The Hidalgo priest who refused to bless 'corrupted' body.
A Catholic priest in Tlanalapa, Hidalgo, refused to give his blessing this week to a deceased man on the grounds that his body was “corrupted,” causing concern among parishioners, who called for his removal.
Friends and family members of Alejandro Carbajal had arranged a burial ceremony on Sunday, but when they arrived at the church, the parish priest refused to receive the man’s body.
“His body is corrupted, and it’s dangerous,” said the priest, who was later denounced on social media. A video of the cleric shows him surrounded by angry relatives and neighbors, one of whom shoves him off-camera and shouts, “He says my uncle’s body is corrupted. It’s [the priest’s] heart that’s corrupted.”
After much arguing, parishioners began shouting, “You can’t do this!” They pressured him until he finally agreed to bless the body.
After the incident, parishioners gathered signatures to petition the bishop to remove the priest, whom they claim has a bad attitude toward them in general and runs the parish in a despotic manner.
The mayor poses for selfies with fans yesterday in Mexico City.
Mexico City is “back on track,” Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said on Tuesday, declaring that government corruption is a thing of the past, although she acknowledged that her nine-month old administration still has a lot of work to do to improve security.
Presenting her first annual report to the Mexico City Congress, Sheinbaum asserted that she has established a new form of governance in the capital, one in which the payment of kickbacks and illegal commissions and the awarding of contracts to shell companies is no longer tolerated.
All public contracts that have been awarded by the government have been assessed by the United Nations Office for Project Services, the mayor said, claiming that her administration has generated savings of 25 billion pesos (US $1.3 billion) by eliminating corruption.
The money saved will be invested in infrastructure projects, including improvements to water and transportation services, Sheinbaum said.
She also said that her government is working to stamp out corruption in the construction sector, which resulted in the all too common violation of building regulations such as those that limit the height of new apartment complexes in certain areas of the capital.
During the first quarter of the year, authorities detected irregularities in 48 projects approved by the former Mexico City government, Sheinbaum said.
“. . . To date, [developers] have decided to correct their projects to comply with the regulations in 29 cases, which should be applauded. As the president says, nothing nor nobody is above the law,” she said.
The Morena party mayor said her government has discontinued 16 social programs that were used as facades for corruption and has put an end to the manipulation of crime statistics that occurred during the previous administration.
Sheinbaum said the previous government left a cifra negra – literally a black figure – in its crime data because thousands of serious offenses committed in 2018 went unreported in official numbers.
“But it’s necessary to mention that from December 2018 to August of the present year, intentional homicides decreased 34%, malicious injuries with firearms fell 45% and vehicle theft decreased 27%,” she said. “In August of 2018, the daily homicide average was 3.55, in 2019 it’s 3.16.”
Nevertheless, the mayor said she is not satisfied with the security improvements made thus far, stating that “a lot more” needs to be done.
“We work on the issue of security every day and we’ll continue to do so because our commitment is to leave Mexico City as a safe capital. We’re sensitive to what citizens are living through and that’s why we’re dedicated to making this metropolis an even safer city,” Sheinbaum said.
During her presentation to Mexico City lawmakers and other officials, the mayor also outlined initiatives her administration has implemented to strengthen the economy and create jobs.
Sheinbaum said the government is providing additional support to small and medium-sized businesses, stimulating tourism by offering a wide array of cultural activities and helping to strengthen the green, or environmentally conscious, economy.
She also said her administration is carrying out a range of projects to improve Mexico City’s hospitals, educational institutions, parks and roads without raising taxes in real terms.
About 200 protesters closed down Federal Highway 200 for more than six hours on July 9.
A hydroelectric dam project that will allegedly divert one of Puerto Vallarta’s last pure rivers leading from the sierra to the ocean is not only illegal and unethical, local residents say, but reeks of high-level corruption and threatens to further endanger protected flora and fauna in the region.
Residents of Boca de Tomatlán and areas surrounding the Los Horcones river say they were surprised when about a dozen workers appeared with excavating equipment and dynamite in January, about 40 minutes south of Old Town Puerto Vallarta.
The river is part of a canyon ecosystem where jaguars, river otters, macaws and rare orchids remain in their natural habitat, surviving at the border of encroaching sprawl from Puerto Vallarta’s tourism and real estate developments.
“My concern is that the Los Horcones riverbed has been untouched by humans for years,” said Mario Morga, resident of Boca de Tomatlán and president of a local defense committee. He claimed that the damming of the river is directly related to a local resort, Garza Blanca, which intends to expand its property and the number of inhabitants and tourists.
“The mini-hydroelectric plant intends to make a dam and pipe out as much as 60% of the water from the natural tributary from 2,200 meters above the riverbed, thus modifying the natural environment in a drastic way, and this is the place of thousands of species of flora and fauna, some of them protected by law,” Morga said.
Boca de Tomatlán, where the Horcones river empties into the sea.
“The residents of the town of Boca of Tomatlán depend directly on the water provided by the Los Horcones river for daily use . . . . It has been maintained as a sustainable tourist area and would turn into an industrial development with this type of work.”
A bilingual petition on Change.org to declare the canyon a protected area has gathered more than 434,700 signatures, edging close to a goal to obtain 500,000, at which point organizers plan to request a meeting with federal Environment Secretary Victor Toledo Manzur regarding federal protection of the area.
Six protests against the damming of the river have been held, two in downtown Puerto Vallarta and four in Boca de Tomatlán, where the Horcones river empties into the sea, about five kilometers downstream from the dam.
While the purpose of the hydroelectric dam has not been officially divulged, some observers suspect it is for the benefit of Garza Blanca Preserve Resort & Spa on Highway 200, about 15 kilometers south of Puerto Vallarta’s city center.
Carlos Bonilla, a biologist and researcher at the National Polytechnic University, said that due to deep secrecy surrounding the permits and construction, it has been difficult to officially tie Garza Blanca to the dam project and more difficult still to show proof of corruption between city governments, the dam builders and the resort.
“It is common in Mexico, as is with this case, that certain resources such as water are appropriated by private companies, shielded as being ‘green projects,’ but completely pass over the rights of the population by obtaining commercial economic benefits,” Bonilla said. “The particular point of the project in Los Horcones is to unmask the lack of sustainability, the false presentation of a clean energy, self-supplying project as one that does not take into account cultural conservation of the area, be it the environmental or the natural risks already identified by specialists.”
Piles of dynamited rubble were found in July at the proposed Los Horcones dam site where water-sculpted granite boulders had previously stood.
He mentions, as does Morga, that what initially alarmed the nearby communities is that they had not been consulted about the project, and that some of the dam construction is taking place on private property.
“They were trying to build a dam without consulting any member of Boca de Tomatlán and the company processed all the permits at the federal and municipal levels without us being considered,” said Morga, a Puerto Vallarta native who has lived in Boca de Tomatlán for more 23 years and guides tours in Bahía de Banderas.
“This type of work requires a public consultation, as well as being able to show that an environmental impact test has been conducted and that correct permits have been obtained legally. As far as we know, none of this exists.”
The dam project was temporarily shut down on July 19 on orders from Puerto Vallarta’s office of Urban Development and Environment for not having the required permits. The action was taken the Committee of Defenders of the Los Horcones river had presented information questioning the validity of permits obtained by the company, Grupo Hidrogenerador de Occidente, after Morga says it was proved that the work was being conducted within Puerto Vallarta on permits authorized by the neighboring municipality of Cabo Corrientes.
The companies associated with the dam have released statements insisting that the project will not cause any damage to the river or the surrounding jungle areas.
In August, Bonilla met with officials at the environmental protection agency, Profepa. “We have been able to get the authorities to listen to us and we look forward to the results of their analysis,” he said.
People protest the Horcones dam at a march in downtown Puerto Vallarta on August 25.
There were other concerns raised earlier this year when the resort allegedly cut down thousands of trees and relocated about one kilometer of Highway 200, after being given permission by the federal Transportation Secretariat. Local officials were unable to intervene in the matter, which reportedly limited public access to the beach.
Former Puerto Vallarta mayor and CEO of the Garza Blanca resort, Fernando González Corona, has said that the area that was logged will be reforested.
Repeated attempts to contact Garza Blanca, Grupo Hidrogenerador de Occidente and municipal officials in Puerto Vallarta were unsuccessful.
Sources speaking on condition of anonymity due to concerns for their personal safety have reported being intimidated by representatives of the companies involved, and noted that work on the dam project has taken place even during the shutdown that was ordered.
Individuals who have tourism-based businesses around the Horcones river allege that the dam is a threat to their businesses. Some area residents have expressed concern that property values could plummet as the region’s eco-tourism assets, such as the river and the surrounding jungle, are endangered.
The concern about the Los Horcones river has attracted attention because it is representative of greater water shortage concerns throughout the Puerto Vallarta region and beyond, said hydrologist José Antonio Gómez Reyna.
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“Puerto Vallarta is facing a critical situation; there is no water left,” said Gómez, professor at the University of Guadalajara. “What will we do without water? They started to build at a fast pace: homes, hotels, condominium complexes, the airport, military bases, etc. The problem now is how much water these people need and require. First, we have to consider how many inhabitants Puerto Vallarta has.
“Secondly, we have to consider how many people are visiting because now we see that tourism is using a lot of water. This is another point: how are we treating the wastewater from the hotels and where is it going and in what quality is it being released?”
Gómez asserts that many of the aquifers in the region have been depleted, and that the rivers that used to provide water are doing so less and less now as climate change is resulting in less rain each year.
“The Los Horcones river is an important river here in the Sierra Madre Occidental, with endemic fauna and flora, it has a privileged position in terms of climate conditions, altitude and rain,” Gómez said. “The exchange of saltwater and freshwater is very important for the life of plankton, which is consumed by a number of marine animals at the mouth of the river. Therefore it’s very important that the rivers in these areas are not altered. Given that there are no population areas above the river and no potential for pollution, clean water runs into the surrounding area and into the sea.”
More concerns have been raised about the impact that the new Santa Lucía airport will have on already depleted water resources in nearby México state communities.
Filiberto Mena Laiza, a 54-year-old former indigenous farmer who operates a taco stand in San Lucas Xolox, a town five kilometers from the Santa Lucía site in the municipality of Tecamac, expressed doubt that there will be sufficient water to supply the airport.
“Water is a vital liquid that moves us all,” Laiza said. “Where will all the water that will be needed to maintain this monster come from?” he asked, referring to the 36-square-kilometer airport project.
“The process of human development can’t be stopped,” Laiza conceded before adding: “What worries me is what are we going to leave for those that come after? . . . Just garbage.”
Mateo Martínez Urbina, a doctor in Tecamac and president of the local water board, said the US $4.8-billion airport will attract complementary infrastructure, which will place even more pressure on natural resources and alter the countryside.
“Logically, casinos, hotels and shopping malls are going to arrive,” he said. “More than benefits, [the airport] is going to bring us much harm.”
Federal Environment Secretary Víctor Manuel Toledo Manzur told reporters this month that the operation of the airport won’t cause any major water supply problems because water will be carried to the site from the Mezquital valley in Hidalgo via an aqueduct to be built by the National Water Commission.
But environmental experts say that residents’ concerns about water supply are well founded.
A 2015 study by the federal government found that the aquifer beneath the Santa Lucía site and surrounding areas was operating at a deficit of 58 million cubic meters per year. But according to a scientist and professor at the Latin American Technological Institute, the deficit is much greater.
Eric Galindo Castillo told Reuters via email that the government figures don’t take into account dozens of illegal wells in the area. The real water deficit is closer to 400 million cubic meters annually, he said, adding that the figure will increase further once construction of the airport begins.
“It’s unimaginable,” Galindo said about the airport project. “It lacks planning. You put more infrastructure, you’re going to take more water. But from where?”
The academic said the plan to bring water from Hidalgo is not viable because of the size of the airport project, adding that the aquifer in that state is heavily contaminated.
“Pollution [in the Hidalgo aquifer] is primordial,” Galindo said. “The moment you extract more water, you’re going to leave all those contaminants in the subsoil.”
Construction of the airport is currently held up as the government seeks to resolve more than 80 injunction requests filed by #NoMásDerroches (No More Waste), a collective made up of civil society organizations, law firms and more than 100 citizens.
The group said in June that it believed that reviving the abandoned Texcoco airport project, which President López Obrador canceled after a legally questionable public consultation last October, is “legally possible.”
One of several legal rulings handed down by judges in the collective’s favor overruled the environmental approval granted for the project by the Environment Secretariat in July.
However, López Obrador, who claims that the group’s opposition to the airport is politically motivated and that its injunction requests amount to “legal sabotage,” is adamant that the project will go ahead. The president says that once construction begins, the Secretariat of Defense will complete the project in a period of three years.
Despite the delays, local residents have resigned themselves to the fact that the airport will eventually be built.
“We’re not going to be able to stop it, we have to be honest with ourselves,” said Laiza, the taco vendor. “I just want them to respect my town.”
The state has promoted the culture and professionalization of organ donation through its Alerta 7 Código Vida (Alert 7 Code Life) program.
The Código Vida alert is activated when a potential “hero donor” presents signs of brain death in one of the state’s participating hospitals. The objective of the protocol is that all personnel help with diverse activities — from transportation to lab testing to imagery to operating room tasks — in order to successfully procure organ donations.
The program coordinates hospital administrations, transportation officials, emergency rooms and private and public hospitals in order to procure donations.
It makes the procurement as effective as it can, aiming to obtain the most organs possible from a single donor. It also creates a culture of donation in hospitals, changing organ donation from an anecdotal idea to a structured process ingrained in every hospital employee.
So far this year, hospitals in Guanajuato have performed 69 organ procurements, totaling more than 270 donated organs, including kidneys, corneas, livers, hearts, lungs, bone tissue and skin. In 2018, there were 400 transplants performed in the state.
“The state is in first place nationwide in the rate of organ and tissue donations, and we will continue working to reduce the need for kidneys and corneas in children, for which we will increase organ transplants through the Alerta 7 program,” said Governor Diego Sinhue Rodríguez Vallejo.
The pro-donation environment has caught on in the state, and more and more people are joining the organ donation movement as trust and interest in the concept and process grow. There were 92 donors in 2018, the result of years of work on the part of the current and past administrations.
“We strive to make children the primary beneficiaries, so in the Pediatric Hospital of León there are as many transplants as in national institutes like the Mexico City Children’s Hospital or the National Pediatrics Hosptial,” said Sinhue. “In Guanajuato, saving the lives of children will always be our priority, which is why we’re trying to reduce the organ donor waiting list.”
As Mexico moves towards the legalization of the cultivation, sale and recreational use of marijuana, the head of the recently formed National Association for the Cannabis Industry (ANICANN) says that the biggest potential for the plant lies in industry and medicine rather than the stoner market.
“The first thing that we have to understand is that stoners isn’t where the big business is,” Guillermo Nieto told the news website Ozy.
The president of ANICANN, which represents about 200 companies interested in taking advantage of the upcoming legalization of marijuana, said he believes that industrial and medicinal marijuana will be more profitable in Mexico than that produced for recreational use because most Mexicans, especially those outside the capital, hold conservative views about the psychoactive plant.
“There’s a lot of misinformation, and we’re fighting against that. Some 70% of Mexicans think cannabis is bad,” Nieto said.
While a 2018 government survey showed that more than two-thirds of Mexicans are opposed to recreational marijuana use, the poll also showed that more than 86% are in favor of the availability of medicinal marijuana and almost 50% of respondents said that they support the industrial use of hemp in products such as paper, clothes and biodegradable plastics.
However, observers of the process to legalize the cultivation and recreational use of marijuana – debate on a range of proposals is taking place in the Senate this week – have questioned who will ultimately benefit from legalization: only big business or also communities where the plant has been cultivated for years.
Nieto, however, believes that Mexican farmers in states such as Durango, Sinaloa and Guerrero – who have long grown marijuana illegally for the recreational market in the United States but have recently seen their income dwindle as a result of legalization in some U.S. states – won’t be cut out of a legal cannabis market that, according to some estimates, could be worth US $2 billion annually in Mexico.
The ANICANN chief said he envisioned a contract model in which licensed farmers produce industrial cannabis and supply it to companies at an agreed price.
“Let’s not think about marijuana. Let’s think about cannabis as a whole plant – as fiber, CBD, paper,” Nieto said.
“Right now the big problem with the campesinos [farmers] is that they do it underground and when you do it underground, you don’t have the right technology. Without the right seeds, nothing is going to work. You need the right fertilizers and supervision,” he added.
Guillermo Nieto of ANICANN.
Cultivating hemp for industrial use rather than THC-rich marijuana for recreational purposes would not only provide a guaranteed income for farmers but also allow them to not have to deal with dangerous criminal organizations, Nieto said.
“Industrial cannabis for those growers up in the mountains is a sure deal and a way of getting out of poverty,” he said.
“We have so many people in that business and in poverty that if we’re able to scale up their lives just by a small percentage we will be able to turn around the gross domestic product of the country.”
However, security analyst Jaime López took a different view, telling Ozy that small-scale marijuana farming likely won’t survive due to big business’s hunger for profits.
“It’s an idea with distinct PR value but little evidence to back it,” he said.
“Depending on how it plays out, big agribusiness might put most of them [small cultivators] out of business. Legal marijuana, from an economic perspective, would be like any other high-value crop: subject to economies of scale and highly attractive for big businesses and niche, artisanal producers,” López said.
Details about what the government will and won’t allow in a legal marijuana industry are expected to become clearer in October, when draft legislation is expected to be completed.
Jesusa Rodríguez Martínez, a senator with the ruling Morena party and a marijuana advocate, said that a five-day summit held last week on the legalization and regulation of marijuana, in which more than 90o people participated, would allow Congress and society to together “form the best legislation” for the plant’s cultivation, sale and use.
Citizens’ Movement Senator Patricia Mercado said that staging of the summit shows that progress is being made towards compliance with the rulings of the Supreme Court, which published eight precedents in February on the recreational use of marijuana that determined that prohibition of the drug is unconstitutional.
The Texas-Tuxpan pipeline route. The gas is now being shipped.
A pipeline whose inauguration had been held up by a dispute between contractors and the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) has begun sending natural gas to Mexico from Texas, the Mexican company IEnova announced on Tuesday.
The South Texas-Tuxpan pipeline has a capacity to transport 2.6 billion cubic feet of natural gas a day, representing an increase of 40% in Mexico’s natural gas supply. The gas will be used for electricity generation.
The pipeline, built by IEnova and the Canadian company TC Energy, had been ready to start moving gas in July but the start of operations was delayed by a CFE initiative to renegotiate the contracts, which were signed before President López Obrador took office.
On August 27, López Obrador announced that the government had reached an agreement with the companies that would reduce the burden on the public purse by US $4.5 billion and extend IEnova’s concession for 10 years.
In a statement sent to the Mexican Stock Exchange, IEnova celebrated the agreement and noted that the pipeline was built with a US $2.6-billion investment.
“These agreements satisfy the interests of both parties, and allow a benefit for the CFE, maintaining the integrity of the contracts,” they said. “IEnova reiterates our commitment to keep investing in Mexico to strengthen the country’s energy infrastructure, and contribute to national development.”
Mayor-elect Miranda gave the shout of independence from his prison cell.
How does a mayor give the annual cry for independence if he’s locked away in a jail cell? By phone connected to a PA system.
Mayor Alfonso Miranda Gallegos of Amacuzac, Morelos, had to give the traditional Grito de Dolores on Sunday by telephone because he remains locked up in a federal prison in Durango.
Municipal officials set up a loudspeaker system connected to a phone line at the municipal palace so that the mayor’s voice could be heard.
As Miranda gave the traditional speech first made in 1810 by independence fighter Miguel Hidalgo, the mayor’s son Gabriel, who is also the municipal government’s general secretary, fulfilled the other part of the ceremony — ringing a bell meant to evoke the church bells rung by Hidalgo in Dolores, Guanajuato.
A member of the Labor Party (PT), Miranda had previously served as mayor of Amacuzac between 2009 and 2012, and later as a state deputy.
He was arrested during his 2018 campaign, when he ran under the Morena party coalition banner, accused of organized crime and kidnapping.
His main opponent was also a target of authorities. Incumbent Jorge Miranda, who also happens to be Alfonso Miranda’s nephew, was arrested before the election on suspicion of homicide.
Alfonso Miranda handily won the July 2018 election but has not been able to take office, technically making him mayor-elect. However, his allies have taken control of the municipal government, and he effectively governs the municipality from his cell.
President López Obrador said on Tuesday that his proposed amnesty law is designed for people of modest means who were incarcerated without having access to an adequate legal defense.
Speaking at his morning press conference, López Obrador said the draft bill he sent to Congress on Sunday will release indigenous people, women and senior citizens who were convicted of non-serious crimes.
“This proposal is for humble people who weren’t helped, who didn’t have lawyers . . .” he said.
Mario Delgado, leader of the ruling Morena party in the lower house of Congress, said previously that women imprisoned for having an abortion and young people convicted of minor drug offenses would also be among the beneficiaries of the amnesty law.
López Obrador said that victims of crimes will be consulted about the law and their approval will be sought before it is passed by Congress. He added that prisoners must make a commitment not to reoffend before they are released.
The president said the release of political prisoners will be more complicated but explained that authorities are currently working on the details of how the process will work.
Teachers imprisoned on “fabricated” charges of money laundering are among the political prisoners who could be released, López Obrador said.
The president said that the amnesty law is not part of the strategy to pacify the country, explaining that the government’s welfare programs, the National Guard, the campaign against the consumption of drugs, preventing corruption in the justice system, respecting human rights and confronting arms trafficking are all part of the plan to bring peace to Mexico.
“There are several links in the strategy, which is making progress little by little,” López Obrador said.
Chilangos find some relief from record-breaking temperatures last month.
It’s been a hot year in Mexico, and August was no exception. According to the National Meteorological Service (SMN), average temperatures were the highest ever for the month since the SMN started keeping records in 1953.
The average nationwide temperature in August was 27 C, 3.3 degrees higher than normal.
Previously, the hottest August on record was in 2015, when the average temperature was 26.4.
Some municipalities broke records this year, including Eduardo Neri, Guerrero, where temperatures reached 47.5 degrees on August 3, and Aldama, Chihuahua, where the mercury rose to 45 on August 6.
In Mexico City records were broken between August 14 and 18. Hottest of those days was the 16th, when the temperature reached 28.6.
Column 1 shows average temperatures this year and Column 2 the averages between 1981 and 2010. Column 3 indicates the difference between the first two.
It was also the hottest August on record for Coahuila, Chiapas, Durango, Hidalgo, Nuevo León, Querétaro, Quintana Roo, San Luis Potosí, Tabasco, Tamaulipas and Yucatán.
The SMN noted that every month in 2019 has been hotter than average. One contributing factor has been low rainfall, which is currently at 78% of the average for the period.
“The rain accumulated across the country between January 1 and September 1 in 2019 was 384.1 millimeters, while the climatology for the period is 493.5 millimeters, which means that it’s only rained 78% of what it usually rains,” said the SMN. “That could be associated with low cloud cover, increasing short-wave radiation which arrives to the surface, and low humidity, which decreases evaporation that lowers surface temperatures.”
