Tapalpa development plan will encourage conservation and sustainability.
The Jalisco state government will invest 785 million pesos (US $40 million) in the Sierra of Tapalpa this year in a bid to develop the region while protecting its natural resources.
At an event to inaugurate the development plan, Governor Enrique Alfaro said that unregulated planting of crops like avocados has led to environmental degradation in the region.
“We can’t have a development plan based on preying on the natural resources of this region of Jalisco,” he said. “We’ve seen the consequences of that in the past few days, and I think we need to be conscious of the fact that this new model of growth isn’t just based on something that occurred to the governor, but on the feelings of the people.”
According to the state, illegal logging and avocado and berry production have caused damage to over 8,000 hectares of protected areas in the Sierra of Tapalpa over the past eight years.
Alfaro said the development plan will seek to regulate and promote the production of crops like avocados, figs, bell peppers and berries.
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“We want plants like avocados, peppers and figs to represent an opportunity for Jalisco, an important part of our economy,” he said. “But let me be clear, it can’t go on like this: it’s not going to be unregulated anymore, we’re not going to allow planting in forested areas. Those days are over.”
As part of the plan, mayors of the four municipalities in the Sierra of Tapalpa micro-region — Chiquilistlán, Atemajac de Brisuela, Tapalpa and San Gabriel — are working together to establish common land-use regulations to govern which areas can be used for cultivation.
The development plan will begin with repair work in the municipality of San Gabriel, which was the scene of major flooding earlier this week. Governor Alfaro, among others, blamed the flooding on years of illegal logging by avocado growers, which weakened river banks and allowed the Apango river to overflow.
A series of violent confrontations between two warring cartels left at least nine people dead, one injured and three under arrest yesterday in the Michoacán regions of Tierra Caliente and Bajío.
The first incident between the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and Los Viagras was reported in Dos Aguas, Aguililla, where armed men traveling aboard trucks clashed in shootouts throughout the town over a period of nearly two hours.
Two people were killed in the skirmishes, and another was reported injured. Three suspects were arrested.
The second gunfight occurred in the Buenavista town of Felipe Carrillo Puerto, also known as La Ruana, where an innocent bystander was killed by a stray bullet.
The state Attorney General’s Office said the bodies of six men killed at gunpoint were found in two other municipalities.
The National Guard will be expected to intervene when this happens.
The federal government will build barracks just north of the Guatemala border in Suchiate, Chiapas, to house National Guard troops deployed to stop illegal immigration into Mexico, the mayor has revealed.
Sonia Hernández told the newspaper Milenio that the government asked authorities in Suchiate to provide the land for the new base.
To meet the request, the municipal government spent 1.2 million pesos (US $61,000) to purchase a three-hectare parcel of land in Nuevo Dorado, a small town nine kilometers north of the Mexico-Guatemala border.
It is unclear when construction of the new barracks might begin and how much the project will cost, and Hernández said that she hasn’t yet been told how many National Guards troops will be housed at the facility.
However, as part of a deal reached with the United States to stave off tariffs threatened by President Donald Trump, the government has committed to sending 6,000 members of the new security force to the southern border. The deployment will begin Monday.
The municipal seat of Suchiate is Ciudad Hidalgo, a border town where tens of thousands of migrants have entered Mexico since late last year.
All of the large migrant caravans that have traveled through Mexico since October first entered the country via the Rodolfo Robles international bridge, which links Tecún Umán, Guatemala, to Ciudad Hidalgo.
Federal Police and military personnel are already deployed to the area – and detained more than half of the most recent arrivals – but Hernández said that news of the deployment of the National Guard is welcome.
“We’re definitely very happy,” the mayor said, describing Suchiate as “the door of Mexico.”
The National Guard is needed in the municipality, Hernández claimed, not just for local security but also for national security “because the entrance to Central America is here.”
She said that migration through the southern Chiapas municipality has always existed but has raised the ire of local residents in recent months because of the size of the groups that have arrived.
In addition to generating security concerns, the large numbers of migrants have placed pressure on municipal resources, Hernández said.
“[In respect of] their human rights, we have to provide assistance to them, sometimes they need medicine or other things . . .”
The announcement of the National Guard’s deployment to the southern border triggered a response from the head of the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), who urged the government not to militarize the border as has occurred in the United States.
Security forces must prioritize human safety over national security, Luis Raúl González Pérez said.
He explained that the CNDH has received complaints about the way in which some Central American migrants have been detained, adding that the commission will continue to keep a close eye on the conduct of security forces to ensure that migrants’ human rights are respected at all times.
There is no evidence of mechanical malfunction in the crash of helicopter that killed the former governor of Puebla, said the Civil Aviation Authority (DGAC).
The agency revealed that an inspection of the helicopter’s two engines found they were functioning normally at the time of impact, although an internal memory system, which could have confirmed the engines’ status, was damaged in the crash.
Inspection of the rotors and transmission also failed to present any sign of malfunction.
The DGAC said all the damage to the helicopter was sustained on impact and there was no sign of a malfunction that could have caused the accident.
The accident occurred on December 24 just minutes after the helicopter took off from Puebla International Airport, killing governor Martha Érika Alonso and her husband — ex-governor of Puebla and Senator Rafael Moreno Valle, and an assistant and two pilots.
The crash has been controversial given that Alonso had been sworn in as governor just two weeks before after a bitter election contest whose results were challenged.
Transportation undersecretary Carlos Alfonso Morán Moguel called the accident “unusual,” citing the craft’s 60-degree, inverted, almost vertical fall.
National Action Party president Marko Cortés, leader of the political party to which the former governor belonged, went so far as to state that the crash had not been an accident, claiming that there had been a “suspicious silence” from the federal government and little investigation.
He added that the crash had occurred on a day with good weather and that the helicopter was in the hands of “expert pilots.”
In February, federal authorities released tapes of communications between the helicopter and the control tower at the Puebla airport, revealing that the pilot did not report problems with the aircraft or any failures in the moments prior to the crash.
The DGAC said it will continue its investigation, which is being assisted by experts from the Canadian Transportation Safety Board and the Italian Agency for Flight Safety, among others.
Looking for a dog? Uamy, El Norteño, Ferry, Santo, Tlahua and Neza are among 23 stray dogs that have been rounded up by employees of the Mexico City Metro and are now ready for adoption.
The dogs are being housed in the Canine Transfer Center, a space created through donations that has allowed the Metro system to protect the animals, according to a Metro press release.
“The Canine Transfer Center is a high-quality space that gives our transitory guests the quality of life they deserve,” reads the release. “It has a veterinary clinic, and is a space specifically designed for them where they are taken after being rescued by Civil Protection.”
The center is located on Avenida de las Culturas in Colonia El Rosario in the borough of Azcapotzalco, near the Colegio de Bachilleres 1 Metrobús station. Visitors should call (55) 5627 4142 before visiting.
Anyone wanting a dog must fill out a form and present identification and proof of address. The prospective dog owner must have their home inspected to make sure it fulfills the center’s requirements.
In preparation for being put up for adoption, the dogs are given rabies vaccines and are spayed or neutered.
Each dog has received a name based on the station in which it was found: Acato and Cata were rescued from the Acatitla station, while Ferri was rescued from Ferrería.
One of the dogs, Pazito, was rescued from the Talleres La Paz station in very bad condition with serious injuries to his front paws.
“Now he has completely recovered and is waiting in the Canine Transfer Center for a new family to adopt him,” said the Metro press release.
The airport site will remain quiet until permits are issued.
A federal judge yesterday ordered the definitive suspension of the new airport in México state until all necessary environmental permits have been obtained.
Both court orders were issued in response to injunction requests filed by the #NoMásDerroches (No More Waste) Collective, a group made up of civil society organizations, law firms and more than 100 citizens.
The collective said in a statement that the definitive suspension order obliges authorities to refrain from continuing with the construction of the airport until permits have been obtained that guarantee that the project will not damage the environment or threaten any relics located at the air force base site.
“The injunction granted by the federal judge seeks to protect the environment and assets [of] . . . archaeological, historical and paleontological heritage . . .” #NoMásDerroches said.
The National Institute of Anthropology and History said this week that the remains of mammoths, saber-toothed tigers and other prehistoric megafauna are buried beneath the ground at the airport site.
The #NoMásDerroches Collective acknowledged that the suspension order is subject to legal challenge by the government but is confident that it will be respected while it remains in force.
“If the government moves a brick, the official who does so will be committing a crime,” said Gerardo Carrasco, a lawyer for Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity (MCCI), one of the collective members.
After the first suspension order was issued, Communications and Transportation Secretary Javier Jiménez Espriú said that work at the airport can’t stop because it hasn’t even started, adding that he expected environmental approval to be granted by the end of the month.
He said the government “completely agrees” that construction cannot begin until the relevant permits have been issued.
The secretary said that he hoped the project won’t have to stop once it is under way but with #NoMásDerroches having filed a total of 147 injunction requests against the airport, that remains a real possibility.
In addition to MCCI, other collective members include the Mexican Employers Federation, the Mexican Human Rights Commission and the General Council of the Mexican Legal Profession.
By handing down a second ruling against the airport project, “the federal judicial power once again demonstrates to citizens that it is a real counterweight to hasty and unjustified decisions of the executive power,” the group said.
US President Donald Trump announced the agreement in a tweet Friday evening.
Mexico and the United States reached an agreement Friday to end the threat of a 5% tariff on Mexican goods that was to go into effect Monday.
U.S. President Donald Trump announced at 7:30pm CDT that the two countries have signed an agreement and that the tariffs are “hereby indefinitely suspended.”
Trump said Mexico “has agreed to take strong measures to stem the tide of migration through Mexico, and to our southern border. This is being done to greatly reduce, or eliminate, illegal immigration coming from Mexico and into the United States.”
The chief measures in the agreement are the deployment of the National Guard to the southern border and allowing migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. to remain in Mexico while they await a decision from authorities in the U.S., according to Foreign Affairs Secretary Marcelo Ebrard.
He said Mexico agreed to deploy the National Guard to the southern border and elsewhere in the country starting Monday with the intention of reducing illegal immigration, while it will offer job opportunities and access to education and health services to migrants seeking asylum in the U.S.
A team of negotiators headed by Ebrard has been in talks with U.S. officials, including Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in Washington since Wednesday.
Mexico had offered earlier to send 6,000 members of the National Guard to the southern border to deter the entry of undocumented migrants.
The three students present their air quality findings.
A study has found that air pollution in Cancún from lead, zinc and other heavy metals is at times similar to that in Mexico City and Madrid, Spain.
Completed by three students of the University of the Caribbean, the study determined that cars, industry and environmental factors are responsible for the poor air quality in the resort city.
Presenting their findings yesterday, Mara Flores Moreno, Cinthia Pech Perera and Denisse Sánchez Toriz said they measured air quality at 40 different locations.
Heavy metals were detected in the air at every single site, and at certain times of the day the levels exceeded those considered safe by environmental authorities.
The students said that they detected cadmium, nickel, copper and boron in the samples they collected in the west of the city, while air in the downtown was found to contain copper, zinc, lithium, chromium and lead.
Lead, lithium, zinc and boron were detected in Cancún’s hotel zone.
The environmental engineering students recommended the installation of at least three permanent air-quality monitoring stations in different parts of the city.
According to federal regulations, all cities with a population greater than 500,000 are required to have such stations. But despite close to one million people calling Cancún home, the city has none.
At yesterday’s presentation, state Environment Secretary Alfredo Arellano Guillermo acknowledged that Cancún has an air pollution problem although he said that the situation wasn’t critical.
He said that later this month he will present a new air quality management plan intended to reduce the quantity of contaminants entering the atmosphere in Cancún and across the state.
The plan will promote the planting of native trees and greater use of bicycles and public transit among other measures.
The tank's a bit wonky but at least it has one — and seat to boot.
The various activities we engage in throughout our lives stem from either desire or necessity and are either voluntary or mandatory, period.
The grey areas could be when your partner “requires” something of you, or when your mom “made” you brush your teeth twice a day. However, most of our adult time on this planet can be described as a continual series of choices, some great, some not so great, and of course the disastrous ones we all want to forget.
But, throughout this life of mostly free choices, we all adhere to the mandatory portion of daily life.
Thus regardless of how we have meandered along the uncharted course of our lives there is a unanimity which pervades all of humanity — a single point of mind which no one can disavow. This irrevocable imperative is as compulsory as eating, drinking, breathing and sleeping, and none of us has any choice in this matter.
Of course, I am talking about “answering the call of nature.” Yes, the end process of the consumption of that excellent Italian dinner, or the more bothersome end process of bad street food; if it goes in, sooner or later it comes out.
Dual-purpose toilet and shower. The empty trash container is a bonus.
I like to think of myself as a person who cares about others. Someone who might always have the back of those people I care about. At the moment I’m thinking about the backside of such people. Because here in Mexico, the facilities which accommodate this very natural process range from posh to pitiful, but can quickly deteriorate into the mortifying.
I have heard stories about primitive bathrooms in Asia and many other places, but from experience I know that it’s hard to imagine anything much worse than a men’s room in a sleazy Mexican cantina.
Many of us who live in Mexico have been in the marble and mirrored throne rooms of various resorts around the country, but fewer of us ever get to the spider infested outhouse in a primitive village. In this country just the daily function of “answering nature’s call” can be a cultural adventure all on its own, and the exercise holds many mysteries.
A clean bathroom has always been my No. 1 goal. And my No. 2 goal as well.
Historically speaking, north of the border the final stages of processing nutrients has been a brief respite from the humdrum daily existence we call life. Why else would there be magazine racks in restrooms? And of course, that’s why is it called a restroom.
Somewhere in the dark past of my squandered youth, I helped a friend excavate a 140-year-old outhouse pit in search of “pumpkin seed” whisky flasks and Acme beer cans.
Looks promising from the outside.
This bit of archaeological burrowing confirmed my belief that the ubiquitous outhouse of yesteryear in North America was a type of short-term sanctuary for those ensconced within its rustic walls. A place of peace and solitude where the occupant could have a couple of beers or a few long pulls off the whisky flask, avoiding the critical looks of others.
Or just thumb through a Sears catalog before removing a couple of pages for you know what.
However, here in Mexico that semi-private room where you answer nature’s call is referred to as a lavabo or baño or even el sanitario. Which very clearly shows the Mexican culture does not consider the throne room to be a place of quiet contemplation or repose. In Mexico it is strictly the business of the body, which really clears up a bit of the mystery for me.
That all-important issue of whether the toilet seat should be left up or down is a non-issue in many Mexican bathrooms, because many Mexican bathrooms do not have a toilet seat.
When you come across a toilet without a seat, don’t fret, it is meant to be that way. The basic porcelain fixture is all that is required to take care of business. And further, the lack of a seat assures that no one gets comfortable and decides to scroll through their phone for the next 20 minutes; it is not a restroom, it’s a toilet room.
And what about the practice of never flushing the used toilet paper? Yuck, who wants to spend time in a cramped space with a bucket of soiled cellulose? Yes, it might be a necessity because of the pipes.
On the other hand, I believe this is just another ploy to keep anyone from lingering too long in the lavatory. However, there is something of a precedent for this questionable practice in that, 50 years ago, Mexican toilet paper had the consistency of kraft paper and most likely plugged more than one waste pipe.
And speaking of TP, always be sure to carry a bit with you to avoid the shock of an empty roll at that critical moment, an exciting event which still raises the stress level of the unprepared from time to time.
When traveling, or enjoying some of the more primitive settings in this colorful country, Acme Expat Immersion Therapy and Attitude Modification Program alumni not only carry their own, they also know that asking for a baño or sanitario can be an adventure in and of itself.
And at times the term sanitario can be a considerable misrepresentation of what you are about to face. The first clue is when you are handed the ubiquitous five-gallon bucket and are shown where to fill it with water prior to venturing into the “facility.”
If you are lucky, you will go to a reasonably clean, ceramic commode, minus the seat and tank, which requires the bucket for a mostly complete evacuation of the fixture. If you find the “facility” in a loathsome state of over use, exchange the bucket for a shovel.
And that’s the bottom line!
The writer describes himself as a very middle-aged man who lives full-time in Mazatlán with a captured tourist woman and the ghost of a half wild dog. He can be reached at [email protected].
Massive amounts of sargassum are expected to wash up on Caribbean coast beaches in the coming days and weeks.
According to the Sargassum Early Warning System, a significant quantity of the seaweed is currently approaching Quintana Roo and is predicted to affect 500 kilometers of coastline from Isla Blanca north of Cancún to Xcalak in the extreme south of the state.
Cancún, Isla Mujeres, Puerto Morelos, Playa del Carmen, Cozumel, Tulum and Mahahual are among the destinations that are expected to see large amounts of sargassum over the weekend.
In Cancún, municipal authorities predict that 1,620 cubic meters will invade the city’s beaches this month.
That amount would be almost triple the 600 cubic meters that arrived last month and more than five times the quantity that washed up in April. Authorities responsible for collecting the sargassum, including the navy and the federal Secretariat of the Environment, are already struggling to keep beaches clean.
Lenin Amaro Betancourt, president of the Riviera Maya Real Estate Professionals Association, estimated that the arrival of sargassum this year has already cost the economy US $200 million and predicted that as many as 2,500 jobs could be lost as a result of the downturn in tourist numbers.
With their livelihoods under threat and faced with the inability of authorities to cope with the large quantities of sargassum arriving on Quintana Roo beaches, hotel owners in the state are implementing their own measures to combat the unsightly and smelly seaweed.
In Puerto Morelos, 15 hotel owners started an anti-sargassum initiative that has now caught the attention of the United Nations.
Under the Puerto Morelos Protocol, a diversion barrier has been installed off the coast that prevents 75% of sargassum reaching the beach and an industry that makes use of the seaweed has been developed.
Hotel owner Carlos Gosselin Maurel said the United Nations is interested in implementing the strategy in other Caribbean countries whose coastlines are plagued by sargassum.
Gosselin already met once with UN officials and will attend another meeting this month with the organization’s Caribbean-based representatives.
“We have to speak with the Barbados ambassador to the UN, who deals with Caribbean problems, and in that way we’ll be able to export the [anti-sargassum] protocol . . .” he said.
