Barely a week after the bodies of two teenaged boys were found dismembered in Mexico City’s historic center, authorities on Wednesday apprehended two youths wheeling a suitcase containing the body of a 14-year-old boy.
Authorities said the 14-year-old appeared to have been hanged.
It is the latest of four brutal murders of youths in the nation’s capital. Two days ago, police discovered the remains of a 17-year-old boy in a building in the Morelos neighborhood. Police said the body showed evidence of torture.
Teens Alan Yair and Héctor Efraín were found dismembered just blocks away from the zócalo in the city center after a box containing their remains fell off a hand truck being wheeled through the city streets in the early hours of October 31.
The body of the 14-year-old, identified as Alessandro “N,” was discovered Wednesday around dawn. According to authorities, the youth had last been seen Monday in the 20 de Noviembre neighborhood in the Venustiano Carranza borough. Both he and the other two victims lived in the city’s Guerrero neighborhood.
Police officers had noticed two unidentified teenaged boys dragging a suitcase and questioned them. But the boys acted nervously and the suitcase fell from their hands. At that point, the officers saw the body inside.
The boys, who denied knowing anything about the victim’s death and told police that they had been paid to leave the suitcase at a landfill, have been taken into custody. After questioning them and checking security cameras in the area, authorities returned with a search warrant and discovered an abandoned apartment where they believe the body had been located before the boys took it. Crime-scene experts were not able to find any traces of blood in the apartment, however.
Official information about the crime was initially scarce, although some journalists have claimed that the boy was a victim of a kidnapping gone awry.
The notoriously dangerous Guerrero neighborhood, located in the Cuauhtémoc borough, is a base for the criminal gang La Unión Tepito. Authorities have linked La Unión Tepito to the deaths of Efrain and Yair, although they have not linked this latest death to the criminal organization.
A man attempts to save a piece of furniture on a flooded road in Tabasco.
Former president Enrique Peña Nieto failed to keep his promise to spend almost 20 billion pesos on flood prevention projects in Tabasco.
The Institutional Revolutionary Party president pledged to spend 19.93 billion pesos (just under US $1 billion at today’s exchange rate) on infrastructure projects in the Gulf coast state, much of which has faced severe flooding in recent days.
But between 2015 and 2018 – the last four years of Peña Nieto’s six-year term and the period during which the money was supposed to be allocated to the projects – only 2.8 billion pesos, or 14% of the pledged total, was spent.
A review of public spending conducted by the newspaper Milenio found that the former government allocated 1.1 billion pesos to the Tabasco Hydraulic Program (Prohtab) in each of 2015 and 2016 before funding dropped to 599 million pesos in 2017.
In 2018, not a single peso was allocated to Prohtab.
The program announced by Peña Nieto, above, created ‘new generations of millionaires,’ the governor charged.
The current federal government, which took office in late 2018, allocated 500 million pesos to flood prevention projects in Tabasco last year and 199 million pesos in 2020. It has only budgeted 90 million pesos for such projects in 2021.
The director of the National Water Commission (Conagua) in Tabasco said in an interview that a lot more investment is needed to prevent future flooding in the state.
“We still need [more] bordos [roughly-built dams], flood walls and drains … in order to stop floods in the state of Tabasco,” Felipe Irineo Pérez said. “[Prohtab] started in 2015 but there was hardly any investment.”
Tabasco Governor Adán Augusto López Hernández charged that all Prohtab achieved was to create “new generations of millionaires.”
He said that complaints have been filed against Conagua officials who received resources to build projects that never came to fruition. President López Obrador announced this week that his government would implement a new plan to stop recurrent flooding in Tabasco and Chiapas.
Former presidents Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderón spent 2 billion pesos and 9.4 billion pesos, respectively, on flood prevention projects in Tabasco during their six-year terms, according to Milenio. But the projects were insufficient to put an end to frequent flooding, and some of the funds allocated to Conagua in Tabasco during both men’s presidencies were allegedly embezzled.
In 2007 – the first full year of the Calderón administration – about 80% of the state’s territory was flooded and inundations, albeit not as severe, continued in subsequent years. Recent flooding in some parts of the state is the worst in living memory.
The army, navy, National Guard, police and Civil Protection authorities have been deployed to affected parts of Tabasco to help residents evacuate their homes and provide humanitarian assistance. But residents of some flooded communities have been waiting in vain for days despite López Obrador’s pledge that his government would “always help” those affected.
A man walks by a sign in Mexico city warning that the area is high risk for Covid contagion.
The federal Health Ministry reported 7,646 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, Mexico’s highest single-day tally since August 1 and the fifth highest of the pandemic.
The accumulated case tally now stands at 986,177 almost 8 1/2 months after the coronavirus was first detected in Mexico.
The only days on which the Health Ministry reported more new cases than yesterday were August 1, with 9,556; July 31, with 8,458; July 23, with 8,438; and July 30, with 7,730.
The high single-day tally reported on Wednesday came three weeks after Mexico’s coronavirus point man, Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell, warned that there were “early signs” of a new wave of infections.
However, several non-government health experts have asserted that Mexico is not going through a second wave of infections because the first wave never really subsided.
The Health Ministry also reported 588 additional Covid-19 fatalities on Wednesday, lifting Mexico’s official death toll to 96,430.
Health authorities have acknowledged that the real case tally and death toll are significantly higher. Mexico has a very low testing rate compared to most countries, with fewer than 20,000 tests per 1 million residents performed up until now.
Still, Mexico currently has the 11th highest confirmed case tally in the world and ranks fourth for Covid-19 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Among the 20 countries currently most affected by Covid-19, Mexico has the highest case fatality rate and the fifth highest mortality rate. There have been 9.8 deaths per 100 confirmed coronavirus cases, and 76.4 deaths per 100,000 residents.
There are currently 51,325 active cases across the country, according to Health Ministry estimates. Just under 35% of general care hospital beds set aside for coronavirus patients are currently occupied while 27% of those with ventilators are in use.
Chihuahua, Durango and Coahuila have the highest general care bed occupancy rates among Mexico’s 32 states, with 80%, 78% and 77%, respectively, currently in use. Chihuahua and Durango are the only two states where the risk of coronavirus infection is currently red light “maximum” according to the federal government’s stoplight system.
Coronavirus cases and deaths in Mexico as reported by day. milenio
Aguascalientes, Mexico City and Durango have the highest occupancy rates for critical care beds, at 63%, 50% and 48%, respectively.
The capital easily leads the country for confirmed cases and Covid-19 deaths, with 174,127 of the former and 15,839 of the latter as of Wednesday.
More than one in five of the 7,646 new cases reported on Wednesday – 1,724 – were detected in Mexico City. Similarly, one in five of the 588 additional fatalities registered – 118 – occurred in the capital.
Covid-19 fatality and case numbers are also a concern in Guanajuato. The Bajío region state reported 91 deaths between Monday and Wednesday, a 38% increase compared to the same three days last week when 66 fatalities were registered.
Confirmed coronavirus cases increased by almost 3% between Monday and Wednesday compared to the same days last week, with health authorities reporting 1,057 new infections.
The rise in Covid-19 deaths and confirmed cases coincides with Guanajuato’s regression to “high” risk orange on the coronavirus stoplight map. The state’s risk level was downgraded to yellow light “medium” in late September but switched back to orange on Monday.
León, the state’s largest city, leads for both cases and deaths, with 17,713 of the former and 1,377 of the latter. Irapuato and Celaya rank second and third for both cases and deaths. The former municipality has recorded 5,472 cases and 345 deaths while the latter has registered 5,016 cases and 337 fatalities.
The case tally and death toll in Guanajuato city stand at 1,821 and 103, respectively, while tourism and expat hotspot San Miguel de Allende has recorded 782 coronavirus cases and 43 Covid-19 deaths, according to state government data.
Guanajuato Health Minister Daniel Díaz Martínez said Wednesday that a switch to red on the stoplight map is currently more probable than a return to yellow. He urged residents to follow health measures during the Buen Fin shopping event – Mexico’s black Friday – asserting that the behavior of citizens will determine the course of the state’s epidemic.
Authorities on Wednesday found the body of Jamapa, Veracruz, Mayor Florisel Ríos Delfin, who was shot and killed execution-style and her body left in an empty lot in the municipality of Medellín de Bravo.
It is the latest incident in a series that raises more questions than answers about criminality and corruption in this coastal community that is part of the city of Veracruz metropolitan area.
The newspaper Reforma reported that it had a recording of Ríos claiming that she knew her life was in danger and that her requests for help were ignored by Government Secretary Eric Cisneros, who she also claimed had recently disarmed her police force, leaving her defenseless.
She also said that Jamapa was the target of “harassment” by state authorities and claimed that she had done everything she could to comply with their demands following the arrests of city officials on corruption charges last week. She also claimed that Cisneros had told her that until her husband turned himself in to state authorities, Jamapa’s police force would remain disarmed.
“If your husband doesn’t surrender himself, I’m not going to give back your police force’s weapons,” Ríos claims Cisneros told her. “If you don’t know how your police force is, then you are the rotten one. That’s why they killed your police chief, because your police force is evil.”
The mayor’s husband: he expects to be next.
Said the mayor in the video, “I walk alone. I have no budget to pay anyone to protect me.”
Jamapa Police Chief Miguel de Jesús Castillo Hernández was killed in July. Hours before his murder, a video surfaced in which he accused the mayor and her husband of ordering kidnappings and murders in complicity with the police.
Rios’s husband, Fernando Hernández Terán, was one of the targets of the anti-corruption sweep, in which state authorities arrested the city’s former treasurer and former director of public works but were unable to apprehend Hernández, who is ex-director of the city’s DIF family services agency.
Hernández himself was targeted for attack in March, when the Jamapa municipal council told the state Attorney General’s Office that at least eight armed men had appeared in city offices on March 5, demanding Hernández turn himself over and taking city employees hostage for about 10 minutes, threatening them if Hernández did not appear. However, they eventually left after taking the hostages’ cell phones.
Hernández proclaimed his innocence on Facebook Wednesday, saying that he was sure Ríos’s killers were now “coming for me.”
“We are in a Mexico that, if we try to do the right thing, we are evil. And it’s all the fault of organized crime,” he said. He said of Ríos, “They have taken away a great woman and exemplary matriarch.”
Some Tabasco residents are still waiting for help days after floodwaters inundated their communities and homes.
One town that appears to have been forgotten by both federal and state authorities is Tepetitán, the birthplace of President López Obrador.
Homes in the town, located about 80 kilometers southeast of Villahermosa in the municipality of Macuspana, have been flooded for more than a week but neither state or federal authorities have arrived to help.
With their pens rendered inhabitable by floodwaters, pigs, turkeys and chickens have moved into the flooded homes of some residents, taking up residence on tabletops and rooftops.
“The government hasn’t helped us but we’re here,” one local man told the newspaper Reforma.
A raised platform keeps this family dry in their flooded home.
“There are a lot of people in Tepetitán who didn’t leave. … We need provisions, food and ointment for our feet. … All our documents got wet. … Of course, the people who have nothing to lose left but we have pigs and turkeys to look after,” he said.
Many residents – mainly men because most women and children have evacuated to shelters in nearby towns and the state capital – have sores on their feet because they’ve been immersed in water for days on end.
Another Tepetitán resident, identified only as Don Francisco, issued a call for help to authorities.
“We’ve been here since the flooding started and we need support; we need the authorities to support us with something, with provisions. Our homes are full of water,” he said.
“Up until now nothing has reached us, we’re waiting for medications and all that. We no longer have money to buy food.”
Reforma confirmed that López Obrador’s boyhood home was among those flooded. The newspaper said that some residents believe that the president isn’t aware of the situation his home town is facing and for that reason help hasn’t arrived.
“No tenemos comida y el agua sigue subiendo”
But others say that it’s not possible that López Obrador doesn’t know what’s happening in Tepetitán.
“I believe that he does know because they’re televising all of this,” said Mariana Alamilla, one of the few women remaining in the town.
Some residents told Reforma that the authorities have concentrated their flood relief efforts in Villahermosa and Macuspana, the municipal seat, and forgotten about outlying towns and villages.
“They’ve abandoned the communities. They haven’t even come to supervise or to see all this disaster, [they’ve done] nothing,” said one young man.
All of the Tepetitán residents who spoke to Reforma said the flooding is the worst they have ever experienced. They all blamed the flooding on the excessive release of water from dams that have been inundated by recent heavy rains brought by cold fronts and Tropical Storm Eta.
Another flooded community where residents continue to wait for help is the second section of Ranchería Cantemoc, located in the municipality of Nacajuca.
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According to a report by the newspaper El Universal, the community’s Chontal Mayan residents don’t know how they are going to survive the coming days – their homes are flooded, many of their animals have drowned and they have nowhere to buy food because local shops are closed or out of stock.
No one from the National Guard, the army, the navy, the state police or Civil Protection services has arrived with provisions or to offer a helping hand to the affected residents.
One resident joked that the authorities will eventually arrive because they won’t want to miss out on the opportunity to show that they care in the lead-up to elections next year. (Mexico’s ruling party Morena is also in power in Tabasco.)
“They won’t take long to arrive now, they’ll come for their votes,” said Asunción de la O Rodríguez.
“[But] now while the water is still rising we don’t have any support; they haven’t told us if they’re going to deliver provisions, we’re practically alone – it’s just us fighting to rescue the little we have,” she said.
Ranchería Cantemoc residents told El Universal that they used to be able to go to an elevated parcel of land in the town when floods occurred but explained that it has been purchased by the state oil company Pemex and they aren’t allowed to enter.
Flood victims in Comalcalco.
Instead, they adapted a small church as a shelter, and it is currently providing a refuge from the floodwaters for four families.
One man taking shelter in the church with his family is Moisés de la Cruz de la O, who said that his home was left practically uninhabitable and that he was unable to save any of his furniture.
“Since the rain started it’s been difficult. We don’t have work, the water’s rising every day and we’re getting tired,” he said.
“The president [López Obrador] said that they already cut off [the release of] water [from the dam] but it’s still rising,” de la Cruz added.
According to Tabasco Governor Adán Augusto López Hernández, Nacajuca is one of three municipalities where flooding was caused by the excessive release of water from the Peñitas dam, located in a Chiapas municipality that borders the Gulf coast state.
De la Cruz said that he and his family are not only worried about losing their home but also about the risk of being bitten by insects and snakes lurking in the floodwaters. In addition, food supplies and drinking water are running short.
“The resources are already running out. … The tap water that reaches us is very little, it’s not for consumption, it’s just to bathe and wash dishes,” de la Cruz said.
All told more than 90,000 Tabasco residents and tens of thousands of homes have been affected by flooding caused by recent heavy rains and/or the release of water from dams.
At least six people have drowned in Tabasco in recent days, while the heavy rains claimed the lives of more than 20 people in neighboring Chiapas, some of whom were killed in landslides.
A conservation group has reported the theft of 44 adult iguanas from its breeding facility in Juchitán, Oaxaca.
Members of the Foro Ecológico Juchiteco (Ecological Forum of Juchitán) said that thieves stole large, reproductive-age black and green iguanas from their cages at the sanctuary in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec city.
“They only left 200 small and medium-sized iguanas; they took the reproductive ones, the big ones, the ones for breeding,” said Gonzalo Bustillo Cacho. “They’ve interrupted the breeding process, it’s really upsetting. … This robbery hurts, it’s really disappointing.”
The motive for the theft was unclear but it’s likely that the iguanas will end up in a stew. Endemic to the region, the reptiles make for a popular meal in Juchitán and other Isthmus towns.
According to the Foro Ecológico, 200 iguanas are killed for their meat every day. That number rises to 500 per day during Easter week when iguana meat is commonly used to make stews and fill tamales.
‘They’ve interrupted the breeding process, it’s really upsetting,’ said a sanctuary spokesman.
The lizards’ popularity as a meal – its meat is thought to be aphrodisiac – has led to them becoming endangered, making the theft even more distressing for those dedicated to their conservation.
This week’s robbery comes eight years after 84 adult iguanas were stolen from the breeding facility.
The Juchitán sanctuary has been breeding black and green iguanas for the past 15 years. The facility released more than 50 iguanas into the wild in June, and some 3,000 of the reptiles have been released since the project began in 2005.
Some Juchitán citizens have also taken it upon themselves to help ensure the survival of the reptiles. One is 15-year-old José Francisco Sánchez, who used his own money to buy wood, wire and other supplies to build cages that mimic their natural habitat.
Sánchez said earlier this year that he plans to raise his lizards to adulthood — iguanas reach sexual maturity at between 3 and 4 years of age — before releasing them into the wild.
President López Obrador believes austerity measures for government agencies help root out corruption.
One of my biggest secret fears as a kid – I say “secret” because it didn’t occur to me to mention it to anyone – was of bridges.
It’s not a phase that lasted long, but for at least a couple of years when I was in elementary school, I’d hold my breath on car trips while going either over or under a bridge. Before getting to them I’d send up a quick prayer: “Please don’t let this bridge fall!” and then another one: “Whew, thank you!” when we’d made it safely to the other side.
I have no idea where this fear came from. Had I seen something on the news? There certainly hadn’t been any collapsed bridges in my city. Maybe I just heard someone mention it in passing, and my small anxiety-prone brain grabbed on and flagged it as yet another thing to be irrationally terrified of.
One of the ways I’ve calmed my natural skittishness through the years is by 1) relying on statistics, and 2) taking available precautions. Yes, terrible things can happen. Terrible things do happen. But most of the time, most individuals are pretty safe going about their everyday lives, especially if they take simple actions like buckling their seatbelts and looking both ways before crossing the street.
But as the coronavirus especially has taught us, we’re not always 100% in control of our own safety. Sometimes simply leaving the house wrests a reasonable expectation of basic security out of our hands.
When it comes to road safety, some places in Mexico (unfortunately) don’t get a whole lot of points in their favor. Potholes pepper the city streets, lanes abruptly end, one-way streets display scant signals, if any, that they are one-way streets. All of these are things that those of us who choose to live in Mexico must simply accept as part of life.
Municipal governments are in control of keeping city streets safe and functional, and actually do this to varying degrees. When I lived in Querétaro, at least the major thoroughfares were quite good. Here in Veracruz, they’re decidedly tougher, with the exception of Orizaba. The drivers of Jalisco last year, meanwhile, saw a 602% spike in car accidents, 16% of those “due to infrastructure, including road conditions and their design.” Yikes.
So let’s go back to these potentially-collapsing bridges. Fine, the chances that you’ll be on or under one of those bridges right at the time it starts collapsing are pretty slim. Have you heard the Mexican phrase, “Cuando te toca, ni aunque te quites, y cuando no te toca, ni aunque te pongas”? My best translation is, “When it’s your turn, it is, even if you get out of the way; and when it’s not your turn, it’s not, even if you put yourself right out front.” Suffice it to say, I find most people around rather resigned to their fate, or at least to the idea of the concept of fate.
But I, for one, am not. I believe in preventable safety measures, and that sometimes people die needlessly for stupid reasons, not just because the gods wanted it so. Call me unromantic, but dying because a bridge fell on you doesn’t happen because it was your fate, it happens because the bridge should have been fixed.
It’s dumbfounding to me that so many bridges are in such dire need of disrepair and yet are still being allowed to be used. According to the article, there will only be enough money for the repair of 90 bridges out of 2000 that need it (that’s 4.9%).
As I’ve said before, now is not the time for austerity. I understand AMLO’s desire to do away with the kinds of ridiculously extravagant spending that has marked Mexico’s government for the past several decades as officials at all levels lined their own pockets. And the Ministry of Communication and Transportation has historically been one of the worst offenders, according to Mexico’s chief auditor, who earlier this year called into question the ministry’s use of 8 billion pesos in 2018. The president has been happy to move many projects that would normally fall under their responsibility to the military, a move that many viewed with unease and that prompted the retiring of the ministry’s head as a result.
It feels a bit like an inverted version of the “scandal” surrounding “welfare mothers” in the US during the 80s and 90s: the desire to punish a few abusers led to the majority of families who really did need help to suffer much more than they should have.
But, Mr. President: might I suggest that the way to stop corruption (which, by the way, has shown no sign of going away despite claims to the contrary) isn’t by refusing to give out a large percentage of the normal budget for already existing government infrastructure but rather by creating foolproof methods to monitor and account for spending?
When it comes to public works, depriving those responsible for them of their normal budgets doesn’t just frustrate them, it neuters their ability to do things right and to help average the Mexican citizens who benefit daily from these public resources in all areas of society (Conacyt funding comes to mind).
I understand the desire to punish for past irresponsibility. Average citizens are free to grumble about it. But in my own humble opinion, a leader’s job isn’t to spend his or her time finding ways to punish but to find solutions for getting things done the right way.
I found the bonus surprise in the article about the bridges toward the bottom: 8 of those in danger of collapse are in my home state of Veracruz. Okay! Good to know – I’ll be sure to avoid those then until they’ve been repaired! Except that I might go on them anyway, because the ministry isn’t revealing which bridges they are.
Well, great.
Sarah DeVries is a writer and translator based in Xalapa, Veracruz. She can be reached through her website, sdevrieswritingandtranslating.com.
Bartlett, left: 'Complaint makes me laugh.' López, right, charges 'criminal negligence.'
The chief of the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) and the governor of Tabasco traded barbs on Tuesday over who is responsible for severe flooding in the gulf coast state.
Manuel Bartlett of the CFE denied that the state-owned company is responsible for the flooding that has plagued parts of Tabasco, including the state capital Villahermosa in recent days.
But Governor Adán Augusto López Hernández accused the CFE of causing some of the flooding by releasing greater quantities of water from the Peñitas dam, which is located on the Grijalva River in Chiapas and used to generate hydro-electric power.
Interviewed outside the National Palace in Mexico City on Tuesday afternoon, Bartlett said that some people are looking to blame others for their own “clumsiness.”
Asked about the Tabasco governor’s remark that he would file a complaint against the CFE for damages caused by the flooding, he responded: “That complaint makes me laugh.”
Bartlett, who had attended a meeting with President López Obrador and other governors to discuss the flooding and ways to prevent it in the future, asserted that the CFE doesn’t manage the water in the Peñitas dam and other dams across the country.
The Committee of Large Dams manages dam water, he said, explaining that the organization is made up of officials from the National Water Commission and university academics.
“Who determines the management of [dam] water up until today is this organization,” he said.
López Hernández responded to Bartlett on Twitter, charging that his remarks were designed to “hide the irresponsibility” of CFE officials.
The Tabasco governor said that Bartlett had confessed that there was a “miscalculation in the operation of the Peñitas dam” and that the error caused flooding in three municipalities – Nacajuca, Jalpa and Cunduacán.
“Now with professional cynicism he says that ‘the complaint makes him laugh.’ He will soon have his opportunity to speak in court. Surely he doesn’t understand but the change in this country is profound; we have confidence in the judicial authorities,” wrote López Hernández, who represents the Morena party founded by President López Obrador.
In a separate tweet, the governor charged that Bartlett “and his bureaucrats” allowed 1,500 cubic meters of water per second to be released from the Peñitas dam, which had been inundated with rain brought by two cold fronts and Tropical Storm Eta.
By increasing the amount of water released from the dam, the CFE “criminally flooded the Tabasco plains,” López Hernández wrote. “Mr. Bartlett, that’s not called clumsiness, it’s called irresponsibility and criminal negligence.”
Prior to his Twitter tirade, the governor said in an interview that the Tabasco government would file a legal complaint against the CFE to seek compensation for damage caused by the flooding. He warned last week that he would hold the state-owned company responsible for any damage caused by an increase in the quantity of water released from the Peñitas dam.
López Hernández said Tuesday that the current priority was to save lives and support people affected by the flooding but asserted that his government would subsequently launch legal action. It is clear that the CFE has mismanaged the dam water, he said.
“It rained less and it flooded more due to the [excessive] release [of water],” the governor said. “There is obviously damage and there is a cause of the damage. Those responsible must make amends.”
The Sanctuary at Chalma, México state, about 65 kilometers from Toluca, is Mexico's second-most visited pilgrimage site after the Guadalupe Basilica in Mexico City.
Santiago was talking to me about the pilgrimage to Chalma when he became adamant about one thing.
“You must ride a horse,” he said.
I was born and raised on Staten Island, a borough of New York City, and my family didn’t have many opportunities for horseback riding. Actually, we had none. I told him it was a bad idea, but he kept insisting.
“You will be fine,” he said.
I had my doubts.
I was working on a book chronicling a year in San Gregorio Atlapulco, a town in Xochimilco, Mexico City, and that meant going on pilgrimages. Chalma, which is located in México state, is the second-most-important pilgrimage site in Mexico after the Villa Guadalupe.
“The pilgrimage is Catholic,” said Javier Márquez Juárez, who goes every year, “but it is also indigenous.”
Some believe that the “Black Christ” said to have miraculously appeared in Chalma’s caves in 1537 was actually an Aztec deity.
The origin of the pilgrimage is this: one of the gods worshipped by the Mexicas was Tezcatlipoca, the Smoking Mirror or Dark Lord. There was a life-sized statue of the god in a cave in Chalma, and this didn’t sit well with the Augustinian friars who arrived around 1537, determined to convert indigenous communities to Christianity. According to one legend, two friars wanted the idol destroyed, and when it wasn’t, they went to the cave to destroy it themselves. However, when they arrived, they found the idol in pieces on the ground, replaced by a figure of a crucified black Christ. Mexicas supposedly converted on the spot.
Pilgrimages are held throughout the year.
“The largest pilgrimages are on New Year’s, Ash Wednesday and Good Friday,” said Márquez. “Ones that occur in May and June, like the one from San Gregorio Atlapulco, have pre-Hispanic elements. Those months are when indigenous groups petitioned for rain.”
Bowing to Santiago’s gentle, if persistent, pressure, to ride a horse, I figured I should take riding lessons. I told Max, my instructor, and an expert horseman, about Santiago’s insistence.
“Sometimes the trails are difficult even for us,” he said, which caused me no end of worry. But when I mentioned this to Javier he said, “You will be fine.”
Most from San Gregorio walk or ride horses to Chalma, a challenging two and a half days covering about 45 miles. There are steep climbs on narrow mountain paths, and because it’s the rainy season, there are often severe storms to contend with. Yet the pilgrims go every year.
“I go to show the faith I have in the Lord of Chalma,” said Juan Manzanares who has gone on the pilgrimage for 26 years, almost half his life. “To feel the peace and spirituality of the sanctuary, also … to conserve the traditions of our country.”
For Raúl Hernandez Serralde, the pilgrimage is a chance to give thanks for a perceived miracle. “When I was three, I was very sick, and the doctor did not know if I would live,” he said. “My grandfather carried me all the way to Chalma. He walked the whole way. He bathed me in the river there … and I did recover. It was a miracle. So I go to Chalma every year to give thanks to God.”
Underlying beliefs in indigenous religions and traditions also compel people to go.
“We go to ask for rain so that we have a good harvest,” said Márquez. “When we walk through the mountains — mountains represent water — it is to ensure rain.”
A little after 5:00 a.m. on June 1, thousands of people streamed out of San Gregorio on their way to Chalma. Fireworks exploded overhead. The pilgrimage had started.
I was relieved that I didn’t ride the horse from the very beginning. But I became less sanguine when the flat road we were on turned into steep mountain paths. As we climbed one particularly challenging stretch, Santiago turned to me several times worriedly.
“Do you want to rest?” he asked each time.
“No,” I panted. “I’ll rest when we get to the top.”
For many pilgrims, the road to Chalma involves a steep mountain hike.
When I finally got there, I decided to take some photos before resting. As soon as I sat down, however, Santiago announced, “Vámonos.”
I eventually rode the horse for a mostly uneventful hour, deciding I’d had enough when we stopped for a break and, despite my whispering to the horse, “Whoa, whoa” (I don’t know the Spanish equivalent), she kept going around in small circles. Santiago kindly helped me down. The second day was a six-hour walking marathon during which I’d gotten separated from the group and walked the last hour alone in a punishing downpour. Whoever had petitioned the gods for rain had had their prayers answered.
Finally, after a challenging two days, I was completely soaked and tired, but I’d made it. About 60 of us slept in tents that were set up under a second very large tent, which is also where we ate. It rained almost every day, so the ground was muddy and it was hard to stay dry. But no one complained.
I then spent three days in Chalma, going to the church every day and often at night. More pilgrims arrived daily, and thousands crammed into the churchyard, where different Aztec groups danced, pounded out different rhythms and sang. Masses were held continuously inside the church, where the black Christ now hangs.
The return trip was arguably even more difficult. I rode the horse for four hours on the second day, over mountain paths that were narrow, slick with mud, and blocked in parts by boulders and fallen trees. It was way beyond my ability but, miraculously I didn’t fall. I wish I could say it was due to my superior skills, but it was due to my clinging to the saddle as if my life depended on it. Which it may have.
A huge storm also hit at the end of that day; I’m talking about a storm where you start thinking about building an ark and selecting animals. At one point, three of us reached an intersection where water was so deep and moving so rapidly, we couldn’t cross. We had to detour and jump over a narrow stream. We bedded down the final night in a rodeo arena, sleeping on ground covered with stones, making for a very uncomfortable night.
We finally made it back to San Gregorio in the early afternoon and were greeted at the entrance to the pueblo with bottle rockets, toritos (makeshift structures filled with fireworks and carried above a person’s shoulders), other fireworks and, of course, another big meal.
All in all, the trek to Chalma took about 16 hours. We crossed mountains and fields under a hot sun. We were rained on. We were exhausted. We suffered — but that’s part of the point.
“When a group suffers together, they become much closer,” said Hernández. “Suffering is part of spirituality. We suffer, we make a sacrifice, to show thanks to God, to show our faith. So we walk, we sleep on the ground.”
“Suffering in the Catholic religion is payment for sins,” says Márquez. “In pre-Hispanic traditions, it is an expression of stoicism. So in pilgrimages today, there are two visions: Catholic and pre-Hispanic.”
Immediately after the pilgrimage ended, I decided that going once was enough, that I only went to take photographs. Now I’m not so sure. I now know what to expect, and that might make it a little easier.
But with the pilgrimage canceled this year because of the coronavirus, I have a whole year to decide.
Joseph Sorrentino is a regular contributor to Mexico News Daily.
As Trump declares fraud and Biden celebrates victory, AMLO stays mum.
President López Obrador has rejected any suggestion that there could be reprisals against Mexico for his decision not to not recognize Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump in the United States presidential election.
Several hours after United States media called the race for Biden last Saturday, López Obrador said he would wait until “all the legal issues” surrounding the election are resolved before congratulating the successful candidate because he didn’t want to be “imprudent.”
At his regular news conference on Wednesday, he ruled out any possibility that Biden will retaliate.
“If we don’t recognize [Biden as president-elect] will there be reprisals? No,” López Obrador told reporters.
“There’s no reason for there to be reprisals because we’re sticking to our … principles [of non-intervention], to our laws. Besides, we’re not a colony, we’re a free, independent and sovereign country. The government of Mexico isn’t the puppet of any foreign government.”
The president reiterated that he won’t recognize a winner of the election until there is greater certainty about the result. To do so now would be “interventionism,” he said.
As congratulations for Biden flooded in from around the world after the U.S. media declared that he had secured enough electoral college votes to win the presidency, Mexico was conspicuous for its decision to not do the same, especially considering the importance of its relationship with its northern neighbor.
Vladimir Putin of Russia, Xi Jinping of China and Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, who has been described as the “Trump of the Tropics,” were also among the small group of world leaders who chose to withhold congratulatory remarks to the president-elect.
“The crazy guy could close the border, deport people or [do] something else that could cause a lot of damage to Mexico and to our compatriots,” said Genaro Lozano, a political analyst and columnist.
In contrast, León Krauze, a journalist and news anchor, was highly critical of López Obrador’s stance. Writing in The Washington Post, Krauze said the president’s decision not to recognize Biden’s victory “tacitly” validated “Trump’s mission to delegitimize the electoral process.”
Columnist Krauze: López Obrador has chosen a side.
That shouldn’t surprise anyone, he wrote, charging that it was the “next logical step” in López Obrador’s “subservient” relationship with the U.S. president.
Krauze claimed that AMLO, as the president is known, “has chosen to appease” Trump “at every turn,” noting that in order to avoid blanket tariffs on Mexican exports he agreed to militarize the southern border and comply with the United States government’s controversial policy of sending migrants to Mexico to await the outcome of their asylum claims in the U.S.
The columnist also criticized López Obrador for heaping praise on Trump during his trip to Washington.
“After such indignity, granting credence to Trump’s legal challenges of the electoral process in the United States should be an expected, if sad, progression,” he wrote.
Krauze also acknowledged that AMLO’s own personal experience in close contested elections was a factor in his decision.
When he was narrowly defeated by Felipe Calderón at the 2006 election, López Obrador “cried fraud and set out to delegitimize the election,” he wrote.
“He demanded a recount. When the process failed to vindicate his allegations of electoral wrongdoing, López Obrador proclaimed himself the ‘legitimate president’ of Mexico and declined to recognize Calderón as the country’s lawful leader, dismissing him as ‘spurious.’”
Krauze noted that AMLO also refused to accept his 2012 defeat to Enrique Peña Nieto but “reconciled” himself with Mexico’s democratic institutions when he prevailed at the 2018 election.
“This dynamic is now becoming eerily familiar to U.S. voters. Like López Obrador, Trump believes in democracy only when it benefits him. Any adverse result is suspect, potentially fraudulent, illegitimate,” he wrote.
“Given their shared narcissistic and conspiratorial mind-set, why would López Obrador turn his back on Trump now? Why acknowledge Biden’s victory if, perhaps, he has already opted to believe Trump’s allegations of fraud?” Krauze asked.
After concluding that the Mexican president has already chosen a side, the journalist asserted that “Biden will surely notice.”
However, he didn’t consider the possibility that the president-elect might seek to retaliate once he takes up residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Analyst Carlos Bravo: there will be repercussions at home.
Héctor Diego Medina, a columnist and foreign affairs analyst, acknowledged that AMLO had made a “diplomatic error” in not congratulating Biden but opined that there would be no reprisal against Mexico because the 77-year-old former vice president “is not a vengeful politician.”
But Carlos Bravo Regidor, a prominent political analyst and professor at the Center for Economic Research and Teaching, a Mexico City university, said that López Obrador’s failure to reach out to Biden could have repercussions at home.
“Drawing the analogy between Mexico in 2006 and the U.S. in 2020 puts López Obrador in the awkward position of equating himself with Trump and his baseless fraud allegations,” he said.
“If Mexico does not pick the side of American democracy, the United States will not take the side for Mexican democracy either. Perhaps that is what López Obrador wants, but that is not what’s in the best interest of Mexicans.”
Jesus Velasco, an expert on U.S. Mexico relations at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas, said the decision not to congratulate Biden “will, at least in the beginning, lead to an unpleasant bilateral relation that will complicate Mexico’s relationship with its main trade partner.”
“However, AMLO’s insensibility will not modify the structural relationship” between Mexico and the United States, he said.
A senior Mexican government official who spoke to The Dallas Morning News on the condition of anonymity said that AMLO’s decision is designed to avoid Trump bullying Mexico in his last days in office, but another official said the move was “embarrassing.”
Tony Garza, a former U.S. ambassador to Mexico, said that López Obrador’s refusal to acknowledge Biden was “a fumble of sorts” but not a big deal.
“[The] truth is, the president-elect’s inbox is full of far more pressing matters than AMLO’s unforced errors,” he said.
Writing in The Dallas Morning News, journalist Alfredo Corchado said López Obrador’s failure to pick up the phone and call Biden represented an “inauspicious start” to his relationship with the president-elect. He also said that the relationship between the two men had been “muddied” because López Obrador didn’t make time to meet with Biden when he was in Washington in July.
Noting that Mexico and the United States share a long border and need to cooperate on issues including immigration and trade, the bonds between the two nations “are a top priority,” Corchado wrote. “And they’re fragile.”
Similarly, Shannon O’Neil, a senior fellow for Latin America at the Council for Foreign Relations, said that López Obrador has made a “rocky start” to the relationship with the incoming U.S. president but asserted that Mexico and the United States’ shared geography, history and destiny will ensure that the two countries work closely together.
“Even without any personal bonhomie expect much broader and deeper bilateral discussions to begin on security, environment, labor issues, human rights, corruption and investor rights and protections,” she said.
“After four years of an obsession with just migration, the true broad and deep nature of the U.S.-Mexico relationship will again emerge.”
