Hotel owners in Quintana Roo say that government inaction is forcing them to act on their own to deal with the tonnes of sargassum that are washing up on beaches in the state.
Pablo Azcárraga, president of Grupo Posadas, Mexico’s largest hotel company, told El Financiero that a lack of coordination among government agencies is partly to blame for the crisis.
“It’s not an issue the navy should be dealing with, we need specialists, people who know about this,” he said. “The navy has more important priorities, which aren’t necessarily collecting sargassum on beaches.”
President López Obrador announced earlier this month that the navy would lead efforts to combat the macroalgae’s annual arrival on Mexico’s Caribbean coast.
Hector Tamayo, tourism director for Puerto Morelos, a Quintana Roo municipality that has been hit hard by sargassum, told El Financiero that there has been little support from the federal government to address the problem.
Cancún hotels are cleaning up much of the sargassum on the beaches but according to El Financiero, they don’t use proper methods for disposing of the seaweed.
Sargassum often has high levels of heavy metals, which can contaminate aquifers if the algae is mixed with other waste.
Luis, a man who was hired by a hotel to collect sargassum from the beaches, told El Financiero that it is only removed from hotel beaches, while no one cleans public areas of the coast.
“We leave the sargassum with the rest of the trash,” he said. “There’s no special treatment, we just collect it from the beach.”
Hotels have also been putting up barriers to prevent sargassum from washing up on beaches. However, about 30% of the sargassum still manages to get past them.
The large amounts of sargassum that have been washing up on beaches since 2014 have hit hotels especially hard. The Association of Hotels of Cancún, Puerto Morelos and Isla Mujeres estimates that hotels lost US $100 million in the first quarter of 2019 because of sargassum and other factors, and that they may be forced to lower prices by as much as 15% in the summer.
The summit was intended to discuss strategies to deal with sargassum at the international level.
An international summit to discuss strategies to combat sargassum that was scheduled to take place tomorrow in Cancún, Quintana Roo, has been postponed because only six of 18 countries that were invited confirmed their attendance.
Planning for the federal government-sanctioned Caribbean sargassum summit began months ago, and invitations were extended to government officials, members of the tourism sector and international sargassum experts.
The Quintana Roo government said the event was postponed because state elections will be held this Sunday but off the record, officials explained that the real reason was the poor attendance.
Earlier this month, the president of the Cancún and Puerto Morelos Hotels Association, Roberto Cintrón, acknowledged that “unfortunately, there are very few countries that have confirmed.”
Among those that did commit to attending were representatives from the United States, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic and Barbados, according to media reports.
Even the provision of free accommodation and meals for summit attendees proved to be insufficient incentive.
The CEO of Grupo Palace Resorts, whose Moon Palace property was to host the summit, said he hoped that the event will be held within a month.
José Chapur Zahoul also claimed that the state elections were the reason why the meeting was postponed.
Sargassum, a brown-colored seaweed that reeks when it decomposes, is predicted to wash up en masse on Mexico’s Caribbean coast beaches this year.
On the weekend, more than 400 volunteers joined government officials and collected 48 tonnes of sargassum on the beaches of Cancún, Tulum, Mahahual and Xcalak.
Last week in Mexico City, the Environment Secretariat gave away free trees to residents to plant in their communities.
The tree giveaway took place in Viveros de Coyoacán and a Facebook post announcing the event quickly gained 26,000 reactions. Residents came from all 16 boroughs of Mexico City to claim their trees.
On Monday, each person was allowed to take five trees. By Wednesday, that number had shrunk to three. By Friday, it was down to one tree per family and some waited in line for as long as an hour to receive just one tree. The program is now suspended until July.
The timing of the tree giveaway coincided with an environmental contingency. In the dry months before the rainy season begins, pollution builds within the Valley of México and this year the early weeks of May saw air contamination reach record-breaking levels.
Pollution, including ozone and particulates, gave the air a brown haze that could be seen throughout the city, closing schools on May 17 and prompting many companies to give their employees the day off. The city government activated emergency rules that banned many vehicles from the roads.
A family picks up their trees at Los Viveros.
The best action individuals can take to help clean their air is simple — plant a tree. In addition to providing oxygen and removing carbon dioxide, trees clean the air of many pollutants. Ozone, nitrogen oxides, ammonia and sulfur dioxide are all absorbed by trees. They also filter particulates out of the air, trapping them on their leaves and bark.
Los Viveros, which produces one million seedlings a year, has been donating trees to CDMX residents since as early as 1907. The trees can be planted in private or public spaces as long as they will receive sufficient light and have the necessary space to grow. A city biologist conducted brief interviews with each resident to determine which species of tree they could take home and to advise them on the best place to plant it.
They also reminded the recipients that to plant in a public park or in the middle of the camellón (the walkways in the middle of Mexico City avenues), they must first request permission from their borough. No such permission is required to plant on the sidewalk, although spaces must be chosen carefully as the young trees are vulnerable.
As global temperatures continue to rise, trees have taken center stage in the battle against urban heat waves. The air temperature of cities can be 1.8 to 5.4 F warmer than surrounding rural areas. At night, the difference is even more profound, with cities retaining up to 22 degrees more than rural areas, which quickly lose their heat as the sun goes down.
The right amount of tree coverage in cities can lower temperatures in the summer by up to 10 F. By providing shade and releasing water vapor, a tree does more for overheated residents than any other personal cooling system. A detached house with trees placed around it can expect to save 20% to 30% on their air conditioning costs.
Residents were encouraged to wait for the rainy season to plant their trees, giving them the best chance of survival. Now that the seasonal storms have returned to the valley, the trees can go into the ground. While their cooling, cleaning and oxygen-producing effects will be far more pronounced once they grow to maturity, people today can give a gift to future generations simply by planting a tree on the sidewalk.
For the overwhelming number of people who came to Los Viveros, they hope that their legacy will be one of green streets, and not of brown sunsets.
The Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl volcanoes in the Paso de Cortés.
White sand beaches and colonial churches are beautiful, but there comes a time when you need to smell pine trees and the lingering smokiness of a campfire in your hair.
I have spent years scouring the internet and pestering friends about places to camp in Mexico, but as I get older I find sleeping on the ground is no longer a joy and snuggling up in a cozy cabin is much more my style.
Here are three delightful retreats in central Mexico that I have found and loved, each just a few hours outside of Mexico City, yet a world away.
In the northern Sierra mountains of Puebla, Zacatlan de las Manzanas is a tiny town with the country’s longest functioning Franciscan church and a flower clock famous throughout the country. This is the home of Latin America’s first clock factory and also a hub of apple cider making, whose season culminates in the crowning of the apple queen at a yearly apple festival.
There are a handful of places to take in the majesty of the surrounding mountains and the evening fog that rolls in over them, but my favorite is the Tlatempa Campamento. The cabins are built right into the side of the mountain but without much clearing of trees, creating lots of emerald shade.
Zacatlán’s flower clock.
The style is full-on hippie-rustic. Expect construction using recycled materials (like glass bottles and brightly-painted tires) and an emphasis on preserving nature (dry toilets, composing, etc). Tlatempa has a warm, hospitable vibe. There is a restaurant at the property’s highest point that makes down-home dishes.
Cabins and a camping platform are available — definitely ask for the best views of the valley when you reserve. This is not a place for anyone with mobility issues as the way to and from the cabins is a series of stair trails that remind one of the Swiss Family Robinson. There is lots of local hiking to be had as well as the Piedras Encimadas Valley just 30 kilometers from town.
The physical beauty of the Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl volcanoes is even more romantic than their love story. Monuments to nature’s wonder, you can get breathtaking views of both in the Paso de Cortés, where a visitors’ center for the Izta-Popo Zoquiapan National Park sits surrounded by nothing but sweeping prairie and these two giants on either side.
A few kilometers deeper into the parque and you will find the Buenavista Villa Turistica, a campground with a dozen or so cabins, a restaurant, and small man-made lake. I suggest visiting during the week if you can when the tourist crowd thins and you will have the place basically to yourself.
Cabins are simple, sturdy king-size or full-size beds, fireplaces, a few shelves to store your things and bathrooms. Smaller cabins accommodation two to six people and there is a massive family inn for big groups. The complex itself is pleasant to wander around, and several people have vacation homes built in a rustic style similar to the rest of the complex.
But exploring Itza and Popo (as they are lovingly called) is the best attraction in the area. There are several walking trails from the visitors’ center and great photo opps. The pass is over 11,000 feet above sea level so even in warmer months expect to have to bundle up, at least at night. Also make sure you check the activity status of our friend Popo — when he’s spitting ash the park is off limits.
One of the cabins at Buenavista.
Probably my favorite on this list is Rancho Santa Elena, a former hacienda once owned by members of the Hernan Cortés family. Part of the charm of this small handful of cabins is that there are three small kitchens for guests to use.
The best set-up is in the gallinero-style cabin with its own outdoor kitchen attached to the back. The two gallinero cabins sit side by side, each with a king-size bed and a loft with either two twins or a full mattress. The other cabins in the main hacienda building have full beds and an area with bunkbeds but feel like a tighter fit.
There are also 10 camping spots scattered through the acreage and a massive cabin that sleeps 15 for big groups.
The hacienda has acres of hiking trails and a small reservoir for swimming (although at its fullest the water is freezing cold) and kayaking.
The hacienda provides trail maps but the trails aren’t well marked at the moment. Hopefully that will be something they improve in the future.
Also, several mountain biking trails and courses are set up throughout owing to the fact that the owner’s daughter is Daniela Campuzano, who represented Mexico at the Rio Olympics in mountain biking.
A walk through the pines, just a few hours from Mexico City.
The closest town from the ranch is about a 20-minute drive. There is a small shop with some basics (they even have wifi) but it’s best to bring all the food you need as what you can find is limited. The kitchens are 100% stocked with pots, pans, dishes and hand towels.
The view of the surrounding mountains, the silence and the pleasant but invisible staff make this place an absolute delight.
So now you know, if you want to hunker down and get cozy cabin-style in Mexico, here are three great options for fireplaces, mountain views and clean forest air. As an added bonus each of the places I mentioned is pet-friendly (some for a fee). See you in the woods!
Lydia Carey is a freelance writer based in Mexico City.
Every day, 8,600 tonnes goes to a Mexico City landfill.
The Mexico City government will invest 3.1 billion pesos (US $162.6 million) this year in a “zero garbage” plan that aims to drastically reduce the quantity of waste that ends up in the landfill.
Presenting the plan yesterday, Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum explained that the capital currently produces 12,700 tonnes of solid trash per day, of which just under half is organic waste.
Sheinbaum said that a ban on single-use plastics – scheduled to come into force late next year – will reduce non-organic garbage, adding that “another fundamental part [of the plan] is to recycle more . . . plastic, glass and metal.”
Sheinbaum explained that one goal of the “zero garbage” plan is to increase the quantity of non-organic waste that is recycled from the current 1,900 tonnes per day to 3,200 tonnes in 2024, the year her six-year term will end.
She added that the private sector will collaborate with the government to work toward reaching the target.
The mayor presents her new garbage plan.
The government will invest in two new waste separation plants and six others to process rubble generated by the construction industry.
Another goal, Sheinbaum said, is to increase the quantity of compost produced from organic waste from 1,400 tonnes per day now to 2,250 tonnes in 2024.
In addition, the waste management plan will seek to make much greater use of garbage to generate alternative fuels. Currently, 800 tonnes of waste per day are used to that end while the goal is to increase the quantity by 275% to 3,000 tonnes.
If the government meets its goals, just 2,000 tonnes of trash will end up in a landfill each day in 2024 compared to 8,600 tonnes today.
“Our wish is [to have] a zero-garbage city with a circular economy; in other words we’ll recycle, reuse and reduce [waste] so we don’t send garbage to the landfill, and so it doesn’t end up in rivers, ravines or the sea . . .” Sheinbaum said on Twitter.
Environment Secretary Marina Robles predicted that the city’s plan will generate savings of just under 8.4 billion pesos (US $440.7 million) in the six-year period.
A Red Cross ambulance pulls into the gas station owned by the Red Cross president.
Red Cross ambulances in Mexico City fill up at a gas station owned by the organization’s national president, according to an anti-graft group.
Information obtained by Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity (MCCI) reveals that paramedics and drivers of other Red Cross vehicles are obliged to purchase gasoline at a filling station in the Cuauhtémoc neighborhood that is owned by Fernando Suinaga Cárdenas, national president since 2012, and Pablo José Miguel Suinaga Cárdenas.
The vehicles fill up at two specially-designated pumps between 12:00pm and 3:00pm and again at 8:30pm, according to MCCI.
The gas station, which opened in 1998, has been used to supply fuel to Red Cross vehicles for more than two years.
Paramedics who spoke to MCCI said that at the conclusion of their shifts they have to fill up at the station in Cuauhtémoc before returning the ambulances to Red Cross headquarters, which is located five kilometers away in the Polanco district.
Red Cross president Suinaga.
MCCI arranged a May 13 interview with Fernando Suinaga Cárdenas to discuss the commercial arrangement but at the last minute he pulled out, citing work commitments.
Instead, Red Cross general manager José Antonio Monroy Zermeño met with the group and explained that the organization’s vehicles began filling up at Suinaga’s station when Pemex stopped supplying free fuel in 2016.
Monroy said the Red Cross president then proposed that his gas station fill the void.
“Obviously . . . a conflict [of interest] presents itself but if there is no option [for free fuel], we have to rely on our own people,” he said.
The official acknowledged that Suinaga’s gas station didn’t provide a quote for the gasoline, contravening standard practices.
But the national president offered a line of credit to the Red Cross, Monroy explained, adding that “we sometimes caused him problems” because the organization had solvency problems which caused payment delays.
He described the credit arrangement with Suinaga’s gas station as a benefit for the Red Cross but explained that not all vehicles fill up there.
MCCI asked Monroy for information about how the deal with Suinaga was reached, how much money is spent on gasoline at his station and how the credit arrangement operates but the manager said he didn’t have those details at hand.
However, a report sent to MCCI two days after the interview said that 5.96 million pesos’ (US $313,000) worth of gasoline was purchased at Suinaga’s gas station between 2016 and 2019.
The national president doesn’t donate any fuel to the Red Cross, the report explained.
An extended, severe drought in southern Veracruz has proved fatal for rare howler monkeys.
A combination of extreme temperatures nearing 40 C and a three-month dearth of rainfall in the region has deprived the monkeys of access to sufficient water.
Alfredo Martínez Alfonso, a municipal police officer in Chancarral, Minatitlán, the location of a large wildlife refuge, said nearly 10 monkeys have died.
Residents of a nearby town gather fruit for the monkeys.
Most are “mothers who then leave their young behind as orphans. Everything has dried up, so the animals have been dying throughout the months of April and May . . . they do not have water, and so they do not have any way to get nutrients.”
Resident Dolores Morales told the news platform La Razón that the area has never seen such a dramatic decline in the howler monkey population due to drought.
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“The [death] of the monkeys is something we have never seen before. I have lived here for 25 years . . . and in all that time we have not ever heard of any deaths from a drought until now.”
Howler monkeys spend most of their lives in tall trees of the rainforest. Now, residents say, the survivors can be seen in the trees among the hanging corpses of the drought victims. Alejandrina Martínez Jiménez, another Chancarral resident, said locals have left water and food for the monkeys in an attempt to keep them alive.
“We brought them water. A girl climbed up [a] branch . . . and that’s where we left them water, but we do not know if it is high enough that they can climb down to get it. It is such a shame to see the poor animals die since they are so much like humans.”
Residents of nearby Hidalgotitlán rallied on Sunday to help. For three hours yesterday morning they gathered donations of fruit that was delivered later to Chancarral.
Howler monkeys are becoming increasingly rare and are threatened by hunting and habitat destruction. Some experts believe that howler monkeys could become extinct within the next 35 years.
There were about 30 believed to be living in the Chancarral area.
One way to spend a weekend at the beach in Quintana Roo.
More than 400 volunteers joined government officials and collected 48 tonnes of sargassum seaweed on the weekend, part of the state’s efforts to combat the seasonal arrival of the macroalgae on the beaches of Quintana Roo.
Civil society organizations and groups of students worked together with municipal and state officials on the beaches of Cancún, Tulum, Mahahual and Xcalak.
The state government provided tools to the workers, who collected and disposed of the seaweed in designated locations, ready for transport away from the beach.
In preparation for the arrival of massive amounts of sargassum, the state government divided its coast in nine zones and two islands, designing an emergency program in which the people of these 11 areas, along with municipal officials, hoteliers and restaurant owners, help contain and dispose of the seaweed.
The state also created a temporary job program employing people to collect the seaweed from the beach and offshore.
This cartel-owned Ford Shelby went for 1.9 million pesos.
The federal government raised about 28 million pesos (US $1.47 million) in a vehicle auction on Sunday, putting 82 on the block and selling 65.
One of the most expensive sales was a 2007 Lamborghini Murciélago, which had a starting price of 1.47 million pesos and sold for 1.77 million (US $93,100) to Roberto López, a businessman from Michoacán.
A 2016 Ford Shelby pickup truck that was confiscated from the Sinaloa Cartel sold for 1.9 million pesos.
Some of the 900 people who attended the auction were disappointed by the high prices. On average, the vehicles sold at 70% above their market value.
“Frankly, it was a fraud,” Rubén Anaya told Reforma. “I came for trucks, like the Hummer, but they were sold for very high prices. You can find them on the internet for 100,000 pesos less.”
This Volkswagen Bug had a starting price of 10,000 pesos but went for 65,000.
Another bidder, Guadalupe González, accused the government of placing “shills” among the bidders to unfairly drive up prices.
“Honestly, it was a bit fraudulent, because they don’t cost that much,” she told Reforma. “I think they sent shills to push the prices up. We came for the trucks, the BMWs and the small cars, but they sold for three times higher, and it’s not worth it.”
One buyer who did not wish to be named purchased a BMW for 295,000 pesos. He didn’t think there were shills among the bidders, but he agreed that the prices were high.
“I thought the auction was very good,” he said. “I didn’t see shills like there were in the last administration, but the prices did get really high, much higher than the market. I had participated before, but I didn’t buy anything [then] because of the shills.”
Ricardo Rodríguez, director of the agency responsible for the auction, said the money raised will be go to two municipalities in Oaxaca that are considered the poorest in the country.
Some of the vehicles auctioned had belonged to the government, some had been confiscated from organized crime and others had been repossessed by tax authorities.
Salmon is one of the dishes on the menu at science council headquarters.
The government’s austerity measures haven’t stopped officials at one federal agency from dining well on the public purse.
The National Council of Science and Technology (Conacyt) paid a catering company more than 15 million pesos (US $787,500) to provide gourmet meals for staff even as its scientific research centers face budget cuts that threaten their capacity to pay basic expenses.
According to a contract posted to a government transparency website, Conacyt hired Pigudi Gastronómico to provide daily, mainly organic, low-fat, low-sugar breakfasts and lunches for 120 employees at its Mexico City office from April 22 to December 31.
Meals must be prepared exclusively with “high-quality organic products and/or agro-ecological products without toxins that are purchased from agricultural producers of the region,” the contract said.
Among the authorized ingredients are high-quality red meat; organic pork (not to be served more than once a month); fish including salmon, red snapper and sea bass; organic chicken; wild rice; organic apple vinegar; 100% natural juices; organic whole grains; tortillas made with creole corn; and organic coffee (to be made only with almond or organic milk).
The contract also specifies that the contracted company must cater for vegetarians and people with food allergies by providing a range of salads and gluten-free bread among other options.
The use of canned food in the preparation of meals or products containing high-fructose corn syrup or MSG is strictly off limits.
As part of the lucrative agreement, Pigudi supplies kitchen staff including a head chef, wait staff to serve the meals and a nutritionist who designs the menu to ensure that it is balanced and healthy.
The company was the only bidder in a public tendering process, the newspaper El Universal reported, adding that it also provided 25 million pesos’ worth of catering services to the previous federal government.
Revelations of the science council’s extravagant spending on catering coincide with news that public research centers are struggling to pay basic expenses such as electricity as a result of a 12% – or almost 3-billion peso (US $157.5-million) – cut to the Conacyt budget.
Director María Elena Álvarez-Buylla has pledged that Conacyt will “do more with less” but there is evidence that suggests that outcome is unlikely.
Conacyt’s funding to a range of public organizations, including the Mexican Academy of Sciences and the Mexican Society of Mathematics, has been slashed or deferred, and 27 public research centers under the auspices of the science council are implementing their own forced austerity measures in response to cuts.
Starting today, a technology center in Jalisco will enforce a strict 5:00pm closing time for researchers and prohibit the use of air conditioners among a range of measures aimed at cutting electricity costs.
Another Conacyt research center in Ensenada, Baja California, says that maintenance of the northeast earthquake monitoring network in Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sonora, Sinaloa and Nayarit is at risk due to budget cuts.
“. . . With the reduction of travel expenses, we will not have the means to carry out revisions of the 95 monitoring stations,” said researcher Carmen Maya.
Alberto Aziz, a researcher at a social anthropology Conacyt center, said that cutting the funding for health, education, science and research is only something that “neoliberal governments do,” echoing a criticism of President López Obrador’s administration that was made by the chief of the Mexican Social Security Institute when announcing his resignation last week.
López Obrador describes the 36 years before he came to power as the “neoliberal period,” a time during which he says Mexico’s governments were corrupt and caused all manner of problems for the nation and its institutions.
After winning last year’s election on a strong anti-corruption platform, the president vowed to execute a “transformation” of public life in Mexico, which he says includes honest governance, “republican austerity” and a commitment “for the good of all” to attend to the needs of the nation’s poor first.
