Aspiring teachers in Chiapas have joined their counterparts in Michoacán by turning to violence to press authorities to respond to their demands.
Students of the Mactumactzá teachers’ college stole buses Monday in preparation for a protest in Tuxtla Gutiérrez.
The students said they were protesting against the privatization of education and government repression. They also demanded more funding for their school.
Before the protest, the students attacked a garage owned by the bus line Ómnibus Cristóbal Colón (OCC) with molotov cocktails. Drivers and mechanics attempted to stop the students, but they were outnumbered.
The students took four buses — the vehicles are frequently used to mount highway roadblocks — and vandalized others before marching to the state government building.
The students demanded reopening of the boarding school at Mactumactzá, a better food budget, school supplies and the dismissal of 66 employees.
In response to the students’ charge that the government had reduced the school’s budget, the Chiapas Education Secretariat maintained that it had given the institution 20.9 million pesos (US $1.1 million) in 2019 for academic and cultural activities, food, school supplies and school activities.
It also pointed out that it had increased the school’s staff roster by 30 positions to 450 in the current school year.
Meanwhile, in Michoacán students of the Cherán and Tiripetío normal schools, as the colleges are called, hijacked buses and delivery trucks on the Morelia-Pátzcuaro highway on Monday.
On Tuesday, about 30 students halted freight train traffic between Morelia and the port of Lázaro Cárdenas by putting rocks on the tracks in Tiripetío. They are demanding 1,000 teaching positions be made available to 2019 graduates.
A burned-out vehicle blocks a road in Agua Prieta Monday morning.
Residents of a neighborhood in Agua Prieta, Sonora, awoke in panic early Monday morning when a convoy of armed civilians opened fire in the streets, leaving two dead and one injured.
Two houses in the city across the border from Douglas, Arizona, were left riddled with bullet holes and two vehicles were burned.
“We fell asleep in Agua Prieta and woke up in Culiacán,” read one post. “Culiacán style,” read another.
Mayor Jesús Alfonso Montaño Durazo notified the public via his Facebook page that he was monitoring the situation closely.
“Right now the city is being patrolled in a joint operation and all is calm. However, there could still be unpredictable risks,” he said.
“Considering that the activities are happening regularly, caution is recommended and I leave it up to parents’ judgement to decide their families’ activities and whether or not they want to send their kids to school.”
Authorities across the border in Douglas notified residents of “sustained automatic gunfire” in Agua Prieta, but said there was no threat to Douglas or Cochise County at the time. The sheriff warned against traveling to Mexico.
“Residents are cautioned to avoid unnecessary travel to Mexico at this time,” said the Douglas police department in a statement.
Investigative police are under scrutiny in Mexico City.
A corruption purge in the Mexico City investigative police division has reassigned 120 officers from the street to administrative positions in the last two months.
After failing confidence tests, the officers were stripped of their weapons and badges for poor behavior, professional misconduct and links to organized crime, among other issues.
Of the 120 officers, at least 10 are suspected to have links to organized crime, and are under investigation for accepting bribes, providing protection or alerting criminal cells to police operations in various boroughs in Mexico City.
The most recent dismissals occurred last week in the northern borough of Gustavo A. Madero, where three officers were ordered to turn in their guns and badges and work at desk jobs while their investigations were underway.
One of the officers was summoned to an interview with internal affairs as he was believed to have links to organized crime but didn’t show up for the interview.
Some officers say the purge has caused problems in the force, as work has piled up for officers still on the job. Morale has further been damaged by the failure of the new administration to provide the raises it promised, among other benefits.
An officer who preferred to remain anonymous said, “Cleaning up the force is good, but [the authorities] must do what’s right and just, they must get rid of those who are truly corrupt. The famous purge shouldn’t be revenge or to get rid of people they don’t like, because this is what we feel happened in the last confidence test and that’s why there were protests.”
“Those of us who remain have up to 25 or 30 cases. With that kind of workload, how are we supposed to solve even one?” the officer said.
In her latest official report to the city Congress, Attorney General Ernestina Godoy revealed that 40% of the capital’s investigative police officers are not fit to serve in the force.
Members of the LeBarón family were victims in a tragic shooting Monday in Chihuahua.
Three women and six children belonging to a Mormon family from the United States were killed on Monday when their vehicles were ambushed by presumed cartel gunmen near the Sonora-Chihuahua border.
Security Secretary Alfonso Durazo said on Tuesday that members of the LeBarón family were traveling in three Suburban SUVs between Bavispe, Sonora, and Galeana, Chihuahua, when the ambush occurred at about 1:00pm.
The vehicles may have been mistaken by a criminal organization as those of a rival gang, Durazo said. A splinter cell of the Sinaloa Cartel known as Los Salazar is known to operate in the area as is La Línea, which has links to the Juárez Cartel.
A total of 13 children were traveling in the three vehicles but seven managed to escape during the attack.
Julian LeBarón, a cousin of the three women who were killed, said in an interview late Monday that six of the children, some of whom were injured, were found but an eight-year-old girl was still missing.
Desgarrador.😢
La voz de un abuelo registrando la masacre de sus nietos y su madre… de la familia LeBarón.
Es el dolor. Es la locura.
Esto es lo urgente, lo importante.
Si no cambia, lo demás sale sobrando. pic.twitter.com/h9oMOeJTQr
He said on Tuesday morning that the girl had been located but offered no other details. Injured children were transferred to Phoenix, Arizona, for treatment, LeBarón said.
He described a scene of complete devastation at the scene of the ambush, telling Milenio Television that two of the children’s bodies had been blown to pieces by bullets. The vehicles were set alight after the attack.
A video posted to social media showed the burnt-out remains of one vehicle that had been riddled with bullets.
“This is for the record,” a man says in an American accent. “Nita and four of my grandchildren are burnt and shot up.”
Family members told The New York Times said that two of the children killed were twins that were less than a year old.
“When you know there are babies tied in a car seat that are burning because of some twisted evil that’s in this world, it’s just hard to cope with that,” said Kenny LeBarón, a cousin of a woman who was driving one of the vehicles.
Julian LeBarón: ‘scene of complete devastation.’
The other children killed were aged 11, 9, 6 and 4.
The LeBarón family is part of a breakaway fundamentalist Mormon community that has lived in northern Mexico for decades.
Some family members have been outspoken in their condemnation of organized crime and urged the government to confront violent gangs. Julian LeBarón published an article in the Dallas Morning News in 2010 that called for Mexicans to stand up to organized crime.
A year earlier Erick LeBarón was kidnapped but the family refused to pay the ransom demanded. He was eventually released but his brother Benjamin, who spearheaded the campaign for Erick’s release, was later killed. Benjamin’s brother-in-law was also murdered.
Julian LeBarón initially said that yesterday’s ambush was not targeted at his family.
“This wasn’t against us, it was a mistake [or] crossfire, we don’t know the reason. They’re innocent women and children that were traveling on a road that a lot of people travel, they were going to see family. It’s terrible,” he said.
However, LeBarón told The Times that “they intentionally murdered those people,” adding “we don’t know what their motives were.”
He said that one of the women got out of her car and put up her hands but was shot “point blank in the chest.”
LeBarón said the family had not received any specific threats but were aware of general warnings not to travel to Chihuahua, where they often went to buy groceries and fuel.
Sonora Governor Claudia Pavlovich condemned the attack in a Twitter post and described the perpetrators as “monsters.”
“As a mother, I feel anger, revulsion and a profound pain for the cowardly acts in the mountains between Sonora and Chihuahua . . .” she wrote.
Monday’s killings come after a string of violent attacks in October.
Later the same week, residents of Culiacán, Sinaloa, were terrorized by a wave of cartel attacks across the city that were triggered by a botched operation to arrest suspected Sinaloa Cartel leader Ovidio Guzmán, son of former drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
At least 13 people were killed including several presumed gunmen, innocent civilians and security force members.
Following the events in Culiacán, the government’s security strategy – which seeks to avoid the use of force whenever possible – has come under intense scrutiny.
Mexico is on track to record its most violent year on record but President López Obrador remains committed to pursuing a non-confrontational approach to combating organized crime.
The murder of innocent women and children in broad daylight will further increase pressure on the government to change its approach.
United States President Donald Trump lamented Monday’s attack on Twitter Tuesday morning and said the U.S. stands ready to help Mexico combat the nation’s notoriously violent drug cartels.
“This is the time for Mexico, with the help of the United States, to wage WAR on the drug cartels and wipe them off the face of the Earth. We merely await a call from your great new president!” he wrote.
Speaking at his morning press conference, President López Obrador ruled out any possibility that Mexico would accept the assistance of United States security forces to go to war against cartels.
“It’s a categorical no. Of course, [yesterday’s attack] is painful and of course we wish it didn’t happen but we think that riddling [criminals with bullets], killing with the use of force . . . doesn’t solve the problem,” he said.
“We have to act independently in accordance with our constitution. I’m going to speak to President Trump to thank him for his support,” López Obrador added, explaining that some further security cooperation could be possible but stressing that Mexico doesn’t need “agents of another country.”
'Pineapple pottery' by Michoacán artisan Hilario Alejos will be one of the products at the Chapala fair.
The 18th annual Feria de Maestros del Arte (Masters of Art Fair) folk art exhibition will be held at Lake Chapala, Jalisco, this weekend.
The fair will bring together nearly 100 folk artists from all over Mexico to display and sell a wide range of arts and crafts, including alebrijes, ceramics, baskets, textiles, toys, guitars, jewelry and much more.
Held at the Chapala Yacht Club, the fair also features many displays of traditional and authentic music and dance.
It also hosts a daily raffle of a select piece of art, the proceeds of which go to the charity Operation Feed, which dispenses a weekly bag of food to 96 needy families in the nearby town of San Juan Cosalá.
Since the first Feria de Maestro del Arte in 2002, the event’s organizers have worked to create an environment that fosters Mexico’s many diverse folk art traditions, providing artists with a venue to sell and promote their work so that they are not forced to give up their art to find other economic opportunities.
Each year’s fair conserves tradition while showcasing new artists and styles. The organizers recognize that “traditional folk art may be reactive and innovative to the times,” and about half of each year’s lineup includes artists new to the fair.
This year’s fair will be held on November 8-10, from 9:30am-5:30pm Friday and Saturday, and 9:30am-4:00pm Sunday. Tickets cost 80 pesos (US $4).
Chapala is located about 40 minutes south of Guadalajara. More information about the fair as well as detailed biographies and descriptions of the featured artists and their work can be found on the fair’s website.
Among those given: a lack of agreement between lawmakers of the ruling Morena party, critical observations about the proposed bill by federal government departments and civil society organizations and pressure from companies that have tried to hasten the legislative process.
According to an official SCJN letter seen by the newspaper Milenio, lawmakers will now have until April 30 to legalize marijuana.
According to a preliminary bill, small and micro-plot farmers will be prioritized when licenses for the cultivation of legal marijuana are granted. The government hopes that legalization will help bring peace to parts of the country that are plagued by drug cartel-related violence.
The bill stipulates that in the five-year period after marijuana is legalized, at least 20% of all cultivation permits must go to campesinos or cooperatives in municipalities where authorities have eradicated illegal marijuana crops.
The Mexican Cannabis Institute, a government agency which is expected to be up and running by January 1, 2021, will assist the license-granting process.
Debate of the preliminary legalization bill is expected to restart as soon as Tuesday and there is a possibility it will be approved by the end of November.
Ricardo Monreal, leader of Morena in the Senate, said last week that the legislative process will proceed with caution “because we want to do things well.”
Mario Delgado, the party’s leader in the lower house, proposed the creation of a state-owned company to control marijuana sales in a regulated market. But his plan received scant support from other lawmakers, including those within his own party.
Mexico is just one of many countries where eggs are not kept refrigerated.
There’s so much that’s different about eggs here in Mexico, starting with how they’re stored unrefrigerated.
That was a biggie for me, and I will admit that at first I judged, thinking, “Huh? This must be unsafe!”
It was my chef/son who explained to me that Mexico is one of many places in the world – including most European and Asian countries, in fact — that don’t require eggs to be washed before they can be sold. That’s why you see them displayed on counters and shelves in grocery stores and markets.
Turns out that Mother Nature has provided the naturally porous egg with its own protective “sheen” that keeps good things (like oxygen and water) in, and bad things (like bacteria) out. The other reason some countries like to wash and refrigerate eggs is, of course, money-related: “natural” eggs last about three weeks, while washed eggs have a shelf life of up to almost two months.
(Consumers in the United States also tend to like their produce squeaky clean, although one hopes that with the rise in popularity of backyard chickens that trend is changing.)
So it’s perfectly OK not to refrigerate your eggs here in Mexico, if that’s how they are when you buy them. In other words, be consistent: if eggs have been refrigerated, keep them that way. If not, having them in a basket on your kitchen counter, out of direct sunlight, is fine.
Another difference in Mexico is that eggs are often sold by the ounce, packed carefully but loosely in plastic bags. You’ll be asked how many eggs you want and then they’ll be weighed, especially at a mercado or in small tiendas.
After one regrettably messy experience, I’ve learned to bring along my own reusable egg carton.
If you’re lucky or live in a rural area, you can find huevos del rancho – eggs from “free-range” chickens. While not certified organic or anything like that, the chickens will have had access to the outside and all the sunshine, bugs and exercise that includes.
The eggs will have a darker colored, more pronounced and rounded yolk and that familiar egg aroma when cooked. After all, a healthy chicken makes for a healthier egg!
The first recipe this week is one of my personal favorites. I think of it as eggs in warm Salsa Mexicana, and although it’s simple, it plates well and tastes great.
This frittata is easy to put together.
The frittata recipe is basic – feel free to use whatever combination of veggies and cheese you like, or copy your favorite frittata, like spinach and cheese, or bacon and asparagus.
Bear in mind some veggies will need to be cooked first (like broccoli) although you can also just use leftovers.
Huevos Ahogados (Drowned Eggs)
I still sometimes confuse the name of this dish with another very similar word: abogado, which means lawyer. Oops! Combining traditional Mexican flavors with classic poached eggs, this recipe is perfect for breakfast or brunch. Serve with warm corn tortillas or crusty bread for dipping in the scrumptious sauce.
1-½ cups water
About 4-5 tomatoes, chopped fine
½ large onion, diced
½-1 jalapeño, seeded & minced
¼ cup fresh cilantro, minced
1 big clove garlic, minced
1 Tbsp. olive or corn oil
Pinch dry oregano
Salt & pepper to taste
4 eggs
Heat oil in medium saucepan and sauté onion, garlic, tomatoes and jalapeños for a few minutes till onion is translucent and mixture is fragrant. Add water, stir. Simmer uncovered for 10-12 minutes to blend flavors.
Quickly bring to a boil, then carefully drop in the eggs two at a time. Cook for about three minutes. (Eggs are done when white is no longer clear.) Ladle carefully into bowl without breaking the yolks. Cook remaining two eggs the same way. Yield: two servings.
Fritatta
Not having a crust makes this recipe so easy to put together for a beautiful breakfast or brunch, and you can vary the veggies according to what you have on hand. Serve with your favorite salsa, crusty bread and a simple green salad.
7-8 eggs
1/3 cup milk
¼ cup grated cheddar, Gouda, Chihuahua or other hard cheese
¼ of a small wheel of queso fresco
1 tomato, chopped or sliced
½ onion, chopped
¼ green, red or yellow bell pepper, sliced in thin strips
Fresh cilantro or basil leaves for garnish
Salt & pepper to taste
Optional: ¼ cup (2 small) potatoes, par-boiled & sliced thin
Lightly oil pie pan, cast iron pan or other medium-sized casserole dish. Beat eggs till mixed; add milk and mix again. Pour into prepared pan. Add vegetables, cheeses, salt and pepper without stirring. (They’ll mix in on their own).
Top with cilantro or basil. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes or till knife inserted in center comes out clean. Yield: four delicious servings.
Janet Blaser of Mazatlán, Sinaloa, has been a writer, editor and storyteller her entire life, and feels fortunate to write about great food, amazing places, fascinating people and unique events. Her work has appeared in numerous travel and expat publications as well as newspapers and magazines. 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.
The electoral institute levied the biggest fine against the ruling Morena party.
Political parties face fines totaling 714.9 million pesos (US $37.2 million) for using election funds to buy household appliances and garden decorations and pay for phony educational courses and travel with no clear political purpose.
An audit by the National Electoral Institute (INE) detected a range of irregularities in parties’ spending. Full details will be announced on Wednesday.
The ruling Morena party is to be fined 268 million pesos, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) will have to pay 89 million and the Citizens’ Movement (MC) party faces an 81-million-peso penalty.
The Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), the National Action Party (PAN), the Labor Party (PT) and the Ecological Green Party (PVEM) face fines ranging from 44 million to 77 million pesos.
The National Executive Committee of Morena, a party founded by President López Obrador, was found to have spent just under 724,000 pesos (US $37,700) in 2018 on air travel that was unrelated to political activities.
Under the leadership of Yeidckol Polevnsky, the Morena committee also spent 120,000 pesos to purchase 2,000 portable flower decorations that were supposedly used “to cover grass.”
However, the newspaper Milenio noted that there are no green areas at Morena headquarters, adding that no justification was provided to INE that the decorations were used at a political event.
In Veracruz, the electoral institute questioned the use of 8.2 million pesos by the state committee of the PAN for gasoline purchases, 3 million pesos for the rent of buildings and 3 million pesos for food at courses that were never held.
In the same state, INE found irregularities in the use of 2.9 million pesos by the PRD for 20 training courses. The veracity of the trainers’ CVs and the education materials that supposedly used were both questioned by INE.
In Oaxaca, the PRI reported spending of 688,000 pesos to hold meetings for members in order to “strengthen camaraderie and friendship” while in Coahuila the party provided no justification for a 160,000-peso outlay on materials and electrical supply.
Spending by the PVEM in Veracruz was also questioned by INE. The party spent more than 12.4 million pesos on consultancy services but the CVs of the “professionals” who supposedly provided the services were found to correspond to other people.
Mario Delgado, leader of Morena in the lower house on Congress, said that a vote will be held on Thursday to cut political parties’ funding by 50%.
Revelations of the questionable spending is particularly embarrassing for the ruling party, which has approved wide-ranging austerity measures.
Delgado called on opposition parties to support Morena’s proposal to reduce party funding by half.
However, the PAN, PRI, MC, PRD, PVEM and even the PT, a Morena coalition partner, have rejected the plan. The proposal requires a change to the constitution, meaning that a two-thirds majority in Congress, rather than a simple one, is required to pass.
Even with the support of Social Encounter Party lawmakers, Morena will fall 50 votes short of the 334 it requires to ensure the proposal passes the 500-seat Chamber of Deputies.
For that reason, Delgado is trying to rally support. “Let’s see who’s willing . . . to vote in favor of this reform,” he said, adding that the proposal would generate savings of up to 2.5 billion pesos (US $130.3 million) in the 2020 budget.
Retired general Gaytán: soldiers are 'aggrieved and offended.'
Comments in a speech made by a retired general shortly after the botched attempt to arrest a son of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán suggests that a rift is growing between President López Obrador and the military.
Five days after a security operation during which suspected Sinaloa Cartel leader Ovidio Guzmán López was arrested and later released during a wave of cartel attacks in Culiacán, Sinaloa, Carlos Gaytán was highly critical of López Obrador and his government in an address made at the Defense Secretariat on behalf of retired officers.
“We are worried about today’s Mexico,” Gaytán said during a speech that was given a standing ovation by attendees who included current and former high-ranking military officials, including Defense Secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval.
“We feel aggrieved as Mexicans and offended as soldiers,” he said.
The transcript of the speech was leaked to the newspaper La Jornada, which is unusual because the Mexican armed forces are known for their secrecy.
“. . . We currently live in a politically polarized society because the dominant ideology, which isn’t that of the majority, is supported by currents that are supposedly of the left, which for years built up great resentment,” Gaytán said.
“Today we have a government that represents approximately 30 million Mexicans whose hope is change; a change that allows them [the government] to rectify what they consider a deficit of the state for said sector of the population,” he continued.
“. . . We cannot ignore that the head of the executive has been legally and legitimately empowered. However, it’s also an undeniable truth that fragile counterweight mechanisms have permitted a strengthening of the executive, which has made strategic decisions that haven’t convinced everyone, to put it mildly,” Gaytán said.
“. . . Each of us here was formed with solid ethical values, which clash with the way in which the country is being run these days.”
The retired general didn’t refer to the failed Culiacán operation during which at least 13 people were killed and soldiers were taken hostage but a national security expert with long-established sources in the military told The Washington Post that the purpose of the speech was to respond to the mission on behalf of the army.
Javier Oliva Posada, a professor and researcher at the National Autonomous University, also said that it reflected the concern of the armed forces about an inadequate government strategy for combating violence in Mexico, which is currently at record high levels.
López Obrador: supporters won’t allow a coup d’etat.
The López Obrador administration has favored a strategy that avoids the use of force whenever possible. The president pledges that his government’s social programs will reduce violence and has dubbed his approach “abrazos, no balazos” (hugs, not bullets). However, homicides have risen rather than fallen on his watch.
López Obrador said on Thursday that Gaytán’s speech was merely an opinion and highlighted that the former general was a defense undersecretary during the government of Felipe Calderón, who launched the so-called war on drugs shortly after he took office in December 2006.
The president, a staunch critic of the militarized crimefighting strategy that cost more than 200,000 lives during the previous two governments, said that if Gaytán’s argument “is that there’s skepticism in the army about our new policy, it’s understandable because for a long time there was a policy of extermination, of repression, that we are not going to continue.”
He asserted that he was completely confident in the military’s loyalty to him. Cresencio, Navy Secretary José Rafael Ojeda Durán and Security Secretary Alfonso Durazo also said that all areas of the government are united.
However, López Obrador’s claim that the speech represented the opinion of just one man is misguided, military analysts said.
Guillermo Garduño Valero, a national security analyst at the Metropolitan Autonomous University in Mexico City, told The Post that Gaytán was selected by his military peers to give the address.
“This is the way in which they are revealing the disapproval of the group,” he said.
Sergio Aponte, another retired general, said in an interview with the news magazine Proceso that military leaders were frustrated with the decision to release Ovidio Guzmán shortly after he was arrested.
López Obrador said he wasn’t aware of the operation to capture the 28-year-old son of “El Chapo,” who is wanted in the United States on trafficking charges, but has repeatedly defended the decision to release him, asserting that it saved lives.
Former senior security official Ricardo Márquez said that military officials have expressed political concerns on occasions in the past “but never like this, with such firmness and clarity and in such a delicate moment.”
Falko Ernest, senior Mexico analyst for the International Crisis Group, said that during the presidency of Enrique Peña Nieto any criticism by the military of its prominent role in fighting organized crime was “not in the open, because that’s part of the code of the military.”
However, the current situation represents a break with that tradition, he said.
According to UNAM professor Oliva, anger within the military was further stoked last week when López Obrador instructed the defense secretary to reveal the name of the official in charge of the Culiacán operation.
The military “are really upset with that — it was a serious indiscretion,” he said. Oliva was one of several security experts who said that identifying Drug Trafficking Information Analysis Group chief Juan José Verde Montes endangered his life.
The president and Cresencio clarified on Friday that Verde Montes coordinated the operation from Mexico City and was not on the ground in Culiacán.
On Saturday – as the leaked speech by Gaytán continued to generate significant controversy – López Obrador took to Twitter and generated yet more by raising the issue of a possible coup d’etat.
He declared that his supporters will not permit a coup such as those that occurred during the Mexican Revolution in the early 20th century.
“. . . The transformation that I lead has the support of the free, conscious and fair majority who are lovers of legality and peace, who won’t allow another coup d’état,” he said.
López Obrador remains a very popular president, according to recent polls, but his support has begun to wane slightly.
A poll published by the newspaper El Financiero after the events in Culiacán showed that a slight majority of respondents said it was a mistake to release Guzmán but the president’s approval rating declined just one point to 67%.
However, surveys conducted by polling firm Mitofsky showed a bigger slump, with the president’s approval falling to 60.4% from 63.6% in the two weeks after Culiacán.
An estimated 1.8 million people in Mexico — 1.5% of the population — have no access to electricity.
The 2018-2032 National Electric Development Program has identified 6,497 population groups in 838 municipalities in every state in the nation, including Mexico City, that did not have electricity as of September 2019.
The state with the largest number of communities without electrical power is Chihuahua, with 1,445 communities in 33 municipalities, according to information provided by the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE).
Chiapas comes in second, with 805 communities in 77 of the state’s 119 municipalities without power.
Durango follows with 601 communities, Guerrero with 569 and Veracruz with 534.
Those five states account for 60% of the communities without electricity.
Even Mexico City isn’t without such problems. Three communities in the southern borough of Tlalpan have no electricity, although the capital has the least number of unconnected communities, along with the states of Tlaxcala and Colima.
The numbers reveal that Mexico has less coverage than other countries in Latin America, such as Brazil, Uruguay, Cuba, Chile, Costa Rica, Venezuela and Argentina, according to the Latin American Energy Organization (OLADE).
