Mexican-grown apples are small but flavorful and crunchy all the same

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June 1, 2020

It looks and tastes like an apple pie—but has no apples.

I have to say that apples – reliably crisp, sweet/tart, juicy – are one of the things I really missed when I moved to Mexico.

To be sure, there were mangos and papayas galore, incredible pineapples and fresh coconuts, but I still missed a good ol’ apple. Eventually, though, I discovered that “real” apples could indeed be found at certain times of the year, grown not in the hot coastal region where I lived but in the mountains a few hours inland.

(My guess is that those of you who live in those areas know this already.)

Granted, most of the apples you can find in Mexico are imported; like consumers everywhere, Mexicanos prefer perfect-looking fruit. These locally grown manzanas are smaller and not perfect, but have the flavor, crunch and aroma of an actual apple. Yay!

In a previous life I’d been the food writer at a daily newspaper in Santa Cruz, California, and my job sometimes included judging the apple pie contest at the local county fair. It’s not as fun as you’d think; people add all sorts of strange ingredients to their apple pies and you have no idea that the one you’re about to taste has, say, too much cumin in the filling. We learned to talk while smiling, to warn our judge-mates not to take too big a bite.

Imported apples are readily available; Mexican varieties at certain times of the year.

So when I learned about an apple-pie-made-with-no-apples-that-tastes-just-like-the-real-thing, I knew I had to make it and see for myself. It sure seemed like part of my job to test such an outrageous claim.

The Mock Apple Pie in question is made with Ritz crackers, and is apparently a Depression-era recipe. The crackers are soaked in a cinnamon-sugar syrup and baked in a regular pie crust – crumb, lattice, whatever. While you’re assembling it, it looks just like what it is: a cracker-filled pie shell. But once baked, it tastes like and has the mouth-feel of real apples. I kid you not! And with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream on top, it’s hard to tell the difference.

But don’t take my word for it. Since you’ve got all that time on your hands, try it yourself and see. Let me know what you think, OK?

Mock Apple Pie

You must use real Ritz crackers in order for this to taste its best – don’t substitute generic copycat crackers.

1 cup sugar (all white or half brown or piloncillo)
2 tsp. cream of tartar
Scant 2 cups water
1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
2 pie crusts, made from scratch or frozen
30-36 Ritz Crackers, coarsely broken (about 1-3/4 cups)
2 Tbsp. butter, cut into small pieces
½-1 tsp. ground cinnamon

Mix sugar and cream of tartar in medium saucepan. Gradually stir in water. Bring to boil on high heat; simmer on low 5 minutes or until mixture is reduced to 1½ cups. Stir in juice; cool 30 min.

Heat oven to 425 F. Make pie crust: roll out one crust on lightly floured surface to 11-inch circle; place in 9-inch pie plate. Arrange whole crackers in crust. Carefully pour sugar syrup over crackers; dot with butter and sprinkle with cinnamon.

For top crust, make a crumb topping or roll out remaining crust to 10-inch circle; place over pie. Seal and flute edge. Cut several slits in top crust to permit steam to escape. Bake 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Prawn, Jicama and Apple Salad with Mint & Dijon Dressing

Fresh lemongrass (hierba de limón) is available widely in Mexico not because of Asian cooking but because it’s traditionally used as an herbal tea.

1 cup matchstick-cut Granny Smith apple
1 cup matchstick-cut jicama
½ cup matchstick-cut carrots
½ cup fresh mint leaves
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. white vinegar
1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
1 tsp. chopped garlic
1 tsp. chopped fresh lemongrass (available in most grocery stores, or mercados)
2 sprigs cilantro

Cook shrimp in boiling water until pink on the outside and no longer transparent in the center, 3-5 minutes. Drain with cold water to cool completely. Peel, devein and slice shrimp in half lengthwise; set aside.

Toss apple, jicama and carrots together in a large bowl. Place mint, olive oil, sugar, vinegar, mustard, garlic and lemongrass in a food processor or blender and pulse quickly until slightly chunky. Pour dressing over apple mixture and toss gently. Cover and refrigerate salad and shrimp separately until ready to serve, then mix together and garnish with cilantro. –Allrecipes.com

Turkey Apple Sandwiches with Maple Mayonnaise

Say whaaat?! Yes, these flavors go together fabulously!

¼ cup mayonnaise
1½ tsp. maple syrup
½ lb. sliced turkey or smoked turkey
1 apple, thinly sliced
4 slices bread of choice

In a small bowl, combine mayonnaise and maple syrup; spread on bread, top with turkey and apple slices and then the remaining bread. –nytimes.com

An apple and turkey sandwich, a fabulous combination of flavors.

Quick Sautéed Apples

Serve for dessert with vanilla ice cream, as a side with pork or chicken, or for breakfast with granola or oatmeal.

4 apples, peeled and sliced (about 2 lb.)
½ cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
¼ tsp. nutmeg
2 Tbsp. water
1 Tbsp. butter

Mix first four ingredients in a bowl or large zip-top plastic bag. Transfer to saucepan, add water and butter, and cook for 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until apples are tender.

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.

Ending virus restrictions should wait till case numbers on decline: experts

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MND Staff

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June 1, 2020

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'We haven't reached the plateau yet,' says Covid expert Macías.

Coronavirus restrictions shouldn’t be lifted until case numbers have been on the wane for at least two weeks, say two experts who spoke with the newspaper El Universal.

While federally mandated social distancing measures concluded Saturday in favor of state-based restrictions, Mexico has not even reached the end of the first wave of the pandemic, said Alejandro Macías, an infectious disease doctor, former government health commissioner and member of the National Autonomous University’s coronavirus commission.

“In fact we haven’t even reached the plateau,” Macías said, citing official statistics presented by Health Ministry officials at nightly coronavirus press briefings.

“What we’ve seen is that the epidemic is on the rise and at least two weeks should pass without these increases [in case numbers] in order to talk about an end to the lockdown,” he said.

Macías expressed support for the federal government’s color coded “stoplight” system to determine each state’s readiness to lift restrictions but said that it’s too early to predict how the pandemic will develop.

Stoplight system a good idea, says one expert, but it’s too early to predict how the pandemic will develop.

“At this time I don’t think that we can apply a timetable to the virus,” he said.

In order to limit new outbreaks once restrictions are eased – every state in except Zacatecas is currently in the “red light” phase, according to the stoplight system – authorities should implement specific coronavirus mitigation measures on public transit and in areas that attract large numbers of people, Macías said.

He also said that health authorities need to ramp up Covid-19 testing, especially at businesses where employees are returning to work.

Rodolfo de la Torre, director of social development at the Espinosa Yglesias Study Center think tank, agreed that restrictions shouldn’t be eased until cases are seen to be declining for at least two weeks. He also said that more widespread testing is needed.

“According to the map presented by the government, 30 states [and Mexico City] have [widespread] active transmission. An opening [of the economy] is not viable without thinking about increasing the number of tests, at least in workplaces,” he said.

Both Macías and de la Torre suggested that President López Obrador’s decision to resume his work tours (he was in Quintana Roo on Monday) was the wrong one, the latter saying that “he should set an example and wait a little longer.”

Sharing Macías’ view on the development of the pandemic in Mexico is the United States-based New England Complex Systems Institute (NECSI), a research institute and think tank.

It said that Mexico is one of 52 countries around the world where the coronavirus pandemic is far from being under control. Among the other countries in the same category are the United States, Brazil and Russia, which rank first, second and third, respectively, for confirmed Covid-19 cases.

NECSI warned the 52 countries against reopening their economies before their outbreaks are under control due to the risk of large new outbreaks.

“Reopening too early runs the risk of triggering exponential growth again. This might erase all of the benefits gained from the lockdown so far. It could increase the total amount of deaths, overwhelm the medical system, and create a scenario where another lockdown is necessary.”

Mexico had recorded more than 90,000 confirmed Covid-19 cases as of Sunday while the official death toll from the disease is 9,930.

Source: El Universal (sp)

In Chipilo, descendants of Italian settlers have kept their traditions alive

By

Joseph Sorrentino

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June 1, 2020

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Romina and Santos Zanella at their gelato shop in Chipilo.

Like cafes all over Mexico, everybody seems to know everybody in the cafes in Chipilo, Puebla, a small pueblo about 2 1/2 hours from Mexico City and 20 minutes from the city of Puebla.

People greet each other with hugs, kisses and shouts of hello. Conversations tend to be happy and loud. The difference is that in Chipilo the shouts and conversations are often in Italian. That’s because Chipileños, as they’re known, have kept alive the language that they brought over from Italy 138 years ago.

Beginning in the mid-1800s, the Mexican government encouraged Europeans to settle in Mexico, hoping they would help modernize the country’s agriculture. Joining the wave of Italians that decided to seek their fortune in Mexico were 38 families from the Veneto region in northern Italy who made their way to Chipilo on October 2, 1882.

Italians that settled in other pueblos across Mexico eventually assimilated but Chipileños have maintained many of their Italian traditions and their language. And, of course, their cuisine. It can truly be called an Italian pueblo.

Chipileños worked hard, starting farms and dairies in the new land. “When they arrived in Mexico, they did not have money,” said Eduardo Piloni Stefanonni, the director of Chipilo’s Casa d’Italia. “They did not speak Spanish and it took a long time to establish a community. There was only work … they did not have time for anything else.”

Samuél Rosales in his Chipilo cheese store.

The dairies prospered and the pueblo eventually became famous for its cheeses and other dairy products.

Samuél Rosales Galeazzi took over a cheese store 12 years ago and today stocks it with a variety of Italian delicacies and cheeses — both classic Mexican, like Oaxaca cheese and panela, and Italian cheeses like provolone and mozzarella. He said that his cheeses are different from those found in other pueblos. “The milk here is different,” he said. “It is less acidic.”

Across the street from Galeazzi’s store is a gelato shop owned by Santos Zanella Galeazzi and his daughter Romina Zanella Pérez. “We use a family recipe,” said Zanella Pérez. “It is all artisanal, 100% natural and all made by hand using Italian techniques.”

When I mentioned it was the best ice cream I’d ever tasted she gently corrected me. “It is not ice cream,” she said, “it is Italian gelato.” As I left the store Zuri Merlo, who has served as my guide in Chipilo, said, “The secret ingredient is the cream. It is Chipileño.”

Of course, no Italian pueblo would be complete without restaurants serving honest-to-goodness Italian food. I’ve lived in Mexico for a year and a half and, as much as I love Mexican food, being Italian-American I missed my pasta.

As you might expect, Chipilo gives visitors many options. I’ve eaten at The Gondala (which is a little outside the pueblo) and Bella Pizza and they’re both excellent but I tend to gravitate towards Paolo’s Restaurante, which is on Avenida Cinco de Mayo, Chipilo’s main street, just across from the church.

[wpgmza id=”243″]

It may be my favorite spot because on my second trip to Chipilo, as I sipped a delicious coffee in Caffé Italiano, Paolo noticed me and said, “You are Italian, right?” This was unusual. I usually get “You are an American” or “You are a gringo.”

When I answered that I was, in fact, Italian, he gave me a big hug. When I learned he owned a restaurant just two doors down, I had to eat there. After the meal, which was terrific, he asked me a second question. “Do you like wine?”

“Of course,” I replied. He ducked into a back room and handed me a bottle. “A gift,” he told me.

Although Chipileños still hold tight to their Italian roots, the pueblo is changing. There are now more carpentry shops than dairy farms. “My grandfather had cows but my father no,” said Jorge Merlo Piloni, who owns one of the pueblo’s many carpentry shops.

“I worked with cows but my family never had them. In the future, the identity of the pueblo will be furniture, not cows. The price for milk hasn’t gone up, but the price of food for the cows, yes. It is more difficult to sustain the business.”

Furniture made in Chipilo is now sold in several European countries and in the U.S.

Chipileños have maintained their language and traditions for more than a century and a walk through the streets clearly shows it’s an Italian pueblo: Italian flags painted on poles, signs on stores in Italian, the Venetian dialect in the cafés and restaurants.

But when Pedro Bronca Mazzocco was asked whether he felt he was Italian or Mexican, he echoed what all Chipileños believe. “I’m Mexican,” he asserted. “I’m proud to be Italian but I was born in Mexico and I’m Mexican.”

Joseph Sorrentino is a frequent contributor to Mexico News Daily. He lives in San Gregorio Atlapulco, Mexico City.

Mexico has not fared poorly during coronavirus crisis: AMLO

By

MND Staff

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June 1, 2020

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The president resumed his cross-country touring on the weekend, but there weren't to be many meet-and-greets this time. file photo

Mexico is already recovering from the coronavirus-induced economic crisis, President López Obrador said on Saturday, pointing to the recent appreciation of the peso and the resurgence of oil prices.

In a video message recorded in Palenque, Chiapas, López Obrador said the crisis hasn’t destroyed the economy and “step by step we’re recovering” from the damage that it did cause.

He acknowledged that the peso dropped to a record low of more than 25 to the United States dollar in late March but highlighted that it was trading at 22.2 to the greenback on Friday. (The exchange rate was just above 22 to the dollar at 1:00 p.m. Monday).

He also highlighted that the price of Mexico’s export crude had recovered after dipping into negative territory in April as global demand for oil slumped due to the coronavirus pandemic. A barrel of Mexican oil was selling for almost US $30 at the close of trading on Friday, López Obrador said.

The president also noted that large companies such as Femsa (the world’s largest Coca-Cola bottler and the operator of the OXXO convenience store chain) and Walmart have begun paying back their multi-billion-peso tax debts.

AMLO celebrates an economy in recovery from his home in Palenque, Chiapas, on Saturday.

“The [economic] model we’re applying is yielding results and is for the benefit of all people,” he said.

However, the road to economic recovery is unlikely to be as smooth and quick as López Obrador would like.

More than 750,000 people have already lost their formal sector jobs as a result of the pandemic and analysts and financial institutions are predicting a deep recession for the Mexican economy in 2020.

The economic crisis could push an additional 10.7 million people into poverty, according to the federal government’s social development agency, while two federal officials predicted last week that violence and crime will increase as a result of the downturn.

All but one of Mexico’s 32 states still face “red light” restrictions, according to the government’s stoplight system, meaning that nonessential economic activities are still prohibited and some key industries, such as tourism, could take years to recover fully.

While the nation as a whole has not yet returned to what is being called “the new normal,” the president has resumed one of his hallmark pre-pandemic activities: touring the country.

López Obrador traveled by road to Chiapas on Saturday and was to continue from there to the Yucatán Peninsula, where he will preside over a ceremony to mark the commencement of one of his pet infrastructure projects, the Maya Train.

No large campaign-style rallies of the kind the president held regularly before the pandemic – and even after Covid-19 was first detected in Mexico – are planned for the tour but opposition lawmakers and party leaders still criticized López Obrador’s decision to travel while the pandemic continues to rage.

The leader of the National Action Party (PAN) in the lower house of Congress said that people will ask themselves, “If he’s already going on a tour, why can’t my children and I go out to do our activities?”

The president has a responsibility to send an “exemplary message” to the Mexican people that will help to avoid new coronavirus infections, Juan Carlos Romero Hicks added.

He said that López Obrador’s decision to resume his national tours is one of a range of errors he and his government have made in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Among them: downplaying the dangers of the outbreak, not testing widely for the disease, launching a plan to reactivate the economy at the peak of the pandemic and not reporting the real number of cases and deaths.

PAN national president Marko Cortés said in a statement that the resumption of presidential tours could cause new outbreaks of Covid-19, while Democratic Revolution Party lower house leader Verónica Juárez Piña said that traveling the country while most of the country is at the “red light” risk level is “a grave act of irresponsibility.”

By going on tour, López Obrador encourages other people to break quarantine and thus “creates the conditions for infections and deaths to increase,” she said.

“From the beginning to the end, the president hasn’t [accurately] measured the magnitude of the pandemic and has always prioritized his political interests over the interests of citizens,” Juárez said.

Institutional Revolutionary Party national president Alejandro Moreno Cárdenas offered a scathing assessment of the federal government’s response to the pandemic, including the decision to end the national social distancing initiative while the risk of infection remains high.

“We have to raise our voices loudly because … when … almost the entire country is in a maximum risk area, they’re abandoning the healthy distance initiative without any plan to take care of lives and save hundreds of thousands of jobs that have been lost. We’re worried that infections, death and unemployment will continue [to increase] due to a lack of clear decisions,” he said.

Moreno also charged that the government has committed a series of errors in forecasting the impact of the pandemic.

“They were wrong about when the peak of infections would be; they were wrong about the number of deaths we would have; they were wrong about the fatality rate the virus would have in our country; they were wrong about the number of jobs that would be lost. … The federal government can’t blame anyone but itself for its inefficacy and inefficiency. There’s no excuse, … it wasn’t corruption, the conservatives or a conspiracy – it was them and their bad decisions.”

Source: Milenio (sp), El Universal (sp)

Lawmaker: don’t let CFE turn off the lights

By

Cody Copeland

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June 1, 2020

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electric meters — If CFE workers show up to turn off electricity, run them off, says deputy.

A Yucatán legislator has called for citizens to chase off workers from the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) if they arrive to turn off customers’ power for nonpayment, urging that they throw rocks at them if necessary.

Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) Deputy Mario Alejandro Cuevas Mena took advantage of his time on the lower house floor to denounce what he called abuses by the CFE with regard to charges for its service.

He called his suggestion a drastic but necessary action in the face of the “lack of sensitivity” on the part of the commission, which has been cutting off customers’ electricity for nonpayment.

Cuevas said that the CFE is cutting off service even as the coronavirus pandemic is in full swing, having escalated drastically nationwide over the last couple of weeks.

He said the commission should take into account the extremely high numbers of people who are unemployed due to the economic effects of the pandemic.

Deputy Cuevas: CFE 'insensitive.' — Deputy Cuevas: CFE ‘insensitive.’

Massive debt forgiveness is not unprecedented at the CFE. In May 2019, the commission cancelled 11 billion pesos (then valued at US $577.6 million) of debt owed by over half a million Tabasco customers who began a civil disobedience campaign more than 20 years earlier.

In Yucatán on Saturday, CFE customers turned off their own electricity to protest what they see as excessive charges by the utility. Some 17 municipalities participated in the hour-long blackout.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Thousands of horses, cattle at risk on ranches of fugitive ex-governor

By

Susy Buchanan

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June 1, 2020

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The El Saucito ranch, one of the properties owned by Duarte.

Thousands of head of cattle, thoroughbred horses, wild boars, llamas and other exotic species that were seized by the government from the ranches of former Chihuahua governor César Duarte are in danger of dying due to lack of resources and abandonment, the newspaper Milenio reports.

Duarte, governor of Chihuahua from 2010 to 2016, is wanted for embezzlement after it was detected that 6 billion pesos (around US $317 million at the time) had gone missing from public coffers during the last six months of his administration.

Duarte is also accused of cattle rustling after the majority of 1,500 head of cattle that the state government imported from New Zealand to help drought-stricken ranchers in 2015 ended up on his ranches.

The former Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) governor is a fugitive from justice and thought to be living in Texas or New Mexico.

Prosecutors have seized Duarte’s properties in Mexico, which have been under the administration of Héctor Hugo Pérez. He claims that he has yet to be paid for his services by the Chihuahua government.

Pérez said he had been paying the bills himself for three ranches and five walnut orchards seized from Duarte, but he exhausted his line of credit and claims that he hasn’t seen a check from the state government since the beginning of 2019.

In January of this year, the state brought on a new administrator and barred Pérez access to the properties. Since then, more than 200 head of cattle have died due to neglect, the newspaper El Heraldo De Juárez reports.

Last week 1,000 calves were auctioned off and the proceeds of the 10-million-peso sale (US $433,566) went directly to the state government.

Attorney General César Augusto Peniche Espejel estimates that there are around 4,000 head of cattle remaining on the former governor’s properties.

Source: Milenio (sp), BBC (en), El Heraldo de Juárez (sp)

April remittances plummet 28% compared to March

By

Susy Buchanan

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June 1, 2020

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After a record-setting month of March in which Mexicans working abroad sent US $4.02 billion back home, Mexico’s central bank reports that the amount plummeted by 28.5% in April to $2.86 billion.

The remittances help support the basic needs of an estimated 10 million Mexicans. The average amount sent in April was $329, down from $377 in March, according to the Bank of México.

April’s decline is the largest monthly decrease since November 2008, yet still roughly equal to money sent back to Mexico in April 2019.

The March total was up 39% over the same month last year.

Explaining the spike in March may be more difficult than the decline in April. “The significant acceleration in remittances in March is difficult to square with labor market conditions and sentiment in the United States,” said Alberto Ramos, chief economist for Mexico at Goldman Sachs.

Most of those Mexicans sending money back home work in the United States, where the unemployment rate in April skyrocketed to 14.7% of the population, an increase of 10.3% over March, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.

Jonathan Heath, deputy director of Mexico’s central bank, said that although remittances decreased in April, “the purchasing power of remittances over the last 12 months managed to increase 7.7% in April compared to the previous year,” if tabulated in pesos, he said on his Twitter account.

“As far as this news is concerned, it is good,” he wrote. “There was no collapse due to the significant increase in the unemployment rate of Latinos in the United States.”

In the first quarter of 2020, remittances to Mexico totaled US $12.16 billion, a 12.6% increase over the same time period in 2019.

Source: El Economista (sp), Milenio (sp), El Heraldo de México (sp)

10 police from Colima disappear during Jalisco assignment

By

Cody Copeland

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June 1, 2020

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Vehicles carrying the missing officers were located in Colima.

Ten Colima state police officers went missing on Thursday, May 28, after escorting a group of businessmen to the municipality of La Huerta in the neighboring state of Jalisco.

The Colima Ministry of Public Security (SSP) reported that the officers met the investors at the Playa de Oro International Airport in Manzanillo that day in order to escort them to La Huerta, about an hour’s drive away.

“When the state police officers were still in Jalisco, they completely lost communication with the emergency command center in Colima, for which we immediately solicited the collaboration of authorities from the three levels of government,” police said in a press release.

A search was organized by the Colima SSP, Jalisco authorities, the National Guard, the army and marines. Within hours the search operation located the three Colima police vehicles that had been used by the missing officers. They were found with the keys still inside and showed no signs of a struggle.

Media reports mentioned two other vehicles that were found in the community of Río El Mojo, about an hour and a half east of La Huerta on Friday, but did not specify how they were linked to the case of the missing officers. Authorities found blood stains and satchels containing personal items in the vehicles.

As for the businessmen the officers escorted, Colima police announced that they returned from La Huerta aboard a helicopter and are not in danger. However, two other civilians in the region were reported missing over the weekend.

Source: Sin Embargo (sp)

Protest caravans in 40 cities demand AMLO resign

By

MND Staff

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June 1, 2020

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Protesters hit the streets in at least 40 cities across Mexico on Saturday to demand the resignation of President López Obrador.

It was a protest indicative of the times: the demonstrators didn’t march shoulder to shoulder but instead expressed their disapproval of AMLO, as the president is widely known, and the federal government while maintaining a safe distance from each other in their cars and on motorcycles and bicycles.

Organized by several groups including one known as the National Anti-AMLO Front, the protests – dubbed “honk your horn against the federal government” – took place in cities in more than 20 states including Mexico City, Guadalajara, Acapulco, Aguascalientes, Hermosillo, Cuernavaca, Morelia, Oaxaca, Pachuca, San Luis Potosí, Chihuahua, Durango, Tijuana, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Xalapa, Querétaro, Puebla and Mérida.

The Mexico City protest “caravan” set off from the National Auditorium on Saturday morning and headed to the National Palace – the seat of executive power – in the capital’s historic center, where demonstrating motorists sounded their horns in anger and shouted slogans against the president and his government’s “communist” policies.

“AMLO, you’ve devastated Mexico, leave now!” read one placard held up by a protester.

'AMLO out,' reads protesters' sign. — ‘AMLO out,’ reads protesters’ sign.

Others read: “We’re not elitists, we’re Mexicans fed up with you!”; “AMLO, you’re toxic, inefficient and inept. You’re killing Mexico day by day, leave now!”; “AMLO out!”; and “Resign now!”

About 1,500 cars formed a long protest caravan that traveled between the Minerva and Niños Héroes roundabouts in Guadalajara, Jalisco, while the occupants of about 300 vehicles protested against AMLO through the streets of Morelia, Michoacán.

In Mérida, the capital of Yucatán state, dozens of motorists participated in a “protest on wheels” against López Obrador’s planned visit to the city on Tuesday.

Dissatisfaction with AMLO and his 18-month-old administration was also evident on social media, with the hashtags #AMLOVeteYa (AMLO leave now) and #MéxicoNoTeQuiereAMLO (Mexico doesn’t love you AMLO) trending on Twitter over the weekend.

Speaking in a video message on Sunday, López Obrador attributed the protests to his “very corrupt, very individualistic and conservative adversaries” who don’t want to lose the privileges they enjoyed under previous governments.

He urged his detractors not to be impatient, telling them that they will have the opportunity to have their say at the 2021 mid-term federal elections and in a 2022 “revocation of mandate” vote at which citizens will have the opportunity to terminate his six-year term before its scheduled conclusion in late 2024.

“Don’t get impatient, I established the rules myself because I’m a man of principles. I won’t be in government if the people don’t support me,” López Obrador said.

“People will vote [in the mid-terms]; if they want a return of conservatism, of corruption, of privileges, the people are free [to vote that way]. I will always respect the people’s mandate,” he said.

López Obrador said that he was unconcerned by the protests against his administration because they are a natural consequence of the “transformation” his government is undertaking.

“I’m attacked a lot now but it’s a badge of pride, … they’re questioning me because of the transformation process that is being carried out.”

Source: Animal Político (sp), Reforma (sp)

Mexico City adopts measures for ‘the new normal’ on Monday

By

Susy Buchanan

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June 1, 2020

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Coronavirus cases by borough in Mexico City as of Sunday. milenio

Mexico City will adopt new health protocols as it welcomes “the new normal,” the next stage in the coronavirus pandemic.

The measure comes as the city looks to ease into lifting the coronavirus restrictions put in place two months ago, yet still remains at “maximum risk” for the coronavirus, according to the federal government.

The use of face masks in public places remains obligatory, and maintaining a healthy distance — 1.2 meters between individuals — is recommended.

The biggest change effective Monday is that construction, mining, transportation equipment manufacturing, public markets, bicycle sales and beer making will reopen.

Health checkpoints will be established at the entrance to businesses to check employees’ and customers’ temperatures, as well as to distribute antibacterial gel. Masks remain obligatory, and workers are being asked not to wear scarves, necklaces or ties and to be clean-shaven in order to limit the potential spread of the virus.

Construction workers will work from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. to avoid morning and evening rush hours. Brewery workers will also work with a modified schedule and be divided into two groups in order to keep just 25% of personnel at the job site at any given time. Breweries will be shuttered Wednesdays and Saturdays for a thorough cleaning.

Public markets are to operate at 30% of capacity from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. and provide special shopping hours for the elderly and those with pre-existing health conditions.

Restaurants and bars, meanwhile, will remain closed.

On Tuesday, the government will partially reopen public parks, Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum announced, although parks can only be used for exercise and will operate at 30% of their capacity.

Park-goers will have to wear masks and practice social distancing. Zoos and children’s playground equipment will remain closed.

The mayor’s office will evaluate the city’s progress each Tuesday, with announcements regarding the easing or tightening of restrictions in the nation’s capital to come on Fridays.

As of Sunday, Mexico City had seen 25,018 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 2,658 deaths.

Source: El Universal (sp)