Sofía gets a send-off from Chiapas hospital staff.
A baby girl born in Chiapas with Covid-19 transmitted by her mother is safe and sound at home after a 47-day battle for her life.
As soon as the infant, identified only as Sofía, was born premature in a private hospital, doctors attending her birth noticed that she was having serious problems breathing. She was transferred that day to a public hospital in Tapachula, operated by the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS), where she was isolated in a special Covid-19 ward.
“From her birth, she couldn’t breathe. The doctors didn’t have time to take her measurements. They connected her immediately to oxygen,” said the child’s mother, identified only as Doris. “Everything was stacked against my daughter, but now she has come home, and we are very excited to get to know her.”
Doctors suspected Covid infection in Sofía when she displayed symptoms because her mother had recently been diagnosed with the disease.
“She had tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 infection a month before giving birth,” said Roger Alexis Liévano Cruz, a pediatric cardiologist at the hospital, “and so they gave tests to [Sofía], which came up positive.”
According to an IMSS spokesperson, Sofia’s treatment required intubation, high-support mechanical ventilation, and “a complex surgery for her age and size,” but she has recovered thanks to a combination of medications and respiratory therapy.
In Mexico City meanwhile, a mother with Covid-19 had a much luckier outcome after doctors ordered an immediate Caesarian section when she showed up for her 36-week wellness check with Covid symptoms.
Doctors at the IMSS clinic sounded the alarm when the mother displayed a fever and low oxygen levels.
The mother, who was eventually diagnosed with Covid-19, had no idea she was sick. She was transported to hospital where doctors treated her respiratory symptoms. The newborn, who was pronounced in good health, is now safe at home with its mother.
Many households don't have this kind of technology.
More than 30 million students across Mexico were scheduled to return to school by attending virtual classes on Monday but not all of them have access to the technology they need to study remotely amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The federal government announced in early August that four broadcasters had agreed to screen virtual classes and other educational content but learning via television is not an option for students in many indigenous communities, including hundreds if not thousands in the southern states of Chiapas, Oaxaca and Guerrero.
In Chiapas, the free-to-air television signal reaches only three in 10 homes, according to the Federal Telecommunications Institute. Some communities don’t even have electricity or supply is unreliable, creating an additional barrier for students to learn remotely using technology.
Herminia Hernández, an educational consultant in San Cristóbal de las Casas, said the federal government’s virtual education model, which also includes online content, is not feasible for 1.5 million students in Chiapas.
“In the majority of homes, even those that are near cities, the television signal doesn’t even arrive,” she said.
In Oaxaca, one in four homes doesn’t have a television, according to state government statistics cited by the newspaper El Financiero. Electricity supply is also a problem in the state, not just in remote communities but even for some homes near Oaxaca city, the state capital.
El Financiero reported that some homes in impoverished neighborhoods in the municipality of Zaachila, located just south of Oaxaca city, don’t have electricity.
A woman only identified as Antonia who lives with her family in the Guillermo González neighborhood – where many residents scavenge in the local dump to get by – acknowledged that the absence of electricity in her home will make it impossible for her children to watch televised classes or study online.
Some students in Guerrero face the same situation, with electricity supply unreliable or non-existent in more than 600 rural, mostly indigenous communities.
About 65% of the population of the southern state doesn’t have access to the internet in their homes, El Financiero reported, while the figure is close to 90% in rural areas.
Teachers and parents said that the government’s pandemic learning model will only increase educational inequality in Guerrero, which includes coastal cities such as Acapulco and Zihuatanejo and small, isolated towns in mountainous regions.
Electrical service is unlikely and internet less so in many rural communities.
Manuel Venancio, a local education union leader, said that access to television, computers and the internet is “not part of the reality for many students in Guerrero.”
“If there is a high percentage of students in the state’s main cities who don’t have their own computer, imagine … [the situation] in other places like the Sierra and Montaña [regions],” he said.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the United Nations and the World Economic Forum agree that the coronavirus pandemic and the consequent shift to virtual education will widen inequality between technology haves and have-nots.
The OECD said that fewer than 5% of Mexican students classified as “poor” have a computer and internet connection in their home whereas the vast majority of “rich” households have both.
The education of students from poor socio-economic backgrounds will suffer more as a result of the shift to virtual learning and they will face long-term negative consequences as a result, the OECD said.
The UN Development Program said “the reality in Mexico” is that many students, especially those who live in rural locations and/or are indigenous, don’t have the technology they require to keep up with their classes and deliver their schoolwork to their teachers virtually.
The World Economic Forum said that the transition to virtual classes “has disproportionately affected the most vulnerable communities” and widened the inequality gap.
Karen Lizette Matias López of a Mexican NGO called Women United for Education said much the same.
“The inequality gaps were already very wide before this pandemic but they will be more evident than ever after it,” she said.
“Those who don’t have access to a television, computer or internet will miss out on the opportunity to access a more solid form of education.”
David Calderón of Mexicanos Primero, an education advocacy group, said that one of the most serious consequences of the situation will be that many students without access to technology will drop out of school, thus limiting their future educational and employment opportunities.
A supplier of the Swedish furniture retailer IKEA will build its first North American factory in Coahuila.
The 100,000-square-meter plant, to be built by Ikano Industry on a 78-hectare parcel of land behind the Chuy María Coahuila Industrial Park in Ramos Arizpe, near Saltillo, will eventually expand to 200,000 square meters, company officials said. Upon completion in the second quarter of 2021, the factory is expected to provide 2,000 new jobs in the region.
The plant will manufacture foam “comfort products” such as mattresses and sofas sold in IKEA stores in North America. Its other production facilities are in Poland.
“Starting up a factory in a fast-growing country like Mexico, and becoming part of the dynamic environment in Ramos Arizpe, is a fantastic opportunity for us,” said Mats Håkansson, chairman of parent company Ikano Group.
The complex will have LEED gold certification from the United States Green Building Council and utilize solar power and other renewable energy technologies and the reutilization of production waste.
“Here in Ramos Arizpe, we aim to establish a great workplace for employees in an innovative environment that uses the latest technology, optimized processes, and high-quality materials,” Ikano Industry’s Sebastian Łuczyński said.
The manufacturing complex will be financed by HSBC México with special sustainable financing.
“The fact that the financing has conditions to make it ‘green’ permits us as a banking institution not only to support the arrival of Ikano Industry in Mexico but also accompany them in the development of infrastructure that, from the beginning of its construction and until its future operation, takes into account the efficient use of resources, cleaner technologies, and more sustainable processes,” the bank said.
This hotel in Tamaulipas was a temporary home to Federal Police, posted to conduct operations against organized crime.
More than 24 billion pesos was embezzled from Federal Police (PF) coffers in four years during the previous government’s six-year term, according to federal authorities.
The Federal Auditor’s Office (ASF) detected anomalies in the use of PF funds between 2013 and 2017 that amount to 24.26 billion pesos (US $1.1 billion at today’s exchange rate).
According to a report by the newspaper Reforma, former PF commanders diverted money that should have been used to pay for officers’ travel expenses and bonuses among other operational costs.
Just over 8.1 billion pesos earmarked for spending on officers’ accommodation and meals while they were deployed on operations in different parts of the country was allegedly embezzled as was more than 6.1 billion pesos allocated for transportation services.
Two of those sought are Jesús Orta Martínez, a former Mexico City police chief, and Frida Martínez Zamora. Both served as secretaries general of the Federal Police at the time of the alleged embezzlement. However, the embezzlement of which they are accused only amounts to 2.5 billion pesos, or just over 10% of the amount that allegedly disappeared between 2013 and 2017.
Reforma reported that the embezzlement of some of the funds Orta and Martínez allegedly stole occurred via 246 checks issued to the other 17 officials sought by authorities.
According to the ASF, the funds were supposed to have been used to pay for gasoline for police vehicles as well as meals, accommodation, other travel expenses and risk bonuses while PF officers were deployed on operations.
Reforma said that during the previous government, it was told by officers that their superiors personally profited from money that should have been spent on expenses associated with operations that were carried out against organized crime.
Some officers were even kicked out of their hotel accommodation because the Federal Police failed to pay for it, the newspaper said.
The CEO of a hotel chain in Michoacán wrote to a company contracted by the PF to settle travel expenses late in 2017.
Former federal cop Jesús Orta is among those for whom arrest warrants have been issued.
Jaime Vega, head of the Vista Hermosa chain, told the firm KolTov that it was eight months in arrears and that 500 officers would be evicted if the payment wasn’t made. Despite the warning, the payment never arrived.
Officers alleged that KolTov received the money to make the payment but that it was split between the company and Federal Police commanders.
According to a report in 2017 there were 201 hotels in 22 states on the brink of collapse because they were owed more than 653 million pesos by the police force for accommodation and food.
Most of the hotels awaiting payment are in the states of México, Guerrero and Michoacán, where police have been sent to combat the violence created by criminal organizations fighting over territory.
“There was always swindling,” one former PF officer who is now a member of the National Guard told Reforma.
He also said that commanders “invented” misdeeds supposedly committed by officers in order to justify not paying them their bonuses. The commanders allegedly pocketed the money themselves.
The ASF has also found irregularities related to more than 83 million pesos allocated to the PF between 2010 and 2017 to purchase 40 police vehicles.
Among other alleged PF corruption, federal investigators discovered that a 2.5 billion-peso, no-bid contract in which the Federal Police purchased technology from the Israeli firm Rafael Advanced Defense Systems was issued at four times market value and only half that amount was actually paid.
The Federal Police, restructured in 2009 by the government of former president Felipe Calderón, was officially disbanded at the end of last year, with many officers moving into the newly created National Guard.
Testing strategy means it is uncertain that new case numbers are in fact going down.
New coronavirus case numbers have declined in recent weeks but the situation might not have improved as much as health officials claim: Mexico’s already low Covid-19 testing rate has also recently fallen, meaning that that an even higher number of cases could be going undetected.
Officials including Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell and Director of Epidemiology José Luis Alomía have asserted in recent days that the pandemic is on the wane in Mexico.
The former, the federal government’s coronavirus czar, said last week that the situation was “very positive” because data from recent weeks show the pandemic is in “a clear phase of descent.”
But data from the University of Oxford shows that the number of Covid-19 tests being performed each day in Mexico has consistently trended downwards in the same period.
On July 21, 0.1 tests per 1,000 people were carried out, according to the Oxford University project Our World in Data, but by August 19 the rate had fallen to 0.07.
Based on those figures, the daily testing rate per 100,000 people fell from 10 to seven in a four-week period but the World Health Organization (WHO) said last week that the rate in Mexico had dropped to as low as three.
López-Gatell attributed the drop-off in testing to a decrease in the number of people with coronavirus-like symptoms, rejecting any suggestion that the government is deliberately testing fewer citizens to create a misleading impression that the pandemic is on the wane.
“It is believed that it was decided to reduce the number of tests in order to reduce the number of cases; it’s not true, the [testing] policy is the same. If there are symptoms, a test is done,” he said.
But experts who spoke with the El Universal newspaper agreed that the recent decline in case numbers could be linked to decreased testing.
Malaquías López Cervantes, a public health professor at the National Autonomous University (UNAM) and spokesperson for the university’s Covid-19 commission, was highly critical of the drop-off in testing from an already low rate.
Coronavirus cases and deaths reported by day. milenio
“The worst thing is that in a country where … enough tests have never been done, it’s now being said that we need less [testing],” he said.
The UNAM academic said that it’s regrettable that testing has been mainly targeted at people with severe coronavirus symptoms such as breathing difficulties and therefore people with less serious symptoms have not been tested and included in official data.
Rodolfo de la Torre, director of social development at the Espinosa Yglesias think tank, was also critical of Mexico’s strategy. As a result of the approach, it cannot be certain that new case numbers are in fact going down, he asserted.
“The WHO has established fundamental elements to combat the pandemic, one of them is the number of tests that are carried out. The entire population doesn’t have to be tested but [testing] shouldn’t be limited to serious cases,” de la Torre said.
Widespread testing can play an important role in managing the pandemic because it allows mild and asymptomatic cases to be detected and isolated to stop the spread of the coronavirus, he said. However, “that’s not happening in Mexico,” he added.
Alejandro Macías, a member of UNAM’s coronavirus commission and the federal government’s point man during the swine flu pandemic in 2009, said that more widespread testing would be beneficial because it would provide a clearer picture of how the pandemic is evolving.
Admitting that it sounds “paradoxical,” Macías said that more tests can result in fewer cases in the long term.
“While you’re doing more tests, you’ll have a better chance of finding the sick and being able to isolate them in the immediate term,” he said, adding that community transmission will decrease as a result and the infection rate will fall.
“The ideal would be that contacts [of positive cases] went into isolation and that there was capacity to test them,” Macías said.
However, the reality is that contact tracing has not been carried out widely in Mexico, although some state authorities, such as those in Campeche, have made efforts to do so.
At Sunday night’s coronavirus press briefing, the government’s health promotion chief said that just under 1.26 million Covid-19 tests have been carried out since coronavirus was first detected in Mexico at the end of February.
Confirmed cases rose to 560,164 on Sunday with 3,948 new cases registered. The positivity rate in Mexico is 44.5%, meaning that almost one in two tests performed comes back positive.
The extremely high positivity rate – the rate in the United States is 9%, according to authorities in that country – is widely regarded as a clear indication that Mexico is not testing anywhere near as widely as it should be.
Meanwhile, Mexico’s official Covid-19 death rose to 60,480 on Sunday with 226 additional fatalities reported.
On Saturday, health officials reported 6,482 new cases and 644 deaths.
The lack of testing is widely believed to be hiding not only the real size of the coronavirus outbreak but also the number of deaths caused by Covid-19.
Nevertheless, Mexico has the third highest death toll in the world behind only the United States and Brazil.
According to Johns Hopkins University, Mexico has the fifth highest number of Covid-19 fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants among the countries most affected by the pandemic.
There have been just under 48 deaths per 100,000 residents here as of Sunday, data shows. The countries that currently have higher mortality rates than Mexico are Peru, Chile, Brazil and the United States.
The magnitude of the Covid-19 epidemic in Mexico is being underestimated, warns the World Health Organization (WHO), and one of the main reasons is the lack of testing.
Limited testing and a disproportionate impact on indigenous and impoverished populations have made for a complex situation in Mexico where “the scale of the epidemic is clearly under-recognized,” said Michael Ryan of the WHO’s Health Emergencies Program said on Friday.
Mexico is testing just three of every 100,000 people a day, Ryan said, whereas in the United States the figure is 150 per day.
Tests are also not being done quickly enough to save people, Ryan said. Positivity rates in Mexico hover around 50%, “which means that many people are not well diagnosed or are diagnosed late.”
The WHO has been strongly urging widespread testing since March, but health authorities in Mexico have resisted, claiming that it would be “useless and costly.”
Ryan also said that wealth and class are factors in the spread and mortality of the disease.
“There’s a sharp difference in mortality among the wealthier districts and the poor municipalities,” Ryan said. “People living in impoverished areas are more than twice as likely to die from Covid-19 than those in more affluent areas.”
He also noted a different impact on indigenous populations in Mexico where the fatality rate is one in four to one in five.
Ryan said that Mexico must make efforts to increase access to tests in order to be able to conduct a realistic assessment of the country’s situation.
The WHO said on Friday that it expects the Covid-19 pandemic won’t last as long as the Spanish flu of 1918, which killed an estimated 50 million people by 1920.
“We hope to end this pandemic in less than two years. Above all, if we manage to unite our efforts … and use the available resources to the maximum and hope that we can have supplementary tools such as vaccines, I think we can end it with a shorter timeframe than the 1918 flu,” WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference.
Mexico is the seventh most affected country in the world by the Covid-19 pandemic, with 549,734 reported cases, although the actual number is estimated to be exponentially higher.
Nexos magazine: a legitimate fine or an attack against freedom of the press?
The federal government has fined a critical newsmagazine for submitting false documentation to obtain advertising but the magazine itself and several critics see it as an attempt at intimidation and an attack on press freedom.
The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) warned Friday that the sanction against Nexos sets a “terrible precedent” for freedom of the press in Mexico while its publisher sees it as “another sign of official intolerance to criticism.”
On Thursday, the Ministry of Public Administration (SFP) announced a fine of nearly 1 million pesos (around US $45,000) related to a two-year-old advertising matter. The government also banned federal agencies from advertising in Nexos for two years.
The magazine provided false information to achieve an advertising contract, the SFP said, by altering data to show it was up to date with IMSS employer contributions.
Although the advertising in question was valued at 74,000 pesos (about US $3,300) the SFP calculated the fine based on the fact that Nexos was awarded more than 85 million pesos in government advertising between 2012 and 2018.
Nexos publisher Aguilar: ‘We are witnessing a symptom of the authoritarian drift of this government against media it does not like, opinions it does not like and even facts it does not like.’
In response to the criticism generated by the sanction, the SFP defended its investigation and decision and stated that “it respects absolutely freedom of expression and journalistic work.”
“After so many [directly awarded advertising contracts] it is obvious that they can and should pay the imposed fine,” Public Administration Minister Irma Eréndira Sandoval observed on social media, adding that Nexos should take the two-year ban on government advertising in stride.
“Nexos editors have been one of the strongest promoters and defenders of the minimal state,” Sandoval wrote. “Today they can continue to publish freely their ideas without depending on state funding.”
The magazine says the government has taken a unilateral decision to impose the sanction despite the fact that the 2018 contract was fulfilled to the satisfaction of all parties. Everything was in order, said publisher Héctor Aguilar Camín of the paperwork regarding its contributions.
The magazine also said it has received no government advertising since 2018 when López Obrador took office.
Joining the press association in its condemnation of the punishment were freedom of expression advocates Article 19, the Fundar Center for Analysis and Research and the Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights. They called the fine “disproportionate and excessive” and a form of indirect censorship.
Aguilar called the sanction “symptomatic of the atmosphere of hostility against critical media that prevails in the government. It is not an isolated event, it is another sign of official intolerance to criticism, to different thinking, to the diversity of opinions, ultimately, to freedom of expression.”
“We are witnessing a symptom of the authoritarian drift of this government against media it does not like, opinions it does not like and even facts it does not like.”
Press association president Christopher Barnes and Robert Rock of the association’s press freedom committee said it was “striking that the measure was taken two years later with a magazine critical of the president, which opens a compass of suspicion as to whether it is an indirect retaliation.”
Rock, who is publisher of the news portal La Silla Rota, called the government’s actions an “act of intimidation or prior censorship, a terrible precedent for freedom of the press in the country.”
Mayor Sheinbaum takes a selfie with another Metro passenger.
Mexico City will remain at the orange, high-risk level for the coronavirus for the ninth straight week, Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum announced Friday. But conditions in the capital city are holding steady and some restrictions will be eased.
Next Thursday, after going dark for five months, theaters around the city will be allowed to reopen at 30% capacity. Outdoor theaters will be permitted to hold performances at 40% capacity, and sanitary protocols must be in place.
The use of face masks will be mandatory for audiences throughout the performances, which can last no longer than 90 minutes.
Orchestras and live bands that use wind instruments will not be allowed.
Staging must also be configured to allow a three-meter distance between the cast and audience, and cast members cannot come within 1.5 meters of one another.
The daily tally of coronavirus cases and deaths. Deaths are numbers reported and not necessarily those that occurred each day. milenio
The first two rows of seats in the theater must be removed, and every other seat must be blocked off to allow the audience maintain a safe distance.
No printed programs or flyers are permitted, and online ticketing is encouraged.
Movie theaters in Mexico City were allowed to reopen on August 12 at a reduced capacity.
Parties, meetings and social gatherings are still not permitted, Sheinbaum said, noting that now is not the time for festivities.
“We should not relax because we have had a certain stability in hospitalizations, and we want to have a downward trend. In recent days we had an increase, but yesterday there was a decrease,” Sheinbaum said. Hospitals in the capital are currently treating 2,816 patients.
She also announced that Mexico City will also undergo a coronavirus testing and detection program in 158 neighborhoods, focusing on neighborhoods that are adjacent to those that have 10 or more active cases. The neighborhoods selected will be announced on Sunday.
More than 10,000 people have died from the coronavirus in Mexico City which has seen 89,421 total cases.
The Ministry of Health reported Friday there were 5,928 new cases for an accumulated total of 549,734. Another 504 deaths were reported, for a total of 59,610.
Chef Eduardo Yair of Alkymia Ethical Foods in San Cristóbal pours chocolate into molds. leigh thelmadatter
As if avocados, tequila, and tomatoes weren’t enough, Mexico is also the land that gave the world chocolate.
But not as a candy. That’s a European invention.
The cacao tree, which the Aztecs believed was stolen from paradise by the deity Quetzalcóatl to give to man, has been grown for at least 4,000 years in much of what was the tropical territory of the Mayan empire and which today is most of southern Mexico.
Use of the beans spread into other parts of Mesoamerica through trade. For the Aztecs, the cacao beverage was reserved only for the emperor and certain persons of high social rank. They drank it bitter, even adding chile pepper, but depending on time and place the cacao could be mixed with honey, allspice, achiote, Mexican pepperleaf or pinole (a type of ground corn), but never sugar or milk. After the Conquest, the Spanish began drinking it, but they added the sugar.
Then and now, the most traditional way to prepare cacao is to toast the beans on a comal (griddle), then grind them by hand. The rough paste is mixed with sugar and sometimes other flavorings, then pressed into hard tablets or bars. This chocolate de mesa can be eaten but does not have the taste and texture of a candy bar. A portion of the chocolate is broken off and added to simmering water or milk until is it dissolved. The last step is to make a froth by stirring rapidly, spinning a tool called a molino for this purpose, or pouring it into a cup from a height.
Cacao pods in Tabasco. Alejandro Linares García
Chocolate as the world knows it is the result of European tinkering. In 1528, Spanish conqueror Hernán Cortés took cacao to Spain. Its consumption spread and different European chocolatiers innovated both forms and processes to make the highly refined hot cocoa, chocolate bars and other treats preferred today.
Mexico never lost its taste for cacao-based drinks, especially in the center and south of the country. The three states that drink the most are also the main producers: Tabasco, Chiapas, and Oaxaca. The Oaxacan version is best known because of that state’s tourism industry and tends to contain higher percentages of sugar. This is especially true for major brands such as Mayordomo and La Soledad.
In Tabasco and Chiapas, chocolate is generally sold with the percentage of cacao indicated. It is possible to get 100% cacao beverage, with no sugar at all. Chocolate is popular in the center of the country, but without local production and the infamous Chocolate Abuelita by Nestlé is nearly ubiquitous. (This and other inexpensive “chocolates de mesa” can have as little as 3% cacao, along with soy lecithin and artificial flavors.)
Cacao is also used to prepare cold drinks, which go by various names, including pozol, tascalate, tejate and popo, depending on the region. The cacao is mixed with fermented corn and other flavorings and the drinks are a lot more refreshing than they sound.
Cacao that is prepared traditionally is a real food, maintaining its nutritional benefits such as antioxidants, protein, fiber, vitamins A, B2 and others, phosphorus, iron and potassium, according to biologist Julio Salazar of Alkymia Ethical Food in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas. Cacao is very similar to wine, loaded with flavor compounds. Processes, locations, and years affect the flavor. To preserve these qualities, beans need to be fermented, roasted, ground, and even poured into molds with great care.
The concerns about cacao go beyond just taste. Two-thirds of the world’s production is in east Africa, often using child labor. Mass production with questionable ethics means highly abundant, cheap, low-quality chocolate for the world’s sweet tooth, unfortunately, including Mexico’s.
Roasting cacao at Hacienda La Chonita on Tabasco’s Cocolate Route. Alejandro Linares García
According to a national association of chocolate and candy manufacturers, Mexico grows 27,000 tonnes of cacao each year, representing only 0.5% of the world’s production. There are about 37,000 producers, but growers are almost always indigenous families producing small quantities. Although they earn the least from the chocolate market, their cacao still costs three to four times the international price. To make things worse, cacao production in Mexico fell about 50% over the past decade or so because of disease and non-profitability.
Mexico produces three types of cacao: criollo, forastero and trinitario. Criollo produces the finest chocolate, but accounts for only 10% because it is susceptible to disease and infestations. Forastero is the most common (70%) because it is hardy. Trinitario is a hybrid of the first two.
Tabasco grows 66% of Mexico’s cacao, followed by Chiapas at 33% and smaller quantities are grown in other states in areas that border these two. Tabasco may be the best place to visit and see how cacao is grown and processed. It has a well-marked Chocolate Route (Ruta de Chocolate) connecting traditional haciendas that open their doors to visitors.
One of these is Wolter Chocolates, founded at Hacienda La Luz in 1958. The operation has cacao fields and processes harvests into both drinking and eating chocolates, welcoming over 14,000 tourists each year. For the past 10 years or so, a fine chocolate culture has been growing in San Cristóbal, started in part with the opening of Otoch Chukwá by a Tabasco chocolate family.
There is no internationally known Mexican chocolatier, not even for drinking chocolate. One reason is that the Europeans have taught the world to expect a highly refined product, much the way it expects white sugar and flour. Mexican chocolate has a courser texture because of its fiber content.
Almost all of Mexico’s production is for domestic consumption, and what little is exported is for niche markets. Salazar says this represents an opportunity with the right kind of consumer education. In just three years San Cristóbal’s Alkymia has built a small but international and very loyal client base.
A split cacao pod at Hacienda La Chonita reveals the beans inside. Alejandro Linares García
Mexico has some relatively large chocolate makers including Chocolatera Moctezuma and Chocolate Rey Amargo, whose products can be found in supermarkets and specialty stores in Mexico. But better quality is generally had with small, local producers.
Both large and small chocolatiers can be found on the internet, often simply by googling “chocolate” and the name of the company or state you are interested in getting cacao from.
Leigh Thelmadatter arrived in Mexico 17 years ago and fell in love with the land and the culture. She publishes a blog called Creative Hands of Mexicoand her first book, Mexican Cartonería: Paper, Paste and Fiesta, was published last year. Her culture blog appears weekly on Mexico News Daily.
Governor Bonilla: solar plant will provide electricity at a lower price than the state currently pays.
A growing deficit of electricity in Baja California is affecting the water supply to 60 neighborhoods in Tijuana and requiring 15 companies, including Honeywell, Toyota and Cemex, to operate at reduced capacity during the summer months.
State Infrastructure Minister Karen Postlethwaite Montijo explained that recent high temperatures have created a shortage of power and residents are asked to reduce consumption between noon and 10 p.m., unplug appliances, turn off lights and set their air conditioners no lower than 25 C. The use of appliances that require large amounts of energy, such as irons, washing machines and dryers, is discouraged during those hours.
In addition, she said the National Energy Control Center (Cenace) has asked that industries with the highest energy consumption to stop production at peak hours.
Power to the Rio Colorado-Tijuana aqueduct, the state’s largest consumer of electricity, is also being limited, hence the water shortages.
“When we lack energy, (Cenace) turns around and says to large consumers ‘I need you to reduce energy consumption because I have no energy,’ and one of the major consumers is the aqueduct,” state Water Minister Salomón Faz Apodaca said in a Facebook press conference with the governor. “What we are doing is balancing,” Faz explained.
One of the main issues in Baja California is lack of infrastructure. The state requires 3,040 megawatts per year, Postlethwaite explained, yet it only has access to 85.5% of that amount, which it manages to collect by buying California’s excess power. Also, Baja California is not connected to Mexico’s national power grid but to California’s, making it “an energy island,” Postlethwaite said.
And with California in the grips of a brutal heatwave and facing rolling blackouts of its own, there’s not a lot of surplus energy to sell to Mexico.
Every year during the summer months, when temperatures in Mexicali soar to around 50 C and coastal temperatures are also on the rise, Baja California has a deficit that ranges between 400 and 550 megawatts. It’s a recurring situation Governor Jaime Bonilla Valdez says he is determined to fix.
On Thursday, the state opened the bidding process for the construction of a private solar energy plant which would resolve the deficit.
“A project of this magnitude involves an investment of US $200 million, which will not be made by the state but by the business consortium that is the winner of the tender, and which will sell the electricity to the state government at a better price than what we are currently paying,” the governor announced.
The winning bid will be chosen in October and construction is expected to take one year. The plant will supply energy directly to the water system for a contractual period of 30 years.
Currently, Baja California spends around 1 billion pesos (US $45.5 million) on electricity each year just to pump water to Tijuana and Tecate.
