Two people were killed and three others — including a police officer — were injured during a gunfight at a beach club Halloween party in Tulum, Quintana Roo, on Sunday.
The Quintana Roo Attorney General’s Office (FGE) said in a statement that two men were killed and two women and a man were wounded in the early hours of Sunday at a “massive music event,” which was staged illegally at the Vagalume Beach Club.
Large events are currently prohibited due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The FGE said that preliminary investigations indicated that two Quintana Roo police officers were illegally providing bodyguard services to a “supposed businessman” attending the party.
According to local media reports, two armed men burst into the party and one of the police-cum-bodyguards, noticing their presence, started shooting at them. The police officer killed both gunmen but not before they shot him twice, once in the leg and once in the ribs.
A man and a woman were wounded in the crossfire. The second policeman was not injured, the FGE said, adding that both officers are under investigation. The wounded officer reportedly provided a statement to the FGE after he was discharged from the hospital.
The gunfight caused panic among the approximately 500 partygoers, among whom were both tourists and locals. They rushed to flee the violence that abruptly interrupted the alcohol-fueled revelry.
The FGE said it had seized weapons used in the gunfight including two that are assigned exclusively to state police officers.
The Attorney General’s Office also said it had secured the venue where the unauthorized event was held and that it would take legal action against its owners. In addition, it said it would investigate municipal government officials who may have allowed the party to be held.
Sunday’s gun battle came just two weeks after five people were killed at a bar in Manuel Antonio Ay, a community about 35 kilometers northwest of the town of Tulum.
Many corruption complaints against federal government employees come to nothing, according to a report by the newspaper El Universal.
In the almost two years since President López Obrador took office, the Public Administration Ministry (SFP) has filed 513 complaints with the federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) in relation to irregularities and possible acts of corruption committed by federal public servants.
However, there is no evidence that a single case has been heard by a court, El Universal reported Monday.
Documents obtained by the newspaper via a freedom of information request showed that in April and May, the SFP filed 296 complaints against current and former officials with the State Workers Social Security Institute (ISSSTE).
The offenses allegedly committed included bribery, embezzlement, robbery of medications, influence peddling and the improper payment and acceptance of salaries.
According to the SFP, none of its complaints in relation to those offenses has been assigned to a federal judge despite the FGR having received them five to six months ago.
Among the other complaints that don’t appear to have been acted on are four against employees of the Environment Ministry (Semarnat) and seven against workers of the Federal Protection Service (SPF), a government security agency.
The complaints against the Semarnat employees were filed between July 2019 and February 2020 and related to sexual harassment accusations.
The complaints against the SPF workers related to death threats, irregularities in a 2018 tendering process, psychological torture of other employees, alteration of official documents, attempts to steal digital information and the unjustified handcuffing and locking up of a subordinate.
The SFP indicated that it has no information about the FGR’s progress in investigating the alleged wrongdoing by the Semarnat and SPF employees.
President López Obrador has made combatting corruption a central aim of his administration and has declared repeatedly that impunity will no longer be tolerated.
A naked woman entered the state Attorney General’s Office in the city of San Luis Potosí Friday attempting to pressure authorities to get results in the investigation of her 19-year-old son’s murder, which has gone unresolved for a year and a half although officials have a man in custody in the case.
Silvia Castillo’s son Alan was killed on March 23, 2019, after attending a party from which he never returned.
According to Castillo, who did her own investigation into his disappearance, Alan’s body was found beaten and burned.
Castillo had previously told the newspaper El Universal that a visit to the National Human Rights Commission in Mexico City had had unsatisfactory results.
“What we’ve gotten up to now is them revictimizing us by telling us to go back to San Luis Potosí,” she said.
On Friday, after standing outside the building for some time wrapped in a blanket, Castillo stripped and entered the building, confronting Attorney General Federico Garza Herrera.
An hour later, Garza asked for 30 days in order to deliver results in her son’s case.
Castillo believes that officials have failed to find those responsible for her son’s murder. She told El Universal in September that three youths who accompanied her son to the party were also possibly responsible since, she said, the man in custody did not know her son or have any connection with him.
Mexico’s Federal Tax Administration (SAT) reported that it collected 417 billion pesos after audits during the first nine months of 2020, 144% more than last year.
The amount, a record for the agency, is 12 times the amount budgeted in 2021 for the Maya Train. It is also three times the amount needed for Mexico’s seniors’ pension plan.
According to SAT officials, nine out of 10 audits resulted in money recouped.
The news comes not long after some less-than-great news for the agency. SAT chief Raquel Buenrostro reported in October that tax collections were down 0.9% this year compared to last year.
Not all this extra money is cash in the bank yet, however.
About 1.63 billion pesos of it actually consists of future amounts that will not be returned to taxpayers due to the agency’s better tracking and control mechanisms that it predicts will catch questionable taxpayer deductions and fraud, officials said.
Nevertheless, SAT officials said, the initiative turned a hefty profit: the agency said it made 153.8 pesos for each peso spent on audits.
The budget airline Interjet canceled all its flights on Sunday and Monday, apparently because it was unable to pay for fuel for its planes.
The airline, which has a large tax debt and is reportedly in a precarious financial situation, announced the cancellation Sunday morning on social media.
Interjet said that all affected passengers are “protected” and that canceled flights will be rescheduled starting Tuesday.
The airline acknowledged that the airline industry has been affected by the coronavirus pandemic, adding that its cash flow had taken a hit.
“Additionally, some of the company’s aircraft are undergoing maintenance tasks, which has caused a reorganization of flight itineraries. … Interjet regrets the inconveniences caused to passengers and reports that 90% of them have been notified of this situation. … The airline will resume regular operations on Tuesday, November 3.”
Following the announcement, Airports and Auxiliary Services (ASA), a federal government corporation responsible for the management, operation and development of airports, told the newspaper Milenio that Interjet had not paid for fuel for its fleet in advance and as a result its planes’ tanks were not filled.
“Interjet didn’t complete the payment for the purchase of jet fuel and for that reason fuel wasn’t supplied for its flights today,” ASA said.
It explained that the airlines has a pre-payment arrangement that requires it to pay for fuel one day in advance.
The newspaper El Sol de México reported that some affected passengers made their way to the Mexico City airport to complain about the cancellation of their flights and demand a refund.
Irene Ceballos, whose flight to Cancún was canceled, said that she would never fly with Interjet again.
“It was a mistake to buy a ticket with them because I knew that it’s on the verge of bankruptcy and has problems due to the pandemic,” she said.
Miguel Fernández, whose return flight to Monterrey was canceled, told El Sol de México that he had no option but to wait for a rescheduled flight because he didn’t have the money to buy another one with a different airline.
“At least they had the decency to let us know [about the cancellations],” he said.
However, another passenger said that she wasn’t personally contacted by Interjet and found out about her flight’s cancellation through the media. Andrea Lozada said that she asked for a refund but was told that wasn’t an option.
She said that she planned to file a complaint against Interjet with the consumer protection agency Profeco.
“It’s not the first time that [a cancellation] has happened to me. In March, when the closure of borders was announced, they changed a flight from Canada,” Lozada said, adding that she hasn’t received any financial compensation from the airline.
The explosion's cause is unknown, but the section of pipeline has frequently experienced gas theft.
A gas fire continued to burn Monday morning in Nuevo Leon after a Pemex pipe exploded at 5 a.m. about 145 kilometers from the city of Monterrey.
The explosion, which occurred 30 kilometers from the city of China, ignited an area of grassy terrain about 800 meters in diameter. No deaths and no injuries were reported.
Governor Jaime Rodriguez Calderon confirmed the accident on social media and said that state, federal, and local authorities, including Civil Protection, had flown by helicopter this morning over the affected area.
Pemex officials managed to turn off the valves to stop the flow of gas to that part of the pipeline. The residual gas has been left to burn itself out. Authorities said there was no risk of the fire affecting the local population.
The explosion’s cause is currently unknown, although the area has seen several instances of illegal taps of the pipeline in the last year. The federal Attorney General’s Office will be investigating the explosion’s origin.
Members of the nearby community of Guitarritas, located five kilometers away from the scene of the explosion, reported the explosion to emergency services.
Covid-19 fatalities increased 6.6% in October compared to September but the monthly death toll of 14,107 was only the fourth highest since the start of the pandemic after July, June and August.
However, last month’s high case tally is concerning given that hospitalizations of coronavirus patients and deaths generally lag new infections.
Mexico has now recorded a total of 929,392 confirmed coronavirus cases with 4,430 new cases reported on Sunday. The official Covid-19 death toll stands at 91,895 with 142 additional fatalities registered the same day.
Based on confirmed cases and deaths, Mexico’s fatality rate is 9.9 per 100 cases, the highest among the 20 countries currently most affected by Covid-19, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Mexico City continues to lead the country for confirmed coronavirus cases and Covid-19 deaths, with 162,693 of the former and 15,202 of the latter. México state ranks second in both categories with 98,365 cases and 10,710 Covid-19 deaths, according to official data.
The Health Ministry estimates that there are currently 50,981 active cases across the country.
In sheer numbers, Mexico City also leads the country for active cases with 12,739 but Durango ranks first on a per capita basis.
The northern state currently has 101.4 active cases per 100,000 residents, Health Ministry data shows. Baja California Sur ranks second with 91.1 active cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
At the municipal level, Querétaro city has the highest number of active cases in Mexico with 1,292 as of Sunday. Durango city and Monterrey, Nuevo León, both of which have just over 1,000 active cases, rank second and third, respectively.
The northern Mexico City borough of Gustavo A. Madero and Torreón, Coahuila, round out the top five with 941 and 837 active cases, respectively.
The accumulated case tally and Covid-19 death toll in Mexico are both widely believed to be much higher than official statistics show due to a low testing rate.
The Health Ministry reported late last month that there were almost 200,000 more deaths than expected between January and September 26 and that 139,153 were attributable to Covid-19.
By September 26, the Health Ministry had only reported 76,243 confirmed Covid-19 fatalities, a figure that equates to just 55% of the excess deaths determined to have been caused by Covid-19.
Clean energy could be a source of friction between López Obrador and Biden.
President López Obrador offered his newly elected Argentine counterpart Alberto Fernández some private advice last year on how to deal with the U.S. president: “With Trump you can do anything you want, just don’t say anything, don’t get into a confrontation with him and you’ll be fine.”
The advice was sound. While Mr. Trump likes to issue ultimatums to Latin American presidents, his bark is often worse than his bite. Threats to close the Mexican border, impose punitive tariffs on Brazil or to invade Venezuela all proved empty.
A Joe Biden presidency may be more of a challenge. Diplomats and former senior U.S. officials say the Democrat’s positions on trade, human rights, climate change and fighting corruption might prove uncomfortable for some of the region’s leaders, who have grown accustomed to a U.S. president turning a blind eye.
“On issues like trade, labour and the environment, Biden might be much tougher than Trump,” said Jorge Castañeda, a former Mexican foreign minister.
Juan Cruz, who served as the top White House adviser on Latin America from 2017-2019, said the region had worked out a modus vivendi with Mr. Trump. “He may be a bit black-and-white and transactional but they get it, the presidents (in the region) absolutely get it and they have figured it out,” he said.
“What you’ll get with a Biden presidency is matrixed, integrated, shades-of-grey foreign policy. We’ll praise you on some issues and criticize you on others. That will give them whiplash.”
Some things would not change if Mr. Biden was inaugurated in January: Latin America would not be a top priority, particularly for a U.S. president facing a dire public health and economic emergency. Within the region, Mexico would be the main focus because of its long land border — a major source of illegal immigration and smuggled drugs — and its status as a top trade and investment partner.
Mr. Biden, who knows the region well from his time as vice president, has promised to end many of Mr. Trump’s immigration policies. He would stop building a wall along the Mexican border and offer a US $4-billion aid plan to boost prosperity in Central America, the origin of much of the migration.
That brings its own risks. Thomas Shannon, a former top official at the state department, said: “The biggest challenge early on may be the immigration issue. There’s real pressure to reverse the Trump steps on migration, refugees and asylum but if they are not careful how this is done, it could lead a lot of people in Central America to decide that now is the time to head north.”
Mr. Biden’s commitments on climate change may be another source of friction in a region where many presidents are still wedded to fossil fuel-powered development. The Democrat has outlined plans for a clean energy revolution and if he wins, he will face renewed pressure to confront Mr. López Obrador, who has focused his entire economic vision on boosting oil and coal.
U.S. companies and legislators from both sides of the aisle say Mr. López Obrador’s attempts to penalize renewable energy generation in Mexico are discriminatory and could violate the USMCA trade treaty which replaced NAFTA. While the president calls renewables generation a “sophistry” and vows to boost Mexico’s state oil and electricity companies, several international groups are considering arbitration to protect their investments.
“Energy policy will be a key point on Biden’s domestic agenda and his domestic economic agenda as well as his foreign policy agenda. That will pose a challenge to the current Mexican government,” said Antonio Ortiz-Mena at Albright Stonebridge group, a consultancy.
Mr. Biden’s views on Amazon deforestation have already upset Brazil’s hard-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who is close to Mr. Trump. Responding to a Biden threat of “significant economic consequences” if the country does not respond to his $20 billion plan to protect the rainforest, Mr. Bolsonaro said the Democratic candidate had shown a “clear sign of contempt for cordial and fruitful coexistence.”
“Climate is a big one for Biden and … he will isolate Bolsonaro and his associates,” said a senior diplomat who follows Brazil closely. “For them, losing their big friend up north could be quite a problem. They have put all their eggs in that basket.”
Mr. Bolsonaro is not the only Latin American leader to have bet heavily on Mr. Trump. Colombia’s Iván Duque also faces an awkward start with a Biden administration because of his role as a cheerleader for Trump policies on Venezuela and at the Inter-American Development Bank. “The Colombians have really screwed up. They have played this election poorly and they have put themselves in it by being very favourable to Trump,” a former senior U.S. official said.
Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who was recognized as the country’s rightful leader by the U.S. at the start of last year, has seen his star wane in Washington as political deadlock continues in Venezuela. Mr. Guaidó’s strong backing for Mr. Trump’s “maximum pressure” sanctions on Venezuela makes him a less-than-ideal partner for a Biden administration looking to adopt a more multilateral, negotiated approach to relieve the country’s acute humanitarian crisis.
With Venezuela, as with Cuba, a Biden administration is unlikely to turn the clock straight back to Obama-era detente; the clout of anti-communist Latino voters in the key state of Florida will see to that. Cautious steps to build confidence are more likely.
With leaders in the Andean nations of Chile, Peru and Ecuador all due to step down following elections in the first year of a new U.S. president, Mr. Fernández of Argentina, a pragmatic leftist, stands out as one of the Latin American leaders who may benefit from a President Biden.
But neither U.S. presidential candidate has said much so far about what is arguably the region’s greatest challenge: the need to update its commodity-dependent economies for the 21st century to restart growth and deliver the prosperity sought by an increasingly restive population.
A Maya altar on display at Pixan, Festival of the Souls, in Felipe Carrillo Puerto, Quintana Roo. Richard Arghiris
After days of preparing food, building altars, and cleaning their homes, Maya families across the Yucatán Peninsula are ready to welcome the first of their special guests — the souls of deceased loved ones.
Hanal Pixán, meaning “Food for the Souls,” is the region’s annual Day of the Dead tradition, which starts on October 31. It’s when Maya families welcome the souls of lost children. On November 1, they receive the souls of adults, and on November 2 there is a mass for all souls.
Paulino Ek Martín, 29, is a Maya language teacher originally from Tipikal, Yucatán, who lives in Señor, Quintana Roo. He said that to celebrate Hanal Pixán, families cook a traditional dish, chachac waj, for their visiting loved ones.
The dish resembles a large tamal and consists of masa (corn dough), chicken and k’ool, a bright-red salsa made with achiote paste.
The traditional method of cooking chachac waj is to dig a hole in the ground, place stones and wood at the bottom, light a fire and set the tamales in the earth, where they are covered with leaves and left to cook for about an hour. This practice of cooking by burying food is called pib.
A trail of candles beckons the souls to an altar in Felipe Carrillo Puerto. Richard Arghiris
Ek explained that the act of digging a hole for chachac waj signifies the burial of the deceased, while the tradition of taking the food from the ground represents the annual return of the souls to visit the living. Later the tamales are placed on the altars, ready for the visiting souls.
Altars are an essential part of Day of the Dead traditions across Mexico, and the Yucatán is no different, although the Maya have their own customs.
“[For the altar] we use a flat, rectangular table that represents the plane of the earth,” Oscar Mis, a 28-year-old elementary school teacher from Felipe Carrillo Puerto, Quintana Roo, said. “Each of the table’s legs represent four gods supporting the plane.”
Traditionally, Maya build altars from sticks, covering them with banana leaves, on top of which they place the Maya cross, which is dressed in a white shroud.
“The cross does not represent Catholicism or Christianity,” said Mis. “[At the time of the Conquest], Maya culture was considered part of four cardinal points, and this is represented by our cross, which signifies our sacred tree, the ceiba or yaxché [in Maya].”
Other offerings, such as wildflowers, handmade tortillas, pozol — a drink made of fermented corn dough — and fruit like mandarins and bananas are also placed upon the altars.
A Maya altar with chachac waj on display at a technical college in Felipe Carrillo Puerto as part of its annual altar competition in 2019. Hannah Wood
In the days leading up to Hanal Pixán, families will clean loved ones’ graves, removing weeds and painting the tombs. They also spend time making their homes impeccable so that the souls feel comfortable.
Families remove mirrors and items made of glass or nails, and they hide animals by putting them in their pens or tying them up.
“According to our customs, the animals are the ones who can see the souls; we can’t see them. The animals see them, and the souls get scared. It is an obstacle that can prevent them from entering the home,” explained Mis.
Another common Maya belief, Ek said, is that the souls need to be guided home.
“When the souls come, they have a guide called ‘death’ or ‘the controller of death.’ This guide takes the souls to their respective homes,” he explained. “Another way is to put candles along the road so that the light guides the soul.
“I believe that the guide, who is also a soul, will leave them on the street, maybe a block or two from the house. Then the soul, realizing that it is their home, follows the trail of candles.”
A man carries a candle at a Festival of the Souls in Quintana Roo. Richard Arghiris
When the souls of loved ones arrive home, it is a time of celebration, a time to honor the deceased, remember them, and celebrate their lives, he said.
“When a relative is visiting me, I do not see them; that is obvious. But you feel their presence, so much that sometimes you start to cry remembering them — or so much that you start to laugh. This is us remembering [our loved ones], and it is part of our happiness because now we are living with them again,” Ek says.
While Hanal Pixán is a well celebrated tradition, both men lamented that some practices are at risk of being lost by younger generations. Mis said the custom of guiding the souls with candles is common throughout the Yucatán, but “it is rare to find a 25-year-old or 20-year-old who knows this tradition and who talks about it.”
Mis said it is common for people to incorporate Day of the Dead customs that are Mexican but not traditionally Maya, such as the Catrina, sugar skulls, and face painting. While he is not against mixing cultural traditions, he said that young people must not forget their roots.
“There are things we are losing, both language and traditions,” Mis says. “We have to foster these traditions in young people. We must get them to pay attention to these traditions, value them, and adopt them as part of their life. We have to pass this on from generation to generation so that these customs that we have practiced for millennia are not lost.”
Sánchez accused Aureoles of 'constitutional crimes.'
Interior Minister Olga Sánchez Cordero has accused the governor of Michoacán of violating the state and federal constitutions by calling for Mexican migrants in the United States to vote against President Donald Trump in Tuesday’s election.
In a letter to Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero, Sánchez accused Governor Silvano Aureoles of committing “constitutional crimes.”
“Meddling in the way that you do in the internal affairs of another country, in an external electoral process, conducting foreign policy when it does not correspond to you, makes you involved, in my opinion, in constitutional crimes,” she said.
The reprimand comes after Aureoles uploaded a video to social media in which he called on the migrant population in the United States to vote for a change and reminded them that four years ago Trump called Mexicans criminals and drug traffickers.
“On this occasion, the Mexican votes in the United States can give meaning to the necessary change and put in place a president who understands our struggles, respects our culture and identifies with our causes,” he said.
Sánchez said those words violate the constitutional principle of respect and self-determination. “It places the Mexican state in a very delicate situation in terms of foreign policy.”
Aureoles countered that Mexico owes respect to those who respect it, not those who offend and attack it.
“I want to tell you that the statement I made is the result of my deep concern for the more than 4 million Michoacán citizens living in the U.S.,” he posted on Twitter.
“I remind you that … our countrymen have been mistreated, offended and their rights attacked by Donald Trump since he was a candidate in the previous elections,” Aureoles said.
