Emperor Napoleon: lifelong union leader, now a senator, has amassed a fortune

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January 15, 2020

Senator Gómez Urrutia, financially successful union leader.

Like father, like son: mining union boss and ruling party Senator Napoleón Gómez Urrutia has amassed a fortune during a controversial career that included 12 years in self-exile in Canada after he was accused of embezzling US $55 million.

Now, son Napoleón Gómez Casso and his accumulation of wealth are in the spotlight after a report by W Radio journalist Carlos Loret de Mola revealed that he is the founder of two companies that appear to be in a prime position to take advantage of decisions made by his father in the Senate.

The report, entitled Emperor Napoleón and prepared by journalists Arelí Quintero y Miguel Castillo Chávez in collaboration with W Radio, details some of the dealings of both men and calls into question the legitimacy of the wealth they have acquired.

Despite having never worked as a miner, Napoleón Gómez Urrutia inherited the leadership of the National Union of Mine and Metal Workers in 2001 after the death of his father Napoleón Gómez Sada, commonly known as Napo, who was at the helm of the union for 40 years.

Five years later – amid the 2006 Pasta de Conchos mine disaster in Coahuila in which 65 miners lost their lives – the government of then-president Vicente Fox launched an investigation into Gómez Urrutia, known as Napito, after 20,000 workers accused him of embezzling US $55 million from the union.

The Fox administration withdrew its recognition of Gómez Urrutia as union leader and Napito subsequently packed his bags and departed for Canada. However, the move didn’t put an end to his union leadership: while living in Vancouver, Gómez Urrutia continued to direct the union and was re-elected as president and secretary general twice.

Loret de Mola reported that despite being a union leader all his life, Napito and his and family have acquired multimillion-dollar assets both in Mexico and abroad. Gómez Urrutia continues to live a life “full of luxuries,” the report said.

Just months after he inherited the leadership of the mining union, Napito purchased a home in the upmarket Mexico City neighborhood of Lomas de Chapultepec for US $1.3 million, Loret de Mola said.

In 2015, Gómez Urrutia sold another Mexico City home located in the Florida neighborhood to a company owned by him and his son, Alejandro Gómez Casso.

The house was estimated to be worth 30 million pesos (US $1.6 million at today’s exchange rate) but was sold to the company Napale for just 2.8 million pesos, Loret de Mola said, a figure less than one-tenth its real value.

Gómez Urrutia also owns a colonial-style home in the town of Tepoztlán, Morelos, valued at about 60 million pesos and his wife, Oralia Casso Valdéz, purchased an apartment in Vancouver for almost CAD $2 million, or about US $1.5 million.

The senator's 60-million-peso home in Morelos. — The senator’s 60-million-peso home in Morelos.

Loret de Mola said he has public records that show that the total value of the real estate owned by Napito and his wife is approximately 150 million pesos (US $8 million).

He also said he had obtained proof that Casso Valdéz is a frequent shopper at high-end department stores including Harrods in England, Saks Fifth Avenue in the United States and Holt Renfrew in Canada.

After Gómez Urrutia had been at the helm of the mining union for 17 years, and while he was still in Canada, an interesting political opportunity came his way. The septuagenarian was chosen by the now-ruling Morena party to stand as a plurinominal, or proportional representation, Senate candidate in the 2018 election.

With Mexicans supporting Morena and its presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador in their tens of millions, Gómez Urrutia had no problem securing a seat in the upper house. He returned to Mexico in late August 2018 to take up his position without fear of arrest on embezzlement charges because his new role afforded him immunity from prosecution.

President López Obrador, as well as many labor organizations around the world, has said that Gómez Urrutia was unfairly persecuted by past governments for political reasons.

The union leader is now “one of the most powerful figures in the Mexican Senate,” Loret de Mola said, adding that the federal government has designated him the “spearhead of new unionism.”

Almost a year ago, Gómez Urrutia presented a new labor federation he founded that unites 150 unions and is seen as pro-government. The International Confederation of Workers will fight for the rights of a labor movement that was oppressed by past “neoliberal governments,” he said when presenting the umbrella organization in February 2019.

Since becoming a senator, Gómez Urrutia has also been a member of the upper house’s mining and energy committees, memberships that his son appears to be trying to exploit.

Loret de Mola reported that just two months after his father was sworn in as a senator, Napoleón Gómez Casso created his own mining company called Exploraciones Rhino.

Gómez Casso began business maneuverings that appear designed to benefit from Gómez Urrutia’s position in the government just five days after López Obrador won the July 1, 2018 election in a landslide that swept Napito into the Senate.

On July 6, 2018, Gómez Casso created a company called Abstract Energy Holding, Loret de Mola said, adding that it was registered as a solar panel and energy generation firm. The company, 98.5% of which is owned by Napoleón Jr, is a shareholder of Exploraciones Rhino, the report said.

Loret de Mola pointed out that in the space of just four months after López Obrador’s victory at the 2018 election, Gómez Casso created two companies in two industries that his father could influence by developing new laws or modifying existing ones.

Under the subheading The Crown Prince, Loret de Mola said that Polo, as Napoléon Jr. is known to his friends, has long used social media to show off his wealth to the world.

At the age of just 21 in 2009, Gómez Casso purchased a home in San Antonio, Texas. By the age of 32, Polo had publicly boasted about the ownership of at least 31 cars, some of which were expensive racing or luxury models, seven motorcycles, two quad-bikes and six high-performance bicycles.

He frequently speaks of his purchases of luxury cars and his experiences driving them in online forums and even set up a YouTube channel to show off his assets, Loret de Mola said, adding that the channel has recently been set to private.

Among Gómez Casso’s purchases are cars made by Audi, Mercedes Benz, BMW and Porsche and Ducati motorcycles.

In a separate piece published today by the newspaper El Universal, Loret de Mola encapsulated the position that Senator Gómez Urrutia now finds himself in.

“With the inheritance of a union from his father and the business dynamic of his son, Senator Napito completes the trifecta: union power, political power, economic power.”

Mexico News Daily

Torreón school shooting: a child needed help but didn’t get it

By

Sarah DeVries

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January 15, 2020

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Backpack inspection at a school in Nuevo León.

The first big school shooting — Columbine — happened in 1999, the year I was a senior in high school. It was blamed on all manner of things: Marilyn Manson, violent video games, absent or clueless parents, the lack of mental healthcare.

Notably, many scoffed at the idea that the prevalence of guns might be even partly to blame, or that the country’s own habit of killing its enemies might influence people’s feelings of justification for violence.

Learning about a school shooting is always sad, but it’s especially shocking when it happens where you don’t expect it: not just a school in Mexico, but a private school in Mexico.

I’ll expose my own prejudice here and admit that I was especially surprised that this took place at a private school made up of mostly well-off students. I think many would have expected something like this at a public school, a place, perhaps, with more seemingly “troubled” students.

But wealth and privilege don’t necessarily buy mental health, and sometimes the combination of above-average access to all manner of resources and freedom with private suffering can lead to tragedy.

I’m familiar with this kind of school: I worked at one for five years. The students were mostly the children of successful business people, industry leaders and politicians. My first year there, I had a student that I liked a lot but who, some days, seemed visibly troubled. He was bigger than most of his classmates, and stranger, and was no doubt picked on away from the eyes of the teachers.

One day as I was circling the room, I saw him showing a hammer in his backpack to another student. He then took it out and pretended to hit someone with it. I told him to put it away and notified the administration and the on-site psychologists, who called his parents right away. It wasn’t a gun, but it very well might have been a weapon.

I’ve written here about guns before, and reflected on how strange it was that with such violence in the country, there was such a shortage of American-style mass shootings. I hypothesized that the generally higher sense of social cohesion in Mexico might be partly to thank.

I don’t think there’s any one cause to what happened. I don’t think it was video games. I don’t think it was an admiring emulation of the country’s narcos. This kid had obviously been suffering, and needed help, and didn’t get it when he needed it.

I don’t blame his caretakers (with the information we have so far, at least) or the school. Indeed, we still don’t know a lot about his young life. But I do believe we should take this as a wakeup call, not just for ensuring that weapons don’t make their way into our schools, but that all children know they have a trusted adult they can turn to in the places where they spend most of their time.

I also don’t think “technology” is the cause, but I do believe that a growing obsession (along with the rest of the world) with personalized, single-user devices has made some of that social and civic cohesion that Mexico is famous for — that way of paying close attention to each other — fade. It’s not that we mean to ignore each other, least of all our children; it’s that these now essential devices are very specifically designed to demand our attention as much as possible.

There’s a reason that so many tech executives send their children to luddite schools and keep hand-held screens out of their homes and their children’s pockets.

Paying attention to people is hard, and sometimes boring, and increasingly awkward as we become more accustomed to interacting with typed words and emojis instead.

We don’t know a lot about this child. We know that he seemed to be fine on the surface. We know that he lived with his grandparents, having lost his mother a few years earlier. Strangely, nothing has really been said about the father, who presumably was absent from the start.

Would anything have been able to stop it? Certainly the backpack checks on the way into school that were rejected earlier in the school year would have, but that doesn’t get to the root of the problem. What was this child going through? Would anything have been able to help him as an individual? How many others like him are there?

The truth is that mental illness is easy enough to keep secret, especially in our distracted world. We need to make sure that every child has an adult that they can count on.

Mass shootings aren’t easy to predict, but the need for emotional and mental support is.

Sarah DeVries writes from her home in Xalapa, Veracruz.

Nature calls—on the escalators of the Mexico City Metro

By

Cody Copeland

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January 15, 2020

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Please don't pee on the escalators, Metro authorities ask.

Fully one-quarter of escalator breakdowns on the Mexico City Metro are caused by people urinating on them, according to authorities.

The deputy manager of mechanical installations, Fermín Rafael Ramírez Alonso, said that Tacubaya and Chabacano are among the stations most affected.

Ramírez urged users not to urinate on escalators or other Metro installations, because of the damage it causes.

He said that other causes for breakdowns include excessively heavy loads, running on the stairs, imbalance on the stairs and objects falling between them.

“There are even users who cut the stairs with knives or other sharp objects, of which we have examples in Tacubaya,” he said.

The Metro will spend 270 million pesos (US $14.3-million) to repair 55 escalators — 25 by the end of 2020 and 30 more by the end of 2021.

Of these, 13 are in the Tacubaya station. They are the most structurally complex in the system and are already undergoing repairs.

Ramírez said the 55 escalators to be repaired this year are located on Lines 3, 4, 7, 8 and 9, and all have been in service well past their suggested lifespans.

“On Lines 4, 3 and 7 there are 49 escalators that are 31 to 38 years old. Grupo Comet [Engineering Services] recommends that the lifetimes of the escalators be no more than 20 years,” he said.

He said that in previous years there were only two companies contracted to maintain the escalators, but now there are five.

The transit system announced in March last year that the organization would begin checking all escalators over 33 years old in order to avoid accidents after eight people were injured on an escalator in the Mixcoac station on Line 5.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Presidential Dreamliner remains unsold, is returning to Mexico

By

MND Staff

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January 14, 2020

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The presidential plane is coming back to Mexico after failing to sell during the nine months it spent in a hangar in the United States.

The general director of state development bank Banobras, which purchased the Boeing 787 Dreamliner for US $218 million in 2012, told reporters at the presidential press conference that the plane will return to Mexico from the Southern California Logistics Airport in the coming days.

“We’re going to relaunch the effort [to sell it] and the Mexican government has decided that the plane will return to Mexican territory,” Jorge Mendoza Sánchez said, explaining that it will be put on display at an upcoming government auction.

Once in Mexico, the plane will be housed in the old presidential hangar at the Mexico City airport and maintained by the Secretariat of National Defense.

Since the plane was relocated to the United States, 42 potential buyers have been identified, 12 expressed interest in purchasing the plane and six made offers, two of which were above its estimated value, Mendoza said.

presidents plane — Plenty of leg room here.

However, a sale never occurred and all the while maintenance and storage costs continued to add up.

Air Force Commander Manuel de Jesús Hernández said that keeping the plane in California had cost the government 28 million pesos (US $1.5 million).

For his part, President López Obrador revealed that he offered the plane to the United States government in exchange for payment in kind with ambulances and medical equipment. However, there was no response from U.S. authorities, he said.

The president said that once the plane is back in Mexico, the government will look at three different options to recover part of its initial cost: continue with the effort to sell it to a single buyer, try to sell it to a collective of up to 12 purchasers or rent it.

López Obrador said the government has already entered into talks with some business owners with a view to selling the plane before reaffirming his commitment to not use it himself (since taking office, the president has only taken commercial flights).

He has previously said that proceeds from the sale of the plane – now valued at about US $130 million – would go to projects such as municipal water improvements and finance programs for migrants.

AMLO at home aboard a commercial flight.

However, Mendoza said the government still owes Banobras 2.7 billion pesos (US $143.7 million) for the purchase of the plane, meaning that even if it sells for its estimated worth, the revenue will not cover the debt with the state development bank.

Source: El Financiero (sp), El Economista (sp)

19 government planes and 9 helicopters up for auction

By

Cody Copeland

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January 14, 2020

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Photos of aircraft that will be sold were exhibited at Tuesday's press conference.

President López Obrador announced that the government will auction off 19 airplanes and nine helicopters belonging to seven government departments in an open call for bids that will close on January 31.

“Luxury airplanes that have nothing to do with the reality of poverty that exists in our country [are] a reflection, an expression of how there were two worlds: that of the people and that of the governing class, two distinct spheres,” he said in his morning conference on Tuesday.

“The government employees thought themselves kings; they were like a creole monarchy and they lived lives of luxuries and privileges. That’s why we’ve decided to sell these planes,” he said.

He said that only airplanes and helicopters that serve the public, such as air ambulances and military planes, will remain in government service, “but not [those] for transporting government employees, because they abused them, they used planes to go play golf.”

The head of the state development bank Banobras, Jorge Mendoza, said Tuesday that the 28 planes and helicopters are just the first set of government aircraft that will be auctioned off. He said that there will be 72 in total — 33 planes and 39 helicopters — belonging to eight government departments.

Among these is the presidential plane, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner for which the government has been unable to find a buyer and is spending nearly as much on storing it as using it.

The 28 planes and helicopters up for bidding in January were used by departments such as the National Water Commission (Conagua), the state oil company Pemex and the Secretariat of Communication and Transportation (SCT).

“The process will be divided into two stages: the first begins today [and] concludes on January 31; the second stage begins on February 19, when interested parties will be invited on the part of authorities, and the final ruling will be announced on February 27,” Mendoza said on Tuesday.

He said the government is hoping to recuperate 2.5 billion pesos (US $133 million) through the sale of the aircraft and added that the United Nations will watch over the proceedings to ensure transparency and that they aren’t sold off at low prices.

Sources: Reforma (sp), El Financiero (sp)

Justice in LeBarón massacre case will serve as an example: AMLO

By

MND Staff

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January 14, 2020

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Justice for the massacre of nine members of a Mormon family in Sonora in November will serve as an example that crime committed during the administration of the current government will be punished, President López Obrador said on Sunday.

Speaking to residents of the small Mormon community of La Mora after meeting with the family members of the victims of the November 4 attack, López Obrador said that his government’s first goal is to bring the perpetrators of the crime to justice.

Seven people have been arrested in connection with the attack allegedly perpetrated by La Línea, a criminal gang with links to the Juárez Cartel, including the chief of police of Janos, Chihuahua.

The investigation “is progressing and there will be justice,” López Obrador said.

The president said he had agreed to meet again with the victims’ family members in two months and that he would subsequently return to Bavispe, the Sonora municipality where the massacre occurred, to present a plan for regional development, including road improvements.

“We’re going to return because a proposition has been made . . . Firstly, justice – those responsible must be punished, there must be no impunity, [this case] must be an example of he who commits a crime is punished,” López Obrador said.

“. . . We’re going to continue meeting so that these unfortunate events are not forgotten . . . I, as president of Mexico, would like to be . . . with all the families of victims, all those who suffer in Mexico due to insecurity and violence.”

The president also said that a monument will be erected to commemorate the lives of the nine dual United States-Mexican citizens – three women and six children – who lost their lives when the vehicles in which they were traveling on a remote dirt road outside La Mora were ambushed.

An agreement had been reached with municipal and Sonora authorities to put up a monument “where these lamentable and painful events took place,” López Obrador said, adding that it will also recognize those who risked their lives to help the victims and survivors of the attack.

“So that we exalt this, the true solidarity: he who is willing to give his life for another,” he said.

In addition, the president reiterated his commitment to combat insecurity by addressing the root causes of violence – such as poverty, inequality and lack of opportunity – rather than by using force against criminal groups, a strategy that failed to curb violence during the two previous governments led by Felipe Calderón and Enrique Peña Nieto.

“We have to achieve the pacification of Mexico, not like . . . in other times just with the use of force. Now there is a new way that I think will yield results . . .nobody is bad from birth,” López Obrador said.

Loretta Miller, grandmother of four of the children who were killed, said that she was happy with the outcome of the meeting with López Obrador but Julian LeBarón, a relative of the victims and an anti-violence activist, called for an investigation into authorities in Chihuahua, asserting that there are state police that are involved in criminal activities.

“. . . What’s happening with the police that turn their weapons at the community and murder women and children? This is the extent of the problem,” he said.

Source: El Diario de Juárez (sp), Associated Press (en)

Corn husks replace Styrofoam in San Miguel de Allende

By

Cody Copeland

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January 14, 2020

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Esquite vendors have replaced Styrofoam with corn husks. — Esquite vendors go green.

Anyone looking to snack on esquites — corn prepared with mayonnaise, cheese, chili and lime — in San Miguel de Allende can do so Styrofoam-free: vendors have replaced the plastic cups with corn husks.

Mayor Luis Alberto Villareal boasted that his city was the first, even before Mexico City, to work to eradicate the use of polluting single-use materials.

“We’ve been working all year, but the truth is that the society of San Miguel is very participatory, it’s a committed society, it’s a progressive society, and [getting participation] hasn’t been too complicated,” he said.

“I can’t tell you that as of today no one is using [plastic bags]. What I can tell you is that from the first of January, [the ban] is municipal law and we’re working every day to create awareness.”

The law bans the use of single-use plastics and Styrofoam, such as straws, cups, plates, bags and other items.

The municipal government launched a campaign called Zero Plastics, More Life, through which it has worked with stores and food and tourism service providers to have a broad impact.

The law stipulates that a vendor or business that does not comply will be fined 5,000-85,000 pesos (US $266-$4,500).

It also stipulates that businesses that buy and sell plastics and Styrofoam in the city must prove to the municipal environmental department that their products are biodegradable and compostable by means of a certification by an authorized laboratory.

The initiative is part of San Miguel de Allende’s resolve to improve its local ecology, for which the local government declared 2020 the Year of the Environment and Sustainability.

As for being first with environmentally-friendly esquites, a Oaxaca city vendor is already in the running for that distinction. Jesús Alvarado Carrera, better known by his nickname El Chuy, has been selling esquites on corn husks since May 2018.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Universal healthcare or universal confusion: hospitals, patients left bewildered

By

MND Staff

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January 14, 2020

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Seguro Popular has been discontinued but the debut of its replacement has not been trouble-free.

Confusion continues to plague the launch of the federal government’s new universal healthcare scheme.

The National Institute of Health for Well-Being (Insabi), a new government department tasked with providing medical services to millions of Mexicans without insurance, started operations on January 1.

Almost two weeks later, hospital staff, patients and many members of the general public remain unsure about how the replacement for the Seguro Popular program actually works.

The newspaper El Economista reported that personnel at hospitals it visited have not received any clear, official information about the operation of the Insabi scheme, leaving them bewildered as to how it is supposed to function.

Staff at the Xoco General Hospital in Mexico City said that they are “completely disoriented” because the government hasn’t provided them with information about the scheme or sent officials to explain it to them.

The head of nursing at the Dr. Manuel González Rivera healthcare center, also located in the capital, gave a similar response when asked about the implementation of the Insabi health service.

“We haven’t been well informed,” said María Concepción Escalante Cruz. “We’re continuing to ask for [patients’] Seguro Popular [policies] . . .Their membership numbers are still valid; they were still making Seguro Popular identity cards in December . . .”

Escalante added that staff have been given no indication as to when they might receive training about the operation of the new service.

The administrator of the González Rivera center also said he didn’t know when training would occur, explaining that the only information he has received is that consultations that used to cost 6 pesos will now be free.

Similarly, the newspaper El Universal found that staff at other hospitals have little information and knowledge about how Insabi is supposed to operate and how people formerly covered by Seguro Popular can join.

At the Balbuena General Hospital, which provides primary and secondary healthcare services in the capital, a security guard told El Universal that joining the Insabi scheme wasn’t possible at the time because the office where the registration process takes place was closed.

With many healthcare professionals in the dark about the operation of the government’s new healthcare program, it’s unsurprising that people seeking medical treatment are also confused.

In addition to confusion, patients and their family members have also expressed anger because they had to pay for services and medical supplies they believed would be provided free of charge

President López Obrador said repeatedly last year that the Insabi scheme would be completely free, an assertion that the leader of the national health workers’ union described as an “information error.”

Fabiola Ríos told El Economista that the Xoco General Hospital wouldn’t enroll her son in the Insabi plan because the family lives in México state rather than Mexico City. She said she was informed that the surgery her son required would therefore cost between 5,000 and 6,000 pesos (US $265 to $320).

María de Lourdes, whose son is also hospitalized at the Xoco Hospital, said that care is being provided free of charge but added that she has spent more than 16,000 pesos (US $850) on medical supplies required for his treatment.

Patients and family members at several other healthcare facilities have made the same complaint.

At the San Carlos Hospital in Tizimín, Yucatán, a diabetes sufferer who required urgent surgery for a foot fracture was turned away because hospital staff determined that Insabi wouldn’t cover her expenses, the newspaper Diario de Yucatán reported.

María Damiana Euán Kuyoc was directed to seek treatment at a private clinic, where she was told that the cost of the surgery was 35,000 pesos (US $1,860).

The less than smooth implementation of the Insabi scheme, the government’s apparent failure to inform the public about it and the ensuing criticism all support an assertion last year by six former federal health secretaries that getting rid of Seguro Popular was a “crucial mistake.”

Two health secretaries from the administration of former President Felipe Calderón – who introduced the Seguro Popular program – two who served under ex-president Enrique Peña Nieto and one each from the administrations of Miguel de la Madrid and Vicente Fox said in a letter that eliminating Seguro Popular was to “annul one of the most important institutional advances” of the health system.

Calderón himself also challenged López Obrador’s decision to eliminate Seguro Popular and retaliated against the president’s frequent claim that the program wasn’t seguro (which can mean both insurance and reliable in Spanish) or popular.

“Since 2008, Seguro Popular covered all medicines and treatment for children and young people up to 18 years [suffering from] all kinds of cancer. Before [the program’s introduction] seven of every 10 children with leukemia died. After, seven of 10 survived . . . Yes it was seguro and yes it was popular,” he wrote in one of a series of 2019 Twitter posts defending the program.

Current opposition lawmakers have also been critical of the elimination of Seguro Popular, while governors in several states have indicated that they won’t sign on to the latter.

López Obrador said on Monday that there is no obligation for the states to join Insabi although the institute’s chief indicated that federal funds for free healthcare will only be provided after they sign agreements with the Mexican government.

The scheme is “voluntary, not obligatory,” the president told reporters. “. . . We can’t force anyone [to join]. The vast majority [of states] will work on this plan together so that medical care and medicines are free, we have the budget and it will be enough.”

A senior health official charged Tuesday that there was a campaign under way to sabotage the implementation of the new health scheme. The undersecretary in the Secretariat of Health said it appeared “a disinformation campaign is being orchestrated by someone,” possibly special-interest groups that are resisting the change.

Source: El Economista (sp), El Universal (sp), Diario de Yucatán (sp), Infobae (sp), El Financiero (sp)

Exotic bird traffickers suspected in attack on Sayulita environmentalist

By

Cody Copeland

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January 14, 2020

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Illegal exotic bird traffickers are suspected in an attack on a Canadian environmentalist in Sayulita, Nayarit, on the weekend.

Tracie Lyn Willis, an activist and president of the environmental nonprofit Ser Su Voz (Be Their Voice), said she was attacked by two men with knives who rang her doorbell around 8:30pm Saturday.

She asked who was at the door but when she did not receive a response she assumed it was a friend.

When Willis opened the door, the men asked if she bought birds, then burst into her home and stabbed her in the head, abdomen and leg before fleeing the scene.

“I believe it was retaliation for defending the birds that are sold in San Ignacio, because I spoke out about the trafficking of that species,” Willis said.

The town of San Ignacio is known as a black market hub for the illegal trafficking of exotic birds.

Willis and her organization work to protect the birds’ habitats and combat the trafficking. But the attack has not deterred her from that goal, describing herself as “more motivated now.”

“If those who attacked me had been professionals, I’d be dead,” she said.

She also said that over two months ago she was threatened by a known bird trafficker from the municipality of Ruiz, for which she filed reports with the Federal Police, the environmental protection agency Profepa and the Environment Secretariat.

She filed a report with the Nayarit Attorney General’s Office for Saturday’s attack.

Canadian-born but raised in England, Willis made her way to Sayulita after being fired by a cruise line for reporting the company for dumping garbage into the ocean.

Since moving to Sayulita in 1990, she has opened a restaurant called ChocoBanana, founded a recycling organization and volunteered for projects that help protect sea turtles and land crabs, as well as parrots and other avian species.

Sources: La Jornada (sp), Sayulita Life (en)

29 bodies found in hidden grave in Tlajomulco de Zúñiga, Jalisco

By

Cody Copeland

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January 14, 2020

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Looking for bodies in a hidden grave in Jalisco.

A clandestine grave containing at least 29 bodies was found in Tlajomulco de Zúñiga, Jalisco, in an area where over 80 illegally buried cadavers have been found since November.

“Of the 29 victims, as of now four have been identified, for whom investigations have been opened in the Attorney General’s specialized missing persons department,” the Jalisco Attorney General’s Ofice said in a statement on Monday.

Search efforts are still underway at the site located just 80 meters from another clandestine grave from which investigators pulled 50 bodies in December.

Another hidden grave in Tlajomulco found in November contained 31 bodies.

Located near Guadalajara, Mexico’s second largest city, Tlajomulco is among many municipalities in the region in which such discoveries were made last year.

A National Guard operation on November 8 rescued eight kidnapping victims from a warehouse in the neighboring town of Tlaquepaque. National Guard soldiers also confiscated weapons and made 15 arrests.

In September, 138 plastic bags of human remains were found in Zapopan, just west of Guadalajara, and 17 were found in nearby Tala. Another 15 bags were found in Zapopan in October.

Also in Zapopan, 30 bodies were found buried at a house on May 7 of last year.

Authorities say that the violence in Jalisco has intensified since March 2017 after interior conflicts caused a rift in the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), which also has outside rivalries with criminal organizations in neighboring Guanajuato for the control of illegal fuel trafficking.

Government statistics show that 873 clandestine graves were uncovered in Mexico in 2019 alone. Of the 1,124 bodies found in them, only 395 have been identified.

The highest number of graves were located in Sinaloa, home of infamous drug kingpin Joaguín “El Chapo” Guzmán, who was convicted of drug trafficking by a U.S. court in February of last year.

Jalisco and Colima followed Sinaloa on the list of states where the most clandestine graves werediscovered in 2019.

Over 3,000 graves have been discovered since 2006, when the government declared war on drug traffickers, and almost 5,000 bodies have been found in them, according to official statistics.

The number of disappeared persons has markedly increased since 2006. According to the latest report from the National Search Commission, there are now over 61,000 people on the National Registry of Missing and Disappeared Persons.

Source: Cultura Colectiva (sp)