Airport passenger numbers since February. el economista
Passenger numbers at the Mexico City airport are slowly recovering after plunging more than 90% during Mexico’s coronavirus lockdown period, but still remain well below 2019 levels.
A total of 1.34 million national and international passengers passed through the Benito Juárez International Airport in August, according to its operators.
It was the third consecutive month that passenger numbers rose but they were still 70% below the level recorded in August 2019.
In February, some 3.82 million passengers used the Mexico City airport, a 9% increase compared to the same month last year but numbers dropped to 2.67 million in March, a 35% annual reduction.
In April, the first full month of the national social distancing initiative, only 300,000 passengers used the airport, a 93% decline compared to the same month last year. Numbers fell to 280,000 in May, a 94% year-over-year drop.
Passenger numbers rose to 560,000 in June, the month in which federally-mandated coronavirus restrictions were replaced by rules that applied on a state by state basis, and just exceeded 1 million in July. But despite the growth those figures represented annual declines of 87% and 78%, respectively.
Passenger numbers in August rose about 30% compared to July, giving airlines and other businesses that depend on travelers cause for muted celebration.
Mexico City airport operators said the busiest day last month was August 21 when 49,795 travelers passed through the facility. More than 80% of people who used the airport last month were domestic travelers.
Aeroméxico, the national flag carrier, increased flights between Mexico City and the cities of Cancún, Mérida, Durango, Los Mochis, Chihuahua and Culiacán in August. It also reopened the route between the Mexican capital and Quito, Ecuador, as well as those to the U.S. cities of Las Vegas, Denver and San Francisco.
In addition, Aeroméxico increased the frequency of flights to Miami, Paris and Sao Paulo, Brazil.
But no matter how many extra flights are added in the final months of the year and how many passengers resume air travel, 2020 is certain to go down as a year the airline industry and airport operators would prefer to forget.
In the first eight months, a total of just over 14.2 million passengers passed through the Mexico City airport, a 57.4% decrease compared to the same period of 2019.
Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell, left, and federal legal counsel Julio Scherer applaud the document that was sent to the Senate.
President López Obrador sent a request to the Senate Tuesday to approve a national consultation in which citizens would be asked whether the five most recent former presidents should face justice for crimes they allegedly committed while in office.
“Our decision is to submit a document to the Senate [proposing] the carrying out of a consultation of the people of Mexico about the possible prosecution … of the ex-presidents of Mexico from 1988,” he told reporters at his regular news conference.
López Obrador said that any prosecution of past presidents would proceed only after a proper investigation was carried out within the framework of the law and with respect to due process.
His decision to submit a formal request for a vote on whether past presidents should face justice means that the ruling Morena party’s efforts to collect signatures of support were essentially pointless.
According to the constitution, a consultation can be approved by the Congress if it receives a request for one from the president, 33% of the members of the lower or upper house or at least 2% of citizens who are enrolled to vote.
Ex-presidents Salinas, Zedillo, Fox, Calderón and Peña Nieto.
Morena launched a campaign earlier this month to collect 2 million signatures in support of a consultation. Party president Alfonso Ramírez said the aim was to collect that number of signatures — only 1.8 million were needed — to ensure that there were no excuses for a consultation not to go ahead.
Members of Congress and the president himself predicted that the effort to collect the signatures required would fail but López Obrador said today he had been informed that the 2 million mark had been reached.
Nevertheless, he said he decided to present his own request in order to ensure that a consultation proposal is put before the Congress.
“I believed that it was important to present this document as well to have more certainty about the request for a consultation of all citizens,” López Obrador said.
While supportive of a consultation – the president likes to portray himself as a champion of “participatory democracy” – AMLO, as the president is widely known, has said that he won’t vote in favor of prosecuting his predecessors because he prefers looking to the future rather than dwelling on the past.
However, López Obrador is prone to abandon that stated mindset, frequently railing against his recent predecessors and blaming them for all manner of problems that plague the country including insecurity, inequality, impunity and corruption.
Despite his formal backing for a vote, there is no guarantee that one will be go ahead, according to Marco Pérez, a law professor at the La Salle University in Mexico City.
In an interview with Forbes México, Pérez described the plan to hold a consultation as “cheap politicking” and “totally unviable.”
He said the constitution establishes that human rights and mechanisms designed to protect those rights cannot be subjected to consultation. “It’s clear that due process is a human right” and it would be violated by a vote because ex-presidents would be “prejudged” for alleged crimes they may not have committed, he said.
If a consultation is given the green light, Pérez said, the Supreme Court would have to review the wording of the question posed to citizens to ensure that it was not biased and didn’t violate the ex-presidents’ rights.
The academic also said that authorities have an obligation to advise the federal Attorney General’s Office if they have proof that a current or former official has committed a crime. No consultation is needed, Pérez said.
Felipe Calderón, who along with Carlos Salinas, Ernesto Zedillo, Vicente Fox and Enrique Peña Nieto could be investigated should a majority of citizens support the initiative, said much the same.
Calderón: if president has no proof, ‘he should stop harassing me.’
“López Obrador is confusing the [Mexican] republic with a Roman Circus: instead of going to the Attorney General’s Office [FGR] with proof, he’s asking the masses if innocent people [should] be convicted or forgiven by giving a thumbs-up or thumbs-down. [It’s] a regression of thousands of years in terms of justice,” he wrote on Twitter.
“If he has well-founded proof against me, he should go to the attorney general today and present it without the need for a consultation. But if he doesn’t have proof or specific accusations, … he should stop harassing me and respect my rights like any other citizen,” Calderón said.
The former president, who defeated López Obrador at the 2006 election and has long had a testy relationship with him, accused the current president of political persecution and abuse of power.
Calderón also said that AMLO’s proposal to hold a consultation violates the “fundamental guarantees” of “presumption of innocence, due legal process, justice via an independent court, exclusive investigation by the [attorney general], protection of life, honor and dignity.”
A monument to the miners was erected in Mexico City in 2018.
The government will proceed immediately with the US $75-million recovery of the bodies of 63 miners who perished in a coal mine collapse in Coahuila in 2006.
It will also pay compensation of 3.7 million pesos (US $170,000) to the victims’ families before the end of the year year and place a monument to the victims at the accident site. Excavations are set to begin in January.
The decision came Monday after President López Obrador met for a second time with the miner’s families. An initial meeting was held in late August when the government presented the offer of compensation and the placing of a monument dedicated to the memory of the lost miners. A decision whether to undergo the costly recovery process was left in their hands.
After yesterday’s three-hour meeting, Alejandro Encinas, deputy minister of human rights, announced that the recovery will proceed and that the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) will manage the operation.
It will also extract coal from the Pasta de Conchos mine during the excavation to help finance the recovery effort.
“The parties agree to immediately begin the rescue process through the Federal Electricity Commission. The families present give their consent for the CFE, once the rescue is completed, to extract the coal [to pay the cost],” the agreement between reads.
López Obrador is making good on a promise he made in 2019 to exhume the bodies of the miners, whose relatives have pleaded with the government since 2006 that the effort be made.
For years mine owner Grupo México has insisted that conditions are too dangerous to make the attempt.
However, family members suspect that the company did not want to conduct the search because poor and dangerous working conditions would be revealed, a suspicion supported by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Grupo México promised to hand over the title to the mine, located in San Juan de Sabinas, Coahuila, to the federal government in February at President López Obrador’s request. The president will visit the site on October 23 to supervise compliance with yesterday’s agreement.
“Grupo México expresses its wish that the efforts undertaken by the government are successful and translate into peace for the families,” the company said in a statement.
For those who lost a loved one in the blast, some closure is now in sight. “The rescue is going forward! Because it is our right to rescue the mortal remains of our relatives. Truth, justice, reparations and guarantees of non-repetition,” a group representing families of the miners posted to their Facebook page yesterday after the agreement was reached.
#LadyBanqueta, or #LadySidewalk in English, is the newest member of Mexico’s hashtag nobility.
The government of Villahermosa, Tabasco, has filed a lawsuit against a woman who they say deliberately walked on a freshly-poured concrete sidewalk, ignoring the shouts of workers as she left her footprints in the wet concrete.
Dumbfounded workers filmed the woman on their cell phones as she did so.
In an interview, Mayor Evaristo Hernández Cruz explained that the woman was upset because a step had not been placed in front of her business, whose floor was left somewhat high with the sidewalk upgrade.
“Some citizens do not want progress, they do not want the development of their area, and they do this type of thing,” he said. “It’s not right that someone wastes the resources that we have,” he added, saying her attitude was more harmful than the actual loss of workers’ time.
The woman made at least two passes over the newly-poured concrete.
The term “Lady” is not a reference to royalty in Mexico, but rather an ironic designation earned by women of a certain class who choose to humiliate others in spectacular ways.
The woman joins the ranks of those shamed on social media when caught behaving outrageously, including last month’s #Lady3Pesos who was fired from her job at a real estate firm after she was filmed berating a Walmart security guard last month in the borough of Azcapotzalco in Mexico City.
That woman earned her nickname after she launched into an expletive-laden classist tirade against security personnel who refused to let her enter the store with her child, a policy clearly stated at the entrance of the store in order to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
She later apologized.
Last week an Argentinian woman who objected to the pruning of a tree in Mexico City was christened #LadyArgentina after she berated a woman filming her objections using racist insults. “You’re an Indian,” she proclaimed. “Do you know who you are? You are an Indian,” adding “film me, horrible Indian.”
Her words not only earned her disdain on social media but also the attention of immigration officials who, upon learning she had left the country, announced she would be barred from returning.
The woman, a tango instructor, offered a written apology, saying her words were unfortunate but taken out of context. “First of all, I want to sincerely apologize for calling the lady what I called her, and to all those who have been offended by my comment,” she wrote.
In June, #LadyPizza was born after a video surfaced of a woman attacking and threatening workers with a lengthy barrage of expletives at a Little Caesars pizzeria in Naucalpan, state of México, who did not want to serve her as she refused to wear a face mask.
The term “Lady” is believed to have first surfaced in Mexico in 2011 when a woman caught screaming insults at a police officer in Polanco was dubbed #LadyPolanco.
#Lord is another common hashtag, bestowed on men for similar behavior.
Last year's grito in the zócalo in Mexico City. This year will look rather different.
Mexico’s “new normal” due to the coronavirus pandemic means a rather somber 210th celebration of the country’s declaration of independence from Spain.
Whereas in other years parties, mariachis, parades, streets flooded with people and food vendors that accompany the “cry of independence” were de rigueur, this year health measures mean the celebrations have been mostly canceled.
Many state governments are opting for a virtual commemoration of independence or a simple ceremony that will be broadcast on local television and social media networks Tuesday evening.
In Michoacán, the entire ceremony has been canceled by Governor Silvano Aureoles, who has tested positive for coronavirus, and no alcohol will be sold on Tuesday.
Veracruz is also under a dry law for the occasion, effective Monday and Tuesday. In Aguascalientes, a statewide dry law has been decreed from September 13 to 20 in order to discourage large public and private events.
In Dolores Hidalgo, Guanajuato, where priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla delivered the speech that started the independence movement in 1810, a solemn ceremony will be held in which Governor Diego Sinhue Rodríguez will ring the bell of the Parish of Nuestra Señora de Dolores.
Restaurants and entertainment centers in Cuernavaca, Morelos, must close tonight at 11 p.m., and operations will be carried out to prevent private gatherings.
In Culiacán, Sinaloa, only 500 people will be allowed to gather in front of city hall for the cry of independence ceremony. Normally some 20,000 people crowd together for the event.
Around 80 specially-lit drones are being used in Hidalgo’s celebrations, and residents are invited to celebrate and view the show from their balconies and rooftops.
Doctors and nurses who have been working in the fight against the coronavirus will be the only guests invited to Jalisco’s official ceremony, which residents can view on television.
Veracruz, Sonora, Baja California Sur, Tabasco, Durango, Colima and Nayarit have all planned virtual ceremonies.
Zacatecas will launch fireworks from the top of La Bufa hill, while in the city of Puebla eco-friendly pyrotechnics have been announced.
A torch will be lit tonight in Mexico City’s zócalo, symbolizing hope, and a map of Mexico will also be laid out using LED lights.
Six months into the coronavirus pandemic in Mexico, large conglomerations of people must be avoided, officials say.
“I recommend that the public stay at home. National holidays can be celebrated from home. The Cry of Independence will be without people in the zócalo.” Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said. “The epidemic has not ended, we entrust you to follow general precautionary measures. Do not forget about handwashing, healthy distancing and the proper use of a mask.”
The president expressed a similar sentiment and asked that people celebrate from home.
“I invite everyone to celebrate our national independence … there will be music and fireworks, it is going to be an interesting night,” President López Obrador said Tuesday morning. “We are suffering from the pandemic, we are going to remember that, too. Remember the deceased, hug their relatives, always keep them in our hearts but at the same time we must lift our spirits because of the greatness of Mexico.”
As of Monday, there have been 671,716 accumulated cases of the coronavirus and 71,049 deaths, placing Mexico in seventh place worldwide for the number of cases, and in fourth place for the number of fatalities.
Monday's 'anti-grita' at Human Rights Commission headquarters.
Feminist activists who continue to occupy the Mexico City headquarters of the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) after seizing the premises earlier this month held a boisterous event on Monday at which they burned a piñata of President López Obrador.
The so-called antigrita or anti-cry event was held outside the CNDH headquarters a day before Independence Day celebrations kick off with the commemorative Grito de Dolores (Cry of Dolores), a reenactment of the original shout for independence by Catholic priest Miguel Hidalgo in 1810.
“The country does not represent us,” women shouted late Monday night after denouncing gender violence and calling for justice with their anti-cry.
The event, which also featured live music, dancing and cultural activities, came 10 days after the CNDH headquarters in the historic center of Mexico City was taken over by a feminist collective and turned into a shelter for victims of gender-based violence.
According to the newspaper La Jornada, about 300 women attended Monday’s event, which began in the late afternoon and concluded after the antigrita at 11:00 p.m.
“We’re bad, we can be worse, … whoever doesn’t like it can get screwed,” the activists chanted.
Photographs published on social media and news websites showed a stocky piñata of López Obrador with a bulbous head being burned as hundreds of activists looked on and cheered. A painting of Miguel Hidalgo that was removed from the CNDH premises was also destroyed.
“This is a fucking painting, it’s not worth more than a life,” said Bertha Nava, whose son was one of 43 students who was abducted and presumably killed in Guerrero in September 2014. Nava claimed last week that the president appeared more concerned about damage to the painting than the cause for which the women were protesting.
Other family members of people who have disappeared in Guerrero were also in attendance at Monday’s event.
“We’re fed up, tired of the government and the authorities mocking our pain. My father disappeared two years ago, they don’t understand our pain,” a woman identified only as Flavia told the newspaper El Universal.
Prior to the event, the CNDH issued a statement that said that it has sought dialogue with the activists with a view to retaking possession of its premises.
Rights commission chief Rosario Piedra.
The rights commission offered to issue a recommendation that the activists not be prosecuted for their actions and said it was prepared to allow them to use another building as a base to carry out their activities in defense of women’s rights and against gender violence.
Meanwhile, CNDH president Rosario Piedra said Monday that she was also a victim, explaining that she suffered human rights violations that were never resolved, referring to abuse against family members in the 1970s.
Piedra, who is currently facing calls for her to resign from feminist activists, some federal lawmakers and others, said the CNDH is facing “a formidable media campaign of smear and lies.”
Speaking during a virtual meeting with members of the Chamber of Deputies’ human rights committee, the rights chief said that the CNDH today is managed with “complete honesty and transparency.”
“They’ve tried to disseminate scandalous and slanderous … [information about the CNDH] but in the end the truth will come out and what will be left are the results,” Piedra said.
She rejected claims that she and other CNDH employees were served gourmet meals at the headquarters now occupied by the activists. Meat found at the premises that was denounced on social media as “cortes finos” or fine cuts was nothing of the sort, Piedra said.
“The menu was like that in any middle-class home: pasta soup, rice, beans, stews, agua fresca [water flavored with fruit], no gourmet food. [The meat] presented as ‘fine cuts’ was beefsteak, pork and beef shank. What I ate was exactly the same as what the cleaning and security staff ate,” she said.
Addressing criticism that she is too close to López Obrador and unduly influenced by him, Piedra responded:
“I exercise my powers fully as head of the commission, removed from pressure and influence other than those of the victims [of human rights violations]. I have done that and I will do that … with a multidisciplinary team in which each person fulfills his or her role and responsibility without overstepping the mark nor subjugating others to ensure teamwork that is efficient and empathetic with the victims. The autonomy of the commission is guaranteed.”
Piedra was appointed human rights chief last November amid claims that she would be a puppet of the federal government. Upon being sworn in she immediately courted more controversy by indicating that she was unaware that any journalists had been killed since López Obrador took office in December 2018 when in fact at least 13 had been murdered.
Protests in Chihuahua over a 1944 water treaty with the United States are paralyzing sectors of the economy as farmers and ranchers angry over the deviation of water have blocked railway tracks in Meoqui since August 26, costing Mexican industry some US $10 billion.
The railway, which has been blocked by mounds of dirt and heavy equipment, is an essential thoroughfare between the United States and Mexico.
Francisco Santini Ramos, president of the Chihuahua office of the national Business Coordinating Council (CCE), said that in the absence of an alternative that allows the transit of vital cargo, it is urgent that tracks be cleared
“It would be very difficult to change the shipments because that would mean using almost 20,000 trucks to move the merchandise and there are neither the conditions nor the infrastructure to make these changes,” he said. “The path is dialogue and unblocking the railway tracks.”
He said the situation has impacted the automotive, cement, food and beer industries in central Mexico that routinely ship their products north via rail through Ciudad Juárez, the second most important border crossing in the exchange of trade between the United States and Mexico.
Former Chihuahua governor Reyes called the freezing of accounts ‘political persecution.’
Santini said the CCE has requested intervention by both the state and federal governments. Chihuahua Governor Javier Corral and Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard have been asked to resolve the water crisis and put an end to the blockade.
The Confederation of Industrial Chambers (Concamin) and the Mexican Railway Association (AMF) report that train shipments through Chihuahua are essential for national logistics due to the state’s strategic location and the importance of its agro-industrial sector for the country’s economy.
The conflict between farmers and the federal government exploded last week at the La Boquilla dam in San Francisco de Conchos and later claimed two victims.
A man and a woman who were protesting at the dam last Tuesday when it was stormed by farmers wielding Molotov cocktails, sticks and rocks were found shot in their pickup truck in the nearby city of Delicias that night.
The woman, Yessica Silva, died at the scene and her husband, Jaime Torres, was sent to the hospital in serious condition with gunshot wounds to the chest and neck. Witnesses say they were fired on by the National Guard.
President López Obrador asked the Attorney General’s Office to investigate the incidents at the dam which he says were instigated by his political opponents.
The federal government took further action against protesters through the Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) of the Ministry of Finance. It froze the accounts of three officials singled out for being behind the Boquilla dam protests, former Chihuahua governor José Reyes Baeza, Delicias Mayor Eliseo Compeán Fernández and Chihuahua Irrigation Association President Salvador Alcántar.
In addition, 44 bank accounts belonging to the municipality of Delicias were frozen, according to the mayor.
The UIF said it froze the accounts of ex-governor Reyes in connection with the suspected embezzlement of 129 million pesos while Reyes was head of the state workers health service, ISSSTE, during the administration of former president Enrique Peña Nieto.
It denied freezing the accounts of the municipality of Delicias.
Both Reyes and Mayor Compeán called the move political persecution.
Tourists in Tulum, where hotels are seeing more guests.
Hotel occupancy in Tulum, Quintana Roo, is currently at its highest level since the economic reopening, the resort town’s hotel association president said Sunday.
David Ortiz Mena said that 32% of rooms are currently occupied, noting that most visitors are staying in hotels and resorts located on or near the beach.
He said that some hotels remain closed and that those that have opened are operating at reduced capacity.
The Bahía Principe hotel, located about 25 kilometers north of the town of Tulum near Akumal, has only opened 750 rooms out of almost 4,000, Ortiz said.
The vast majority of hotels in the Tulum coastal zone – the town proper is located about five kilometers inland – have reopened and some have occupancy of close to 60%, he said.
“Only 4% of hotels in that area are still closed,” Ortiz said.
The hotel association chief said that he expects occupancy levels to increase further this month despite September normally being part of the low season. He also said that many tourists are choosing to stay longer than the average 3 1/2-day stay.
He said that Quintana Roo’s designation as a yellow-light state according to the federal government’s stoplight system to assess the risk of coronavirus infection is welcome news as it allows hotels and restaurants to increase their capacity. Ortiz highlighted that archaeological sites and beaches in Tulum are also now open at reduced capacity.
However, he noted that bars in the Caribbean coast municipality have not yet been allowed to reopen. As a result, Tulum has recently felt like the Tulum of old – “a lot more rest and less partying,” Ortiz said.
While he agreed that bars shouldn’t yet reopen, the hotel association chief said that authorities should increase the limit on the number of people allowed to attend events such as weddings, which is currently set at 50.
Weddings in Tulum are big business but the current limit on guests is a deterrent, Ortiz said, adding that there are venues with the capacity to host larger numbers of people while ensuring that social distancing recommendations are observed.
While predicting that tourism will continue to increase, Ortiz said that Tulum’s market remains limited because flights from Europe to Cancún are still well below pre-pandemic levels. Canadians are also not currently traveling in the numbers tourism operators would like, he said.
Travelers who do make it to Tulum, as well as residents, are being encouraged to use a face mask as part of the Quintana Roo Tourism Promotion Council’s “Wear to Care” campaign.
“Despite [being allocated] a yellow light, it’s important that we keep working to send a safe image of our destination. We mustn’t relax the health measures,” Ortiz said.
An investigation is under way into torture in children's shelters.
Dozens of children have been tortured at a temporary youth shelter in Tijuana, Baja California, according to one of the victims.
A 19-year-old man identified only as Javier told the newspaper El Universal that when he was 10 years old he was placed in solitary confinement at a shelter run by the DIF family services agency in the northern border city.
Javier said he was dragged into the so-called “meditation room” located behind the shelter itself by two employees and left there in the dark without access to water or a bathroom for more than a week.
Many other children suffered the same fate during the time they spent in the care of the state, he said.
“DIF did whatever they wanted to me,” Javier told El Universal at a Christian shelter where he now lives in San Quintín, a town about 300 kilometers south of Tijuana.
He said the first day he was held in the “meditation room” he demanded to know what had happened to his brother who was also staying at the shelter but whom he hadn’t seen for a week.
He found out that his brother had also been held in the “meditation room” as punishment for complaining about the quality of a meal he was given. Upon “release” he was transferred to another state-run facility.
Javier said that during his time in solitary confinement he was only given food sparingly.
“Sometimes they forget that you’re there and don’t give you anything to eat,” he said, adding that he had to relieve himself in the small, dark space. “I shouted that I wanted to go to the bathroom but they didn’t let me out,” Javier said.
“Once they took me out and said to me, ‘If I hadn’t seen you I wouldn’t have remembered that you were there.’ That was something that made me angry.”
One of the psychologists who worked at the shelter reportedly justified holding young children in solitary confinement, saying: “Sometimes it’s necessary because one doesn’t know what to do with them … [when] they behave badly.”
According to El Universal, an autistic boy revealed the location of the “meditation room” to the Baja California DIF director Blanca Fabela during a visit to the shelter last November. She was subsequently taken to the room and upon opening its metal door discovered that two adolescents were being held there.
It is unclear what action was immediately taken but in recent days, Baja California Minister of Integrity and Public Administration Vicenta Espinosa Martínez revealed that an investigation has been opened and that a criminal complaint against those responsible for the torture will be filed.
The State Human Rights Commission has also launched an investigation but no victims have yet been formally interviewed.
Some shelter staff members have been dismissed in connection with the alleged torture but none currently face criminal charges, El Universal said.
Javier, who left the shelter four years ago, says he now has ambitions to study law because as a lawyer he will be able to defend the rights of children facing the same situation he did.
The Tijuana youth shelter is not the only state-run home in Baja California where children are allegedly being mistreated.
According to a report published Sunday by the news website Noticias Ya, children at a temporary DIF shelter in Mexicali rioted last week against their mistreatment.
A children’s rights advocate told the news portal that the commotion occurred after several children had been held in isolation for varying lengths of time ranging from less than an hour to a few days.
The woman, whose identity wasn’t disclosed, said that DIF employees at the Mexicali shelter treat misbehaving children as if they were violent criminals. Even children with disabilities are held in solitary confinement at times, she said.
Ana Laura Galicia, a psychologist in Tijuana, said the children being abused come from violent homes where they were also mistreated. Locking them up on their own amounts to re-victimization and torture, she said.
The children’s rights activist said that solitary confinement has been used as a punishment at the shelter for at least 12 years.
Baja California authorities are also investigating the alleged mistreatment at the Mexicali facility and a complaint has been filed against employees who committed acts of torture against the children living there.
Try a blueberry balsamic glaze on chicken or turkey.
One doesn’t usually think of blueberries as a Mexican fruit. But in recent years Mexico has become one of the world’s foremost blueberry producers, rising steadily through the ranks and sitting comfortably in the top five.
The states of Jalisco, Michoacán, Sinaloa, Puebla, Baja California and Colima grow the most, with the majority slated for export. (Although we still get lots here during harvest time — like now.)
Blueberries — called mora azul, or technically arandano azul — are quite the trendy crop nowadays, and there’s a big profit to be made from them. Mexico and Chile (another big grower) are unique in that their climates allow for two and sometimes three crops a year.
The majority of Mexican blueberries are grown under giant poly-covers to protect the plants from too much sun and allow for careful attention to soil pH, watering and pest control.
Canadian readers may know that lowbush, or “wild” blueberries, are their country’s biggest fruit crop and that they lead the world in their production. Indeed, Oxford, Nova Scotia, is known as the Wild Blueberry Capital of Canada, and residents in some regions of Quebec are known as bleuets, or blueberries. These are a different variety than the “highbush blueberries” grown in the U.S. and Mexico.
Mexico is among the top five producers.
Wherever they come from, though, we can all agree that blueberries taste great, are good for you and lend themselves to a wide variety of recipes. Pancakes, cobbler, pie, jam, muffins, cheesecake … the list of baked goods that blueberries work with goes on and on. I’ve included some unusual recipes here that use blueberries in atypical ways just to keep you on your toes.
Blueberry Lemonade
½ cup sugar
1 cup blueberries
¾ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
5 cups water
First make blueberry simple syrup: combine sugar and 1 cup water in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Add blueberries and bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer until blueberries break down, 3-4 minutes. Strain through a cheesecloth or fine-mesh sieve; cool. In a large pitcher, whisk syrup, lemon juice and water. Refrigerate until chilled. Serve over ice and garnish with blueberries.
Blueberry Ketchup
Great on any kind of burger!
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
¼ cup minced onion
¼ cup granulated sugar
2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
¼ tsp. allspice
Combine blueberries, onion, sugar, vinegar and allspice in small saucepan over medium-high heat; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium; cook, stirring often, for 8-10 minutes or until thickened to syrupy consistency. Let cool completely.
Lettuce Wraps with Chicken, Blueberries & Almonds
½ cup plain Greek or regular yogurt
¼ cup fresh basil, chopped
½ tsp. kosher salt
¼ tsp. pepper
3 cups cooked chicken, chopped
1 cup blueberries
½ cup celery, chopped
¼ cup scallions, chopped
8 lettuce leaves
2 Tbsp. sliced almonds, toasted
Mix yogurt, basil, salt and pepper in a bowl. Add chicken, blueberries, celery and scallions; toss until evenly coated. Arrange lettuce leaves on serving platter and top with chicken mixture, dividing evenly. Garnish with almonds.
Blueberry Balsamic Glaze
Use to baste roast chicken or turkey, or as a sauce on fish like snapper or shark.
2 cups blueberries (divided)
½ cup minced dried figs
½ cup balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp. maple syrup
1½ Tbsp. Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper
Fresh rosemary sprigs
In small saucepan, simmer ½ cup of blueberries, figs and vinegar over low heat, stirring occasionally, until reduced by half. Add maple syrup, mustard, 1 tsp. of rosemary leaves and a pinch of salt and pepper. Use to baste meat during the last 30 minutes of cooking. Garnish with rosemary springs and a few blueberries.
Blueberry, Kale & Pineapple Smoothie
¼ cup fresh mint leaves
1¼ cups fresh pineapple chunks
1½ cups fresh orange juice
1 cup blueberries
1 cup kale
2 ice cubes
In a blender, mix mint, juice, blueberries, kale until smooth. Add pineapple and ice cubes and blend again.
Blueberry scones, with lemon and coconut.
Blueberry Lemon Coconut Scones
2 cups flour, plus more for dusting
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
¼ cup refined coconut oil, solid but creamy
1 cup fresh blueberries
1 Tbsp. lemon zest
1 cup unsweetened, full-fat coconut milk, shaken well before measuring
Turbinado sugar
Preheat oven to 400 F. Mix flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and coconut oil with a food processor, pulsing until mixture is a powdery meal. Transfer to medium bowl; add blueberries and zest. Stir in coconut milk to form a soft dough. Turn onto lightly floured surface and pat into a 7-inch round. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate 15 minutes. Cut chilled dough into six wedges. Sprinkle with turbinado sugar and arrange on parchment-lined pan. Bake until puffed and golden, about 25 minutes.
Janet Blaser has been a writer, editor and storyteller her entire life and feels fortunate to be able to write about great food, amazing places, fascinating people and unique events. Her first book, Why We Left: An Anthology of American Women Expats, is available on Amazon. Contact Janet or read her blog at whyweleftamerica.com.
