Navy chief Ojeda presents findings of investigation at a press conference.
Admiral José Rafael Ojeda Durán announced on Monday that the navy has detected a tax-evasion scheme to import hundreds of thousands of barrels of diesel without paying a peso in tariffs at the port of Tuxpan, Veracruz.
He said that the amount of duties the company — which he did not name — avoided paying could be as high as 200 million pesos (US $7.9 million) per month.
The navy was asked to look into the situation in December by President López Obrador due to fiscal irregularities found during an operation to clean up the customs system.
“It was a huge theft, [with] extensive corruption in the ports. So it is important that the navy take control of security at the ports,” said Ojeda.
He explained that from October 2019 to February 2020 the company filled tanker trucks with diesel and drove them out of the port between 3:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. without passing through security or customs. The investigations also tracked where the tanker trucks delivered the illegally imported fuel.
“Two or three boats arrived each month. Their cargo inventories said they were going to unload 50,000 liters of diesel, [but] they actually unloaded between 200,000 and 300,000 liters,” Ojeda said.
The navy is currently carrying out the customs operation in the ports of Manzanillo, Colima, and Altamira, Tamaulipas, and the results of those investigations will be announced in the coming days. The port at Progreso, Yucatán, is also the subject of a navy investigation.
The navy, Communications and Transport Ministry, tax service and Mexican customs, among other government agencies, are all on the operation’s coordinating committee, which organizes visits to maritime customs departments to observe their day-to-day operations.
A store in México state that was targeted by looters Monday.
Alarm caused by the Covid-19 pandemic is creating security problems in México state, where a gang of over 70 people looted a grocery store in the municipality of Tecámac on Monday night.
Dozens of men and women rushed a Bodega Aurerra Express supermarket and ransacked the shelves and displays, leaving them bare in their wake.
A video shared on social media by a neighbor of the store showed the empty shelves and random products scattered on the floor and out in the street.
Outnumbering employees and security personnel, the looters took food, alcohol and even money. Some employees were reported to have made off with some of the products not taken by looters.
Municipal and state police arrived on the scene minutes after the looters left. One of the officers was reported to have chided onlookers for not having tried to stop them, saying it was their responsibility as citizens to do so. No arrests have been reported.
Calls for widespread looting in México state have been making the rounds on social media for the last few days. Various Facebook groups, with names like “Covid-19 Looting” and “Looting 2020” have been promoting the idea of mass pillaging events, claiming impending food shortages.
“You can’t leave us without food,” said one post.
Besides Tecámac, the calls have been made to organize looting in the municipalities of Tlalnepantla, Ecatepec, Nicolás Romero, Cuautitlán Izcalli, Tultitlán, Zumpango and Chalco.
The state police department responded on social media by posting that it would conduct patrols to detect and deactivate any mass looting events.
There were multiple break-ins and robberies in the state on the weekend. Another store in Tecámac was raided and an Elektra electronics store in Tultitlán was vandalized on Friday, while robberies were reported in Ecatepec and Tultitlán on Sunday.
Governor Alfredo del Mazo Maza announced on Monday that all department stores and malls in the state would close in order to prevent people from gathering in crowds.
Some municipalities in Quintana Roo, Veracruz and Oaxaca are implementing strict measures to prevent the introduction of Covid-19, including banning the entry of all tourists and non-local vehicles.
Citizens in the municipality of Lázaro Cárdenas, Quintana Roo, agreed yesterday that tourists would not be permitted to traverse the highway leading to the port of Chiquilá, where a ferry runs to Isla Holbox.
Only local residents with identification, vehicles carrying visitors leaving Holbox, workers and people with a medical condition will be allowed to pass.
“… not one more tourist, local or foreign …” will be permitted, residents said, explaining that they wish to “keep things the way they are.” The decision to close access to the community was reached unanimously at a residents’ meeting.
In Veracruz, authorities in the coastal municipality of Tecolutla announced that no tourists or outside vehicles will be allowed in and advised tourism service providers not to accept any reservations until further notice.
“The coming weeks are crucial to avoid massive spread. Let’s remember that together we can overcome this risk,” Mayor Juan Ángel Espejo Bovio said in a message posted to social media.
Farther north in Veracruz, the mayor of Tamiahua, a municipality 140 kilometers south of Tampico, Tamaulipas, announced an even more drastic measure.
Citlali Medellín said that community guards would prevent the entry of outsiders to 71 different communities in Tamiahua.
Each contingent will be made up of five to 10 guards depending on the size of the community and the number of roads leading into it, she said.
In Zongolica, Veracruz, located 40 kilometers south of Córdoba, authorities are not banning the entry of tourists but they have set up checkpoints where their temperatures are checked to determine if they are suffering a fever.
“This disease will not defeat us,” Mayor Juan Carlos Mezhua said in a social media post.
In the neighboring state of Oaxaca, authorities in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec municipalities of Santiago Laollaga and San Juan Guichicovi have banned the entry of cargo trucks traveling from central Mexico, while in Santiago Astata, also on the isthmus, taxi drivers have been ordered not to take foreigners to the beach.
In Santiago Lalopa, located 140 kilometers northeast of Oaxaca city in the Sierra Norte region, authorities have announced that any former locals who now live in other parts of the country and wish to visit must provide a medical certificate that shows they do not have Covid-19. As coronavirus testing can be difficult to access, the measure is likely to dissuade potential visitors.
Meanwhile in Capulálpam, a community in the Sierra Norte municipality of Ixtlán, authorities have imposed a 10:00 p.m.-6:00 a.m. curfew and announced that access for residents will be via a single road.
There were seven confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Veracruz as of Monday and three in Oaxaca. Health authorities announced Monday night that there were 367 confirmed cases in the country and 826 suspected cases. Four people have died.
The federal government announced on Tuesday that Mexico has now entered a phase of local transmission of Covid-19, one day after the World Health Organization (WHO) made the same announcement.
Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said that the spread of the new coronavirus in Mexico has not yet reached an “inflection point” at which the number of cases begins to increase rapidly and therefore there is still an opportunity to contain the outbreak.
“This is the time [to act] and therefore we want to formally declare the beginning of stage 2,” he said.
The official expressed confidence that the measures the government is taking to limit the spread of Covid-19, such as the commencement of a social distancing initiative on Monday and the postponement and cancellation of large events, will be successful.
“We’re going to be able to bend the curve, we’re going to be able to have less transmission,” López-Gatell said.
Deputy Health Minister López-Gatell presents the latest data at last night’s press conference.
“We will continue to have transmission, the expectation is not to put an end to the epidemic from one moment to the next. I also want to be clear that success in reducing transmission … will lead us to a longer epidemic,” he said, adding that extending the outbreak will allow authorities to better “manage the risk” and ensure that the health system is not overwhelmed.
After noting that the WHO reported on Monday that Mexico has transitioned from a stage of “imported cases only” to “local transmission,” the deputy minister stressed that only five community transmission cases have been detected.
Confirmed cases of Covid-19 have, however, increased significantly over the last week and four deaths have now been attributed to the infectious disease.
Health authorities announced 51 new cases on Monday, taking Mexico’s total to 367. Of that number, 292 cases are imported – the people infected recently traveled abroad – and 70 cases are linked to direct contact with such people. Authorities also announced that there were 826 suspected cases of Covid-19.
López-Gatell told reporters at the government’s nightly coronavirus press conference on Monday that two new Covid-19 deaths had been reported.
A 55-year-old man who suffered from obesity and diabetes died in Jalisco and a 71-year-old man with diabetes and kidney problems passed away in Mexico City, he said.
López-Gatell also reported that 11% of the people confirmed to have Covid-19 are receiving treatment in the hospital while the other 89% are recovering at home. Men account for 63% of the confirmed cases and women the other 37%.
Every state except Tlaxcala has a confirmed case of Covid-19, the deputy minister said.
Mexico City continues to have the highest number of confirmed cases, with 60, followed by Nuevo León, Jalisco, México state and Quintana Roo, where there are 48, 46, 22 and 22 cases, respectively.
López-Gatell said that Mexico City is expected to have the largest outbreak of Covid-19 in the country due to its high population density. About 9 million people live in the capital and an additional 5 million come into the city on a daily basis for work, education or other reasons.
For its part, the Pan American Health Organization is predicting that there will be as many as 700,000 serious, potentially fatal, cases of Covid-19 in Mexico but President López Obrador has asserted that the country is prepared to respond to the outbreak.
Speaking at his morning news conference on Tuesday, the president called on the public to act “with prudence, without despairing, without panicking and with the resolute conviction that we have a lot of strength.”
Government agencies have shut down private medical laboratories in Tamaulipas and Oaxaca for price gouging and selling uncertified Covid-19 tests.
Laboratorio Juárez, located in the city’s historic center, may no longer provide any lab services to the public due to reports that it was charging as much as 18,000 pesos (US $709) for unlicensed tests that cost the lab around 1,500 pesos (US $59) each.
State Health Minister Donato Casas said that so far there are no private medical laboratories certified to administer Covid-19 tests in Oaxaca.
He urged the public to avoid going to private medical centers for Covid-19 services, since it could be a scam or lead to inaccurate results.
The state health risk commission Coespris is working to certify private laboratories in order to be able to provide this service to the public safely.
In Tamaulipas, two laboratories were closed in Tampico for offering tests while not having the necessary certification to do so.
Health officials in Chihuahua also had to tell the public not to seek Covid-19 services at private laboratories in the state, saying in a press release issued on Friday that “as of now, the only institution accredited for the administration of the test is the State Laboratory of Chihuahua.”
The state Health Ministry said that citizens there had also been victims of scams and suffered adverse health effects from unscrupulous practices by private laboratories.
Federal Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said that his department is in no way impeding the ability of private labs to offer the test, but that they must first be certified.
“In the next few days we will announce the advance of this process of accreditation and disbursement of the tests to the private labs that demonstrate their competence,” he told a press conference on Saturday.
He added that there were at that time 41 government labs certified to administer the test.
Right now, cooking seems to be more about comfort than anything else, no? I’ve stocked my cupboards with enough food and basics for several weeks, and although the present abundance of foodstuffs and sheltering-in-place makes me want to eat, eat, eat, I’m trying my best to stick to my regular meals.
I find myself wanting things to be really delicious, and so I made Parmesan-Crusted Croutons, a treat for the taste buds and every kind of salad, and then, as long as the oven was pre-heated, I roasted pecans and almonds, too, watching carefully so they didn’t burn. I like them for a mid-morning snack and they also add a welcome crunch to lots of things.
Then, because I have a sweet tooth and the nuts were already out on the counter, I made a batch of Candied Pecans, which I’ll try not to eat all at one sitting.
What else do I feel like eating? I waver between wanting fresh, clean healthy food (salads, smoothies and such), hearty, grounding dishes like this rich Macaroni & Cheese and decadent sweet things, like a One-Pan Chocolate Cake. My solution? Go with the flow and just make them all. We certainly have enough time.
Parmesan-Crusted Croutons
Even without the Parmesan, these croutons are fabulous. The “cheese food” in the green container won’t work for this – buy a chunk of the best quality Parmesan you can afford and grate it yourself.
5 cups cubed day-old bread
Olive oil
Dried oregano
Salt & pepper
¼ cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
Put bread cubes in large bowl. Sprinkle with oregano, salt and pepper; drizzle with enough olive oil that bread is pretty soaked. Add Parmesan; toss gently. Spread on cookie sheet and bake at 450 degrees for about 15 minutes, stirring 2 or 3 times, till bread cubes begin to turn golden and brown at edges. Remove from oven and cool. Store in an airtight container or Ziploc bag if you don’t eat them all at once. Reheat in the toaster oven for a few minutes if they need to be crisped.
Candied Pecans
1 cup white sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
1 egg white
1 Tbsp. water
1 lb. pecan halves
Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Mix sugar, cinnamon and salt together in a bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk egg white and water together until frothy. Toss pecans in the egg-white mixture, then add sugar mixture. Stir so nuts are evenly coated, then spread pecans onto a baking sheet. Bake until evenly browned, stirring every 15 minutes, for about 1 hour. – Allrecipes.com
Try not to eat all the Candied Pecans in one sitting.
4 Tbsp. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, plus more for greasing baking dish
Salt and freshly ground pepper
3 cups elbow macaroni
2 (12-oz.) cans evaporated milk
1/3 cup skim milk
2 large eggs
½ tsp. Lawry seasoned salt, if available
¼ tsp. garlic powder
1 lb. extra-sharp cheddar cheese, grated
8 oz. Monterey Jack cheese, grated (or Chihuahua or any other mild white cheese)
Paprika, for sprinkling
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Generously butter a 13-by-9-inch glass baking dish; set aside. Bring a large pot of water to a boil; add salt and macaroni. Cook until al dente. Drain, and return to pot. Add butter and toss until pasta is coated and butter has melted; set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together evaporated milk, skim milk and eggs. Add seasoned salt, garlic powder, 1 tsp. salt, and ½ tsp. pepper; set aside. In another medium bowl, combine cheeses; set aside.
Now start layering: Place 1/3 of the macaroni in an even layer in the bottom of prepared baking dish; cover evenly with 1/3 of the cheese. Repeat with remaining macaroni and cheese mixtures. Pour milk mixture evenly over contents of baking dish. Sprinkle with paprika. Bake until top layer is lightly browned, 35 to 45 minutes. Let stand 10 to 15 minutes before serving.
This macaroni and cheese is a hearty, grounding dish.
One-Pan Chocolate Cake
I started making this when my kids were little and it has remained a family favorite – even though those kids have their own kids now!
1¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
¾ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
⅓ cup canola oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. apple cider or white vinegar
2 Tbsp. chocolate chips (optional)
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting on top (optional)
Heat oven to 325 degrees. Add flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt to an 8-by-8-inch square glass or metal baking dish. Whisk the mixture together until uniform in color. Add 1 cup water along with the oil, vanilla extract and vinegar. Stir slowly with a fork or a whisk in small circles to blend. Scrape and stir with a fork or spatula until the mixture becomes a smooth and uniform batter. Scrape the sides of the baking dish with a rubber spatula and spread the batter in an even layer. Sprinkle with chocolate chips, if using. Wipe edges of baking dish clean. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out mostly clean, 28 to 33 minutes.Remove from the oven, let cool. Dust with powdered sugar before serving.
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.
Hotel occupancy on the Caribbean coast of Mexico fell 76% in a week as a result of the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the region’s tourism and transportation industries.
Quintana Roo Tourism Minister Marisol Vanegas Pérez announced Sunday night that hotel occupancy had fallen to just 32% in marked contrast to as recently as March 15, when hotels in Cancún, Tulum and elsewhere on Mexico’s Caribbean coast were 82% full.
The region went from 332,000 visitors to just 80,000 in a week.
Vanegas said that the Cancún International Airport is still open to both foreign visitors in Mexico wanting to get home and new tourists arriving in the region, though obviously much fewer than normal. The airport was scheduled to see 330 international flights on Sunday.
“These flights could have delays,” Vanegas told Sunday’s press conference. “We are going to have a lot of people for whom we will need to find rooms in low-cost hotels. We have a total of 15 low-cost hotels, but we’ve also got shelters for people who don’t have the means [to stay in a hotel].”
She did not give the locations or contact information of the hotels or shelters set aside for tourists with postponed flights.
She also spoke about Governor Carlos Joaquín González’s Tourism Recovery Plan, which he presented on March 19. The agreement with hotels and other tourism-sector businesses stipulates that they not lay off workers so that when the pandemic passes, the region will have the workforce ready to relaunch the tourism-based economy.
“All of these talks are going on with the private sector, so that everyone can be certain that they will have a job,” she said.
Nevertheless, there are unofficial reports of layoffs in hotels and other businesses due to the drastic decrease in tourists and the economic impossibility of companies to retain all of their employees.
A senior bags groceries at a Mexico City supermarket.
Major supermarket chains including Walmart, Soriana and Chedraui have announced that senior citizens who work as baggers will not be permitted to do their jobs while Covid-19 remains a threat to their health.
Among those affected are 80-year-old Aniceto Rojano and his 75-year-old wife Inés González, who have been working three to five-hour shifts, six days a week, for the past 10 years in a supermarket in the northern Mexico City borough of Gustavo A. Madero.
“I feel bad; they told us we have to wait 15 days or a month [to see if we can work again],” Rojano told the newspaper Milenio as he burst into tears.
He and his wife, neither of whom were offered any economic support from the supermarket at which they work even though the chains have promised assistance, said that they have felt “useless” since they were told last week that they couldn’t continue working.
“The time passes very quickly [when you’re] working,” said Rojano. “We have to concentrate on our work and separate the products with a lot of care.”
González explained that they use the tips they receive to purchase essentials such as food and medication for her high blood pressure and her husband’s diabetes.
They are not alone in depending on the money they make as supermarket baggers.
Elizeth Altamirano López, a gerontologist and psychologist with the Mexico City Council for Prevention and Eradication of Discrimination, told Milenio that for many seniors, the tips they receive for bagging groceries is “their main source of income.”
Losing their jobs can also take a toll on seniors’ mental health, she said, adding “a lot of them lose their interest in life.”
However, for now, Rojano is remaining optimistic that he and his wife will be able to get back to work sooner rather than later.
“I have a lot of faith in God that we’ll all return to work again,” he said.
A Catholic bishop in Cuernavaca, Morelos, said at Sunday’s Mass that the Covid-19 pandemic is a divine reaction to abortion, euthanasia and sexual diversity.
“My children, God isn’t talking to us, he’s shouting at us. We are going to listen. Let’s know how to listen. We are paying attention,” said Bishop Ramón Castro Castro.
He told his congregation that there were 50 million abortions in the world in 2019, claiming that the women getting the procedure did it “as though it were nothing, as they please, proclaiming their pseudo-freedom, when those are children of God and we’ve murdered them.”
Other cited reasons for the Covid-19 plague include the prevalence of assisted suicide and increased sexual diversity.
“Euthanasia: ‘I’m tired of suffering, kill me,’ … or letting children decide the gender they want to be, a girl wants to be a boy. Oh my! Surely God is saying, ‘Listen children, … I’m your father and I love you and I’m merciful. You’re going down an abyss,’” said Castro.
He also cited the normalization of corruption, theft and violence as causes of the coronavirus pandemic.
“The coronavirus stops us whether we want it to or not. In many countries they’ve already been forced to stop [normal society]. In Europe, in the United States, in China, everything is shut down by law, except for the pharmacies and the supermarkets, and that stops everyone, no matter who they are,” he said.
“A tiny, microscopic virus comes to humanity today: Hey, you are fragile, you are vulnerable. Your success, your money, your power cannot help you now. Realize who you are. Don’t play at being God. Humanity has wanted to play at being God,” he said.
The fire-and-brimstone sermon was Castro’s last in public until the Covid-19 pandemic passes. He told his congregation that for the time being he will transmit services on social media.
The federal government will halt a US $1.4-billion brewery project in Mexicali, Baja California, after citizens overwhelmingly rejected it in a referendum held over the weekend.
Diana Álvarez, deputy interior minister for democratic development and social participation, announced on Monday that 76.1% of almost 37,000 people who cast a vote on the controversial project under construction by the United States company Constellation Brands opposed it.
The brewery is about 70% complete, with about $900 million having been invested to date.
Local residents, especially farmers, have long argued that the operation of the brewery would threaten the local water supply – a claim that Constellation, which produces Corona and other Grupo Modelo beers, rejects.
Álvarez said that as a result of the referendum, the National Water Commission will not issue the permits that Constellation still needed to obtain in order to open the brewery, which had been expected to begin operations at the end of 2021.
The deputy minister added that the government would immediately contact the company to “try to find” alternative options and to speak about compensation.
For his part, President López Obrador said that Constellation has to “respect the decision of the people.”
“I think [the company] will understand when there’s a result like this one,” he said.
The president stressed on Monday that his government is not opposed to foreign investment and said that he would talk to Constellation executives about the possibility of finding an alternative site for the brewery in Mexico. The company has said that it would consider relocating its brewery project to another country if Mexico became too problematic.
After the results of the referendum were announced on Monday, Constellation’s shares dropped by 8%.
The government’s decision to hold a vote on the brewery triggered strong criticism from leading business groups in Mexico.
The Business Coordinating Council (CCE) said in a statement on Sunday that the consultation posed a threat to Mexico’s capacity to attract investment and increased “the economic risk we face due to instability in the financial markets, the [falling] oil price and the international upheaval caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.”
Released before the results of the vote were known, the statement said that the consultation placed jobs already created by Constellation’s investment as well as those that would be created in the future at “serious risk.”
The CCE, an umbrella organization that brings together 12 groups including the Mexican Employers Federation (Coparmex) and the Mexican Business Council, said that the staging of the consultation violated the federal government’s recommendation to suspend large events due to to the growing spread of coronavirus in Mexico.
Coparmex chief Gustavo de Hoyos claimed that, “like in the old times,” people were coerced or given incentives to vote against the brewery project and provided with transportation to polling places to do so. He said that cancellation of the project would send the wrong message to the rest of the world.
“Production of the most famous Mexican beer in the world is prohibited in Mexico – who’s going to want to invest in a country with such contradictions and absurdities?” de Hoyos asked.
The Mexican Institute of Finance Executives also weighed in, stating that the brewery vote undermined certainty for investors and job creation in Mexico.
The referendum was the latest in a series of “direct democracy” exercises favored by López Obrador, who often says that the people are “wise” and know what is best for the country.
The president canceled the previous government’s US $13-billion Mexico City airport project after a legally questionable vote held before he took office, while his administration’s infrastructure projects, such as the Maya Train, have received strong support in other referendums.
