A 360-hectare beachfront property in Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, will be developed as a “luxury mega-project,” the governor has announced.
Construction of the project known as Costa Palmas, first announced one year ago for La Ribera in east Cabo, will begin soon, said Governor Carlos Mendoza Davis.
Consisting of a resort, residential development, marina and golf course, the project is expected to generate yearly revenue of more than US $1.3 billion, the governor said, directly benefiting residents of La Ribera.
Some 5,000 direct jobs and 10,000 indirect will be created around the luxury development, which will increase Los Cabos’ annual visitor capacity by 5,000.
Mendoza said Costa Palmas will also contribute to improving Los Cabos’ ranking as a luxury destination.
Proposed site layout at Costa Palmas.
The project’s first phase will be built in six stages and include 14 homes, a pool, a children’s club and a 145-room hotel.
“The development of Baja California Sur cannot be achieved without progress in each of its regions,” said the governor. “We are working on attracting more and better investment projects to the entire state.”
He described the state as the most exclusive sun and beach destination in Mexico, visited every year by millions of tourists, which is why large companies want to invest in the state.
Some freight trains in Michoacán have stopped running once again due to blockades, set up this time by students of a teacher training college.
Today is the third day of the blockades in Tiripetío in the municipality of Morelia, which as of Wednesday morning had left 15 trains stranded.
“We’re totally defenseless,” declared the president of the Industrialists Association of Michoacán (AIEMAC)
“The federal government must intervene immediately,” wrote Ricardo Bernal Vargas on social media.
He demanded that the federal and state governments create and implement an immediate response protocol that keeps protesters away from the state’s railways and highways, asserting that the federal crimes of blockading those means of communication “must be punished.”
“These threats to the rule of law are untenable, they are not the way to exert pressure. We demand that the state and federal governments move against these actions and not yield to blackmail,” he continued.
“We urge the government to remove this blockade; we cannot allow putting the brakes on the state’s economic activity, which affects the economy of the country.”
The students are protesting over an administrative matter at their school.
Trains were last halted in the state by teachers protesting unpaid salaries and bonuses. The state-wide shutdown of the rail system went for a month and cost an estimated 30 billion pesos before an agreement was negotiated.
AMLO's request has produced several memes on social media. Here, Cortés is described as the first member of the mafia of power.
President López Obrador has come under fire from opposition lawmakers and others for his request to the king of Spain and Pope Francis that they apologize for the conquest of Mexico.
Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) Senator and former interior secretary Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong appeared to question the president’s sanity in light of López Obrador’s revelation that he sent the two men a letter “to ask that they make an account of the injustices and apologize to the indigenous peoples for the violations” committed “with the cross and the sword” during the conquest.
“President Andrés Manuel López Obrador should be subjected to constant medical evaluation,” Osorio said. “That apology that he requested from the king of Spain and the Vatican about the conquest, that’s out of order.”
Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) Senator Miguel Ángel Mancera said that López Obrador’s apology request only served to drive Mexico and Spain apart and damage “the friendly relationship” that the two countries enjoy today.
The former Mexico City mayor also charged that by making his request public, the president had sought and succeeded in diverting attention from more pressing issues.
“Now we’re all talking about this issue,” Mancera said.
National Action Party (PAN) Senator Mauricio Kuri also contended that López Obrador’s intention was to distract people from focusing on issues of real importance such as security and corruption at Pemex.
“. . . Why is he diverting attention to other issues instead of looking at what’s happening in his government,” he said.
Juan Carlos Romero Hicks, leader of the PAN in the lower house of Congress, said that López Obrador had only succeeded in generating “national and international animosity,” while PRI lawmaker Héctor Yunes Landa suggested that the president should instead ask the CNTE teachers’ union to apologize for blocking access to the Chamber of Deputies and shutting down all congressional activity.
As expected, lawmakers from the ruling Morena party defended López Obrador’s request for an apology from the Spanish crown and the Catholic church for the conquest, which began with the arrival in Mexico of conquistador Hernán Cortés in 1519.
“The claim is correct,” said Morena Senate leader Ricardo Monreal Ávila. “It’s time for reconciliation and that comes from an act of acceptance from those who invaded and looted the country.”
On Monday, the Spanish government said in a brief statement that it regretted that Mexico’s president had made public the letter to Felipe VI, whose contents “we vigorously reject,” while a spokesman for the Vatican said that the pope “has already spoken with clarity about this issue.”
During a visit to Bolivia in 2015, Pope Francis asked for forgiveness for the “many and grave sins against the indigenous peoples of America.”
The issue came up today in Argentina where celebrated Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa suggested, before an audience that included the king of Spain, that López Obrador’s letter was misdirected.
The 2010 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature said Mexico’s president should have sent the letter to himself. He should have asked “why Mexico, five centuries after its incorporation into the western world and 200 years after independence, still has so many millions of poor, ignorant and exploited Indians.”
The apology request has also generated activity among creators of memes on social media. In one, the conqueror Cortés is described as the first member of the “mafia of power,” the president’s favorite term for describing corrupt politicians.
Another bore the announcement that public consultations would be held to judge Christopher Columbus, Cortés and “La Malinche,” the latter’s lady friend and widely considered as a traitor to the Aztecs.
The Google-owned GPS navigation app Waze has announced the launch of its carpooling service across Mexico.
Waze Carpool is an app that matches drivers and riders who travel similar routes between their homes and workplaces or schools.
“It’s about sharing costs. We’re not creating carpooling as a profession but rather creating a community and reducing traffic,” said Waze México director Ingrid Avilés.
The Waze Carpool app allows people to find a ride-share companion using a variety of filters that limit potential travel mates based on factors such as workplace location, gender and even whether they have social media friends in common.
Once a match is found, the driver and passenger agree on a pick-up point to start their shared journey.
Noam Bardin, global CEO of Waze, says the purpose of the service is to reduce the number of cars on the road.
“. . . We see traffic as a community problem and that’s why we’re launching carpooling,” he said.
In the traffic-clogged streets of Mexico City, an average of just 1.2 people travel in each car but with the launch of Waze Carpool, that average could begin to creep up.
Avilés explained that riders pay for their share of gasoline expenses via the app with a bank card and that drivers are limited to completing just two trips per day.
During the first month of operations in Mexico, passengers will pay just 10 pesos (US $0.50) for each trip they take while drivers can earn up to 100 pesos (US $5).
With four million active users in Mexico, Waze has a large pool of potential drivers who could choose to offer spare seats in their cars and thus help to reduce traffic and contamination in the nation’s cities.
The service could be particularly beneficial in greater Mexico City, where car ownership has soared since the year 2000 and drivers often spend hours on the road on a daily basis.
The TomTom Traffic Index ranks the Mexican capital as the world’s most traffic congested city, one in which motorists can expect to spend an additional 227 hours a year — nine and a half full days — in traffic on top of their regular travel time.
López Obrador listens as Defence Secretary Sandoval discusses advances in Tijuana.
A security strategy launched last month in Tijuana has made significant progress, President López Obrador told a press conference in the Baja California city this morning.
Appearing with Defense Secretary Luis Crescencio Sandoval, the president cited a decline in murders in the border city following the implementation of the new strategy on February 4.
“An agreement was made with the state’s governor to confront this situation and launch a special operation, together with the army, the navy and federal, state and local police to face the emergency, which has seen significant results. [There has been] a considerable decline in the most important indicator: homicides.”
Sandoval said the operation deployed a joint force of 5,114 personnel to combat and contain violence, detaining 150 suspects and confiscating 21 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine, 529 kilograms of marijuana, 38 kilograms of fentanyl, eight kilograms of cocaine, 45 illegal firearms and 36 vehicles.
Security forces also freed 15 people who were being held against their will.
The uniforms of the new National Guard.
The defence chief said that prior to launching the new strategy Tijuana was recording an average of 5.2 homicides a day. That figure is down 21%, he said.
He added that operations have been accompanied by a corresponding increase in police reports by residents and an uptick in the local economy and the number of tourists.
Sandoval also used the press conference to introduce the uniforms to be worn by the National Guard, the new security force that is the centerpiece of the new government’s security strategy.
He said that officers of the force will begin wearing the uniforms within a month and a half when 21,000 army and navy personnel begin three months of basic training followed by five months of specialized training in public security.
In eight months’ time, Sandoval said, they will be ready to go to work.
López Obrador told the conference that the head of the National Guard will be named in the next 10 days.
Municipal authorities in Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, will impose fines on motorcyclists traveling with children, a councilor said yesterday.
“On the subject of motorcycles, traveling with minors is not allowed, either with the passenger at the front or the back,” Israel López Martínez said in an interview, explaining that the change in the law is a road safety measure.
He also said that adult passengers will be fined if they’re not wearing a helmet.
López, who is also the president of the municipal government’s legislative affairs committee, added that authorities have decided to modify an article of a transportation bylaw in order to explicitly state that “it is totally prohibited to use an electronic device while driving.”
That decision was taken, he said, because statistics show that the majority of car accidents are caused by distracted drivers.
In addition, López said that the law has been modified to make it illegal not to wear a seatbelt when traveling both in the front and rear seats of a motor vehicle.
Archaeologists' discoveries in Mexico City are expected to lead to an emperor's tomb.
After discovering a treasure trove of sacrificial offerings in the heart of Mexico City, archaeologists believe that the uncovering of an Aztec emperor’s tomb could be next.
Archaeologists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) have already found the remains of a richly adorned jaguar dressed as a warrior and a young boy dressed to resemble Huitzilopochtli – a deity of war, sun and human sacrifice – near the steps of the Templo Mayor, a temple located behind the Metropolitan Cathedral in the capital’s historic center.
The INAH team has also found a set of flint knives decorated with mother of pearl and precious stones.
The news agency Reuters revealed the details of the offerings in an exclusive report published yesterday.
It said the offerings were deposited by Aztec, or Mexica, priests more than five centuries ago in a circular, ritual platform in front of the Templo Mayor, which Aztecs believed was at the center of the universe.
Tlatoanis, or rulers, of Tenochtitlán – the Aztec capital – are also believed to have been buried there but despite decades of digging, a royal tomb has never been found.
But according to chief archaeologist Leonardo López Lujan, that could soon change.
“We have enormous expectations right now,” he told Reuters. “As we go deeper we think we’ll continue finding very rich objects.”
So far, archaeologists have only excavated about one-tenth of a large rectangular stone box in which the remains of the sacrificed jaguar were found.
In addition to the west-facing jaguar, a spear thrower and a carved wooden disc representative of Huitzilopochtli, which was placed on the feline’s back, have also been discovered along with a large quantity of shells, a bright red starfish, coral and a roseate spoonbill, a pink bird from the flamingo family.
The marine artifacts are believed to have represented the watery underworld that Aztecs believed the sun passed through at night before rising in the east at the start of a new day.
The remains of a young boy dressed to resemble the god Huitzilopochtli.
A wooden disc, a necklace made of jade brought from Central America and wings made from hawk bones were found with the approximately nine-year-old sacrificed boy, who likely had his heart ripped out during the death ritual to which he was subjected.
Several decades after the Spanish conquest of Mexico, chroniclers wrote about the burials of three Aztec tlatoanis, the brothers Axayacatl, Tizoc and Ahuitzotl, who ruled consecutively from 1469 to 1502.
The accounts said the rulers’ cremated remains were placed in or near the circular platform of the Templo Mayor with extravagant offerings and the hearts of sacrificed slaves.
Thirteen years ago, a massive monolith of Coatlicue, the Aztec earth goddess, was discovered nearby with an inscription corresponding to 1502, the year Ahuitzotl died and was succeeded by Moctezuma II.
Elizabeth Boone, a pre-Hispanic Mexico specialist at New Orleans’ Tulane University, said the death of Ahuitzotl – considered the Aztec empire’s greatest ruler – would have been marked with lavish offerings and that the jaguar could be representative of his status as a fearless warrior.
“You could have Ahuitzotl in that box,” she said.
However, Miguel Baez, another archaeologist working on the excavation project, explained that “there’s an enormous amount of coral that is blocking what we can see below.”
Archaeologists are expected to continue looking through the newly-discovered offerings and searching for new ones over the coming months but accessing the depths of the deposit boxes in the ritual platform is not the only challenge they face.
The new federal government has cut the project’s budget by 20% this year as part of its austerity plan, several archaeologists told Reuters, and almost all the members of the 25-person INAH team haven’t been paid since December.
Army personnel seized a tonne of California spiny lobster yesterday in Ensenada, Baja California.
Soldiers carrying out an inspection of a three-tonne truck in Ejido Ajusco led to the discovery of a hidden compartment under the truck’s bed, where 32 boxes containing the illegal catch were found.
Authorities believe that the cargo’s destination was the black market where a kilogram of the lobster would sell for US $60 to $70, which would have generated illicit revenue of $70,000.
The driver of the truck was placed under arrest.
The spiny lobster fishing season in Baja California starts in mid-September and concludes in mid-February. At the end of the last season, the state fisheries agency reported that close to 700 tonnes of the crustacean had been caught.
The 2013 educational reforms were up for discussion in the lower house of Congress again today, but not for long: teachers once again blocked access to the Chamber of Deputies, shutting down all congressional activity.
Education and constitutional affairs commissions were to meet today and formally discuss the reforms implemented by the previous federal government, but only 20 of the 66 deputies arrived before members of the CNTE teachers’ union.
The meeting was called off and re-scheduled for Thursday.
About 30 arrived at the congressional palace at about 7:00am. Within an hour and a half, all the entrances were blocked by teachers and their tents.
The spokesman for the union’s Oaxaca local, Section 22, told reporters that the protest was in response to the failure of deputies to meet one of the teachers’ demands, namely having access to the document the lawmakers were going to discuss during today’s meeting.
Wilbert Santiago warned that “reinforcements” were expected to arrive in buses later today, and augment the protest camp’s numbers.
Last week, the Chamber of Deputies was shut down for 48 hours after about 1,500 protesting teachers set up a camp on the streets outside.
Then, as now, the teachers were demanding repeal of the controversial reforms, which President López Obrador has promised to do.
However, one of the most controversial aspects of the reforms was the introduction of teacher evaluations. Opposition members in Congress said on Saturday that about 80% of the reforms remain in the new legislation, including evaluations.
More protests by the dissident CNTE union are likely.
Mexico’s high homicide numbers during the first two months of 2019 have prompted the world’s largest medical and travel security services firm to issue a warning to the companies it advises.
International SOS (ISOS) said in a travel advisory that the increase in the number of murders is reflective of persistent security risks in the country.
“According to government statistics, close to 5,000 homicides were recorded at a national level during January and February, representing an increase of 13.5% in comparison with the same period of 2018,” the company said.
“The change in the rate reflects the significant and persistent risks of crime despite the promises of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to improve security in the country,” the warning continued.
ISOS, which counts almost two-thirds of the world’s 500 biggest companies among its clients, noted that López Obrador has “inherited” a difficult security situation from his predecessors.
The states of Baja California, Chihuahua, Colima, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Tabasco, México, Michoacán, Morelos, Sinaloa, Tamaulipas and Veracruz are the highest risk areas of the country, the warning said.
ISOS acknowledged that tourists are rarely the direct targets of criminal groups but warned that the rising homicide rate could cause an increase in confrontations between criminals and security forces in public spaces.
With regard to personal safety, the company warned that “if you are approached by a criminal, assume that the aggressor is armed and don’t do anything to resist or confront” that person.
“Such crimes can turn deadly due to the wide availability of firearms,” ISOS added.
