Fruit, piloncillo and cinnamon are among the ingredients in this mug of ponche.
Mexico’s quintessential Christmas beverage will be celebrated at the first annual Feria del Ponche Tradicional (Traditional Ponche Fair) in Tepoztlán, Morelos, on December 14.
Traditional Mexican ponche is made with fruits such as apples, guavas and tejocote (Mexican hawthorn), and cinnamon, sugar cane and piloncillo (made from sugar cane juice). It is usually served hot in a clay mug.
However, each family has their own recipe for the beverage, making it unique at each Christmas party and family get-together.
Ponche has its roots in India. Its name in Sanskrit — pañc — translates to “five,” in reference to the five traditional ingredients: alcohol, sugar, water, lime and tea or other spices. From India the beverage made its way to England, spread through Europe and was brought to Mexico by the Spaniards during the conquest.
Here, it took on uniquely Mexican ingredients, lost the alcohol (though some recipes still call for it) and became the drink people across the country use to warm their bones in winter. It is also renowned for its supposed healing properties, as it is packed full of vitamins.
The fair will serve over 10 traditional ponche recipes that have survived for generations, such as versions with milk or alcohol (con piquete). There will also be lots of food, as well as dance presentations, traditional costumes, live music and a piñata competition.
Visitors should take their own mug to the fair. In an effort to generate less waste, organizers have asked attendees to bring their own mugs, which can afterwards be donated to the recycling and waste reduction campaign Recapacicla.
The fair will be held at the municipal building at San Andrés de la Cal. It runs from 4:00pm-9:00pm and admission is free.
Families of suspects in LeBarón case say they're innocent.
Three men arrested in connection with the massacre of nine members of the extended LeBarón family are scapegoats, claim relatives of two of the suspects.
The armed forces, Federal Police, National Guard and intelligence agents detained Héctor Mario Hernández, his brother Luis Manuel Hernández and another man identified only as Cipriano N. on Sunday morning in Janos, a Chihuahua municipality that borders the United States.
Héctor Mario was identified by the federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) as “El Mayo,” suspected plaza chief in Janos of La Línea, a criminal gang with links to the Juárez Cartel.
Authorities said shortly after the attack that the criminal group may have mistaken the vehicles in which the victims were traveling as those of a Sinaloa Cartel splinter cell called Los Salazar.
Héctor Mario’s niece rejected the accusation that her uncle and father were responsible for the November 4 ambush in Bavispe, Sonora, that left three women and six children dead.
“They’re both scapegoats,” Estefanía Hernández, daughter of Luis Manuel, told the newspaper Reforma.
She said that her aunt spoke with her brothers at FGR facilities in Nuevo Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, and that Héctor Mario told her that he was being pressured to confess that he was a criminal leader in exchange for the release of Luis Manuel.
The fact that the people of Janos are supporting her father and uncle is evidence of their innocence, Hernández told Reforma. She asserted that the security forces who arrested the two men acted in a violent manner and planted drugs on them.
In a social media post, Hernández described the massacre of the women and children, members of a fundamentalist Mormon community that has lived in northern Mexico for decades, as “a real shame” and “a great tragedy” and said that she and the rest of her family want justice.
“. . . We all hope that what is necessary to arrest the culprits is done. But I don’t think it’s fair that people who had nothing to do with the crime are being directly blamed just because the relevant [security] forces have to provide results of their ‘hard’ work,” she wrote.
A brother-in-law of Héctor Mario and Luis Manuel also claimed that they, and the third man who was detained, were wrongfully arrested.
Families close road in protest against arrests.
“We don’t have problems with the LeBarón family, we want justice to be done but not with scapegoats,” he said in a radio interview on Tuesday.
The unidentified relative said that Luis Manuel is the caregiver for his ill 73-year-old father and that Héctor Mario is a rancher.
“Luis hasn’t left the house for almost two years . . . Héctor works with his cattle,” he said. “Neither has a criminal record, they’ve never been in prison.”
The brother-in-law said that when Luis Manuel and Héctor Mario were arrested, security forces broke a window of their father’s home and threw a package at the former that allegedly contained drugs.
“They told him, ‘this is yours.’ The package supposedly had crystal [methamphetamine],” he said.
The third man arrested is a hunter, the brother-in-law said, adding that he legally possessed the weapons that were taken from him.
“In the case of Cipriano, we know that they took weapons from him but that man is a hunter and the weapons they took from him were in order . . .” he said.
The relative said that family members will continue to protest to demand the return of the three men from Mexico City, where they were transferred after their arrest.
“We’re going to carry out blockades and we’ll close highways. We don’t have the resources to go to Mexico City, we want them to be returned to so that we can defend them,” he said.
In a subsequent radio interview, Janos Mayor Sebastian Efraín Pineda confirmed the claims made by the brother-in-law, adding that he personally knows the three men who were arrested.
“I corroborate what their brother-in-law said. Cipriano belongs to a hunting group . . . Luis looks after his father and Mayo works with his cows,” he said. “As far as I know . . .they’re not criminal leaders,” the mayor added.
“I believe that what we have to do is support the families [of the arrested men], see how we can help them. Of course, I don’t agree with any crime. If they turn out to be guilty, they’ll receive their punishment but if they’re innocent, the least they can do is release them because they have no criminal record,” Pineda said.
The mayor also said that federal authorities didn’t contact him either before or after the operation to detain the three suspects.
Their arrests followed the detention of another suspect in Mexico City last month. Military authorities said the man detained in November provided information about the alleged perpetrators of the crime that led to the latest arrests.
The president said on Wednesday that the meeting was respectful and that the government is committed to “clarifying the facts” about last month’s ambush and ensuring that justice is served.
One of the first five auctions that have sold off assets of organized crime.
Over 600 lots of jewelry, luxury cars and real estate will be on the block at the next government narco-auction of assets seized from organized crime.
The director of the Institute to Return Stolen Goods to the People called the event a “mega-auction,” since it will sell over twice as many lots as previous auctions.
“We’re going to toss everything in the house out the window,” said Ricardo Rodríguez. “We’re going to do a mega-auction of jewels, luxury cars, homes and other goods . . . We’re going to get rid of everything we’ve got in order to take advantage of . . . the gift-giving season.”
The auction, the institute’s sixth, will be held at the Los Pinos Cultural Center, in Chapultepec Park, on December 14 and 15.
Rodríguez said that in past auctions, 300 was a “robust” number of salable items, making this auction a stand-out event both in the number and quality of items up for bidding.
The institute currently has 2,200 pieces of jewelry, but that number is expected to grow to around 4,578.
The objects have been turned over to the institute by the federal Attorney General’s office (FGR), Rodríguez said, after confiscating them during criminal prosecutions.
Specifics on the vehicles will be released at a later date, but Rodríguez said that among them are an Aston Martin, a Lamborghini and a Ferrari. There will also be a number of real estate properties up for bidding, as well.
The resources obtained by the auction will be applied to infrastructure projects, specifically two highway projects in Nayarit and Guanajuato.
NASA will launch the first all-Mexican nanosatellite into space on Wednesday from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Designed and built by students at the Popular Autonomous University of Puebla (UPAEP), the AztechSat-1 will carry out a mission operated by Elon Musk’s company SpaceX.
Héctor Simón Vargas Martínez, a UPAEP academic who oversaw the satellite project, said the aim of the AztechSat-1 mission is to establish communication with the entire Globalstar satellite constellation system with a view to improving the transmission of data to earth.
Andrés Martínez, an advanced exploration systems executive at the United States space agency, told a press conference in November 2018 that the quality of the design of the AztechSat-1 satellite, which measures just 10 cubic centimeters, was on a par with those of NASA engineers.
A total of 74 undergraduate and post-graduate students at UPAEP as well as 12 academics worked on the project.
Vargas recalled that there was also a Mexican project in the 1990s that aimed to send an experimental satellite into space but it didn’t get past the design stage.
“AztechSat-1 is the first national project . . . to go into space,” he said. “It has already obtained permission from the International Telecommunication Union.”
Carlos Duarte, coordinator of human capital training at the Mexican Space Agency (AEM), said the launch of the nanosatellite will set an important precedent and help lay the groundwork for Mexico to become a future leader in space research.
All of the information obtained by AztechSat-1 will be freely available so that students at other educational institutions can learn from its mission, he said.
Duarte said the total cost of developing and building the satellite and launching it into space is more than US $400,000.
About half of that amount came from the UPAEP and was used to purchase components for AztechSat-1 as well as pay for other development-related expenses while the AEM contributed US $100,000. NASA is covering the US $100,000 cost of launching the nanosatellite into space.
Vargas said another Mexican project to send a second satellite is already underway. The aim of a space mission by the AztechSat-2 satellite will be to monitor marine mammals and the oceans in which they live, he said.
One of the Sukhoi Superjet aircraft operated by Interjet.
Interjet’s share of the domestic air travel market declined in the first nine months of 2109 due to financial and operational problems, including trouble with its Russian-built planes.
The airline transported 7.86 million passengers between January and September to claim a 19.8% stake in the Mexican market, according to data from the Federal Civil Aviation Agency. In the same period last year, Interjet had a 20.6% share of the market.
Independent aviation consultant Juan Antonio José told the newspaper Reforma that the decline can be partially attributed to the grounding of many of the airline’s Sukhoi Superjet 100s. Interjet has been forced to take most its fleet of 22 Sukhois out of service due to a lack of spare parts.
The airline received about US $40 million in compensation from Sukhoi last year due to the company’s inability to supply parts to planes with mechanical problems in a timely manner.
José said that demand for flights on the planes was also low due to safety concerns, meaning that even if Interjet was able to keep them in the air, they would operate at a loss.
“The reality is that air transport demand reacts particularly aggressively in the face of any perception of a lack of safety . . . If I’m going to take a trip, I want it to be on an airline that guarantees [the safety of] the journey,” he said.
In that context, Interjet is planning to withdraw its remaining operational Sukhoi Superjets from service by the end of the year, and operate exclusively with planes made by European multinational Airbus.
The airline has 64 A320 Airbus planes and, according to a report by the news agency Reuters in October, is close to a deal to purchase 12 A220 passenger jets to replace its grounded Sukhoi fleet.
The inactive Russian planes, purchased by Interjet about six years ago, are located at several airports around the country, the aviation news website Transponder 1200 reported. Interjet reportedly wants to sell the planes although some of them no longer have airworthiness certificates.
The airline ordered 30 Sukhoi jets in 2013 and was still to take delivery of eight. However, in light of the decision to cease operations with the Russian-built planes it appears unlikely that it will be willing to receive them.
While Interjet has lost market share this year, two of its main competitors have increased their share. Volaris captured 31.4% of the domestic air travel market in the first nine months of 2019, up from 27.9% in the same period last year, while VivaAerobus grew its share by one point to 19.8%.
In contrast, Aeroméxico’s market share declined to 24.3% from 28.1% as the result of the grounding of its Boeing 737 MAX planes due to safety concerns.
Winter is just around the corner, temperatures are dropping and people are getting out warmer clothes — for themselves and even street dogs.
But in Yucatán it had to be traditional clothing for a dog named Polita, who was given a huipil by local artisans in Ticul.
A photo of the dog wearing the traditional, embroidered tunic went viral on Monday.
“So that she doesn’t suffer from the cold, the little dog with her huipil. It’s worth sharing and making her go viral,” wrote the resident who posted the photo.
Temperatures in Ticul were dropping to 18 C thanks to Cold Front No. 19, definitely huipil-wearing weather for a street dog.
As of Tuesday, the photo had earned over 3,000 reactions and 700 comments on Facebook, and had been shared 19,000 times.
The army, which is currently building a new international airport at the site of the Santa Lucía Air Force Base, may be called upon to build bank branches next.
President López Obrador suggested Tuesday that the army could build 13,000 branches of the new Banco del Bienestar (Bank of Well-Being) in less than a year.
“We’re looking at the possibility of military engineers building them . . .” he told reporters at his morning conference. “What’s important to us is to have them, we need the infrastructure.”
To that end, the federal government’s super-delegates in each of the states and Mexico City are seeking land on which to build the branches.
“. . . We don’t want them to be in marginal spaces, we want them to be a respectable office, a real bank. It’s going to be the bank with the best infrastructure in the whole country,” the president said.
López Obrador emphasized the importance of the bank as a more secure means to deliver government assistance provided through the new Secretariat of Welfare.
“We’ve had some 10 robberies [of resources] and people have lost their lives receiving welfare payments. So we don’t want to use cash, we want to use the [benefits] card in these 13,000 banks.”
Welfare undersecretary Ariadna Montiel reported that around 20 million pesos (US $1.02 million) of government assistance intended for senior citizens was stolen between January and September.
The robberies occurred in Chiapas, Hidalgo, Michoacán, Guerrero and Oaxaca.
The new bank replaces the federally-owned Bansefi.
President López Obrador rejected on Tuesday a United States proposal to insert an addendum to the new North American trade agreement that would give it the power to oversee Mexican businesses to ensure compliance with new labor laws.
“They’re suggesting that there could be a kind of supervision over law compliance. We don’t accept that,” López Obrador told reporters at his morning press conference.
However, the government is open to the establishment of panels with representatives from Mexico and the United States that would review labor disputes, he said.
The president also said that the Mexican Senate should have the opportunity to review any changes to the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) before it is ratified by the legislatures of those countries.
Ratification in the United States Congress has been held up by Democratic party lawmakers who are seeking stricter enforcement of new labor laws in Mexico.
The lawmakers have come under pressure from United States unions to ensure that Mexico doesn’t renege on commitments to strengthen the rights of organized labor. The U.S. unions want to set conditions for workers south of the border that make it harder for companies to move production to lower-cost Mexico, the news agency Reuters said.
The Mexican Congress approved earlier this year a landmark labor reform package that was considered crucial for the ratification of the USMCA in the United States.
Among other measures, the reform democratizes unions by giving workers the right to elect their leaders in free and secret ballots, and unions will be empowered to bargain more effectively on behalf of their members.
López Obrador’s rejection of the inclusion of a labor inspection measure in the USMCA came a day after the Business Coordinating Council (CCE) said in a statement that the United States had made “extreme demands” on labor issues that are “completely unacceptable.”
Without specifying the demands to which it was referring, the influential business group said they could “severely affect the competitiveness of Mexico and its North American partners.”
It also said that U.S. proposals could affect regional supply chains that were established 25 years ago.
“In case they come to fruition, the losers will be the people of Mexico, the United States and Canada, the region’s economy and cooperation between the three countries,” the CCE said.
“. . . The Mexican government will have our support to generate counter-proposals and maintain a firm position in defense of the competitiveness of our country . . .”
Over 8,000 drivers caught committing traffic infractions by Mexico City’s photoradar system have been ordered to take driver safety courses either online or in person.
Of the 8,400 who have been sentenced to take the courses, around 5,600 have taken and passed the basic online course. Another 2,280 have taken the intermediate online course, and 600 have attended the in-person course.
The director of traffic safety and monitoring for the city’s Mobility Secretariat (Semovi), Valentina Delgado, said that in the June-September period of 2019 traffic infractions recorded in monitored areas decreased by 28% compared to the same period in 2018.
The system assigns each driver 10 points every six months. Points are subtracted when the system catches a driver committing an infraction, and if a driver loses all 10 points in a semester, he or she must take a driver safety course in order to pass the biannual vehicle inspection.
Punishable offenses include speeding, going against traffic, running red lights, making illegal turns, encroaching on areas meant for cyclists, motorcyclists and/or pedestrians, using a cellphone while driving, not wearing a seat belt and driving with a child in the front seat, among others.
Each infraction costs a driver one point, except in the case of exceeding the speed limit by more than 40%, for which five points are subtracted.
The first two times a driver runs out of points are met with warnings. The basic online course is mandated after the third time, the intermediate after the fourth, and the in-person course is required for those who are penalized a fifth time. Community service is ordered to those who are penalized a sixth time.
Parking meters are now in operation in the center of Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, despite opposition from business owners and other residents.
The meters began operating on Sunday but a number of motorists had trouble using them, according to a report by the newspaper Noticaribe.
“It asks us for our license plate and other things but doesn’t accept them. We’ve been here 10 minutes already,” complained one man outside the Playa del Carmen market.
Another man told Noticaribe that he tried to pay the 10-peso hourly fee but couldn’t. Both motorists decided to look for parking spaces elsewhere to avoid the risk of having wheel clamps placed on their vehicles.
Four young people struggled to pay at a parking meter near city hall and eventually succeeded after 20 minutes.
On 15th street, the owner of a Colombian restaurant said he hadn’t heard any complaints from his customers about the parking meters but a man selling hamburgers on 4th street said they weren’t good for his business.
“It’s not good for us,” he said, adding that he heard on the radio that meter profits will go to the company managing them rather than the municipal government.
In fact, Promotora de Reordenamiento Urbano (Promourb), which was awarded a contract in November 2017 to install and operate 5,200 meters, will be required to pass on 25% of the resources it collects to the Solidaridad municipal council.
In the lead-up to the meters coming into operation, business owners and other residents of the resort city voiced their opposition to them on the grounds that they weren’t consulted and their finances will come under undue pressure.
At a protest on October 1, the head of the Playa del Carmen chapter of the Mexican Chamber of Commerce, José Luis Hernández Barragán, said the government violated the law by approving the parking meters without first consulting business groups.
In an interview with Noticaribe last week, Promourb executive Marco Antonio Blásquez Corona didn’t vouch for the government but said the operating company has responded to the concerns raised by business owners and the public in general.
Blásquez argued that the meters will encourage people to use public transit and thus help the environment and stop people from occupying parking spaces the whole day, which he said would benefit business.
People who live in the area where parking meters were approved (between Avenida Aviación and Avenida 48, and the beachfront and Avenida 35) can apply for government authorization so they don’t have to pay to park outside their homes, he said.
