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).
Residents of Torreón, Coahuila, set a patrol vehicle on fire after the officer behind the wheel accidentally struck two children on Saturday night during a police chase.
Local officials said the accident occurred while the officers were in pursuit of suspects wanted for motorcycle theft.
The youngsters were riding a bicycle when the police vehicle hit them.
After the incident, angry residents in the neighborhood set fire to the police vehicle. No further damage was done, however, as the officers were able to restore order through dialogue with the enraged citizens.
Torreón Mayor Jorge Zermeño went to the hospital to check on the children, who were admitted for various injuries.
He guaranteed the support of the municipal government, issuing instructions to the municipal secretary and the directors of public security, public health and DIF family services to attend to the children and their families.
More than 14,000 unidentified bodies were buried in common graves between 2013 and September 2019, an analysis of official records has found.
The newspaper Milenio established via responses to freedom of information requests from state-based morgue authorities, health departments and attorney general’s offices that 14,015 bodies were sent to common graves in 28 states under the designation NN: Ningún Nombre, or “No Name.”
The rate at which unidentified bodies were buried in common graves in the almost seven-year period is unprecedented yet the real number of corpses is certain to be significantly higher because authorities in four states – México, Morelos, Nayarit and Tlaxcala – didn’t provide data.
The period analyzed by the newspaper takes in all but one month of the six-year term of former president Enrique Peña Nieto as well as the first 10 months of the government led by President López Obrador.
During the period, the bodies of 11 of every 100 victims of intentional homicide were not identified and now lie in common graves. More than half the unidentified victims were killed and buried in just five states.
Almost 3,000 unidentified bodies were sent to common graves in Baja California, more than 1,500 in Jalisco and just under that number were buried in Mexico City. More than 1,000 unidentified bodies were buried in Nuevo Léon and just under 1,000 went to common graves in Sonora.
Unidentified homicide victims in the five states account for 56% of the total across Mexico, excluding the four states that didn’t provide data.
The states where authorities said the least number of unidentified bodies were sent to common graves were Oaxaca with 13, Campeche with 26, Aguascalientes with 78 and Colima with 84.
Milenio raised doubts about the figure from Colima, pointing out that it appears inconsistent with the number of murders in the small Pacific coast state, which has the highest per-capita homicide rate in the country. In Oaxaca, no records of NN bodies were kept until this year.
In Nayarit, one of the states that didn’t provide data, common grave burial statistics are believed to have been manipulated during the period that former attorney general Édgar Veytia – currently in prison in the United States for drug trafficking – was in office, and in cahoots with organized crime.
Milenio said that the failure of México state authorities to provide data represented a “significant statistical hole” because the state is the most populous in the country and has a high homicide rate.
If the rate at which unidentified bodies were buried in common graves in the first nine months of this year continues at the same pace in the final quarter, 2,222 cases will be recorded in 2019.
In the past six years, only in 2018 — the most violent year in recent history — did a higher number of unidentified corpses go to common graves.
Mexico’s morgues have been overwhelmed with bodies due to soaring levels of violence.
There is “a crisis in the area of forensic identification,” the commission said, because morgues lack the resources, staff and equipment to properly examine the bodies they receive.
Skeletons parade in the rain as onlookers take shelter under umbrellas.
Over 800,000 people braved the wind, rain and cold temperatures to attend Mexico City’s giant Day of the Dead parade on Saturday.
For the third weekend in a row, Paseo de la Reforma avenue exploded with color, music and dance, as dozens of floats and processions made their way from the east entrance of Chapultepec Park to the zócalo.
Featuring around 3,500 artists divided into 29 groups accompanied by 12 colorful floats, the parade left the Stela of Light monument outside the east gate to the park at 1:00pm.
“The wind and rain will accompany us all day,” said Mexico City Culture Secretary José Alfonso Suárez del Real when the elements began their onslaught against the undaunted spectators.
‘Living statues’ of clay were a project by students of the National Autonomous University.
He narrated the pageantry to provide information about the displays, presenting every group with a bit of historical information, who the artists were and where they were from.
“You hear, feel and dance [with] group number 16, of the El Volador collective, who recreate for us the Mexico of Salón Calavera, [the 1982 play by Alejandro Aura], when mambo was the most popular music,” said Suárez.
At the head of the parade, a giant representation of the goddess Mictecacíhuatl, guardian of the Aztec underworld Mictlán, marked the parade route with her straightforward stare. She wore a golden dress and a red plumed headpiece and carried a pair of skulls in her hands.
Other renowned Mexican personages to make an appearance were singers José José and Juan Gabriel, the luchadores El Santo and Blue Demon, and the comedic superhero El Chapulín Colorado.
The funeral carriage that took the remains of José José, the “Prince of Song,” to his final resting place in September made up the tail end of the parade, which arrived in the zócalo two hours later.
Mayra Cano, a spectator from México state who attended the event with 11 family members, said it was worth the rain and wind.
Many diverse dances were a crowd-pleaser.
“My children, cousins, nieces and nephews are all here, and we all loved it,” she said.
“It was really good. It was worth the trip, lots of diversity, lots of dances, really cool things. The rain was nice, it didn’t stop us from having a good time.”
The Day of the Dead mega-altar currently on display in the Mexico City zócalo was designed to represent the diversity of Day of the Dead celebrations in the north, south, east and west of the country.
This year’s “Altar of Altars” was designed by local artist Vladimir Maislin Topete, whose idea won in a vote among five other themes: “sacred diversity,” “the weavers,” “forest of life,” “uirucumani: lie in silence” and “land and liberty.”
Comprised of four 12-meter-tall wooden structures that extend out toward the four cardinal points, the altar pays homage to four distinct regional Day of the Dead celebrations.
The north branch features a raised mesquite platform that the Yaqui people of Sonora use to place their offerings of food and water. It is believed to evoke the funeral pyres used in the region before the Spanish conquest.
The altar to the south stands in honor of the Yucatán observance of Hanal Pixán, which means “food of the souls” in Mayan. It includes offerings of seasonal fruits and traditional foods like mucbipollo, a type of tamal that is cooked in an earthen oven.
The ‘altar of altars’ in the zócalo of the capital.
The Huasteca region of San Luis Potosí, Veracruz and Tamaulipas is represented by the east arm of the altar, decorated by marigolds and copal smoke. An arch of Xantolo (name of the Day of the Dead holiday in the region) symbolizes the portal leading from the terrestrial world to the afterlife.
Opposite stands the altar representing the traditions of Cuanajo, Michoacán, reflected in an altar adorned with flowers, fruits and corn. The custom in Cuanajo is to place the offerings on small wooden horses, which take the spirits of the dead back to their earthly homes.
The altar also tells the story of the afterlife as conceived by the cosmology of the Aztecs, or Mexica, as they called themselves, who were the dominant indigenous group at the time of the arrival of the Spanish in 1519.
Their underworld consists of four worlds to which souls travel upon death: Mictlán, for those who died a natural death; Tonatiuhichan, for warriors who died in battle; Tlalocan, for those who died drowning, struck by lightning or by skin conditions; and Chichihuacuauhco, reserved for the souls of children.
The altar was inaugurated on Friday by President López Obrador, his wife Beatriz Gutiérrez, Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum and federal Culture Secretary Alejandra Frausto. It will be on display until November 10.
It may call itself mega, but Mexico City’s altar is dwarfed by the display in the Plaza Juárez in Pachuca, Hidalgo, which has broken its own record as the world’s largest Day of the Dead altar.
Pachuca’s altar has been confirmed the biggest in the world.
Covering an area of 1,044 square meters, the record was officially recognized by Guinness World Records representative Carlos Chiapa Rojas.
Hidalgo previously achieved the record with its 2017 altar, which measured 846.48 square meters.
Transportation services were suspended on Saturday and Sunday in the Guerrero municipalities of Zihuatanejo and Petatlán after three passenger vans and several other vehicles were set alight on Friday.
Zihuatanejo drivers who provide transportation to local neighborhoods and the hotel zone said they wouldn’t resume services until authorities can guarantee their safety.
After a meeting between transportation leaders and local authorities on Sunday, the latter said that an agreement was struck to reestablish services.
The Zihuatanejo drivers and their counterparts in neighboring Petatlán say they are being threatened by criminal groups that demand extortion payments.
Three Nissan vans used as public transit were burned on Friday night in three separate incidents in Zihuatanejo.
The first occurred on the Paseo de Zihuatanejo boulevard at about 6:00pm. Armed men stopped the van and forced the driver and passengers to get out before setting it on fire. As it burned, the vehicle rolled down a hill until it crashed into a compact car that also caught fire.
A second van was set alight on Colegio Militar avenue an hour later after which another van was burned in the neighborhood of Fragatas, the newspaper El Universal reported.
Earlier on Friday, a group of about 300 people blocked the Acapulco-Zihuatanejo highway in Petatlán to demand that state police – who they claimed have committed abuses – withdraw from their communities.
According to the state government, the people were forced to participate in the blockade by the criminal gang Guardia Guerrerense, which authorities say operates in both Zihuatanejo and Petatlán.
After federal and state police moved the people on, seven vehicles were set on fire on the highway, including three buses, a trailer and a delivery truck.
Zihuatanejo business owners are urging the federal government to intervene and end the violence that plagues the municipality as well as neighboring Petatlán, La Unión and Coahuayutla.
“What we’re experiencing in Zihuatanejo and neighboring municipalities is nothing new, it’s entirely the fault of authorities that do nothing,” the head of a local company who asked not to be identified told the newspaper Reforma.
He said that business was slow in Zihuatanejo over the weekend because a lot of Day of the Dead tourists canceled their hotel reservations after hearing about the violence on Friday.
The businessman added that restaurant and hotel owners could join public transportation workers and stop work in order to pressure authorities to act.
“We can’t put up with it anymore; it’s urgent for the federal government to turn around now and look at us because the state and municipal governments are completely overwhelmed by crime,” he said.
“In the case that they ignore us, we’ll join . . . the work stoppage because this [situation] is now unsustainable.”
Business owners in the Costa Grande region stopped work for several days in November 2016 to demand greater security but extortion, threats, kidnappings and murders have continued, the business owner said. The son of a well-known businessman was shot dead on October 21 after leaving a gym in central Zihuatanejo.
The violence in and around Zihuatanejo could also pose a threat to international tourism. More than 150,000 Canadian tourists visit the area annually, many to escape cold winters at home, according to local tourism official Pedro Castelán Reina.
The winter holiday period for foreign visitors begins in November with the arrival of the first seasonal flights at the Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo International Airport, he said.
Castelán said there are now direct flights to the airport from nine Canadian cities and seven in the United States.
Before the violent events of Friday, he predicted that the winter period would be a successful one for local businesses that benefit from the influx of foreign visitors.
It is still well before dawn and thousands of people have packed into Parque Metropolitano in the central Mexican city of Léon.
If you thought they had been here all night partying, you would be mistaken. Families, youths and adults of all ages crowd the pathways as they make their way to the fairgrounds to watch the launch of hundreds of brightly coloured, uniquely shaped hot air balloons into the morning sky.
The Festival Internacional del Globo, or International Hot Air Balloon Festival, is the largest festival of its kind in Latin America, and one of the most important in the world. Every year in mid-November, around 200 balloons from 15 countries as far away as Spain, Turkey and India gather in the Guanajuato city to entertain up to 400,000 visitors who attend the four-day festival.
It’s not just the traditionally shaped oval balloons appearing at the festival, either. From frogs to owls, Van Gogh to Darth Vader, the creativity of the designs knows no bounds. No matter the shape, the balloons work the same way; by filling the “envelope” portion of the vessel with hot air fueled by the propane burner below, the aircraft becomes lighter than the surrounding environment, allowing it to take off from the ground.
In addition to the hot air balloons, the festival packs together several of Mexico’s top musicians, bands and DJs, a wide variety of foods and beverages, and plenty of entertainment for the entire family.
Creativity abounds in the balloons at the León festival.
Now in its 17th year, the 2019 festival takes place between November 15 and 18. Musical acts set to perform include the popular Mexican band Banda MS, María José and Yahir, and Dutch DJ sensation Martin Garrix.
With the gates opening at 5:00am, the crowds arrive early to grab the best viewing spots around the Presa. Most people head right to the launch area in the northern section of the park, where visitors can also find the main stage, food and beverage stands, and the numerous vendor booths that are set up for the event.
For a more secluded spot to witness the launch, find a location along the seven-kilometer stretch of paths that surround the Presa, and venture down to the edge of the water.
Just before the first rays of the sun illuminate the morning, the balloons launch. One by one, they rise until the azure blue sky is full of vibrant balloons. The vessels use the wind channels at various heights, seemingly floating through the atmosphere with ease, despite weighing over 700 kilograms.
The roar of the propane heaters reverberates on the lake, accompanied by the pleasant chirp of the more than 200 species of birds found in the park. Gradually the sun peaks over the mountaintops, exposing a bright yellow hue to the morning sky. Like being in a Disney movie, the scene unfolding in the air is breathtaking.
Around 8:00am, the balloons make their way back to the landing area, carefully navigating through the crowds of people and other pilots as they descend expertly back to terra firma. The skill and expertise of the pilots are incredible, as they delicately touch down to bring their morning journey to an end.
Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh at a previous festival in Guanajuato.
Following the morning show, spectators can get up close and personal with the balloons, chat with the pilots and wander the grounds. The opening acts of music start to play, as the daily activities for the whole family continue.
As the balloons deflate, the energy in the crowd wanes. The spectators spread out and relax while waiting for the main event of each evening.
While the last light of day fades away, the intense blaze of the propane-fired flames replaces the golden glow of the setting sun, and hot air envelopes the balloons once again. This time, however, the balloons stay grounded, and a dazzling show of light and sound takes place as the giant vessels work together in a coordinated manner to entertain the audience.
Throngs of onlookers watch in amazement as the power of the burners contrasts against the blackened sky.
Through the night, the party at the main stage continues long after the light show wraps up. Bands and DJ’s take the stage, keeping the night owls happy while the rest of the city heads home in anticipation of another pre-dawn start the next morning.
If you go: camping is available on site to make your early mornings a little easier. From downtown Léon, it takes about 30 minutes by car, taxi or Uber or one hour by transit to reach the festival grounds.
Although there are plenty of accommodations in Léon, it is recommended to book early as hotels book up quickly for the festival.
While in Léon, be sure to check out the Zona Piel, where you can browse and shop for a wide selection of locally made leather goods, for which Léon is famous.
Mark Locki is a Canadian writer and a frequent contributor to Mexico News Daily.
Monarch butterflies have begun arriving in the forests of Michoacán, where they will overwinter before returning to the United States and Canada in early spring.
Butterflies began arriving at five sanctuaries in the east of the state on Thursday afternoon, said Homero Gómez González, former head of the El Rosario ejido, where the Campanario sanctuary is located.
After a journey of more than 4,000 kilometers, more than 180 million monarchs are expected to arrive at Campanario, Michoacán’s largest sanctuary, and the Altamirano, El Chivati-Huacal, Sierra Chincua and Cerro Pelón sanctuaries.
Michoacán sanctuaries won’t officially open to the public until November 16 but Gómez said that people who wish to observe the arrival of the monarchs will be admitted to Campanario starting next week.
State Tourism Secretary Claudia Chávez said that access to the sanctuaries will cost 50 pesos for adults and 40 pesos for children and that visiting hours will be between 9:00am and 5:00pm.
Thousands of Mexican and foreign tourists travel to Michoacán and México state every year to observe the monarchs, which spend about five months clustered in Oyamel fir trees.
Because the first arrivals of monarch butterflies often coincide with Day of the Dead celebrations, the Mazahua and Otomí people of eastern Michoacán have traditionally believed that the orange and black insects are the souls of deceased children.
Pesticides, climate change, habitat loss and disease have all contributed to a decline in monarch butterfly populations but the number of the insects that spent the 2018-19 winter in Mexican forests was the highest in 12 years.
