Mayor Cervantes: his bank balance doesn't reflect his income.
Federal financial investigators have frozen bank accounts belonging to three mayors in Jalisco and Oaxaca for their alleged collaboration with organized crime, according to information obtained by the newspaper Milenio.
The investigations are in relation to operation “Blue Agave,” a joint effort carried out in cooperation with the United States Drug Enforcement Administration to cripple the Jalisco New Generation Cartel financially. Some 1,939 bank accounts containing US $1.1 billion have been frozen since the beginning of June.
The Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF), a federal agency, is investigating bank accounts belonging to the municipality of Ixtlahuacán de los Membrillos in Jalisco, as well the personal accounts of its mayor, Eduardo Cervantes Aguilar.
Cervantes, who is embroiled in controversy over the May 5 death of Giovanni López, allegedly at the hands of municipal police officers, has been suspected since 2015 of having links with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and was investigated in 2017 for his alleged participation in the sale of weapons to civilians posing as municipal police.
The UIF is also investigating Mónica Marín Buenrostro, mayor of El Grullo, Jalisco, and has frozen her personal accounts and those of the municipality she governs, as well as bank accounts belonging to Antonio Morales Toledo, mayor of San Blas Atempa, Oaxaca, whom they suspect also has cartel ties.
UIF director Santiago Nieto met Monday with Jalisco Attorney General Gerardo Solís to discuss financial anomalies relating to all three mayors, such as bank balances that do not reflect their income.
At least five mayors across Mexico are being investigated for money laundering and their connections to the cartel and organized crime, the UIF announced.
The president was greeted by protesters Monday in Xalapa, Veracruz.
President López Obrador has declared that people should not be afraid to go out despite the risk of coronavirus infection remaining high, but urged them to maintain a healthy distance from each other.
“What am I proposing on the recommendation of doctors? That we start going out while applying what we’ve learned, all the healthy distance teachings,” he said at a press conference in Xalapa, Veracruz, on Monday.
Asked whether it was contradictory to call on people to go out a day after Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell warned that the pandemic “won’t end soon,” López Obrador responded that a balance needs to be struck that takes health risks into account as well as the economy, well-being and people’s right to freedom.
“Fear shouldn’t overwhelm us, we have to move slowly. We’ve already learned a lot [about how to minimize the risk of infection] and we’ve shown we are responsible. … The behavior of the people is exceptional; that’s why we managed to flatten the curve,” he said.
López Obrador said that if new Covid-19 outbreaks occur as the economy begins to gradually reopen, his government is prepared to reimpose coronavirus restrictions that have been eased.
Active coronavirus cases as of Monday. milenio
“We will be vigilant but if we take care of ourselves responsibly, … we can advance toward normality. There is already a light that indicates that we’re going to come out of the tunnel,” he said.
The president reiterated his claim that the pandemic has been controlled and ruled out any possibility that the health system will be overwhelmed as more and more people return to their daily activities.
López Obrador also claimed that his administration’s financial support for the nation’s neediest has staved off civil unrest during the pandemic.
“There is no looting. There has been no looting in Veracruz. Why? Because never in the history of the country has so much attention been given to the people, especially to humble people, poor people,” he said.
Later on Monday, the Health Ministry reported that Mexico’s Covid-19 case tally had increased to 150,264 with 3,427 new cases registered and that the death toll had risen to 17,580 with 439 additional fatalities.
Director of Epidemiology José Luis Alomía said that 20,392 cases are considered active and that the results of 53,217 Covid-19 tests are not yet known. Just over 415,000 people have now been tested for Covid-19.
Total Covid-19 deaths reported as of Monday. milenio
Just under 40% of all confirmed cases – 59,600 – were reported in the first half of June, a period that coincides with the first two weeks of the so-called “new normal” in which some coronavirus restrictions were eased in some states.
Mexico City, which has recorded more than 37,500 cases since the start of the pandemic, currently has the largest active outbreak in the country, with 4,022 cases, according to official data.
With 2,285 active cases, México state has the next biggest active outbreak followed by Jalisco, Puebla and Tabasco, all of which have more than 1,000 active cases.
At the municipal level, Puebla city has the largest active outbreak followed by the Mexico City boroughs of Iztapalapa and Gustavo A. Madero.
Mexico City also has the highest Covid-19 death toll in the country, with 4,664 fatalities, or just over a quarter of Mexico’s total.
México state has the second highest death toll, with 2,005 confirmed Covid-19 fatalities, followed by Baja California and Veracruz, which are the only other states that have recorded more than 1,000 deaths.
Virus cases and deaths since May 29. Deaths are numbers reported and not necessarily those that occurred each day. milenio
Based on confirmed cases and deaths, Mexico’s fatality rate is currently 11.7 per 100 coronavirus cases, much higher than the global rate of 5.4. Mexico has the seventh highest Covid-19 death toll in the world behind only the United States, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Italy, France and Spain.
National data presented by the Health Ministry on Monday night showed that 45% of general care beds set aside for people with serious respiratory symptoms are currently occupied while 39% of those with ventilators are in use.
Mexico City and México state have the highest occupancy level for general care beds, at 72%, while 65% of beds with ventilators are in use in both México state and Baja California.
A young couple who were abducted last week in Chapala, Jalisco, have been located unharmed along with six others who were being held at a nearby compound, the Jalisco Attorney General’s Office reported Monday.
Rifles, pistols and bullet-proof vests were recovered from the scene where the kidnapping victims were being kept, and three arrests have been made.
On June 9, Griselda Gutiérrez Rodríguez and Ángel Adán Martínez López, two young artists who worked at Gutiérrez’s family’s private school and owned their own tattoo and smoke shop, were forced to abandon their vehicle by four armed men on the road that connects the communities of Santa Cruz de la Soledad and Ixtlahuacán.
Family members filed a missing persons report the next day after Gutiérrez’s sister received an anonymous call informing her that Gutiérrez’s truck had been abandoned by the side of the road.
A day after the abduction, Wenceslao Mendoza, an Uber driver who disappeared after dropping off a passenger on June 10 in Ajijic, was also abducted and reported to the police as missing. Mendoza was among those found alive and unharmed.
The other five kidnapping victims rescued by police Monday had not been reported missing.
On Monday morning, before the news that the couple and six others had been found, family members of those who have disappeared in Chapala mounted a protest with the support of some 300 community members who marched in silence carrying photos of the missing. When the crowd arrived at municipal headquarters, they lay on the ground in protest.
The demonstrators claimed that 100 people have gone missing in the past two years.
At a press conference after the demonstration, special prosecutor Blanca Jacqueline Trujillo denied that there had been a “wave of disappearances.” She said the disappearance of three people in one week, which was the number of official cases reported to her office, was well within normal parameters.
Minutes later, the rescue of the eight kidnapping victims was announced.
The number of missing persons in Chapala reported to the state Attorney General’s Office thus far in 2020 has already reached the total number of reported cases in all of 2019.
A large sinkhole that suddenly appeared Saturday in Playa del Carmen collapsed a roughly 600-meter-long section of the Playa del Carmen-Tulum federal highway, a stretch of road that will eventually be near one of the federal government’s Mayan Train routes.
It is not yet clear what caused the sinkhole, located on the southward side of the highway heading toward Tulum. Government officials have cited possible reasons, ranging from recent heavy rains in the area to the strain of heavy vehicles to the topography underneath the highway, which contains underground streams and caverns that may have contributed to weakening of the subsoil.
Two temporary lanes have been created on the highway in order to allow vehicles continued access while the Secretariat of Communications and Transport (SCT) and the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) repair the damage. The work is expected to take about five days.
According to government officials in Solidaridad — the municipality which governs the town of Playa del Carmen — the National Guard was brought in to help the municipality’s Secretariat of Public Safety and Transit personnel cordon off the affected area.
The collapse is believed to have occurred around 11 a.m. It was reported by a person who called emergency services around that time to report hearing a loud rumbling noise, Solidaridad’s Civil Protection department head Francisco Poot Kauil told the newspaper El Universal.
Whenever I can, I order it: in huevos divorciados (although I ask for juevos juntos con salsa verde, which always elicits a laugh), with chilaquiles con pollo, on every kind of taco, with chips and nachos.
Top chefs around the world use it on seared scallops, poached eggs, grain bowls, roasted salmon and all kinds of grilled meats.
At some point I decided to try my hand at making it. How hard could it be? Indeed, it is quite easy and once you’ve done it a couple of times it becomes second nature, like making pancakes. That said, I will admit that I do keep a jar of Herdez salsa verde in the cupboard just in case.
Tomatillos are the foundation of salsa verde, literally “green sauce.” You’ll find piles of them in every market, grocery store and tiendita. Inside the trademark papery husk the cute round fruit should be bright green, firm to the touch and free from blemishes. Look for tomatillos that fill or have split the husk; that means they’re ripe. And yes, like their tomato cousins in the nightshade family, they’re fruits customarily used as vegetables.
Fresh tomatillos, the foundation of salsa verde.
Now I’d been told by several local farmers that tomatillos are actually called tomates, and that the “regular” red fruits we know as tomatoes should be called jitomates. But nobody seemed to do that so I’d forgotten about it until I started researching this article.
The backstory is that in Náhuatl that’s the case (tomato is jitomate, tomatillo is tomate) but in common usage not so much. Other names for the tomatillo are husk tomato, Mexican ground cherry and in Guatemala, miltomate.
Like so many vegetables, roasting tomatillos brings out the best flavors. To make a basic tomatillo salsa, toss a quartered onion, a pound of tomatillos, quartered, a few garlic cloves and half a jalapeño (or more, your call) with a little olive oil. Spread on a sheet pan and bake at 400 F until veggies are soft and starting to brown. Let cool a bit then blend with a big handful of cilantro. Add a sprinkle of salt, a squeeze of lime and you’re done. For a twist, add two Roma tomatoes to the mix.
Roasted Salmon with Citrus Salsa Verde
1 shallot, thinly sliced into rings
Finely grated zest from 1 orange, divided
Finely grated zest from 1 lemon, divided
1 Tbsp. plus ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 lb. salmon fillet
Kosher salt
½ cup chopped cilantro
½ cup chopped parsley
1 garlic clove, finely grated
½ tsp. smoked paprika
Fresh juice from 1 orange
Preheat oven to 250 F. Combine shallot, half of orange zest, half of lemon zest and 1 Tbsp. oil in a small baking dish just large enough to fit salmon. Season salmon with salt and coat with zest mixture. Bake fish until fillet is just opaque in the center and flakes with a fork, 30–35 minutes.
Meanwhile, mix cilantro, parsley, garlic, paprika, remaining zests and ½ cup oil in a medium bowl. Stir in orange and lemon juice and season with salt just before spooning over fish. -bonappetit.com
Slow-Cooker Salsa Verde Chicken
Eat as a stew, with warm tortillas, or serve as a taco, quesadilla or enchilada filling.
1½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1½ cups salsa verde, fresh or jarred
1 (4-oz.) can chopped mild green chiles
8 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium white onion, chopped
1 jalapeño, stemmed, seeded and diced
1 tsp. ground cumin
3 scallions (green and white parts), thinly sliced
Rice, tortillas, avocado, queso fresco and crema or sour cream for serving
Combine chicken thighs, salsa verde, green chiles, garlic, jalapeño, onion and cumin in a 6 to 8-quart slow cooker. Stir to evenly combine. Cook on low until chicken is tender, 5 to 6 hours.
Using two forks, coarsely shred the chicken. With the heat on low, add scallions and cilantro; stir to combine. Season with salt and lime juice. Serve with rice or in tortillas with avocado and crema.
Classic enchiladas made with chicken and salsa verde.
Classic Chicken Salsa Verde Enchiladas
1 tsp. olive or vegetable oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
½-1 jalapeño, seeded and minced fine
2 cups salsa verde
½ cup crema or sour cream
¼ cup cilantro, chopped, plus more for serving
2 cups shredded cooked chicken
1 cup shredded Chihuahua or Jack cheese
6 corn or flour tortillas
Heat oil in skillet over medium heat and cook garlic about 1 minute. Stir in jalapeño and salsa verde and cook until heated through, another minute more. Remove skillet from heat, stir in crema or sour cream and cilantro. Add salt and pepper to taste and more sour cream if needed. Set aside about 1 cup of the sauce for assembling the enchiladas. Stir shredded chicken and half the cheese into the sauce left in skillet.
Heat oven to 350 F. Grease a 2-quart baking dish and spread a little of the reserved sauce on the bottom. Add chicken filling to the middle of each tortilla and roll into a cylinder. Repeat, lining up tortillas tightly with seam-side down in the dish. Spread reserved sauce over the enchiladas and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake about 15 minutes until heated through. Remove foil and bake 10 minutes more until cheese is melted. Remove from oven, let stand 5 minutes, sprinkle with cilantro and serve.
Chicken Soup with Salsa Verde
Really easy and really delicious.
1 cup shredded cooked chicken
1 medium onion, diced
1 Tbsp. cumin
2 (14 oz.) cans pinto, black or other beans
3 cups chicken stock
1 cup salsa verde
1 Tbsp. butter
Salt and pepper
Toppings: avocado, cheddar or Monterey jack cheese, sour cream, fresh cilantro
Sauté onion in butter for about 5 minutes. Add all other ingredients and carefully bring to a boil. Turn down to low and simmer about 10 minutes. Serve with warm corn tortillas, crusty bread and lots of toppings.
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.
Healthcare workers protest in Ciudad Constitución.
Monday is a momentous day for the tourism-dependent state of Baja California Sur: hotels, restaurants and beaches were to reopen after being closed for more than two months due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Hotels and restaurants were given the green light to reopen at reduced capacity to ensure that guests and diners can keep a safe distance from each other, while beaches in some parts of the state will have limited opening hours.
The mayor of Baja California Sur’s premier tourist destination, Los Cabos, said that hotels, restaurants and department stores can operate at 30% capacity starting today.
Armida Castro Guzmán also said that beaches in Los Cabos will only be open between 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. this week and that authorities will closely monitor the number of people using them and how well they practice social distancing.
She called on residents and visitors to maintain a healthy distance, use antibacterial gel and wash their hands regularly so that more restrictions can be eased more quickly in Los Cabos.
The tourism sector in Baja California Sur has been preparing for the economic reopening for weeks by establishing health protocols to limit the risk of coronavirus infection. The efforts to make Los Cabos a safe destination were recognized by the World Travel and Tourism Council, which last week gave the twin resort cites its stamp of approval for the hygiene and sanitary measures they have adopted.
Mauricio Peréz Salicrup, president of the Los Cabos Hotel Association, stressed that the tourism sector is ready to welcome back tourists in a safe way that ensures that the destination doesn’t become “a place of risk.”
However, he predicted that there won’t be a quick recovery for Los Cabos’ lucrative tourism sector, stating that there is a consensus that the coronavirus crisis will continue to have a “very aggressive ” impact in 2021.
At least one hotel in the popular tourist destination, the 392-room Holiday Inn Los Cabos, will close permanently. The Presidente hotel group said earlier this month that the hotel and the Presidente Intercontinental in Mérida, Yucatán, will shut due to the “severe impact” of the coronavirus pandemic but didn’t disclose when the closures would occur or what would happen to the properties.
While the employees of other hotels as well as restaurants and other businesses that form part of the broader tourism sector will be no doubt eager to get back to work, not everyone is happy about the steps taken today toward the “new normal” in Baja California Sur, where there were 234 active coronavirus cases as of Sunday, according to official data.
A group of public health workers protested against the easing of restrictions on Sunday in Ciudad Constitución, a city about 400 kilometers north of Los Cabos and just over 200 kilometers from the state capital La Paz.
The medical personnel called on residents to remain in their homes to reduce the spread of Covid-19, stressing that they don’t have the workers, equipment or supplies to respond to a large outbreak. Since the start of the pandemic, 101 coronavirus cases have been detected in Comondú, the municipality where Ciudad Constitución is located, and about two-thirds of that number are currently active.
Three people have lost their lives to Covid-19 in the city but some of the 29 coronavirus patients to have died in La Paz are believed to have been transferred there from the Comondú municipal seat.
“We’re losing the battle, they’re sending us to war without weapons,” said one placard held up by a health worker, according to a report by the newspaper El Independiente.
“We demand appropriate protective equipment, no more fallen soldiers!” it added.
The health workers called on state authorities to reconsider the plan to gradually reopen Baja California Sur, charging that the coronavirus situation was not yet under control.
They said they fear they could be infected with the coronavirus themselves, asserting “we’re not heroes, we are people who are susceptible to contracting the disease.”
Carlos Valenzuela, a doctor, told El Independiente that there is a limited number of health workers in Ciudad Constitución and the majority work in two or three different facilities.
“If the [medical] personnel get sick, this could cause problems for the whole community,” he said.
Mexico’s ruling party abruptly postponed a plan to fuse the telecoms and energy regulators and the competition authority after an outpouring of criticism.
Ricardo Monreal, a senior senator in the ruling Morena party who made public the initiative last week, announced on social media on Sunday that he was putting it on ice to allow for discussion.
The government had said that the proposal to create a National Markets and Competition Institute for Wellbeing, or Inmecob, would save 500 million pesos (US $22 million).
President López Obrador, who makes no secret of his contempt for neoliberal technocrats, whom he blames for perpetuating poverty and social divisions, threw his weight behind the initiative, saying: “If this helps reduce spending … I’m in favour, because there were many excesses in the creation of agencies, many were unnecessary and almost all of them were very costly.”
But critics said the proposal was less about austerity than about centralizing power. They pointed to the fact that the president would be allowed to appoint officials from a list of names suggested by the Senate, skipping the rigorous independent selection procedure for the telecoms regulator and competition watchdog. The energy regulator was already widely considered to be under government control.
“This is very dangerous. The justification that this will save money and be more efficient is not credible,” said Vanessa Rubio, a former deputy finance minister and now senator for the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). “I think this shows what Morena thinks about checks and balances.”
Monreal countered: “The intention is not to create a superpower or to give way to authoritarianism or to concentrate the functions of these institutions within government, still less to eliminate their autonomy,” he said.
But in order to enable full discussion of the proposal, he said he had postponed presentation of the initiative in Congress.
The initiative comes after the government sought last month to impose new rules for the power sector to give priority to the state utility at the expense of private generators, especially renewables. López Obrador wants a strong state energy sector and believes private companies have enjoyed unacceptable privileges and should be put in their place.
The electricity offensive, imposed by the energy regulator and grid operator Cenace, has been suspended until a welter of court injunctions are resolved — which could take months. More injunctions against tariff rises are expected soon.
“I wouldn’t mind if it was really an issue of austerity but I do if it implies removing all the autonomy and teeth of these institutions, which took us decades to build,” said Arie Ellstein, a political consultant.
López Obrador has also floated the idea of a revamp of the country’s private pension system. Experts agree that many Mexicans will lack sufficient contributions to be able to retire comfortably. “If we do nothing, those who retire won’t even receive the minimum wage, they’ll get half of what they should, at the very least,” the president said.
He has yet to spell out his plans but said he aimed “to correct the error of these irresponsible technocrats, who thought they were scientists, who got us into all sorts of trouble.”
Amid the Covid-19 crisis, Morena has also proposed allowing people to tap retirement funds early. Given the prospect of severe economic contraction and falling tax revenues, “they could be tempted to do something like Cristina Kirchner did with pension funds,” said one economist who asked not to be named, referring to Argentina’s 2008 nationalization.
López Obrador slammed a report in El Universal newspaper that suggested he was planning to take over the railway system, saying the report was intended “to sow fear, to create uncertainty, to continue with this refrain that we are communists, that we are acting like Venezuela … it’s completely false.”
The Inmecob initiative would face a tough congressional ride. Since it would represent a constitutional reform, the government would need the support of two-thirds of both chambers, which López Obrador does not have. But the president prides himself on his stubbornness.
“My fear would be that Morena will try to co-opt the PRI in the Senate to pass this,” said Alejandro Schtulmann, head of Empra, a consultancy.
However, even some figures close to the government urged caution.
“Autonomous competition and regulatory organs take on very powerful market players,” tweeted Gerardo Esquivel, appointed by López Obrador to the board of the central bank. “That is why we should think about how to strengthen them so they can do their job better, not weaken them or undermine their authority.”
Citizens in Ahuacotzingo guard the entry to their village to control the coronavirus.
Coronavirus restrictions prohibiting nonessential activities will remain in place in Guerrero until at least June 30, Governor Héctor Astudillo said Sunday.
Presenting a decree that extends the confinement measures to that date and makes the use of face masks mandatory in public spaces, Astudillo said that June 15 had been established as “a possible date” to reopen some businesses and government departments but the development of the pandemic “doesn’t allow it.”
The governor said that hotels, restaurants, beaches, silver workshops (Taxco is famous for its silver), factories, swimming pools, shopping centers, cinemas, theaters, places of worship, parks, plazas, museums, hair salons and gyms will all remain closed until at least the end of the month.
Public transit will operate but drivers and passengers must wear face masks and keep a safe distance from each other, Astudillo said. He added that public transit vehicles must be regularly disinfected and that passengers will be subject to temperature checks before they board.
Astudillo highlighted that the use of face masks is obligatory in all public spaces until further notice. He also recommended that people wear protective shields over their masks as an extra layer of protection.
Guerrero has recorded more than 3,300 confirmed Covid-19 cases since the start of the pandemic, of which 307 are currently active, according to official data. All but 14 of the state’s 81 municipalities have recorded cases, while 546 people have lost their lives to Covid-19 in Guerrero.
More than half of the state’s fatalities occurred in Acapulco, while Iguala and Chilpancingo have the second and third highest death tolls, respectively.
The coronavirus crisis has provided an opportunity to “re-define” tourism to make it more innovative and ensure it brings benefits to local communities, said Tourism Minister Torruco.
Tourism will no longer be “a source of excessive profits,” Tourism Minister Miguel Torruco told representatives of the sector during a virtual conference.
Speaking at the National Tourism Business Council (CNET) “New Era of Tourism” conference, Torruco said that the coronavirus-induced health and economic crisis has exposed the “decadence of the traditional models” in place in the tourism sector.
He charged that over a period of many years, tourism policies implemented by past governments and private investment in the sector caused “marginalization, poverty and environmental degradation” at the same time as enormous profits were being made.
Torruco also said that the pandemic had exposed the “dark reality” of the tourism sector, highlighting that a lot of employees lack job security and benefits and that some companies are in a precarious financial position.
The tourism minister said the coronavirus crisis provided an opportunity to “re-define” the sector to make it more innovative and ensure that it brings benefits rather than harm to local communities and environments.
There is a perception that the government has managed the crisis poorly, says Alejandro Lozaya.
“It’s fundamental for researchers, academics, business people and authorities to be sensitive to issues related to conservation and preservation of natural resources, social and community well-being, inclusion and the urgency to build a better Mexico,” he said.
Separately, Torruco last week submitted a proposal to the Health Ministry arguing that tourism should be declared an essential activity.
In an interview with the news website La Silla Rota, CNET president Braulio Arsuaga said that he supported the minister’s proposal, asserting that it will help to reactivate the economy.
Attracting tourists, at least in the short term, is likely to be difficult as coronavirus cases and deaths continue to show steady growth.
According to Alejandro Zozaya, president of the travel and hospitality conglomerate Apple Leisure Group, a perception that the government has managed the coronavirus crisis poorly has hurt Mexico’s image as a tourist destination and makes it less likely that the tourism sector will recover quickly.
While the domestic market is important for tourism, international travelers generate a greater economic spillover and support jobs in destinations such as Quintana Roo and Baja California Sur, Zozaya said.
With both domestic and international tourism coming to a virtual standstill due to the pandemic, revenue in the sector fell 93.7% in April, according to data from the national statistics agency Inegi.
Zozaya charged that the government hasn’t done enough to support tourism amid the pandemic, highlighting that it has chosen to pour funds into infrastructure projects such as the Maya Train, the new Mexico City airport and a new refinery on the Tabasco coast.
“It’s had other priorities, they’ve taken away resources [from tourism]. The last thing we need are new infrastructure projects,” he said.
Griselda Gutiérrez and Ángel Adán Martínez are the latest people to have gone missing in Chapala.
The disappearance of eight people in Chapala, Jalisco, in the past week has local residents demanding more accountability and more results from police and from Governor Enrique Alfaro to solve the 31 missing-persons cases reported so far this year.
Such cases have been on the rise in in the municipality in 2020. The 31 cases recorded with the state Attorney General’s Office is already the number recorded in all of 2019.
A case currently grabbing attention in the media involves a young Mexican couple who disappeared June 9. Witnesses saw Griselda Gutiérrez Rodríguez, 28, and Ángel Adán Martínez, 26, being forced to abandon their vehicle by four armed men on the road that connects the communities of Santa Cruz de la Soledad and Ixtlahuacán. The men took off with the couple in another vehicle.
The two are artists who worked part-time jobs at their family’s private school in Ajijic and ran their own tattoo studio and smoke shop in Chapala. They were reported missing by family members on June 10 after Gutiérrez’s sister, Elizabeth Rodríguez, had received an anonymous call informing her that Gutiérrez’s truck was sitting abandoned on the side of the road.
Rodríguez told media outlets that she believes local and state authorities have done nothing to investigate her sister’s case, nor the cases of the 29 other people reported missing throughout the municipality this year because people are afraid to speak up.
“Nobody has said anything out of fear, because they threaten you,” she told the online news site Animal Político in a story on Monday. “But the moment has arrived to raise our voice, to keep silent no longer, to say what is happening in Chapala, because first it was my sister, but tomorrow it could be my son.”
She also told the news site that she and other residents of Chapala planned to stage a march to the city’s Municipal Palace and a demonstration in front of Casa Jalisco, the governor’s residence in Guadalajara, to demand more accountability from local and state officials.
