Some tips for making a Mexican home a better place to be in quarantine

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September 2, 2020

stay at home — Staying at home in quarantine, as authorities have urged, sometimes means making changes to one's space, particularly if it's getting crowded.

Chances are you’ve been thinking about your home a lot lately. Now that you’re spending so much time inside, little details you hadn’t noticed before are suddenly front and center and, I’d be willing to bet, things are starting to feel a bit crowded.

We interrupt today’s regularly-scheduled gloom and doom with a twist of hopeful rallying and pleading at the very end for something a bit different: how to make your home a place you don’t mind being quarantined in.

I’ve been seeing quite a few articles and videos lately about how people are using this time to renovate, add on to their homes, or simply carve out a little space inside of a rental away from the kids where they might actually be able to get five minutes of uninterrupted work done.

Most recommendations for DIY-ing it (Do It Yourself) are excellent, but I always notice that they are geared toward people in homes in the U.S. and Canada. The assumption is always that you have large and plentiful closets, a complete kitchen with ample counter and cabinet space, storage spaces with vanities in the bathrooms, climate control that runs through wood-beamed structures covered in drywall, screens on the windows, and standard-sized windows and doors.

Ha! As those of you who live here in Mexico know, on the whole these are not reasonable expectations; depending on your renting and buying budget, some of them might be, but if you’re like me and arrived as a poor student, you’ve probably lived in places that made pantries and a couple of shelves in the bathroom feel like items of luxury.

Lucky for all of us, there are solutions, and for the most part, they aren’t expensive. The following are my top tips for organizing and decorating Mexican homes, especially if you’re on a budget!

Space is precious: don’t let junk take it up!

I’m no Marie Kondo (get rid of all but a handful of books? Are you crazy?), but I do believe in the awesome power of decluttering. When I help friends with decorating projects, I absolutely refuse to start on the “fun stuff” like painting and adding pretty details until all the junk is out of the area we’ll be working on.

Start with the obvious: all expired food items and medicines get tossed. Then move on to old papers: keep the major documents — maybe invest in a filing cabinet or box — and toss the water bills from two years ago. If you’re afraid to do this, snap a picture of it first.

Then, it’s on to clothing. A good rule of thumb is that if you haven’t worn something in over a year and it’s not from some special, sentimental occasion like your wedding, wash it and put it in a “donate” bag. Either take it to a donation center or save it for when someone comes to knock on your door asking for old clothes and shoes. Do the same with jewelry, electronics, toys, kitchen stuff (I know you have a bunch of lids in there that no longer go to anything — off with them!).

I personally like to start with the kitchens and bathrooms: that’s where you can typically make the biggest changes and clear the most space at once. Plus, it’s just so cathartic to give yourself permission to throw out that five-year-old bottle of lotion with only an inch of product left in it once you admit to yourself that it’s never actually going to get used.

Make that place safe!

I’ve often joked that Mexico’s motto seems to be “Safety third!” Hand railing on slick stairs? Who needs it? My own beautiful home at the moment (I’m renting) has quite a few stairs, and when I moved in there was only one handrail on only one side on only one flight, as well as open spaces (read: gaping holes) between the stairs and the studio spaces. Those empty spaces next to the stairs were big enough for even a slightly-tipsy medium-sized adult to fall through, to say nothing of adventurous and oblivious children.

The owner is lovely, and I convinced him to install bamboo barriers that “closed” the spaces while still letting in the light from the stairs in. I also bought a few rolls of “traction” strips for all the stairs. Like most floors in Mexico, they’re made of tile and pretty much anything can make them slippery.

Making your stairs safe (get something to grab on to and something to give your feet traction) is always my No. 1 tip. You should also consider anchoring heavy furniture to the walls lest you have little ones that might want to pretend to be mountain climbers when you turn away for five seconds. Mosquito netting for your bed if you can’t put screens on your window is also an excellent investment.

When you don’t have storage: use the wall!

My go-to solution for creating storage space is to use the vertical space. Invest in a good drill (the hand-held battery ones might not be powerful enough for the concrete walls) or have a carpenter install shelves that he or she makes. This is usually a very economical option, and you can use baskets and containers that you find at the supermarket, artisans market, or even the catalogue of home products your neighbor sells to organize the things you need.

Sometimes even a simple nail will do: pots and pans in my house have been hung on the wall near the stove in the places where I’ve lived for at least the past 10 years, and holes are very easy to fill back up once you’re ready to move.

When you need to cover something up

I don’t know about you all, but I can’t count how many homes I’ve rented here with closet space (score!) but no closet doors. And as organized as I might be hanging my clothes and stacking my shoes, I just don’t want to see them when I walk into the room. The solution? Get some wall hangings. If that’s no longer your style, you can have some tasteful curtains made to hang in front. It’s simple, cheap, and makes a dramatic change while still keeping the space accessible.

When you want to give things a dramatic change

I’ve painted pretty much every house I’ve lived in here. My go-to color palette looks a lot like the “bold” Crayola-brand box of markers with lots of deep corals and rich teals paired with off-white “brightening” neutrals, but I know everyone’s got their own tastes. Paint an “accent” wall in the room and soak up the gorgeous change! Paint is just amazing, not to mention forgiving: if you don’t like how it turned out, just paint over it in another color!

This makes for a fun activity for kids as well, and both walls and old furniture have been known to receive makeovers in times of boredom. I’m currently waiting for a large protein powder container to run out so that I can paint it and make it into a cookie jar, a product that mysteriously doesn’t seem to be sold anywhere anymore.

A lamp or two (do yourself a favor and get the “warm light” bulbs) can also make a huge difference in a room, as can houseplants. The natural green is just such a beautiful touch, and they’ll make your space feel fresh and outdoorsy even if you yourself can’t be outdoors.

So there you have it, folks. We might not be able to hang out in our favorite cafe or bar, but we can make our homes as lovely as they can be in the meantime. And when we’re finally able to hang out with each other again, they’ll be totally ready to receive guests and have parties! Hang in there, and get decorating: you’ll be glad you did.

Sarah DeVries writes from her home in Xalapa, Veracruz.

Reynosa awakes to narco-blockades as cartel reacts to leader’s arrest

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Susy Buchanan

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September 2, 2020

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Roadways littered with burning tires and road spikes and some streets completely blocked by trucks and buses greeted some residents of Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Wednesday morning.

Streets were blocked by members of the Gulf Cartel in response to the recent arrest of one of their leaders.

The Reynosa highway to Río Bravo and the Luis Donaldo Colosio Boulevard near the Nuevo Amanecer neighborhood were among the affected areas, and hundreds of maquiladora workers arrived at work late at nearby industrial parks.

Civil Protection officers and firefighters were dispatched to the scenes to maintain order and extinguish the fires.

The blockades occurred as Governor Francisco Javier García Cabeza de Vaca was swearing in a new military commander, Brigadier General Pablo Alberto Lechuga Horta.

State Public Security spokesman Luis Alberto Rodríguez assured the newspaper Infobae that the timing was coincidental. “There is no relationship,” he stated.

Rodríguez said “there were no reports of aggression, clashes or detonations in Reynosa at the time the blockades were reported.”

The show of force by the cartel was more likely an act of revenge as criminals and authorities are locked in a tit-for-tat battle for control of Reynosa’s streets.

The cartel leader who was arrested ordered that the city’s video surveillance cameras be destroyed on August 27, a day before President López Obrador’s visit to the border town.

The gangsters used trucks and stolen SUVs to knock down 12 lampposts to which the cameras were mounted.

That action may have been in response to recent police raids on Gulf Cartel subjects which resulted in several major seizures of property and sent cartel members on the run.

In Reynosa, both sides spy on each other. In 2019, state Police removed 62 cartel surveillance cameras disguised as payphones, electric meters and streetlights.

Reynosa is a point of contention between the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas and violent encounters between the two criminal organizations and authorities occur on a regular basis.

The U.S. Department of States Overseas Security Advisory Council called the situation in Reynosa “consistently violent and pretty dire,” in a report issued on June 24. “Rolling gun battles between police elements and transnational criminal organizations occur daily in Reynosa,” the report stated, adding that although crime in Tamaulipas, in Reynosa violence remains elevated.

Source: Reforma (sp), Infobae (sp)

Most states could turn green by October on virus stoplight map: López-Gatell

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MND Staff

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September 2, 2020

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Two or three states probably won't hit the green light level till November, the deputy health minister said.

The vast majority of Mexico’s 32 states could switch to green light “low” risk on the federal government’s coronavirus “stoplight” map by the end of October, according to Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell.

The coronavirus czar said that some mathematical projections suggest that half of the states will be in a position to turn green in the first half of next month.

The coronavirus infection risk will likely be reduced to “low” in most of the other 16 states in the second half of October, López-Gatell said.

However, two or three states likely won’t reach the green light risk level until November, the deputy minister said without specifying which ones.

López-Gatell stressed that there are no guarantees and as a result urged citizens not to expect an en masse switch to green next month. He also asserted that no pacts have been made under which the government has agreed to downgrade the risk level allocated to each of the states.

“It’s not about pacts, it’s about evidence. When we have a green stoplight it will mean that the epidemic risk indicators have gone down,” López-Gatell said.

None of Mexico’s states is currently at the green light risk level but 10 are just one notch above, nine of which switched to yellow at the start of this week. There are 21 orange light “high” risk states and just one at red light “maximum” risk – Colima.

Each risk level is accompanied by recommended coronavirus restrictions but some states have opted to ignore the federal government’s advice and instead reopen their economies according to their own guidelines.

López-Gatell, whose management on the pandemic response has been criticized by some governors, said that once states reach the green light level they will be able to reopen schools.

Most students are currently attending virtual classes broadcast on television or streamed over the internet.

Source: Expansión Política (sp), Reforma (sp), Xataka (sp)

Authorities capture Santa Rosa cartel’s chief of sicarios

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Susy Buchanan

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September 2, 2020

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La Chinola: another Santa Rosa cartel leader goes down.

A man police say is the lead hitman for Guanajuato’s Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel has been arrested on multiple homicide charges, authorities announced Wednesday.

The alleged sicario, a 29-year-old man known as “El Chinola,” was arrested in Celaya and is suspected in the murder of police officers as well as a mass killing at a Celaya vehicle emissions testing facility on July 10 where five people were shot dead.

Known for his extremely violent character, authorities believe that apart from murder, El Chinola has been involved in other criminal activities in the region, including kidnapping and extortion.

The hitman’s arrest marks yet another blow to the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel, a drug trafficking, fuel theft and extortion crime ring which has been involved in a bloody turf battle with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

Santa Rosa de Lima was led by José Antonio Yépez Ortiz, alias “El Marro,” who was arrested on August 2.

On July 24, José Guadalupe, alias “El Mamey,” a man considered to be one of Yépez’s main lieutenants, was taken into custody.

With more than 1,900 murders between January and May, Guanajuato is the most violent state in Mexico, and the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel has much to do with the violence since El Marro took control of the cartel in 2017. More than 10,000 people have been murdered in the last three years, and the majority of the killings are believed to be linked to organized crime.

With El Chinola’s arrest the cartel further unravels, but whether its disintegration will staunch the violence in Guanajuato remains to be seen.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Riding the buses can be an adventure in Oaxaca

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Joseph Sorrentino

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September 2, 2020

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If you’re visiting Oaxaca — a beautiful city and one of my favorites — chances are pretty good you’ll need to catch a bus fairly often. This, as anyone who’s attempted it will tell you, is no mean feat.

First you’ll have to figure out where to get the bus you want. You can usually get a local bus on any corner it passes but there are exceptions. Drivers will sometimes pick up passengers in the middle of the block, sometimes in the middle of the street. Sometimes you’ll be standing on the same corner where you’ve always caught the bus and the one you’re waiting for will pass you by for no apparent reason.

Oddly, I’ve never had a full bus pass me by (there’s always room for one more) but I have had virtually empty ones fly by me. I don’t take this personally.

After you locate where to catch your bus you’ll no doubt be surprised — as I have on several occasions — that bus drivers may change their routes at any time, skipping your stop entirely. These route changes invariably seem to happen in the evening, leaving you standing on an increasingly deserted corner in a questionable part of town as the sun dips further below the horizon. It’s best to have an alternative travel arrangement in mind for times such as these. Of course, that usually means catching another local bus.

Once you decide where to catch your bus you have to figure out which of the many buses hurtling by is the one you want since many, many buses pass the same corner on their way to completely different places. This can be little tricky because local buses have more signs on their windshields than you can count.

OK, maybe that’s an exaggeration. You could theoretically count them but they’re usually whizzing by so fast it’s virtually impossible to do so. Fortunately, each bus has a large sign above the windshield announcing its destination. Unfortunately, this is usually worthless. That’s because it’s apparently on some sort of roller and there always seems to be two names showing, neither of which is completely visible. It may be the top half of one destination and the bottom half of the other or three-quarters of one and one-quarter of another. You get the picture.

Ah, but there’s no reason to overly concern yourself with what that sign says and whether it’s the bus you want. Clearly realizing that people wouldn’t be able to tell where the bus was headed from the sign on top, there are several other ways bus companies aid the weary traveler. One is the placement of many other signs on the windshield. There may be as many as 10.

I can’t tell for sure since, as I said, there’s never enough time to count them all. These signs may be taped to the windshield, stuck on with suction cups or written directly on the glass. It’s usually a combination of all three. As a bus careens toward you at warp speed, you have at least a second or two to read all the signs, trying to determine if that bus goes to the destination you want.

As difficult as this may be during the day, it’s damn near impossible to do at night with the glare of the headlights basically rendering all the signs useless until the last microsecond.

But the help doesn’t stop there. Most bus drivers have a trusty sidekick, someone with a serious death wish who thinks nothing of loosely holding on with one hand to a railing of a bus that’s doing 40 or 50 miles per hour while leaning out the front door shouting something that, even for native speakers, is largely unintelligible. My guess is he’s shouting the destinations. For all I know he could be shouting some ancient death chant since his demise appears to be imminent. The Doppler effect further complicates understanding this rant.

Once you’ve made a decision that the approaching bus is the one for you, you’ve got a 50% chance he’s actually going to stop. Slow down, sure. Stop, not so sure. Just do what I do — make believe you’re a train robber in the wild west, grab the railing and hop on. Once aboard, snag the first available seat or you’ll soon be doing the Funky Chicken down the aisle as the driver gets back up to Mach 1.

One of the more amusing things I’ve seen on a local bus was a sign above the driver that read, “Please Do Not Distract The Driver.” That’s because he’s already distracted enough. In addition to the requisite crucifix and rosary dangling from the rear-view mirror, you will almost certainly find a small altar somewhere on the dashboard, blinking lights ringing the windshield, photographs of his wife, girlfriend or family (or all of these), a curtain covering the top half of the windshield and, of course, a radio blaring but a radio that seems only to emit static. And then there are the dozen or so destination signs covering the entire right side of windshield.

I try to sit in the front of the bus because I just love watching these guys shift gears. It’s beautiful. The gear shift is this long, usually bent, stick on the floor with two buttons on top of it. The driver switches between the two buttons when shifting but there are times he steps on what I believe is the clutch without shifting. There are also times he presses the buttons without stepping on the clutch. The buttons and clutch each produce slightly different sounds and all apparently do something but I don’t have a clue what. I’ve missed my share of stops because I was mesmerized by what was going on.

If you get on a bus and it turns out it’s the wrong one, don’t panic. You’ll eventually get to where you want to go because there’s a bus going to virtually every part of every city in Mexico. Just sit back, relax and enjoy the ride. And remember, life’s a journey not a destination.

Joseph Sorrentino is a regular contributor to Mexico News Daily.

Coronavirus cases reach 600,000; August total 23,000 lower than July

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MND Staff

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September 2, 2020

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Guanajuato's giant statue of El Pípila has donned a face mask. Bearing the phrase 'Put it on!' the mask measures 2 1/2 meters wide by 1 1/2 meters high.

Mexico’s coronavirus case tally passed 600,000 on Tuesday while Covid-19 deaths exceeded 65,000, according to official data.

The federal Health Ministry reported 6,476 new cases, increasing the accumulated tally to 606,036, and 827 additional fatalities, lifting the death toll to 65,241. The death toll announced Tuesday was the highest single-day total since August 11.

The Health Ministry estimates that there are 39,073 active cases while the results of 77,129 Covid-19 tests are not yet known.

Data shows that the number of new cases reported in August declined 12% compared to July, providing support for health officials’ claims that the pandemic is on the wane, although a decline in testing could be behind the reduction.

The Health Ministry reported a total of 174,923 cases in August, 23,625 fewer than in July. It was the first time since the start of the pandemic that case numbers declined from one month to the next.

Coronavirus cases and deaths reported by day. milenio

July was Mexico’s worst month for new coronavirus cases with a total of 198,548 registered by health authorities.

The number of Covid-19 deaths reported in August was also lower than July, declining 6% to 17,726. July was also Mexico’s worst month for Covid-19 deaths with 18,919 reported.

The death toll in August was also lower than that of June during which there were 17,839 fatalities.

Based on confirmed cases and deaths, Mexico’s fatality rate is currently 10.8 per 100 cases, the highest among the 20 countries currently most affected by Covid-19, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Mexico’s mortality rate – deaths per 100,000 inhabitants – is currently 51.7, the fifth highest rate among the 20 countries currently most affected by the pandemic.

Mexico City continues to be the country’s coronavirus epicenter, with the highest number of accumulated cases, active cases and deaths among the nation’s 32 states.

The capital is on the verge of passing 100,000 confirmed cases, having reached 99,564 on Tuesday, a figure that accounts for 16%, or about one in six, of total cases in Mexico.

Mexico City’s coronavirus death toll currently stands at 10,591, which also equates to 16% of total fatalities.

Mexico News Daily

Tool manufacturer Stanley Black & Decker to install factory in Nuevo León

By

Susy Buchanan

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September 2, 2020

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State and company officials ready to cut the ribbon—with power tools.

Stanley Black & Decker, a manufacturer of tools, industrial equipment and other products, announced a new US $40-million manufacturing plant in Apodaca, Nuevo León, Tuesday.

The 47,000-square-meter plant will be located in the CPA Technology Park in Apodaca, part of the Monterrey metropolitan area, and will generate at least 2,500 new jobs by the end of next year.

The factory will manufacture a full range of power tools using state-of-the-art technology to optimize productivity and sustainability, the company said. Drills, saws and impact drivers are among the products will be made at the site.

Plant manager Karem Barraza said the company chose Nuevo León because of the talent and qualifications of its workforce, as well its proximity to its clients in North America and the state’s reputation as being business-friendly.

Production could start as soon as the first quarter of next year.

Stanley Black & Decker has 60,000 workers in more than 100 operations around the world, in which they have begun to implement advanced technologies including 3-D printing, virtual reality and artificial intelligence.

“We are excited to bring this advanced manufacturing facility to Monterrey, one of the world’s leading manufacturing hubs. It will support job creation in highly skilled areas, from engineering to manufacturing to finance,” said Robert Blackburn, global vice president of operations at Stanley Black & Decker.

During the inaugural event, the company announced a donation of 330,000 pesos (US $15,136) to the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS), which will be used to help hospitals in Nuevo León treat patients with the coronavirus.

In addition, Black & Decker highlighted its concern for the health and safety of employees and the communities in which it operates, saying it has put in place extensive guidelines and protocols to help mitigate the introduction and spread of the coronavirus.

In addition to Black & Decker, global life sciences company Thermo Fisher is hiring for 700 new jobs in Apodaca, and Mercado Libre and Amazon will move into the area in 2021 when a total of 5,000 new jobs are expected to be created.

Source: El Economista (sp), Posta (sp)

Food distributed at Sinaloa hospital said to be courtesy of El Chapo’s son

By

Susy Buchanan

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September 2, 2020

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A video showing two men handing out food and drinks in front of a hospital in Culiacán, Sinaloa, is making the rounds on social media after they claimed to have been sent by the son of former Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

The men were filmed as they stood in the back of a pickup truck, wearing masks and gloves as a small crowd formed around them.

“What they are doing is good,” one woman said off-camera. “Boys, you’re going to heaven,” another woman tells them.

The men did not specify which of El Chapo’s sons sent the provisions, but they told the crowd that they were there to help them with anything they might need. One woman wrote down one of the men’s phone numbers.

El Chapo has several sons, by some accounts as many as 15, and a number of them, known as “Los Chapitos,” have been trying to gain control of the Sinaloa Cartel which has been under the control of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada since Joaquín Guzmán’s incarceration.

Los Chapitos refuse to recognize Zambada’s authority after his brother and son testified against El Chapo in 2018 in exchange for a plea deal. The former cartel leader is serving life plus 30 years in an American supermax prison after he was convicted on charges of money laundering, drug trafficking, kidnapping and murder.

At least four of El Chapo’s sons, Joaquín Guzmán López, Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, Iván Archivaldo Guzmán and Ovidio Guzmán López are suspected of following in their father’s footsteps.

In April, El Chapo’s daughter Alejandra Guzmán distributed boxes of provisions to elderly citizens in Guadalajara. Alejandra runs a clothing line based on her father’s likeness, called El Chapo 701, and the boxes of food were stenciled with a drawing of the cartel leader.

Other cartels that have offered handouts during the coronavirus pandemic include Los Viagras in Michoacán, the Gulf Cartel in Tamaulipas and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel in San Luis Potosí.

Source: 24 Horas (sp), Vanguardia (sp)

Critics see AMLO’s report to the nation as self-congratulatory, short on substance

By

MND Staff

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September 2, 2020

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López Obrador's report was 'removed from reality,' according to one analyst.

President López Obrador’s second annual report to the nation got a cool reception from several analysts and business leaders, some of whom described it as self-congratulatory and clichéd.

José Antonio Crespo, a historian and political scientist at CIDE, a Mexico City university, said the president’s address, delivered Tuesday morning at the National Palace in Mexico City, lacked reference to any shortcomings of the government and proposals that might remedy those faults.

“I would have liked him to recognize that things aren’t going well and to have announced some remedies but this will never happen with President López Obrador,” he told the newspaper El Universal.

Crespo criticized the president for not acknowledging the millions of informal sector workers who have lost their jobs or income due to the coronavirus pandemic and as a result have fallen into poverty. He also rebuked him for taking credit for things over which he has no influence.

“It’s not just López Obrador, all presidents adopt a triumphalist tone in their [annual] reports, … attributing things that don’t depend on the government as a triumph of it; [migrants’] remittances for example,” Crespo said.

Gildardo López Hernández, a political analyst and professor at the Panamerican University’s school of government and economy, also criticized López Obrador for not acknowledging his government’s errors, charging that his address amounted to nothing more than “self-praise.”

“Self-criticism was conspicuous by its absence. There wasn’t a single reference, not even a veiled one, to something that should be changed,” he said.

López described the president’s report as trite given that he focused heavily on his pet subject – combatting corruption – and used well-worn catchphrases such as “for the good of all, the poor come first.”

He asserted that there was no doubt that López Obrador’s address was designed to win votes at the 2021 midterm elections, pointing out that it focused on topics that helped him win the 2018 election.

Víctor Manuel Alarcón, a political scientist at the Metropolitan Autonomous University in Mexico City, described the president’s address as self-congratulatory due to its focus on the government’s apparent achievements in combatting corruption and reducing crime, and questioned the assertion that most offenses have declined by about 30% since he took office.

“That piece of information isn’t supported or is of very dubious veracity at least,” he said.

Political scientist Alarcón: some of the president’s claims are doubtful.

Alarcón also said that López Obrador’s claims that the response to the pandemic has been successful and that the government has worked well with state governors are “a little doubtful.”

“There are important parts [of the address] that would be worth questioning,” he said.

Gabriel Pérez del Peral, also a professor at the Panamerican University, charged that López Obrador’s report was “removed from reality.”

He challenged the president’s claim that the economy will undergo a V-shaped recovery from the coronavirus-induced downturn, predicting it will recover slowly due to the lack of government support.

Like López Hernández, Pérez contended that López Obrador’s address was formulated with the 2021 elections in mind.

CI Banco analyst James Salazar said the president failed to offer anything new in his near hour-long speech.

“He focused a lot on the subjects he likes: combating corruption, progress in the welfare programs. He tried to highlight some security and economic issues but there wasn’t anything else,” he said.

Two prominent business leaders were also critical of the president’s address – and the government’s performance – although one was complimentary of the fight against corruption.

Mexican Employers Federation (Coparmex) president Gustavo de Hoyos challenged López Obrador’s claim that the “best government” is in office at the “worst time,” the latter a reference to the dual health and economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

He noted that homicides are on the rise – Mexico is on track to record its most violent year ever – and asserted that there could be 180,000 murders during the president’s six-term, a figure that would easily exceed the number recorded during the administrations of former presidents Enrique Peña Nieto and Felipe Calderón.

De Hoyos said the savings touted by López Obrador in his address had resulted in a weakening of the state and its institutions.

“According to official calculations cited by [the president], by not allowing corruption and by having an austere government they have been able to save about 560 billion pesos,” he said in a statement.

Coparmex's de Hoyos — Coparmex’s de Hoyos: ‘Worst government at the worst time.’

However, the generation of the savings “has involved a dismantling of institutions and a suffocation of the capacities of the state,” de Hoyos said, describing the López Obrador administration as “the worst government at the worst moment.”

The Coparmex chief also said that López Obrador’s address contained no new proposals, arguing that it would have been a good time to announce a “great national agreement” between the government and private sector aimed at remedying the economic damage caused by the pandemic.

De Hoyos said the private sector is prepared to collaborate but that the latter has ignored the former’s approaches.

Carlos Salazar Lomelín, president of the Business Coordinating Council (CCE), an umbrella organization representing 12 business groups, was critical of the government for refusing to take on more debt to support families amid the economic crisis.

(The president declared proudly in his address that Mexico would overcome the economic crisis without increasing public debt).

“We insist on the need to take on debt to … support Mexican families,” Salazar said, adding that spending on social programs should be increased so that they reach those currently excluded.

“There is no doubt that we have to support the most needy,” he said.

The CCE president said that there were good, bad and ugly aspects of the government’s rule since López Obrador took office 21 months ago. In the first category is the government’s crusade against corruption, Salazar said.

“The best of everything has been … the fight against corruption,” he said, adding that “Mexico needed to focus its efforts” in the area because it had become entrenched in public and everyday life.

The “bad” of the government’s term to date has been the coronavirus pandemic and the heavy blow it has dealt to the economy while the “ugly” is the persistent violence that the López Obrador administration has been unable to quell, Salazar said.

Source: El Financiero (sp), El Universal (sp), Reforma (sp)

Zacatecas aims for title of Mexico’s tallest statue of Christ

By

Susy Buchanan

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September 2, 2020

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The statue and esplanade to be built on a hill in Tabasco. — The statue and esplanade to be built on a hill in the municipality of Tabasco.

A town in Zacatecas has begun construction of the biggest statue of Jesus Christ in all of Mexico.

The municipality of Tabasco, located 128 kilometers south of the state capital, is building a 31-meter-tall Christ of Peace that will cost 13 million pesos (US $595,000) and is being funded by a mixture of municipal and state resources and remittances from citizens who work in foreign countries.

Construction of the statue will take a year, and when finished will be three meters taller than the Broken Christ in San José de Gracia, Aguascalientes, and seven meters taller than Christ King in Tijuana, Baja California.

Zacatecans have already embraced oversized religious imagery as a tourist attraction. In Zóquite, located in the municipality of Guadalupe, the parish priest commissioned a 6.5-meter baby Jesus weighing in at between 750 and 800 kilograms.

When the statue was installed last November, it was thought to be the largest baby Jesus in the world and inspired a series of memes, with denizens of the internet noting that it bore a striking resemblance to Genesis vocalist and drummer Phil Collins.

The statue of the baby Jesus in Guadalupe, Zacatecas.

Tabasco mayor Saúl David Avelar said the idea for the statue arose about a year ago among constituents who like to “think big.” Immediately architects, landscapers, economic and legal advisers began working together to plan the construction.

Jalisco sculptor Miguel Romo Santini, who designed the Broken Christ in Aguascalientes, was hired to design the effigy, which will be constructed with wrought iron and built on a hectare of land overlooking the town of 17,000 from what is known locally as the Hill of Faith and Religion.

An esplanade is planned for the statue’s base, which will have a scenic outlook, a chapel and restrooms.

The statue itself will have a spiral staircase inside so visitors can actually enter the body and stop at one of four landings, which are designed to be areas of prayer and reflection.

The mayor estimates the total cost of the esplanade and statue will be 20 million pesos (US $97,394), but he predicts the Christ of Peace will pay for itself in no time, with tourism increasing fivefold once the statue is complete, generating 40 million pesos of revenue (US $1.8 million) annually.

Tabasco’s economy is based on remittances from abroad, agriculture, a candy factory and the largest dam in the state, El Chique.

“I hope that this Christ will inspire us to live in peace, and we can be builders of peace,” said the bishop of Zacatecas, Sigifredo Noriega Barceló, at the laying of the first stone last week.

The largest Jesus statue in the world is Christ the King in Świebodzin, Poland, which is 36 meters tall. Tabasco’s statue will be one meter taller than the 30-meter Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

A 77-meter statue of Christ was planned for Tamaulipas in a project spearheaded by Mexican actor Eduardo Verástegui, but as of July the project had stalled, having been declared inviable as planned.

Source: El Universal (sp), Expreso (sp)

CORRECTION: Missing zeros made a significant change to the cost of the statue in the earlier version of this story. Its cost in US dollars is actually $595,000, not $595.