The grisly scene in Santo Domingo Petapa Sunday morning.
Seven people were killed in a drive-by shooting on the weekend in the Oaxaca municipality of Santo Domingo Petapa, located in the northern part of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.
Santo Domingo residents told the newspaper El Universal that they first heard volleys of shots around 11:00pm on Saturday night. About an hour and a half later, a group of masked men traveling on motorcycles and in pickup trucks started shooting at a group of young people who were having a party in the street.
At least four men and one woman died at the scene, while another man was transported to the hospital in Lagunas with injuries. After the shooting, the aggressors fled in their vehicles.
When municipal police arrived at the scene they secured a Jeep Cherokee with Veracruz plates and recovered several .45-caliber and 9-caliber shell casings.
The Oaxaca attorney general said there were a total of six victims but witnesses who spoke to El Universal said they had seen two bodies near the Calvario Chapel, bringing the death count to seven.
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Not all the victims have been identified. One man’s body was removed from the scene by his family before authorities arrived.
Most of the victims lived and worked in Santo Domingo Petapa and were aged between 17 and 30.
The attack is the third mass shooting in the Isthmus region in recent weeks. On July 15, three people were killed in a Juchitán bar, while later that day four people were shot in a workshop in Salina Cruz.
So far this year there have been 144 murders in the Isthmus, of which 28 took place in July.
Paul Nielsen was trying to elude capture when gunmen began shooting.
The family of a man from the United States who was killed in Guerrero earlier this month has released a statement that reveals new details about the death of their father and his Mexican wife.
Paul Nielsen of Utah and Janet Vázquez of Puebla were shot in the early hours of July 18 while traveling from Acapulco to Zihuatanejo with their 12-year-old son. Reports published last week said that community police allegedly committed the crime.
A statement from Nielsen’s children from his first – and still current – marriage, which cites the boy’s account of events, said that three vehicles began chasing the car in which their father was traveling.
Vázquez shouted that they were going to be attacked after which Nielsen accelerated and the people pursuing their car opened fire, the statement said.
Nielsen lost control of his vehicle and crashed on the side of the road. The aggressors pulled him, his wife and stepson out of the car, robbed them and placed them in another vehicle, the statement said.
The family said it was unclear at what point Nielsen and Vázquez were killed but explained that they were driven to another location where their bodies were dumped on the side of the road.
Kevin Rojas Vázquez was abandoned with his deceased mother and stepfather and tried to flag down passing motorists “but no one paid attention until the state police arrived.”
Earlier reports said that he too had been shot but Nielsen’s family said that wasn’t the case. Kevin is now living with relatives, they said.
The statement said that the boy is “very traumatized” and hasn’t been able to provide all the details about what happened.
The family said they didn’t know very much about the status of the investigation but added that they had been told that both Mexican and United States authorities “are working to find the killers.”
Nielsen’s body was returned to Utah on Thursday and a funeral service will be held this week.
“Our family is absolutely devastated over the loss of our dad. We were very close to him. His family was his world, and he wasn’t just our father, he was one of our best friends,” the statement said.
The family described Nielsen’s death as “the most difficult moment of our lives,” adding that “it’s very important to us that we warn other people so that they don’t have to go through the same thing.”
“. . . The State Department has an active travel advisory for certain areas of Mexico, including the state our dad was planning on driving through. Though he was usually a careful person, he must not have seen that advisory, and that ignorance had tragic results that will affect all of us for the rest of our lives.”
Nielsen’s daughter, Priscilla Nielsen, told CNN that her father and Vázquez were in a faith-based marriage rather than a legally recognized one.
“Questions have also been asked about the nature of our relationship with Janet and Kevin. Our dad married Janet as a second wife about three years ago, and Kevin became his stepson. Immigration was not a reasonable option so our dad split his time between Mexico and Utah,” the family’s statement said.
The funeral for the two police officers killed last week in San Miguel.
Municipal police in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, are demanding that Mayor Luis Alberto Villarreal fire the department’s leadership.
On Sunday, officers protested outside police headquarters to demand the dismissal of their bosses as well as the implementation of a new security strategy that guarantees their safety.
The protests started after two officers were killed in a shooting last week. Dissident police say the deaths were the result of a policing strategy that sends only one or two officers out to respond to calls, exposing them to greater risk.
“We need security guarantees for ourselves to be able to guarantee security to citizens,” one officer told the newspaper El Universal.
The rally was attended by transit police and 911 emergency number workers, as well as citizens who showed their support to the officers and provided food.
At least five officers have resigned because of the shooting, and many others are reported to be considering leaving the force.
Protesters said the mayor has been avoiding addressing their concerns, and that their superiors in the department have refused to meet with them. They said late last night that they had not received a response.
A government auction of confiscated jewelry on Sunday failed to meet its fundraising goal when some of the most expensive lots didn’t sell.
The auction was the third held by the System of Administrative Allocation of Assets (SAE) and raised 10.3 million pesos (US $540,000), far short of the 21 million-peso minimum goal set by SAE head Ricardo Rodríguez. Of the 148 lots that were up for auction, 38 stayed on the block as bidders opted not to offer the minimum price set by the SAE.
The government expected between 250 and 350 people to take part but only 70 signed up to participate.
The most expensive piece, a white gold Piaget watch encrusted with diamonds with a starting bid of almost 3 million pesos, was one of the pieces that failed to sell. The most expensive piece that did sell was an 18-karat white gold Patek Philippe watch, which went for a little over a million pesos.
The cheapest lot sold was a collection of various 14-karat gold necklaces and earrings, selling for 12,500 pesos. SAE sourcOKes told the newspaper El Universal that such pieces, which don’t have much value, are often purchased to be melted down.
The auction’s proceeds will be used roadwork near the border between Michoacán and Colima, according to Rodríguez.
He added that later this week he will announce the details of the next auction, which will sell off properties allegedly confiscated from human trafficking activist Rosi Orozco and accused drug trafficker Xen Li Yegon.
The former, head of the United Against Human Trafficking Commission, was accused of benefiting personally from a government contract that gave the organization the use of confiscated real estate. The commission denied the accusation.
Weather conditions have brought some relief from sargassum for the Quintana Roo coastline, which has seen massive amounts of the seaweed in recent months.
Tropical waves 21 and 22 and the approach of cold front No. 62 have caused sargassum to drift away from the beaches of the Caribbean coast state.
In the north of Quintana Roo, just seven locations were affected by excessive amounts of the weed yesterday, according to the Cancún sargassum monitoring network.
The affected beaches were Punta Piedra, Tulum Ruinas, Tankah, Royalton Riviera, Moon Palace, Riviera Cancún and Playa Coral.
Most of the east coast of Cozumel was also still affected by excessive amounts of sargassum.
The sargassum monitoring network’s map as of Sunday morning.
However, the total number of locations given a red light under the monitoring network’s four-tier “traffic light” system – 14 – was less than half last week’s peak of 33.
Network chief Esteban Amaro predicted that cold front No. 62 will continue to hinder the arrival of large quantities of sargassum until at least the end of the week.
Despite the seasonal phenomenon, the Quintana Roo Secretariat of Tourism is still predicting that 3.8 million tourists will visit the state during the summer holiday period.
Almost 1.47 million people are forecast to vacation in Cancún, which would represent a 1.4% increase on 2018 numbers, while 1.67 tourists are expected in the Riviera Maya, which would be 2.7% more than last year.
Tourism is expected to bring more than US $3.2 billion into the state during the summer holiday season, which would be 3.4% higher than the same period last year.
Tourism Secretary Marisol Vanegas Pérez said the government is confident that the forecasts will be accurate because airlines have confirmed that flights to Cancún will be full throughout the summer.
Apart from sargassum, insecurity in Quintana Roo and the absence of international promotion because of the disbanding of the Tourism Promotion Council are causes for concern among hotel owners and other tourism sector stakeholders.
A woman has died from burns caused by a heating device that burst into flames during a hot stones massage at a spa in Monterrey, Nuevo León, earlier this week.
Diana Ortiz, 33, sustained burns to 90% of her body after the device used to heat the stones exploded in flames, igniting the bandages that covered her body.
The incident took place at Norella Boutique and Spa in Ciudad Guadalupe, part of the greater Monterrey metropolitan area.
The woman was admitted to the University Hospital at the Autonomous University of Nuevo León, but doctors were unable to save her.
According to the state Attorney General’s Office, the spa did not have the sanitation license necessary to operate a health treatment center. Investigators determined that the heating device had indeed caused the fire and seized it as evidence.
Operation Sweep rounds up criminal suspects in México state.
Federal, state and local government forces initiated a joint anti-crime operation this week in the México state municipalities of Chicoloapan, La Paz, Chalco and Valle de Chalco, rounding up 41 criminal suspects and locating 32 missing persons.
Over 1,400 personnel from the National Guard, the military, state and local police, the Secretariat of Transportation and the state Attorney General’s Office carried out 144 actions to capture the suspects, including 37 in Chicoloapan, 40 in La Paz, 33 in Chalco and 34 in Valle de Chalco.
Of the 41 suspects captured in what was called Operation Sweep, 17 had outstanding arrest warrants for violent crimes including femicide, sexual assault, aggravated vehicle theft and aggravated robbery. The remaining suspects were wanted for other, lesser crimes.
During the operation, government forces recovered:
180 bags of marijuana.
Three firearms.
Three other illegal weapons such as blades and police batons.
Three .38 special cartridges..
19 vehicles, 10 of which had been reported stolen.
26 public transportation vehicles.
Stolen auto parts.
A radio transmitter belonging to the state judicial police.
A 10-year-old boy from La Paz, Baja California Sur, will receive 2.5 million pesos (US $131,000) in funding for his anti-insomnia invention after appearing on the reality program Shark Tank México.
Franco Arturo Canseco convinced five investors, or “sharks,” to support the development and commercialization of his Banda Neutónica, a device that emits alpha waves that aid relaxation before sleep.
In his pitch, Franco asked the “sharks” for 1.5 million pesos but they were so impressed with his invention that they committed to an additional one million. In exchange, each investor will take an 8% stake in the 10-year-old’s fledgling company.
Franco explained that he first got the idea for the device when he was just seven years old.
“I have a lot of trouble sleeping and one day it occurred to me that I could invent something so I didn’t have to. But I did a lot of research to find out if it was important to sleep . . . and I realized that I couldn’t invent something in order to not have to sleep. Instead, I had to create something [to be able to] sleep better,” he said.
Érika Rodríguez accompanied her son for his Shark Tank presentation.
Franco then came up with the Banda Neutónica concept, which he first explained via a sketch, before his family helped him gather the materials needed to make a prototype.
All the while, the primary school student continued to conduct his own research about sleep and sleep disorders and even interviewed doctors and scientists in order to gain insights about how he could improve his invention.
Before going to sleep, an insomnia sufferer should wear the Banda Neutónica over the eyes for eight minutes, Franco explained. At the same time, he recommends listening to Weightless, a song by British ambient music band Marconi Union, whose music has been described as the world’s most relaxing.
“I’ve tried it with several people. We’ve carried out different tests many times and we’re doing well, the results are very good,” Franco said. “I would like the Banda Neutónica to get to everyone who has trouble sleeping.”
Érika Rodríguez, the boy’s mother, told the website Entrepreneur that her son’s invention is still in the development phase, explaining that the family has invested in the project “bit by bit.”
She said a medical scientist is supporting Franco’s research and explained that the biggest capital outlay to date was to obtain an international patent for the invention.
América Móvil executive and Shark Tank ‘shark’ Arturo Elías Ayub tries out Franco’s Banda.
While Franco won the 2018 edition of the national competition Ideas Hechas en México (Ideas Made in Mexico) for his sleep-inducing device and even represented Mexico in a contest in Chile, Rodríguez said the invitation for Franco to appear on Shark Tank México came as a surprise.
She was initially daunted by the prospect of having her son appear on television but after speaking with her husband, she decided that it would be up to Franco whether he wanted to front the “sharks” or not.
“Franco said yes very quickly. I don’t know whether it was because he thought that he was literally going to swim with sharks but after I told him it was a television program, his response was still positive. We’ve always supported him in everything he wants to do,” she said.
As for Franco, he’s confident that his invention can help the roughly one in five Mexicans who have trouble drifting off to sleep. And when it’s ready for mass production, he hopes it will be made solely out of Mexican materials.
Once it has hit the shelves, don’t expect Franco to rest on his laurels and watch the riches roll in.
“I intend to create more things, I want to make inventions to help humanity,” he said.
Vía Verde's vertical gardens on Mexico City's outer ring road.
A group of young Mexicans who installed vertical gardens along one of Mexico City’s busiest roads is preparing to take their urban greening project around the world.
Four years ago, architect Fernando Ortiz Monasterio collected more than 85,000 signatures in support of his company’s proposal to install vertical gardens on the columns that support the elevated section of Anillo Periférico, the capital’s outer ring road.
The Mexico City government agreed to the project – called Vía Verde (Green Way) – and today the commute of motorists who use the road is far less gray than it would otherwise be.
The gardens also absorb traffic noise and help to reduce air pollution.
The World Economic Forum this year recognized Ortiz and his team as technology pioneers, which allows them to participate in the international organization’s initiatives, activities and events for innovative entrepreneurs.
The capital’s greening project is going international.
The recognition has drawn even more attention to the Vía Verde project, in which architects, urban planners, botanists and gardeners participate.
“We’ve been invited to replicate this technology not just in Mexico but also in other countries like the United States and some [nations] in South America, Europe and Asia,” Ortiz told the newspaper Milenio.
“We’re drawing up a strategic international growth plan in order to continue giving Mexico a great name,” he added.
Ortiz said that new vertical garden projects are scheduled to begin in the United States and Central America within the next six months.
He expects “significant challenges” in executing the projects but expressed confidence that his team will be capable of meeting them.
Ortiz explained that the Vía Verde project incorporates a lot of patented technology that was developed by young Mexicans.
Architect Fernando Ortiz of Vía Verde.
“Each [vertical garden] column has sensors that communicate in real time the environmental conditions [related to] water, light, temperature and nutrients. That lets us know remotely, through the internet, what each plant needs,” he said.
Ortiz added that each pillar has its own watering system that can be activated remotely, ensuring that all of the plants get the amount of water and nutrients they need on a daily basis.
The Vía Verde project receives no government funding, relying instead on the support of around 50 private companies.
In exchange for their investment, they are allocated advertising space that is in incorporated into one in 10 vertical garden columns.
In addition to expanding overseas, Ortiz said, an additional 800 vertical gardens are planned for greater Mexico City over the next 18 months.
By 2030, the goal is to cover 10 million square meters of space on walls, roofs, bridges and tunnels in the capital with vertical gardens, he said, conceding that even if that target is met, Mexico City still won’t be green enough.
“. . . More than 40 million square meters of new green areas are needed to comply with the minimum recommendation of the World Health Organization,” Ortiz said.
The architect is also exploring opportunities to expand the project to other cities such as Monterrey, Guadalajara and Puebla.
A total of 250 people are employed directly by the Vía Verde initiative, which also generates 750 indirect jobs.
In addition, 100 people who have been sentenced by the courts to community service make the bags in which 15 different types of plants are placed before they are installed in the gardens.
