Volunteers at an information booth guide families through the bureaucracy of finding their loved ones.
In 2018, some residents of Guadalajara registered complaints about a smelly, refrigerated trailer full of unidentified bodies that had been parked in various places in the city. The trailer was a stop-gap solution to overflowing morgues at the Jalisco Institute of Forensic Sciences (IJCF).
Now, three years later, the crisis continues with 6,249 unidentified bodies currently being held by the institute, according to a new report by the NGO Justice Center for Peace and Development. Some 2,500 of those bodies entered the morgues since the current state administration took office in December 2018.
The total is nearly half of the 12,819 people who have been reported missing in Jalisco, according to the National Registry of Missing Persons. But who they are remains unknown as the bodies are awaiting DNA analysis.
The family of Paulino Monroy became very familiar with the IJCF system as they searched for the man who disappeared May 20, 2020 on the highway to Chapala. The family visited the IJCF offices every weekend for eight months, looking through the images in the registry of unidentified bodies.
The registry contains 2,265 entries, only a fraction of the missing. In January, after examining photo after photo of corpses, they recognized in a photo of a body found in a hidden grave in the municipality of El Salto.
But the body has not been released to the family despite identification by numerous relatives, due to inconclusive DNA testing results.
“They tell us there is a liquid in the body that prevented a comparison,” Monroy’s sister told the newspaper El Universal.
A collective of families of missing persons has documented hundreds of cases similar to that of the Monroy family. Since last October, Fundej has manned a booth outside the IJCF offices in Guadalajara to offer guidance to the many families who come to brave the bureaucracy and seek lost loved ones.
One of the Fundej volunteers is Ana María, a mother who has been looking for her son for more than a year. She told El Universal that every week, roughly 100 families come to look for a missing person. Finding the body is only the first step; getting it returned to the family is another battle.
“There are not enough staff, nor anthropologists, nor geneticists. The bodies can stay there for years,” Ana María said.
The IJCF has 117 people working on body identification, but not all have the necessary training for the job, according to the report by the Justice Center NGO.
“A crucial element in understanding the crisis is the lack of coordination between authorities in charge of the processes of finding bodies, storage, identification and burying the unidentified,” the report states, adding that the number of experts is insufficient for the number of bodies.
After images surfaced of bodies being inappropriately stored, on the floor and without refrigeration, the state government launched an investigation, saying that the responsible parties would be sanctioned.
IJCF director Gustavo Quezada, meanwhile, said that many staff had stopped working due to the pandemic, causing delays.
If the Mexican national ID card had been around when famed revolutionary Pancho Villa was alive, he might have been forced to go by a lot less memorable name. Courtesy of Holodeck Enterprises
My first and last names have only four letters each: who could ever get them wrong?
The answer to that question is “almost everyone,” as I discovered while traveling around the world as an itinerant English teacher.
In Saudi Arabia, especially, I was amazed at the imaginative interpretations of my name that I would find on my airplane tickets. One of the most memorable of those moments was when I discovered I was flying from Jeddah to ‘Ar’Ar as June Pintutive.
To make matters worse, Arab speakers are in the habit of transforming all P’s into B’s. So I became Mr. Bint, which my students found wildly hilarious, because in Arabic bint means girl.
Eventually, Mr. Bint arrived in Mexico — now transformed into Señor Medio Litro — whereupon all sorts of new “broblems” arose for getting across his terribly complicated name.
The writer made numerous visits to government offices like this to get his identification papers up to Mexican bureaucratic satisfaction.
First of all, there is that wayward H in John. Ah, how imaginative Mexicans have been in finding new locations for this useless letter! I am handed my Covid-19 prueba de vacuna and I wonder: what will they turn me into this time? Jonh, Jhon or maybe Hjon?
To prevent such confusion, I first tried clarifying my name with the approach that works in all English-speaking countries: spelling it out: J-O-H-N P-I-N-T.
Now, in Spanish, this spelling process is called deletreo. Contrary to being useful, it absolutely strikes terror into those humble folk who register you when you drive into a fraccionamiento (housing complex):
“Mi nombre es John Pint: jota-o-ache-ene-pe-i-ene-te.”
That even scares me!
Equally disastrous is the “A as in ‘Amsterdam’” approach, especially if you get carried away Mexicanizing it:
Mi nombre es John Pint:
J de Jolostotitlán;
O de Oconahua;
H de Hostotipaquillo;
N de Nejahuete;
P de Pihuamo;
I de Ixtlahuacán;
N de Néxtipac;
T de Tlaquepaque.
Then I smile. What could be clearer than that? But all the while that I was deletreando, the gatekeeper’s eyes were growing wider and wider, and now he seems somewhat paralyzed.
I fear he will have a heart attack right on the spot until, finally, with trembling hand, he gives me his clipboard.
“Y-you write it, Señor … Por favor!”
Spelling doesn’t work well here, and Spanish speakers rarely — if ever — employ it, because they really don’t need it. To clarify the spelling of a word in Spanish, all you do is say the word and comment on whichever letter in it might cause confusion.
“My name is Cortez with a Z.”
“She is Érika with a K.”
“He lives in Huaxtla with an H and an X.”
Getting across your name in Mexico rises to new heights of confusion if you decide to “darte de alta,” that is, to register yourself as a Mexican taxpayer, something I had to do in order to legally sell my books in this country.
Step No. 1 in this registration process is to get yourself an RFC code, an alphanumeric string of characters identifying you as a Registered Federal Contributor.
The RFC is generated via a truly Mexican formula that is cleverly designed to produce a unique series of numbers and letters to identify you for tax purposes.
This mix of numbers and letters is based on your date of birth plus your name … and that’s where things get interesting, because, as Wikipedia puts it so succinctly but not terribly clearly:
“Full names in Spanish-speaking countries consist of three elements:
Given name(s);
First surname: the father’s first surname; and
Second surname: the mother’s first surname.”
So, if someone mentions a legendary character called José Doroteo Arango Arámbula, it means that this caballero’s first name was José and his middle name was Doroteo. His father, of course, was a man known as Señor Arango and his mother’s maiden name was Arámbula.
Once you get all that clear, you are casually told that, después de todo, everybody called this fellow Pancho Villa.
Many years ago — all naïve — I went to get my first RFC.
“Your name, sir?”
“My name is John James Pint. Let me write it for you so we can save an hour or so …”
Within minutes I was issued my RFC, and not long afterward, I began to get tax-related letters from the government beginning thus:
Estimado Señor James …
A few years later, however, they figured out that James was not really my father’s surname and called me in to get a new RFC, this time asking me for both my father’s and my mother’s last names.
As a result, I got a new RFC, but during the following years, I was called back again and again and ended up issued one RFC after another, each one a little different than the previous.
At last, I decided to “darme de baja,” to unregister as a taxpayer, and that’s when I was told I would have to get a CURP, which stands for Clave Única de Registro de Población, or the Unique Population Registry Code, a yet-more-complicated alphanumeric string that is supposed to identify not just taxpayers but every single person in the country, including foreigners.
Nowadays, you need a CURP to do just about anything.
Once again, I presented myself to a government office and got myself a CURP. Unlike the RFC, this new ID had everything straight in respect to my first and middle names as well as the surnames of my mother and father.
However, just one year later, the powers that be informed me that my perfectly correct CURP was suddenly invalid. “We have a new regulation,” they said. “Mother’s maiden names are now out, and foreigners’ CURPs can only be based on what’s shown on their passports.” That leaves me with a string of six different RFCs and CURPs, and I’m betting it won’t be long before I get lucky No. 7.
Foreigners have problems identifying themselves, but Mexicans, too, are plagued with misinterpretations of their names, especially on vital documents like marriage licenses and birth certificates.
Birth certificates in particular seemed to fall prey to what I call La Ley de Horacio, which states that “if the Registrar of Births can get every single detail wrong, he will.”
So it is a sure bet that when Don Fidelio goes into town to register the birth of his son Hildeberto Móntez Ibarra de la Vega, the registrar will surely write: Ildeberto Montes Ybarra de la Bega.
When it comes to registering the date of little Hildeberto’s birth, I imagine the conversation goes something like this:
“Don Fidelio, when was the baby born?”
“Hace como dos semanas” (Like two weeks ago).
While there’s a method to the madness, an RFC number is determined by a formula so complex, the Mexican government frequently publishes explainers.
“On Friday two weeks ago?”
“Más o menos” (more or less).
Only when Don Fidelio gets back home, perhaps after a long journey with the birth certificate in hand, does his wife point out that the baby was actually born a bit más rather than menos.
For the next 30 years, Hildeberto will celebrate his birthday on the day his mother says he was born, and that’s what he’ll put on all his documents … until one day he’s asked to prove it with a birth certificate…
That’s when the fun begins.
The writer has lived near Guadalajara, Jalisco, for 31 years and is the author of A Guide to West Mexico’s Guachimontones and Surrounding Area and co-author of Outdoors in Western Mexico. More of his writing can be found on his website.
Aguascalientes and Guerrero will switch to low risk green on the federal stoplight map on Monday, according to their respective governors.
Both states are medium risk yellow on the map currently in force. The federal Health Ministry will present a new map for the two-week period between May 24 and June 6 at Friday night’s coronavirus press briefing.
Martín Orozco of Aguascalientes said the switch to green will pave the way for the reopening of schools. Primary schools are slated to reopen on June 6 and middle and high schools could offer in-person classes starting June 13, the governor said.
Orozco said it will be up to parents to decide whether they want their children to return to classes. He stressed that schools will have to follow strict protocols to prevent the spread of the virus.
Schools across Mexico closed in March 2020 due to the pandemic, and with the exception of some rural schools in Campeche, remain shut. Students switched to online and television learning, which has been especially challenging in parts of the country where internet connectivity and TV reception is unreliable.
Aguascalientes, one of Mexico’s smallest states, has recorded more than 26,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and 2,460 Covid-19 deaths, according to federal data. It has been yellow on the stoplight map since early March.
Governor Héctor Astudillo announced Friday that Guerrero will also switch to green on Monday but stressed that the risk downgrade doesn’t mean the pandemic is over.
“The pandemic continues, it exists. That’s why we have to take care and we have to get vaccinated,” he said.
“… The green light doesn’t mean that we can all go out and party, … that we can go to work and walk around without face masks; we have to maintain the preventative measures.”
Astudillo noted that the pandemic has caused severe economic damage to the Pacific coast state but acknowledged that the loss of human life has been even more painful.
“We’ve had ups and downs, … the two national peaks [of the pandemic] reached us; we had 35 to 36 deaths a day during the first [peak] between May and June last year. The second came in January and February, during which we had up to 26 deaths a day,” he said.
The governor said Guerrero is now recording an average of seven Covid deaths per day and the hospital occupancy rate is not above 20% in the various regions of the state.
Astudillo also said that the switch to green will pave the way for the reopening of schools but unlike Orozco, he didn’t offer any dates for students to return to classrooms.
Guerrero, which was maximum risk red on the stoplight map less than three months ago, has recorded more than 40,000 confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic and 4,295 Covid-19 deaths.
Mexico City, Mexico’s coronavirus epicenter since the start of the pandemic, continues to lead the country for cases and deaths with more than 652,000 of the former and 42,661 of the latter. The capital switched to yellow at the start of last week and will remain that color next week, the Mexico City government said Friday.
The national tally of confirmed cases rose to 2.39 million on Thursday with 2,628 new cases reported while the official death toll rose by 230 to 221,080, a total considered a vast undercount.
As of Thursday night, just under 25 million Covid-19 vaccine doses had been administered, a figure equivalent to 20 shots per 100 people.
Foreign investment in the first quarter since 2011, in millions of dollars. In light green are preliminary figures; final numbers are in dark green. el economista
Foreign direct investment (FDI) reached a record high in the first quarter of 2021, preliminary data shows, but less than 20% of the money that flowed into Mexico was destined for new investment.
The Economy Ministry (SE) reported Thursday that FDI was worth US $11.86 billion between January and March, a 14.8% increase compared to the first quarter of 2020, for which preliminary data showed that investment totaled $10.33 billion.
The preliminary data FDI figure for the first quarter of this year is the highest since record keeping began in 1999. It will almost certainly be revised upward once companies have formally reported all foreign investment in the period to the SE.
But there is no guarantee that the preliminary data FDI record will translate into a record figure.
The revised FDI figure for the first quarter of last year – which coincided with the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic when the global economy had begun to contract but had not yet gone into free fall – was $16.75 billion, a 62% increase compared to preliminary data.
Achieving a similar increase this year could be difficult given that the global economy remained significantly affected by the pandemic in the first quarter.
The 14.8% uptick based on preliminary numbers is undoubtedly good news for the Mexican economy but the makeup of the $11.86 billion figure provides less cause for celebration. Data showed that 59% of FDI in the first quarter was the result of reinvestment of profits and 22% was movement of funds between companies. Only 19% of first quarter FDI represented new investment, a 3% decline compared to the same period of 2020.
Almost half of all FDI – 47% – went to Mexico’s manufacturing sector, while 15% went to the finance and insurance industry and 14% went to mining. The energy and hotel/accommodation sectors only attracted 3% each of the total. The former sector has been affected by the federal government’s move to overhaul it to favor state-owned energy companies while the latter remains affected by the tourism downturn.
The United States was the biggest investor in Mexico during the first quarter, with 42.5% of FDI coming from that country. Spain was the second largest source with 12.1% followed by Luxembourg (8.2%); United Kingdom (5.5%); and Canada (4.8%).
Carlos Serrano, chief economist at BBVA México, warned that the FDI figures for the first quarter are not as “extraordinary” as they seem because, among other reasons, they “don’t reflect an appetite for new investment.”
Bank of México Governor Alejandro Díaz de León won't be serving another term, says President López Obrador.
President López Obrador said Friday that he will replace the current central bank governor with an economist who supports a “moral economy” — an economy in which the well-being of everyone is prioritized over the wealth of the few.
Speaking at his regular news conference, López Obrador said he won’t nominate current Bank of México Governor Alejandro Díaz de León for a second term after it concludes at the end of November.
López Obrador, a fierce critic of the neoliberal economic policies he says were implemented by successive governments during the 36 years preceding his arrival in the National Palace, said he would instead nominate an economist with “a lot of prestige” who is better attuned to Mexico’s social needs.
The new governor of the central bank (also known as Banxico), will be “an economist with a social dimension, one who is in favor of a moral economy,” the president told reporters.
López Obrador didn’t say who he had in mind for the job. His nominee would have to be ratified by the Senate, in which the ruling Morena party and its allies have a strong majority.
Before Banxico’s most recent clash with the ruling party, Díaz opposed a Morena-sponsored reform in which the bank would buy other banks’ surplus foreign cash.
The president’s decision not to extend the governor’s term for another four years could open up “a period of uncertainty for the traditionally conservative monetary authority,” the news agency Bloomberg said.
It said the president’s confirmation that he won’t renew Díaz’s term was expected but nevertheless may cause uncertainty for investors until he names a successor. López Obrador has already appointed three members to the bank’s five-person board and now, “by saying that the next governor would be focused on social issues, the president suggests he wants to shift the approach of the bank’s leadership,” Bloomberg said.
López Obrador this week expressed dissatisfaction with a decision of the Banxico board not to turn over a foreign exchange surplus to the Finance Ministry.
On Thursday he directed his criticism at Díaz, charging that the governor has an affinity with members of the previous federal government, which did receive bank profits. He claimed that the central bank looks unfavorably upon his administration but conceded that its autonomy must be respected.
Gerardo Esquivel, a central bank board member appointed by López Obrador, said Banxico profits were needed to cover other expenses and denied that the decision not to transfer a surplus to the government was politically motivated.
While López Obrador said he respects the central bank’s autonomy, economist Enrique Quintana contended that it was nevertheless concerning that “one of the anchors of stability in Mexico” is being questioned by the president.
Bank of America economist Carlos Capistran said Lopez Obrador’s announcement implies that Banxico will likely tolerate more inflation.
Writing in the newspaper El Financiero, Quintana said López Obrador has made “impeccable” and “unquestionable” appointments to the central bank board but suggested the president could now seek to appoint a governor who is open to accommodating his desire for the bank to serve his government ahead of the country.
“The issue is delicate because the financial stability that exists in Mexico is based on the certainty that an autonomous central bank offers,” he wrote.
Quintana wrote that López Obrador has shown himself to be pragmatic with regard to central bank appointments but added that it can’t be ruled out that the president’s ideological beliefs will win out and he will appoint a governor who is sympathetic to his views.
Carlos Capistran, a Bank of America economist, said López Obrador’s announcement implies that the central bank will likely tolerate more inflation in the months and years ahead.
It “gives support to the side of Banxico’s board that worries more about growth than inflation and anticipates a governor that also puts more weight on growth and less weight on inflation than Díaz de Leon, potentially much less weight to inflation,” Capistran said.
Quintana said that if Morena wins a two-thirds majority in the Chamber of Deputies, it could introduce constitutional reforms to decrease the central bank’s autonomy. Some members of the federal government see the bank as “a kind of temple of neoliberalism,” he wrote without naming any names.
“For the financial health of everyone, of the 126 million Mexicans, hopefully common sense prevails,” Quintana wrote.
Although Díaz de León hasn’t won the admiration of the president he is highly regarded in international financial circles. He was named central bank governor of the year in 2020 by the financial publication Central Banking. It was one of several international awards he has won since becoming governor.
Víctor Villegas and Brenda Guzmán allege that San Luis Potosí officers assaulted them and caused Guzmán to miscarry.
A San Luis Potosí couple have accused state police of an unwarranted assault that caused the woman to lose her unborn baby.
According to the news website Infobae, police arrived outside the San Luis Potosí city home of Víctor Villegas and Brenda Guzmán on May 1 because a neighbor complained that a vehicle was blocking access to his house.
Officers from the state police metropolitan force responded to the call and are alleged to have physically assaulted the couple, both of whom are doctors.
Infobae reported that Villegas and Guzmán were initially involved in an argument with police over the improperly parked car because the officers wanted to impound it due to registration irregularities.
The couple were involved in a scuffle with the officers when the police indicated that they were going to arrest them. Guzmán says she suffered injuries inflicted by a policewoman that caused her to lose her baby hours later. She was allegedly yanked and hit in the abdomen by the officer.
Villegas and Guzmán met on Thursday with Edgardo Hernández Contreras, a state deputy and president of the public security committee of the state Congress.
Due to what they said was the indifference of authorities to what happened to them, the couple sought the assistance of the committee. Villegas and Guzmán, who have filed a complaint with the state Attorney General’s Office (FGE), said they were the victims of police abuse and demanded that the officers responsible be held to account.
“We have no way of demanding that the life of our child be given back to us — it’s impossible — but justice should at least be served, and hopefully this won’t happen to anyone else,” Villegas said.
The state Public Security Ministry (SSPE) told Infobae that five officers involved in the incident — three men and two women — currently remain at their jobs. The FGE is investigating and will determine whether the officers have a case to answer, the SSPE said.
The Attorney General’s Office said Thursday that its investigation was 80% complete and that it expected it would be finalized in the coming days.
Hernández, the state deputy, said police committed “shocking” and “unforgivable” acts of violence that resulted in a tragedy for both Guzmán and Villegas. He attributed the incident to a lack of police training.
The lawmaker pledged to support the couple in their fight for justice, asserting that it’s “necessary to continue working to avoid these kinds of police abuse.”
The Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) recently published a call for tenders to build five electrical generation plants around the country, but with one notable omission. A plant for Baja California Sur was not included.
In March, the CFE said it would publish a call for tenders for a combined cycle plant in the state, with construction to start in 2021. Yet in April it published calls for tenders for five new plants as part of its business plan for 2021 to 2025 but made no mention of Baja California Sur.
It turns out that the business plan for that period now calls for the new plant to begin operating in 2024.
President López Obrador said during a visit to the state in August last year that a new plant would be build “in the short term” and end the power blackouts.
Meanwhile, the blackouts continue due to what the CFE has called “technical failures” and “deficits in energy generation.” Similar reasons were cited for blackouts in the summer of 2019.
The outages have come as summer temperatures begin to rise, creating more demand for electricity as people turn on their air conditioners.
“The blackouts started in May, a situation that will make us more vulnerable to energy shortages in the month of August, when temperatures peak and a fan or even air conditioner are basic necessities in any Baja California home,” said Senator Audelia Villarreal, who had questioned the new plant’s absence in the call for tenders.
She called on the CFE to resolve the energy shortages, and asked that it CFE provide more information on the cause of the energy shortage. She explained that the exclusion of her state from the call for tenders was a grave setback.
Valle de Bravo candidate Zudikey Rodríguez was kidnapped and told to drop out of the June 6 election. She hasn't campaigned since.
Criminal groups are threatening, installing and even kidnapping political candidates in México state as they seek favorable conditions to operate under after the June 6 elections.
The newspaper Reforma spoke with local leaders of several political parties, who revealed that threats have been made against their candidates in Valle de Bravo, Donato Guerra, Ixtapan de la Sal, Tejupilco, Temascaltepec and Sultepec, all municipalities in southern México state, where there is a strong criminal presence.
In Donato Guerra, which borders Michoacán, criminal groups blocked Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) Mayor Eliza Ojeda from seeking reelection, Reforma reported. They also prevented her husband, Tomás Octaviano Félix, from contesting the mayoral election.
Criminal groups demanded that Carmen Albarrán be installed as the mayoral candidate for a coalition made up of the PRD, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the National Action Party (PAN).
Those three parties formed an alliance in December to increase their chances of beating Morena party candidates in many municipalities and federal and state electoral districts across Mexico.
According to the newspaper Reforma, organized crime prevented Donata Guerra Mayor Eliza Ojeda (seen here in 2019) from seeking reelection on June 6. From Twitter
In Sultepec, which borders Guerrero, coalition candidate Luisa Martínez González has received threats from organized crime, Reforma said. The PRD has reported the threats to México state electoral authorities but the state government has not publicly commented on organized crime’s intervention in the electoral process.
In Temascaltepec, criminal groups also allegedly “imposed” the Morena party candidate for mayor, and in Tejupilco, part of México state’s Tierra Caliente region, PRI-PAN-PRD candidate Rigoberto López has received threats.
In Valle de Bravo, a popular tourist town and weekend destination for Mexico City residents, organized crime took an even more hands-on approach this week.
Zudikey Rodríguez, mayoral candidate for the PRI-PAN-PRD coalition, was kidnapped on Monday while she was campaigning at the Velo de Novia waterfall in Avándaro, a nearby town. The former sprinter and hurdler who competed at the 2008 Olympic Games was allegedly abducted by members of the Familia Michoacana cartel.
According to witness accounts cited by noted political columnist Raymundo Riva Palacio in a piece published by the news website Eje Central on Thursday, Rodríguez was approached by two people and subsequently forced into a vehicle. Riva wrote that the candidate was driven 64 kilometers to Tejupilco, where a “person soaked in alcohol surrounded by an armed group” told her: “’Look, Zudy, they’ve ordered me to kill you, but I’m going to spare your life. I just ask you to hide and drop out of the campaign.’”
Rodríguez asked whether she should leave the country and the person — who Riva said has been identified as Familia Michoacana leader Johnny Hurtado Olascoaga, also known as “El Pez” (The Fish) — reiterated that she should go into hiding and withdraw her candidacy for mayor.
In México state, criminal groups allegedly demanded that Carmen Albarrán be installed as a mayoral candidate in Donata Guerra and threatened Tejupilco mayoral candidate Rigoberto López.
Hurtado and his brother José Alfredo lead a faction of the Familia Michoacana that has operated for more than a decade in the Tierra Caliente region of Guerrero and which controls the “criminal corridor” between Arcelia, Guerrero, and Valle de Bravo, Riva wrote. He said the criminal cell is currently in an alliance with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, generally considered Mexico’s most powerful and violent criminal organization.
“’El Pez’ could have killed Rodríguez without any problem, but it’s clear that wasn’t his final intention. They [the Familia Michoacana] wanted to intimidate her. They wanted her to abandon her electoral campaign without violence and without attracting national attention. So far, it has to be said, they achieved it: after the same criminals who abducted her at the Velo de Novia [waterfall] returned her to Avándaro, Rodríguez went into hiding,” Riva wrote.
The former candidate, who hadn’t been seen in public since her abduction, appeared in a video on Thursday in which she said that she was well. She thanked her team for their “unconditional support” but didn’t speak about her political campaign or ask citizens to vote for her on June 6.
Riva wrote that the motivation for the Familia Michoacana’s actions was to help the Morena party mayoral candidate, Michelle Núñez.
“This hadn’t happened before. The Olascoaga brothers had injected resources into electoral campaigns, according to people with knowledge of the political life in the south of México state, to gain protection, install their people in the municipal ministries of Security and Public Works or to pressure and extort council members. … What is unprecedented is that they bet on a specific candidate,” he wrote.
At the same time as Rodríguez was kidnapped, Riva wrote, federal customs chief Horacio Duarte — in concert “deliberately or coincidentally” with the criminals — arrived unannounced at the offices of the current PRI mayor of Valle de Bravo, Mauricio Osorio, to warn him to withdraw his support for the PRI-PAN-PRD candidate.
Morena party candidate Michelle Nuñez campaigning in April in Valle de Bravo.
Duarte, who is apparently close to Núñez, allegedly threatened to have the federal tax agency, SAT, of which customs is part, investigate the mayor if he didn’t do as he was told.
Citing information provided by people who personally know Rodríguez, Riva also wrote that people identified as members of Morena are watching her house to see who is visiting her. The aim, he said, is to infer whether the former athlete still plans to contest the June 6 election.
“… The state can’t allow actions of this nature in which a criminal group meddles in an electoral process where — if their apparent candidate is successful — they will implant criminal power into public power,” the columnist wrote.
He urged the federal government to investigate Rodríguez’s abduction and the actions of Duarte to determine “his alleged responsibility in the criminal events” of this week.
“The symptoms shown by the microcosm of Valle de Bravo are clearly those of narco-politics,” Riva wrote, adding that given the increasing number of examples of criminal involvement in politics, the federal government cannot continue to stand on the margins and not act against “this accelerated deterioration of public life.”
As the number of people displaced by violence in Aguililla, Michoacán, continues to grow, religious networks are planning a shelter in Tijuana to house them.
Aguililla has become a center of operations for the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), as it seeks to extend its territory into neighboring municipalities. But the violence has been too much for more than 500 families who have fled north, hoping to apply for asylum in the United States.
The shelter will have a food bank, cafeteria and a medical dispensary, and provide clothing. It will also provide migrant rights lawyers to assist refugees with their asylum applications. Services will be free thanks to the support of Catholic priests on both sides of the border.
Michoacán Catholic priest Gregorio López said about 90 families have arrived in Tijuana and 50 have entered the U.S.
López, also known as “Padre Goyo,” operates 30 shelters in Apatzingán which have been receiving refugees from Aguililla since the beginning of the year.
“Up until today we have had more than 500 families. We are talking about a whole town fleeing because the drug traffickers are operating with full impunity, killing innocent people,” López told Business Insider last week.
“Mexico is now overwhelmed and out of capacity to attend what is going on in Aguililla, and we really need a U.S. intervention. I’m calling the DEA [Drug Enforcement Administration] to come and help us,” López said.
In Aguililla, parish priest Gilberto Vergara said the church and local government have written more than 500 letters of recommendation for Aguililla residents who hope to apply for asylum in the U.S. The documents introduce the applicant and provide evidence of the violence they fled.
Vergara added that every night for the past month roads into Aguililla have been been blocked with ditches dug by criminal gangs to prevent passage. In the morning, police and residents fill in the holes. Wednesday night, Aguililla residents were awakened by the shots of another CJNG attack, which residents said left at least three people dead.
Some observers blame the situation in Aguililla on reduced security cooperation between Mexico and the U.S., which dates back to the latter’s arrest of former defense minister Salvador Cienfuegos. Now, criminal organizations directly benefit, said Cecilia Farfan-Méndez of the University of California at San Diego.
“López Obrador’s administration is thinking on Mexico’s sovereignty, and it’s getting the U.S. authorities frustrated since it’s very unclear what Mexican authorities are actually looking for,” she told Business Insider.
Texas immigration lawyer Carlos Spector said the exodus of refugees to the border “is a direct responsibility of U.S. and Mexican authorities failing to accept Mexico has a failed state — the organized crime is more of an authorized crime.”
'We want to go back home,' read the banners of displaced people at a protest in Guadalajara last week.
The ongoing turf war between the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CNJG) and the Sinaloa Cartel in northeastern Jalisco has forced nearly 900 refugees to flee their homes.
Catholic priest Manuel Sandate told the newspaper El Universal that 894 people have been forced out of their homes in Teocaltiche, Jalisco, according to the most recent count by the Divino Salvador parish in Mechoacanejo, where many refugees have found safety.
Some families from the communities of Aguatinta and Los Pocitos have returned home, but those from other communities have not. Due to the presence of the National Guard, the army and state police, some residents have been able to return home during the day to care for their animals and their land, but most do not dare stay the night, Sandate said.
“In the evening they have come back to stay here with the families who have opened their homes [to refugees],” Sandate said, who also called for continued support of the displaced people.
The state government said it has established an operations base in the area. State police are coordinating with the army and National Guard to patrol the zone, and have not reported further violence. The DIF family service agency has set up delivery points in the towns of Mechoacanejo and Rancho Nuevo, where affected families can receive support.
