Playa Brasil, near Salina Cruz, Oaxaca: residents believe it will be the site of an industrial port.
There is growing opposition to the federal government’s Isthmus of Tehuantepec trade corridor project, which includes modernization of the railroad between Salina Cruz, Oaxaca, and Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz.
The indigenous group El Istmo es Nuestro (The Isthmus is Ours) and Maoist organization Sol Rojo (Red Sun), reported to have a strong presence in the region, have indicated they will support local communities in their opposition to the project.
In addition to upgrading the rail link between the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, the government intends to modernize the ports in both Salina Cruz and Coatzacoalcos as well as improve the region’s roads and airports.
Some of the staunchest opposition to the project can be found in Playa Brasil, a small beach town near Salina Cruz.
Although federal authorities haven’t told residents about the impact that the project will have on their community, they have reason to believe that they will be adversely affected.
A Sol Rojo protest against the government’s plans for the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.
Locals told the newspaper Reforma that they have observed drones flying over the area as well as engineers measuring the beach. In addition, they obtained leaked photographs of a government map that shows that Playa Brasil will be absorbed by a new industrial port.
According to information included on the map, 17.7 billion pesos (US $922 million) of public and private money will be spent to build a range of port infrastructure in the town including container and industrial terminals.
Speaking at a community meeting, Sandra Velázquez López, a local resident and member of El Istmo es Nuestro, said that her biggest concern about the plans is that Playa Brasil’s natural amenities will be destroyed.
“I don’t agree with it because they’re going to uproot people who have roots in this place and mainly because they’ll destroy nature,” she said.
Sol Rojo member Javier Aluz said the trans-isthmus trade corridor may have a different name to past projects – similar plans have been proposed for years in order to create an alternative to the Panama Canal – but claimed that it pushed “the same agenda of imperialism.”
In turn, the region’s people will continue their “agenda of resistance,” the San Blas Atempa resident said at a meeting with international organizations hosted by a Oaxaca civil society group.
Benjamin Cokelet, founder of the watchdog group PODER, said the trans-isthmus project would affect people who live close to the railroad and warned of the potential of environmental damage in the case of rail accidents. He also said that improved infrastructure in the region could promote drug trafficking.
Boy in a 'narco-ween' costume, complete with plastic body bag.
Young boys dressed up as drug cartel members and the shouting of “candy or kidnapping” by children while trick-or-treating were among examples of a “narco-Halloween” in northern Mexico last week.
In Mazatlán, Sinaloa, one young boy who was dressed as a sicario, or hitman, caught the attention of shoppers as he walked through a city mall on October 31.
Wearing ripped blue jeans, a black shirt with the top buttons undone and a gold chain and sporting a drawn-on mustache, there could be no mistaking that his costume was inspired by Mexico’s notorious gangsters.
In case there was any doubt, the boy had a toy gun in his jeans and – perhaps most shockingly – was dragging a black plastic bag of the kind commonly used by cartels to dispose of the bodies of their victims.
Photos and video footage of the boy went viral on social media and triggered criticism of his mother, who accompanied him through the Mazatlán mall.
Photos of the Ovidio Guzmán costume went viral.
“. . . That mother should have her child taken away from her . . .” one Twitter user said.
Images of another young boy dressed as Ovidio Guzmán López, a suspected Sinaloa Cartel leader and son of former drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, also went viral on social media.
His pale shirt, black pants, cap and a religious pendant hanging around his neck ensured that he was a near dead ringer of Guzmán López. He was even given a stubbly beard and mustache to help him look the part.
The costume also triggered condemnation on social media.
“We’re losing this country. Who could think of dressing up their child as Ovidio?” said Twitter user Mario Castillo. “It’s not at all funny. On all fronts, day by day, we’re consolidating ourselves as a banana republic.”
In Reynosa, a notoriously dangerous border city in Tamaulipas, another Twitter user said she heard children shouting “dulce o levantón” (literally candy or kidnapping) when trick-or-treating.
Beyond social media criticism, the narco-inspired costumes and behavior were also denounced by the head of the Sinaloa child protection agency.
Margarita Urias Burgos said that dressing up children in such attire could affect them for the rest of their lives because the photos will remain on the internet indefinitely.
She was critical of people who shared the images in order to criticize the children’s parents, contending that they only contributed to their wider dissemination.
Urias added that authorities are not seeking to impose sanctions on parents who dressed their children up in inappropriate costumes but rather raise awareness about the damage they can cause to young people’s lives.
Price of tortillas could increase fourfold, law's opponents warn.
The price of tortillas could quadruple if Congress passes a law to protect native maize because it would pose a threat to the production of hybrid corn, farmers and lawmakers warn.
The Senate has already passed a draft version of the Federal Law for the Promotion and Protection of Native Corn but debate is continuing in the lower house.
However, the rural development coordinator at the Secretariat of Agriculture (Sader) acknowledged this week that the law could threaten production of hybrid corn and said that modifications are needed.
“The main mandate we have is to guarantee food supply for all Mexicans. It’s impossible to say that we’ll be able to produce 44 million tonnes of native corn,” Salvador Fernández said.
National Action Party lawmaker Absalón García, who is also a hybrid corn producer, said the native corn law could threaten 70% of national production. A reduction in corn production would logically cause prices of basic foodstuffs to go up, he added.
The National Agriculture Council (CNA) and some lawmakers warned that tortilla prices could increase from 15 pesos a kilo to 60 pesos if the law is approved.
CNA president Bosco de la Vega claimed that the legislation goes against the government’s own plans to support the achievement of food self-sufficiency.
“We’re working on the most important program that the president has approved, Maíz Para México, and it makes use of hybrid corn. This law places [the program] at risk because it’s ambiguous,” he said.
De la Vega said that Mexico currently produces 59% of all corn that is consumed domestically but explained that the figure falls short of the recommendation of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, which says that the country should aim to meet at least 75% of demand.
He said that Mexico should take advantage of scientific advances in corn production.
Ana Lilia Rivera, a senator with the ruling Morena party and part of the collective Sin Maíz No Hay País (Without Corn There Is No Country), denied that the law will affect hybrid corn production and push up tortilla prices as a result.
“People can continue producing hybrids, we’ve never been against that,” she said.
“Science can continue advancing but under the principle of precaution, you’ll have to prove that your seeds don’t do damage,” Rivera added.
The senator, one of two main proponents of the native corn law, said that hybrid seeds are often accompanied by the use of glyphosate, a controversial herbicide whose effect on human health is hotly contested.
A study of ketchup brands in Mexico has revealed that most contain more sugar than tomato, according to the federal consumer protection agency Profeco.
Federal law requires that ketchup contain at least 12% total tomato solids, or 44.4% tomatoes, and not to contain thickeners, colorants or preservatives.
Published in the November issue of the magazine El Consumidor, the Profeco study found that ketchup brands Heinz, La Costeña, Clemente Jacques and Embasa all contained over 40% high-fructose corn syrup.
Embasa ketchup, made by Herdez, was found to contain 55% corn syrup. La Costeña ketchup was 58% sugar, of which 42% came from corn syrup. Heinz and Clemente Jacques both contained 42% syrup.
“The consumption of high-fructose corn syrup in Mexico began with the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement,” said Profeco. “With that, various products containing the sweetener began to be sold.”
The economics of food production have driven its use throughout Mexico’s food supply.
“One of the main reasons the food industry substitutes cane sugar with corn syrup is because of its low cost,” Profeco said.
Although the cost of corn syrup is low, the cost in terms of public health has been high. In November 2017, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reported that Mexico was a world leader in combined overweight and obesity rates.
Other products that contain high amounts of the corn syrup are Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Bimbo bread, Ruffles potato chips, Oreo cookies, Jumex juices, Karo syrup and Barritas Marinela fruit bars, among many others.
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.
