligation to listen to all Mexicans.”
Indigenous women at an access to information and data privacy workshop. diogo heber
On March 8 80,000 people took to the streets of Mexico City in honor of International Women’s Day. While there was an electric sense of solidarity in the air this wasn’t a march of celebration, but of protest.
Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries in the world to be a woman. Officially 1,010 women died from gender-related violence in 2019, but most activists believe that number doesn’t even come close to the reality. The country’s seeming inability to protect its female citizens is why so many women (and men) took to the streets – protesting the impunity enjoyed by attackers, and the impotence of the Mexican government.
But among women in Mexico, indigenous are even further marginalized and vulnerable. The combined factors of geography, low levels of education, poor health services, and language barriers (many speak one of Mexico’s 68 indigenous tongues as their primary language) have made these women the targets of violence, isolation, and neglect.
But their situation is not indicative of their abilities which, along with the right tools, could change their reality and that of their communities.
This small but mighty organization, founded by four women in Tulancingo, Hidalgo, a state whose population is almost 40% indigenous, is working to organize women in one of the three majority-indigenous regions – the Sierra Otomí-Tepehua. Ninety-five percent of the indigenous women surveyed in the region report violence in schools and the home. Eighty-six percent of the population live at or below Mexico’s poverty line (US $72 or less a month), and the average education level for women in the region is third grade.
Psydeh’s hope is to create bottom-up solutions for the problems these marginalized women face. For many years the organization carried out annual one-off projects with yearly funding from the Mexican government. But they soon realized that this kind of stop-and-start development wasn’t leading to long-term sustainability. So they shifted their approach, recrafting their work from single-project outputs to long-term grassroots development.
“We created this multi-year program, which is really built around the idea of how bottom-up organizing can be facilitated,” says Damon Taylor, who started working with the organization in 2013. “It’s a process-oriented model, that involves steps. It’s not chronological, it’s process. Over the last five years we have built a foundation around which we think we can be doing bottom-up citizen-led development in marginalized communities.”
Psydeh’s initial approach to any community is through education. It offers workshops led by female facilitators (that speak the local language) covering a wide variety of issues – voter rights, gender violence, data privacy – and invite local women to participate. Women attend for all different reasons.
“Some are just interested in learning something new, some have never been asked to participate in anything before. Others think ‘maybe this is how I’m going to get some money, or maybe this is how I’m going to get some food,’ and so they show up,” says Taylor.
Women slip into the workshops and listen. Some leave without a word, some linger hoping to hear about an economic opportunity, and some are called to action, like Lucía.
A regional forum of indigenous women in Hidalgo. diogo heber
Lucía comes from an indigenous community of 100 families in the municipality of San Bartolo Tutotepec. She has a high-school level education and her principal language is Otomí. Over a period of two years she attended Psydeh workshops in her town until she and some other women decided to organize themselves formally into a community group, or council, as Psydeh calls it. The organization helped them throughout the process.
As this small group of women started to brainstorm about common problems and how they, through collective action, might be able to solve them for themselves, Psydeh helped them find and apply for micro-project funding offered by the government and other third-party funders.
They also trained the women in governance, proposal writing, organizational capacity, and telling their story in text and visual form. Throughout, Psydeh remained in the background, assisting when they were asked, letting the women take the lead.
“Our objective, at the end of the day, is to leave. We don’t want to be there for 50 years. We want to have incubated a movement, an organized group of people who can solve their own problems, independent of an intermediary who is making money off these people vis-à-vis the government or other people,” says Taylor.
Today the women of Lucía’s group have a legal constitution, an organizational logo and mission and vision statements and are applying for their own funding. They recently applied for money for gender-violence education in their community. Other projects from other groups have included more day-to-day necessities like rainwater catchment systems (with training on how to build and maintain them) and funding to buy livestock.
Five local councils have now been organized through collaboration with Psydeh and each works independently – developing projects, writing proposals and implementing solutions in their communities.
Psydeh also facilitates regional conferences where women from communities across the four municipalities in which it operates can meet, trade ideas, organize and experience each other’s cultures through dance, craft and art. These conferences have produced a regional agenda, developed by the women themselves, that laid out their own priorities for their communities and local development. That agenda was recently presented to Mexico’s president when he visited to discuss national policy on indigenous communities.
Psydeh is probably not an organization you have heard of. Along with thousands of small non-profits it is often overshadowed in an NGO world dominated by a few big names and foundations. For a small organization like this one, the funding game is not an easy one. While the work they are doing is powerful, their impact is hyper-local and their network limited.
When Taylor came aboard in 2013 they decided to get out from under the cycle of government funding (that ebbs and flows with each administration) and try to find a path to financial autonomy.
Enter crowdfunding. While only a part of the organization’s income stream, crowdfunding has allowed them to create a funding base that makes possible the telling of their story to other, larger funders and to everyday donors.
A worldwide phenomenon for funding personal projects, Globalgiving is the world’s best-known platform for non-profit crowdfunding. Organizations can sign up for campaigns on this platform and then use their networks to reach out for support. Even here access to funding might be equal but it’s not always equitable, with big name organizations far outreaching small local ones due to their large extended networks and marketing muscle.
Yet despite the odds, Psydeh has made progress in independently funding their organization. The money that comes from crowdfunding is more flexible and provides clear financial transparency to donors. This more intimate, personal way of giving has strengthened their networks and given them the opportunity to speak directly to the public about their work.
In an increasingly uncertain world, and within a country where women’s lives are not only difficult butthreatened by violence and neglect, Psydeh is reaching out to the most marginalized, helping them help themselves. Important work, during International Women’s month and every day of the year.
Lydia Carey is a frequent contributor to Mexico News Daily. She lives in Mexico City.
Governor Mauricio Vila announced the measures on Monday.
The state of Yucatán has announced strict punitive measures to ensure public health and safety during the global Covid-19 pandemic.
Anyone presenting symptoms or having been diagnosed with could face up to three years in prison and fines up to 86,800 pesos (US $3,575) for failing to follow isolation measures instituted by the state.
Anyone who has been exposed to an infected person and then does not follow public sanitation guidelines can also be liable, as well as those who violate the temporary closure of public spaces and instructions not to assemble.
Furthermore, anyone who interferes with the operations of health officials or fails to comply with state government regulations could also be arrested and likewise face up to three years in prison.
The Yucatán government emphasized that the measures it is taking are purely preventative in nature and meant only to protect the public from contagion. It urged citizens to follow proper health practices and social distancing.
The state has also taken measures like canceling events, closing movie theaters, bars, nightclubs, gyms, sports clubs and other recreational establishments, and has called on citizens to stay at home to do their part to mitigate the spread of Covid-19.
It said that anyone who must leave for work or to buy food or medicine should do so alone and take care not to put the elderly, pregnant women, the diabetic and other vulnerable groups at risk.
