A team of veterinarians and doctors are hoping that Trixie will have a bit more pep in her step after she became the first dog in Mexico to be implanted with a pacemaker.
The 9-year-old French poodle suffered from bradycardia, and her owners said that it was difficult for her to participate in her favorite activities because she would tire quickly.
A group of 14 specialists, including a pacemaker expert, performed the surgery in Puebla.
The director of the Puebla Cardiovascular Institute, Juan Carlos Pérez, said the surgery lasted around five hours.
The cardiologist said that the surgery has been performed in Europe, the United States and on one dog in Colombia, but that he and his team are pioneers of the operation in Mexico.
“This was very nice because it was the first time it was done in the country. Everything was free and we all [worked together], veterinarians and cardiologists alike, and the result was very good,” he said.
He added that the team would like to document the case for publications specializing in animal issues and hopes that it opens up the possibilities for other innovative animal treatments.
Security Secretary Durazo: unhappy over release of Karina Mora.
Federal Security Secretary Alfonso Durazo has described the release from custody of the wife of the suspected leader of the Guanajuato-based Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel as “regrettable.”
Karina Mora, wife of José Antonio “El Marro” Yépez Ortiz, and three other suspected members of the Santa Rosa fuel theft and extortion cartel were arrested on January 29 in Celaya, Guanajuato.
Security forces seized four firearms, including an AK-47 and .270-caliber rifle, over 800 rounds of ammunition, loaded magazines, explosives, bulletproof vests, drugs, vehicles and over 69,000 pesos (US $3,700) in cash from the safe house in which the four suspects were detained.
Despite the evidence against them, a federal judge absolved all four suspected criminals on Thursday and ordered their release because Guanajuato state police had not obtained a warrant to search the house.
Durazo told reporters Friday that the government regretted the decision to release the wife of “one of the most important criminal leaders” in Guanajuato.
“The judge alleges errors in due process; we respect the decision of the judge but it doesn’t stop being regrettable [because] after . . . an important investigation we find that the people are returning to the street without having paid” for the crimes of which they were accused, he said.
The security secretary also said that there is a special federal operation underway in Guanajuato, Mexico’s most violent state last year, explaining that the presence of security forces has been bolstered.
The Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel is engaged in a bloody turf war in Guanajuato with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), considered Mexico’s most powerful criminal organization.
Yépez was arrested in 2008 on organized crime charges but, like his wife, was released due to a violation of due process.
Irregularities in the arrest of suspected criminals are cited by judges as justification for their release with alarming frequency in Mexico. The release of so many suspects before they face trial is a factor in the high levels of impunity that continue to plague the country.
The Bakpak community enjoys an open-air breakfast of chilaquiles on an excursion into La Huasteca.
I only discovered Mexico’s Bakpak magazine (only in Spanish) a few years ago when I was asked to contribute something to its pages on the subject of “Great Outdoor Sites near Guadalajara.”
Well, once I had described a few of the natural wonders in what I called western Mexico’s Magic Circle,” it wasn’t long before the founder and publisher of Bakpak, Alejandro González, popped up in Guadalajara to have a look for himself.
By then, I was not only reading his free, bimonthly magazine but distributing copies to all my friends who love the outdoors.
In these days when newspapers, magazines and books are going digital faster than a speeding neutrino, I was pleased, but surprised, that a specialty publication like Bakpak was still being printed on paper — or was still around at all.
When I brought up the subject to Alex González, he laughed. “My friends said the very same thing about the first issue I printed back in November of 2005. ‘It’s very nice,’ they commented, ‘but it’s going to end up being your first and last issue.’
La Huasteca: limestone peaks rise above desert scrub.
“Well, they said that about the first issue and the second and the third — and after that they stopped saying it. Right now we just put out our 79th edition of Bakpak and the print run was 10,000 copies.”
What makes the magazine so popular is something I discovered last week when I visited their office in Monterrey.
Graphic designer Omar Rodríguez took me into a room whose walls were covered with all 79 issues of the magazine.
“You won’t believe this, but every one of these has something a little different as far as graphic design goes. This issue, for example, has a folded cutout which pops up when you open the pages. And here’s a Bakpak devoted to the visually impaired; its entire contents are available as an audio file. And just take a look at our very latest issue: the cover glows in the dark!”
It came as no surprise that the back issues of this magazine are considered collector’s items. “People are calling up all the time,” said Rodríguez, “saying ‘Please help me, I need issues 27 and 49 for my collection.’”
In addition to publishing a magazine, the Bakpak team organizes hikes, campouts and training courses. “We’re inaugurating a new year of activities tomorrow,” Alejandro González told me, “and we want you to join us.”
La Huasteca Park has many sheer walls over 300 meters high.
Every year in January, Bakpak holds a breakfast and orientation in Parque Ecológico la Huasteca, a mountainous area that starts at the southwest end of the city. This is actually the beginning of the Sierra Madre Oriental, which extends south for 1,000 kilometers.
Just outside Monterrey, these limestone mountains are long, thin and high, running in parallel lines like giant knife blades — a sight that boggles the mind.
However, none of this could I see or appreciate the following morning as we drove into La Huasteca in total darkness.
“I always organize the first excursion of the year as early as I can,” Alex told me. “If they’re willing to get up at 5:00am and actually do it, I know they’ll be hooked, and I know they’re going to fall in love with the outdoors.”
To my great surprise, the number of people who got up at five to stamp their feet in the dark on that cold Sunday morning came to 133.
Now, I know that Alex had promised all of them a delicious breakfast of chilaquiles made with a recipe handed down from his mother but they would only get that breakfast after several hours of hiking. What was it that had hooked over a hundred people who could have stayed in their warm beds that chilly Sunday morning?
La Huasteca is part of the Sierra Madre Oriental, running south for 1,000 kilometers.
Just as the sun was peeking through the silhouettes of distant peaks, we began our hike through what looked like a flat riverbed bordered by matorral, desert scrubland.
“This is indeed a riverbed,” my fellow hikers told me, “created by the Santa Catarina River. Right now you can’t see much water, but in heavy rains this can become a raging torrent. To prevent flooding they constructed a holding dam upstream, 19 kilometers from here. It’s called La Presa Rompepicos, the Peak Buster.”
By now we were out of the river bed and reaching a level where the majestic beauty of those peaks could be appreciated. It was hard to believe that you could find such silence and solitude only 20 minutes from the hustle and bustle of Monterrey, and boasting almost 300 routes equipped with bolts for carabiners, it attracts mountain climbers from near and far.
I looked at the people around me. They were all city folk, “townies,” and here they were hiking through the mountains. To me it looked like they were really enjoying themselves.
I turned to a married couple next to me.
“Are you having a good time?”
Bakpak’s 2020 round of activities begins before sunrise.
“¡Sí que sí!” they replied with enthusiasm. “We’ve been going on these excursions for three years. To tell you the truth, the first hikes seemed tough and we’d go back home utterly worn out … but now we’re used to it and we love it!”
The city of Monterrey is situated right next to these extraordinarily beautiful mountains but people who grow up in a city tend to spend their entire lives within its limits unless they’re introduced to the wilderness in a way that doesn’t turn them off, or worse, scare them half to death.
One day, my 6-year-old grandnephew Paolo was visiting us. He was playing on the floor in front of the screen door when a squirrel hopped up and peeked through the screen.
“¡Asesino!” screamed Paolo at the top of his voice. I thought it was a joke until I saw how he was trembling after wildly running to the other end of the room. It took a long time to calm him down. We finally discovered that cartoons featuring “killer squirrels” were responsible and, as we had learned on other occasions, the cartoon and toy world of superheroes, transformers and zombies was far more real to little Paolo than anything else in life.
Perhaps even worse and far more pervasive is the introduction to nature all too often provided by well-meaning parents:
“An earwig! Omigod! Kill it!”
[soliloquy id="100497"]
“A snake! Run for your life!”
Fortunately, there are clubes de excursionismo here in Mexico which present hiking and camping in a positive light, though all too often their leaders may be endowed with far more enthusiasm than knowledge about minimizing the likelihood of accidents out in the bush.
The most extreme example I can think of in Mexico is the fate of “Los 11 del Iztaccíhuatl” in 1968 when a surprise snowstorm caught the young members of a hiking club unawares on Mexico’s third highest mountain and 11 of them froze to death.
Clearly, whoever leads ordinary people out into the middle of nowhere needs to be highly experienced and well equipped.
Back in the office of Bakpak magazine I told Alex González, “You are doing a service of immeasurable benefit to these people. You are causing the city dweller to fall in love with nature. You are easing him or her into a new relationship with nature and you are doing it in a safe way. Is all this by chance or is there a Philosophy of the Bakpak Experience?”
“Well, as you know we are properly licensed for tourism, we use the very best equipment and our staff members are trained in first aid. But above and beyond all that we do have a philosophy. There are many ways to introduce people to nature and all kinds of ecologists are doing it. In my opinion we need to introduce people to nature, to its value, in the same way intelligent and sensitive parents introduce young people to sex. It’s something you are going to run into in life and it could represent a good experience or a bad one.”
“You know,” Alex continued, “there are many things in life we take for granted: a sky of blue, a meadow, a tree. But the very fact that we can see these things at all is magic, the very fact that we can walk on two legs without falling flat on our faces is magic. If we demonstrate the value of nature, if we teach it well, in such a way that people have fun and enjoy the experience, it generates a link between them and nature and this link will be of inestimable value in absolutely everything they will ever do.”
The writer has lived near Guadalajara, Jalisco, for more than 30 years and is the author of A Guide to West Mexico’s Guachimontones and Surrounding Area and co-author of Outdoors in Western Mexico. More of his writing can be found on his website.
Passenger figures for 2019. Figures below the chart indicate percent change year over year. el economista
The Pacific Airport Group (GAP) will invest 18 billion pesos (US $958 million) over the next five years to expand and upgrade the Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta airports.
Presenting the airport operator’s development plan for the 2020-2024 period, GAP general director Raúl Revuelta Musalem said that 14 billion pesos will be spent at the Guadalajara airport and 4 billion will go to the Puerto Vallarta facility.
The combined outlay represents 72% of the total amount GAP will invest in its 12 airports over the next five years.
A new terminal building and runway will be built at Guadalajara and funds will also be spent to expand the facility’s parking lot and to build a hotel, office block and solar power plant.
Revuelta said that the plan is to turn the airport into a hub for both freight and passengers. It will aim to attract some of the United States and Europe-bound travelers who currently use the Mexico City airport, he said.
The Puerto Vallarta airport will get a new 35,000-square-meter terminal building with eight contact positions. Once completed, the terminal will increase the airport’s current passenger capacity by 60%.
Revuelta said that funds will also be spent to improve parking at the airport and to build a bus terminal.
Laura Diez Barroso, chairperson of the GAP board, said that the new terminals at both Jalisco airports will be the first terminals in Latin America to be designed as zero-energy buildings, meaning that the total amount of energy they use will be equal to the renewable energy generated on site. The terminals will primarily run on solar power, she said.
Just over 14.8 million passengers used the Guadalajara airport last year, making it the third busiest in the country after Mexico City and Cancún. Puerto Vallarta ranked seventh, with just over 4.9 million passengers.
Among the other 10 airports operated by GAP are those in Hermosillo, Sonora; Los Cabos, Baja California Sur; and Tijuana, Baja California.
Industry predicts investments will be lost this year as well.
The auto parts industry halted investment of 18 billion pesos (US $958 million) in the second half of last year as a result of the government’s decision to delay mass production and widespread distribution of ultra-low-sulfur diesel (ULSD) while demanding that new heavy vehicles be manufactured with environmentally-friendly technology.
The Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) voted in December in favor of postponing for five more years the implementation of a rule requiring Pemex to produce, distribute and sell ULSD across the country. The postponement followed a deferral of the rule in late 2018.
According to the CRE resolution, the state oil company can only continue marketing ULSD in the country’s three largest cities – Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey – and along the northern border.
Alberto Bustamante, foreign trade director of the national auto parts industry association, INA, who cited the 18-billion-peso figure at a press conference on Thursday, said that if the government continues to demand that heavy vehicles be made with clean technology even though ULSD is not widely available, an additional 2 billion pesos in investment will be lost in the first half of 2020.
Jobs could be lost in the auto parts sector as a result of the decline in investment, he said.
Miguel Elizalde, president of the National Association of Bus, Truck and Tractor Manufacturers, said that if ULSD is not available, companies won’t buy new heavy vehicles that were built to run on it and emissions levels won’t fall as a result.
He called on the Secretariat of the Environment to put an end to the requirement for new heavy vehicles to be built with EPA10 and EURO VI clean fuel technology until the production and widespread availability of ULSD is guaranteed.
Elizalde said last year that “we need to have total availability of ultra-low-sulfur diesel so that these clean technologies can be put to work.”
The president of the National Chamber of Trucking, Enrique González, pointed out Thursday that people are putting off the purchase of new heavy vehicles because they know that there is no obligation to supply ULSD to 81% of municipalities across the country.
Tia Carroll performs this month at Huatulco's Blues on the Beach.
The stage is set for the second edition of the Blues on the Beach music festival in Huatulco, Oaxaca, slated to rock Chahue Bay on February 22.
Festival organizers said that January’s Blues on the Beach festival was “a huge success” and they expect this month’s event to be just as crowd-pleasing.
February’s lineup includes an equally exciting mix of rhythm and blues and blues rock musicians from both Mexico and abroad.
From the Bay Area of northern California, Sax Gordon brings his R&B saxophone to the Oaxacan coast. Billboard magazine said that Gordon “doesn’t have any problem ripping up his audiences.”
Also from northern California, Tia Carroll will rock the stage backed by Her Awesome Blues Band. Her brassy, full-throated delivery packs the dance floor.
Considered one of the best blues guitarists in the country, Mexico City’s Emiliano Juárez has traveled the world as one of the few Mexican blues guitarists to grace stages from Europe to Asia and back to the Americas.
Having played or recorded with such greats as Buddy Guy, Robert Cray and Otis Rush, Juárez now brings his internationally renowned style to Huatulco’s sandy shores as well.
Also on the lineup is Spanish harmonica phenom Quiqué Gómez, who has been wailing on international stages since he was 18 years old.
The show begins at 8:00pm on February 22 at the Sea Soul Huatulco Beach Club.
The proceeds from the festival will go directly to the local nonprofit organization Un Nuevo Amanecer (A New Dawn), which helps children with disabilities learn to live as independently as possible.
Wildlife photographer Steve Winter has denounced the abuse of tame jaguars with which tourists can dive and take selfies in Cancún, Quintana Roo.
The National Geographic photographer posted two of his own photos on his Instagram account that he says serve as evidence of the exploitation of the big cats in the Caribbean coast resort city.
One photo shows two jaguars sitting chained in a boat in Cancún, where tourists can accompany the felines as they swim in the Caribbean Sea.
“Wildlife exploitation practices like this are common around the world and it is important for us to be on the lookout for dodgy tourism operations that promote animal selfies!” Winter wrote in a caption beneath the photo.
“This must stop and it is our responsibility as tourists to not engage in taking pictures with animals. I always ask myself why we do this? It may be a seemingly cool thing to do (take a selfie with a tiger or a leopard or elephant) but there is so much pain, trauma and animal abuse that goes into keeping these animals human friendly. Big cats did not evolve to be ‘friends’ with people,” he said.
A post shared by Steve Winter (@stevewinterphoto) on
Winter warned people to be on the lookout for “animal photo tourism operations,” explaining that there is a “very high likelihood” that places offering “bit cat selfies” are linked to dubious breeding operations and even commercial trophy hunting operations.
A second photo taken in Cancún shows a jaguar in the sea with three men on personal watercraft in the background.
“Jet Ski drivers and their tourists get ready to dive with two tame jaguars in Cancún, Mexico,” Winter wrote in the caption.
“People need to know more about the trade and selfie industry with big cats. From Thailand to South Africa, big cats often represent the face of the wildlife trade. If you see your friends or family partaking in activities like in this picture or petting cubs let them know that such businesses are often linked to breeding programs, illegal trade in body parts and cubs,” he said.
The number of jaguars living in the wild in Mexico has increased to 4,800 from 4,000 in 2010 but the feline is still considered an endangered species. Ecology experts and conservationists have urged authorities to make a coordinated effort to protect the population, which is under threat from poaching, habitat loss and illnesses transmitted by domestic animals.
A Tacoma on the assembly line in Apaseo El Grande.
Toyota inaugurated a new assembly plant in Apaseo El Grande, Guanajuato, on Thursday, where it showcased its first Tacoma model pickup truck made in Mexico.
The company’s second in Mexico, the plant was built with an initial investment of US $700 million. It is expected to build 100,000 Tacoma trucks per year and generate 1,000 jobs in the area.
The president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Guanajuato, Francisco García, said that 60% of the employees are from Celaya and the rest from Apaseo El Grande.
The plant began trial operations at the end of last year but Thursday marked the beginning of formal production. The two Mexican plants are expected to produce 266,000 Tacoma pickups a year.
Guanajuato Governor Diego Sinhue Rodríguez Vallejo attended the inauguration ceremony and said that the plant will give a “historic boost” to the development of the surrounding 15 municipalities as well as the rest of the state.
He added that it will also bring new revenue to other commercial and service sectors in Guanajuato to the benefit of thousands of small and medium-sized businesses.
The industry and trade undersecretary for the federal Secretariat of Economy, Ernesto Acevedo, said the investment is a visionary and strategic move with respect to the current global economy and also strengthens ties between Mexico and Japan.
Although the Mexican auto industry saw declines in 2019, and the trend will most likely continue into this year, the ratification of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement is expected to bring more certainty and growth to an important sector of the economy.
On top of the initial investment, Toyota plans to commit another $247 million to the plant over the next nine years.
As for the security situation in the state, Toyota Mexico’s director of legal and institutional relations, Luis Lozano, said that it is a matter of collaborating constantly with local authorities.
“We’re aware that there is a security issue and we’re taking measures to improve the situation,” he said.
Information about coronavirus is being translated into English and Mandarin for the benefit of travelers.
It is only matter of weeks until the coronavirus makes its way to Mexico, according to a researcher at the National Autonomous University (UNAM).
UNAM epidemiologist Samuel Ponce de León said that chains of transmission will sprout up around the world within the coming weeks.
“The infection is going to arrive in Mexico. Exactly when, we don’t know, but in the following weeks we’re going to have transmission here,” he said.
He said that it is too early to tell whether or not the country’s hospitals are ready to confront an epidemic.
“That’s what we’re trying to plan, consider and organize in order to respond adequately,” he said, adding that the country will actually face three epidemics: that of the coronavirus as well as the alarm and the fear associated with it, which are often unwarranted and based on false reports.
Pediatric allergy and infectious disease specialist Gerardo López said that there is some cause for alarm, however, as the country’s high rates of obesity, allergies and pollution levels make it a high-risk area for transmission of the virus.
He said that people who suffer from obesity or allergic conditions such as hay fever and asthma, especially children, are especially at risk for contracting the disease.
“We must take into account that, according to national statistics, one of every three Mexican children is obese. So the risk to this population is high,” he said.
It is also estimated that 18% of the population suffers from asthma and 30-40% suffers from hay fever. These conditions debilitate the immune system, making it more likely that these sectors of the population will be affected.
But both specialists stated that there are steps the public and health workers can take to protect themselves.
The working group led by Ponce de León will design information packets for both doctors and the public, contribute to research and social response plans and be involved in working on a vaccine among other efforts.
Linguists at UNAM and the National School of Languages, Linguistics and Translation are working to translate informational materials into both Mandarin and English in order to keep foreign visitors aware of how to protect themselves and others.
López said that people can protect themselves by regularly washing their hands, covering their mouths with the inside of their elbows when they cough or sneeze and avoiding contact with people with flu-like symptoms.
He also recommended eating a balanced diet and for mothers to feed babies breast milk to keep the immune system reinforced.
“It is also necessary to avoid exposure to environmental pollution, which creates a higher risk that the population will be vulnerable to this type of virus,” he said.
Avoiding self-medicating or the indiscriminate use of antibiotics is also vital to protecting oneself from the coronavirus. López stressed the importance of seeing a doctor in the case of showing any signs of respiratory illness.
Blogger Velázquez speaks at AMLO's press conference.
An independent journalist who survived a murder attempt in December has confronted President López Obrador, urging him not to forget about the dangers that media workers in Mexico face.
Wearing an eye patch and with surgical pins in his face, Paul Velázquez, a video blogger who denounces corruption on YouTube and Facebook, appeared at the president’s news conference on Wednesday to demand justice for journalists who have been attacked and murdered.
“President, they are killing us, don’t forget it please, they are killing us,” he said.
Velázquez was shot in the face on December 19 while walking to his studio in Los Mochis, Sinaloa. He told the news agency Reuters that the attack occurred after a close collaborator of the mayor of Ahome, of which Los Mochis is the municipal seat, threatened his life.
Security camera footage shows a man stepping out from behind a car and shooting Velázquez. Another video, apparently recorded on a cell phone by a bystander, shows the journalist walking unsteadily into a grocery store, where he receives assistance as his blood flows across the floor.
Ahome Mayor Chapman: ‘unconcerned’ by the accusation against him.
Velázquez spent more than three weeks in the hospital, where he was given a tracheotomy and fed through a tube. He was unable to speak for 16 days. Since leaving the hospital, he has been receiving protection from the federal government.
On Wednesday, the journalist accused Mayor Manuel Guillermo “Billie” Chapman of ordering the attack on his life.
“President, I want to remind you that investigative journalists are not trophies for corrupt rulers to hunt down,” Velázquez said. Journalists are being attacked for speaking out against the embezzling of public money, he added.
The journalist previously appeared at a López Obrador news conference in April 2019, at which he accused Chapman of corruption and sought the president’s help to remove him from office. In response to Velázquez’s latest accusation, the mayor said that he was unconcerned.
For his part, López Obrador assured the journalist that his government will bring peace to Mexico and ensure that there is no impunity for criminals, including those that perpetrate attacks on journalists.
“We’re going to pacify the country; this is the great challenge … Impunity has to end [including] in your particular case,” he said.
López Obrador previously pledged in December to review Velázquez’s case but there have been no arrests.
Julio César Colin, a spokesman for the press freedom advocacy organization Article 19, said that the attack on the journalist was clearly related to his work and should be investigated by the special prosecutor for crimes against freedom of expression.
Mexico is considered the second most dangerous country in the world for journalists, after Syria. A total of 131 journalists have been killed since 2000, according to Article 19, including 11 since López Obrador took office in December 2018.
The president has been accused of contributing to a culture of violence against journalists by launching scathing verbal attacks on reporters and news outlets that are critical of his government.
Article 19 said at the time that the president’s “stigmatizing discourse [against the media] . . . has a direct impact in terms of the … risk it can generate for the work of the press because [his remarks] permeate the discourse of the rest of society and can even generate attacks.”
