One of the strongest explosions recorded in recent years at the Popocatépetl volcano occurred last night, expelling incandescent rock fragments in a 2.5-kilometer radius around the crater and triggering an ash fall alert in the city of Puebla and 11 other municipalities.
Recorded at 9:38pm, the explosion expelled a plume that rose 1.2 kilometers above the crater. The mobile seismic alert SkyAlert reported that the blast could be heard 40 kilometers away.
The ash expelled in the explosion started to drift toward northeastern Puebla state and was followed by an ash fall alert issued by the state Civil Protection office for the municipalities of Atlixco, Cuauhtlancingo, Huaquechula, Ocoyucan, Puebla, San Andrés and San Pedro Cholula, San Diego la Mesa Tochimiltzingo, San Gregorio Atzompa, San Jerónimo Tecuanipan, Santa Isabel Cholula and Teopantlán.
Civil Protection authorities reiterated that a 12-kilometer security radius is in place around the volcano, as it is expected to continue exploding and expelling fragments.
That radius was breached a week ago when several people climbed to the top of the volcano and filmed video of the crater, drawing rebukes from authorities.
With regard to the ash fall, authorities advise the use of wet face masks in case of exposure, keeping pets indoors and windows closed, and sweeping up ash instead of washing it away.
The president signs a pledge not to run for re-election.
President López Obrador signed a written undertaking today that he will not seek re-election at the end of his term in 2024, declaring that six years is enough time to “eradicate corruption and impunity.”
The pledge comes in response to claims from opposition party lawmakers that a proposal to subject the president’s rule to a referendum three years after taking office is part of a ploy to enable López Obrador to perpetuate his power.
The president read out his commitment to reporters at his daily press conference this morning.
“. . . During more than 20 years, I have declared on several occasions that upon reaching a public position, I would subject myself to a revocation of mandate [vote],” López Obrador said, explaining that he made the promise while campaigning in the 2006, 2012 and 2018 presidential elections.
“So, in the middle of my mandate, in 2021, a consultation should be carried out in order to ask citizens if they want me to continue governing or to resign,” the president said.
López Obrador acknowledged in the commitment that he was elected to serve a six-year term but added that according to the constitution, “the people have every right to change the form of their government, in other words, the people install [the president] and the people remove [the president].”
To that end, the president explained that he asked Congress to make the required constitutional changes to allow the midterm referendum to take place.
“However, my political adversaries, the conservatives who think that I am like them – because their true doctrine is hypocrisy – proclaim that the proposal to subject myself to a revocation of mandate [vote] conceals the intention to stand for reelection in 2024,” López Obrador said.
“In light of this lie, it is necessary for me to reiterate my democratic principles and convictions to establish the following:
I am a maderista [adherent of revolutionary and former president Francisco Madero] and supporter of his slogan ‘effective suffrage, no re-election.’
Ideals and convictions inspire me, not the ambition for power.
I believe that power only has meaning and becomes a virtue when it is placed at the service of others.
I believe that six years is enough to eradicate corruption and impunity and turn Mexico into a prosperous, democratic and fraternal republic . . .
I reaffirm that I’m not a supporter of and I don’t agree with re-election and under no circumstance would I try to perpetuate myself in the position I currently hold because that wouldn’t only mean going against the constitution but also betraying my principles and renouncing my honesty, which I consider to be the most valuable thing in my life.
. . . I will leave the presidency on the exact day that the maximum and supreme law indicates and in 2024 I will go to [my ranch in] Palenque. But I also say with sincerity that I hope with my whole heart, with my whole soul, that what has been achieved [by my government] is very difficult to reverse, so that the country doesn’t go back to the vile and sad times in which the mafia of power ruled.”
Winged models helped celebrate the anniversary of the expropriation of the oil industry.
Edecanes might have a hard time finding work in Mexico City, but not in Agua Dulce, Veracruz.
The scantily dressed, eye-candy female models were banned in the capital last year by the previous city government, which ruled that the models would no longer be allowed at government events.
But there were several of the lingerie-clad models on Sunday at the traditional oil workers parade in Agua Dulce, Veracruz, creating some controversy on social media. One commenter asked, “Is this a traditional parade or a table dance?”
The carnival-like parade takes place on the eve of the official anniversary of the expropriation of the Mexican oil industry, a national holiday that commemorates the nationalization of the country’s petroleum reserves, facilities and companies under then-president Lázaro Cárdenas on March 18, 1938.
The models from the Mujer Bonita agency, wearing underwear, enormous wings and not much else, climbed aboard nine floats decorated to represent the different areas where Section 22 of the Mexican Oil Workers’ Union (STPRM) operates.
Some union members were not supportive of the display of near-naked women: “This is how Section 22 operates in Agua Dulce, Veracruz: throwing away money instead of supporting their temporary workers who have gone months without a contract.”
The federal government has invited four companies to make bids to build a new US $8-billion oil refinery on the Gulf of Mexico coast in Tabasco.
Energy Secretary Rocío Nahle announced yesterday that the consortiums Bechtel-Techint and WorleyParsons-Jacobs and the companies Technip and KBR have been asked to participate in the invitation-only tendering process.
“Pemex selected the best refinery-construction companies in the world, those which demonstrated that they have extensive experience in the execution of these kinds of projects [as well as] technical capacity, economic capacity, quality and a transparent record of operational practices . . .” Nahle said.
She explained that the Secretariat of Public Administration (SFP) will collaborate with the Secretariat of Energy (Sener) and the state oil company in the process to assess the tenders, select a winner and oversee construction of the refinery at Dos Bocas.
The project is expected to create around 23,000 direct jobs, 100,000 indirect ones and be completed in three years.
Nahle said that environmental, topographical, geotechnical, hydrological and social studies of the 566-hectare site have been completed.
The energy-efficient refinery will have 17 separate plants, 93 storage tanks and green areas, among other features. It is expected to produce 340,000 barrels of oil a day.
The beginning of the tendering process for the Tabasco refinery – Mexico’s seventh – comes a month after President López Obrador announced a US $5.5-billion rescue package for Pemex, which has debt in excess of US $100 billion.
In October, Moody’s Investor Service warned that López Obrador’s plan to increase Mexico’s refining capacity and thus reduce exports of crude would further jeopardize Pemex’s financial position because its revenue in dollars would fall.
The rating agency said that Pemex’s increased income from gasoline sales would be in pesos whereas 87% of its debt is in dollars, a situation that is not only likely to weaken the oil company’s credit rating but could also significantly increase national debt.
Other countries have beaches, too, and some expect to benefit from a lack of marketing by Mexico.
Mexico’s decision to disband its tourism marketing agency will benefit other holiday destinations in the region, according to industry experts.
Bill Geist, CEO of Wisconsin-based tourism consultancy firm DMOproz, told the travel news website Skift that the government’s decision to eliminate the Tourism Promotion Council (CPTM) was “a headscratcher,” and predicted that Caribbean and Central American destinations will benefit, with one in particular poised to cash in.
“I think Puerto Rico’s the winner,” he said. “The beauty of Puerto Rico is if you’re American, you don’t need a passport.”
Geist noted that while Mexico has dissolved its tourism marketing agency, the United States’ external territory has launched a new tourism board, adding “we go where we’re invited.”
Amir Eylon, president of the tourism consulting firm Longwoods International, offered a similar assessment.
“Any destination that is a direct competitor to Mexico right now should be saying thank you to the Mexican government . . . The Mexican beach destinations obviously compete with other beach destinations in Central America and the Caribbean and even the U.S. Do I go to a Florida beach or do I go to Cancún?” he said.
Alejandro Zozaya, CEO of hospitality-travel firm Apple Leisure Group, said that bookings for Cancún and the Riviera Maya are down 14% to 16% compared to a year ago, adding that every destination in Mexico is experiencing a decline in tourist numbers or in the quality of visitors.
Conversely, visitor numbers to Costa Rica, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic are all up compared to last year, he added.
“Clearly, Mexico is losing market share,” Zozaya said, explaining that the disbandment of the CPTM is one part of a “perfect storm” that is battering Mexico’s tourism industry.
Other factors that are impacting negatively on tourism are crime and violence in some parts of the country and the arrival en masse of sargassum to the Caribbean coast last year, he said.
The U.S. Department of State has responded to increasing violence in Mexico by issuing a new security alert in the lead-up to Spring Break while last year it warned against traveling to some states altogether.
With such advisories generating negative publicity about Mexico in the United States – the nation’s No. 1 source country for visitors – Geist contended that it is more important than ever to have a marketing agency that can paint the destination in a more favorable light.
“With the travel advisories that are out, they need to get control of that message. And there’s nobody to control that message,” he said.
“I think that’s the biggest issue. There’s no way to control the brand. No way to control the message. There’s nothing coherent.”
Mexico City’s Paseo de la Reforma avenue is now patrolled every day by 100 female police officers on bicycles.
Since January, the transit officers – most of whom are recent graduates of the capital’s Police University – have been riding up and down the emblematic boulevard to keep a discerning eye on fellow cyclists as well as motorists and pedestrians.
Among the officers’ duties are directing traffic, attending motor vehicle accidents, administering first aid and accompanying the frequent protest marches that make their way along the avenue.
One of the officers, a 19-year-old woman only identified as Jacqueline, told the newspaper El Universal that in a 12-hour shift she rides the roughly four-kilometer distance between the Estela de Luz monument at the entrance to Chapultepec Park and Hidalgo Avenue in the city’s historic center as many as eight times.
Two months after beginning their bicycle patrols, the 100 officers have become well-acquainted with the most common offenses committed by citizens on Paseo de la Reforma.
They include pedestrians not crossing the wide avenue where they should, motorists blocking the bike paths, cyclists failing to obey traffic light signals and electric scooter users riding on the sidewalk.
According to Jacqueline, “a lot of people break the rules not because they want to but because they don’t know” what the rules are.
In addition to issuing warnings to scofflaws, the officers also offer friendly advice, such as telling cyclists not to wear headphones while they ride.
Elizabeth, another 19-year-old officer, said it is the responsibility of all the women on two wheels to set a good example for others.
Supervisor Marlene Yuridia explained that all the new recruits to the special police team received specific training for their roles, which in some cases included riding lessons.
“Some of them didn’t know how to ride a bike,” Yuridia said. “But they were given the training they needed in order to be able to get on, [ride] and not have an accident.”
She added that the officers have built up a good rapport with the more than 3,000 other cyclists who use Paseo de la Reforma’s bike paths on a daily basis.
“The cyclists have congratulated us, they say ‘good morning’ or ‘thank you very much’ . . .” Yuridia said.
However, her police partner said that not everyone appreciates their presence.
“. . . Life in Mexico City is stressful so you can find the most polite people as well as the rudest . . .” Eliana Ilse said.
While so far they have been limited to giving warnings, the 100 female officers will soon receive hand-held devices that allow them to issue fines.
The albino gray whale sighted off the Baja coast. Manuel González
An albino whale has been spotted off the coast of Baja California Sur, a rare phenomenon that was caught on camera.
While the Baja whale watching season is in full swing, albino specimens are quite rare in the region and the March 3 sighting by Manuel González is believed to be the third in the last decade.
Federal environmental authorities recorded the first sighting ever in 2008, nicknaming the albino gray whale Galón de Leche (gallon of milk).
In 2017, there was a second sighting: Galón de Leche had given birth to an albino whale that has been since nicknamed Costalito de Sal (little sack of salt).
Authorities have not confirmed whether the latest sighting is Galón de Leche, its calf or a new specimen altogether.
Prices for Mexican opium gum plummeted by as much as 80% last year due to the rise in demand for the synthetic opioid fentanyl among United States drug users, according to an independent study.
After carrying out field work in the states of Guerrero and Nayarit, the Network of Researchers in International Affairs (Noria) said that prices paid to opium poppy farmers for the gum – the raw material for heroin – had fallen from 20,000 pesos (US $1,050) per kilo in 2017 to between 6,000 and 8,000 pesos (US $315-$420) last year.
However, Noria added that some farmers had mentioned “rumors of prices going even lower, around 4,000 pesos (US $208),” which equates to an 80% decline on 2017 prices.
The report No More Opium for the Masses said that “the dramatic upswing in fentanyl use in the United States is generating a parallel and rapid collapse in the price offered for raw opium in rural Mexico.”
Fentanyl, mainly exported to the United States from China, is 30 to 50 times stronger than heroin, Noria said.
The increasing demand for the drug caused the net value of opium production in Mexico to fall to an estimated 7 billion pesos (US $367.4 million) last year compared to around 19 billion pesos (US $1 billion) in 2017.
The decline in opium income, Noria said, “is causing a series of very serious secondary economic effects” in communities that are dependent on the cash crop.
“Many local peasants are not even making back their investment on the product; many families are losing their sole source of income; the amount of money flowing into the local economy has dried up almost completely; and many are leaving their villages for temporary agricultural work or even to work directly for the cartels,” the report said.
“The Mexican opium crisis looks like it might ruin the poorest areas of rural Mexico for good.”
To provide “a way out” for Mexico’s opium producers, Noria considered two solutions that have been proposed by politicians and non-governmental organizations, among others.
“The first widely-touted solution to the poverty and violence bound up with Mexico’s drug war is the legalization and regulation of opium production for medicinal use. Farmers would cultivate poppies and sell their opium harvests to private pharmaceutical companies, who would then convert the opium to morphine and use it for pain relief in Mexican hospitals,” the report said.
Noria noted that Guerrero Governor Héctor Astudillo and Interior Secretary Olga Sánchez, among others, have suggested that legalization could not only bring economic benefits but also help to stem violence.
However, Noria added that “we do not see legalization as a silver bullet for the problems of Mexico’s opium-growing regions,” explaining that “there are legal barriers to the change” and that “the link between legalization and decreasing violence seems overly simplistic.”
It also said that “Mexico’s capacity for opium production greatly exceeds the country’s demand for legitimate medical use, which suggests that the legalization of opium for medical use in Mexico would not provide adequate demand to offset the economic losses suffered by current producers.”
The second solution was “crop substitution.”
The research organization acknowledged that President López Obrador has “suggested that poppy cultivation in Guerrero could be substituted for maize, in order to provide local peasants with an ‘honest’ way of sustaining themselves and their families.”
However, Noria said that “in countries where crop substitution programs have been implemented, their success has also been limited by one simple fact: illicit drug crops tend to command a higher price, thanks to the laws of international supply and demand, than their legal alternatives.”
Despite the concerns, “if properly researched and managed, both policies could be introduced relatively cheaply and effectively,” Noria said.
“Initially at least, they would help to loosen the grip of organized crime groups on the regions, and tie farmers to licit international markets. In combination with other broader security policies, they could even succeed in integrating these marginalized areas into the country for good,” the report concluded.
One of the world’s fastest luxury vehicles was completely destroyed in an accident yesterday in Mexico City.
The Koenigsegg CCXR Special One, estimated to have cost about 30 million pesos (US $1.57 million) was traveling at an excessive speed on Paseo de la Reforma, according to witnesses, but few details have been made public.
The vehicle was built by Swedish-based Koenigsegg Automotive AB for the royal family of Qatar, and then sold to a buyer in Mexico last October.
Its maximum speed is in excess of 400 kilometers per hour and it can go from 0 to 100 kilometers per hour in 3.1 seconds.
Photos of the car had been posted to the owner’s Instagram account under the name @don_koenigsegg while videos have been posted to YouTube showing the car traveling at high speeds in Mexico City.
The vehicle arrived in Mexico last October.
It was the second Koenigsegg to be destroyed in an accident in Mexico in recent years. A CXX Custom Vision was traveling at high speed when it struck a curb on a highway in Tamaulipas and flipped over several times before coming to rest on the median.
The two occupants suffered minor injuries in the 2016 crash.
The vehicle had recently been sold for US $1.4 million, according to reports at the time.
A nearly completed adobe home in Hueyapan, Morelos. Brenda Solano Picazo
For some, the 7.1-magnitude earthquake that shook central Mexico on September 19, 2017 is now a distant memory. But for many others, the effects are still being felt.
While Mexico City received the lion’s share of attention, with videos of crumbling buildings in the massive capital seen worldwide, the communities around the epicenter in Raboso, Puebla, near the border of Morelos, were devastated.
Within a week of the earthquake, while rescue crews still combed through buildings in Mexico City in search of trapped victims, Taller Nuevos Territorios, a network of engineering and design specialists, was already on the ground in some of the most desperate communities of Morelos.
With international and national donations and volunteers, the group raised 80 emergency shelters made with heavy tarps and vinyl siding in the village of La Nopalera within three weeks. Another 49 were raised in Hueyapan. The communities were involved in the process throughout, said TNT coordinator and architect Brenda Solano Picazo.
“We originally raised about 397,000 pesos [US $20,800 at today’s exchange rate], which we managed to get together very quickly,” Solano said. “In the days immediately after the tremor there was a lot of willingness to help. With the project of building homes it has been much more difficult, partly because the amounts we require are much higher. We managed to gather about 325,000 pesos, which covered the cost of one home and one separate bedroom next to another home.”
The dry bathroom of an adobe home in Hueyapan, Morelos. Brenda Solano Picazo
In La Nopalera, Solano said, the Mexican military was fully involved in helping with reconstruction. That help, she said, did not arrive in Hueyapan, so the team decided to direct its focus on what seemed to be a forgotten community.
TNT also directs sustainable private architecture projects (specializing in clean water technologies) in areas of Michoacán and México state, among other places.
Based in Mexico City, it consists of Solano and co-directors Daniel Jaramillo and Claudia Rodríguez, and a small group of architects completes the team. The group’s original idea had been to create multiple adobe homes using local manpower, starting in Hueyapan.
It would seek donations as it had been doing following the earthquake, and rely on training locals how to construct with an endemic material. Beneficiaries would receive a home but nothing comes free.
The condition placed by TNT was that the homes would be built from adobe, not concrete. And that those who benefitted from the homes would be able to participate in their construction in order to learn a new skill. Solano says that the payment TNT had organized for builders was higher than the average take-home salary of a person living in Hueyapan.
The group returned to Hueyapan a year after the deadly quake in order to make good on its promise: to create sustainable, earth-based homes for local people who needed them and who were willing to chip in and assist in the process.
Marcela Ramirez, owner of a new adobe home, and son Omar. megan frye
In December, TNT completed its first adobe home after four months of construction. It was built for Marcela Ramírez, a widow who was left homeless with her infant son as a result of the earthquake. She contributed to the process by providing meals to the building team.
“I want my family to grow up in an adobe home, because that is what we have always had in this community,” Ramirez said. “The material itself is ideal because it’s cool during the day and warm at night. Concrete doesn’t do that. I also want to have adobe because I feel in contact with the earth that way. I want my child to grow up in contact with the earth and in contact with our history.”
Adobe is a natural building material used worldwide and one of the oldest housing materials on record. The basic idea behind adobe is that the materials used (depending on location they can in some cases be animal manure, cornstalks, etc.) are locally sourced and therefore lower cost.
The other benefit of adobe is that it is a thermal material, keeping homes cool during the days underneath intense sunshine (as is common in the high-altitude communities of Morelos) and keeping them warm at night when temperatures drop to near freezing. The material has about an eight-hour release time, meaning that the heat of the day remains through the night and the cool of the night remains during the day.
Traditionally, all homes in Hueyapan and La Nopalera were made with adobe. But over the years adobe has come to be seen as a lesser material because it is associated with being indigenous (an association synonymous with “poor” and “uneducated” since the era of the Spanish invasion in the 16th century) in Mexico’s clearly marked race and class system, and because concrete is associated with progress.
Nevertheless, Solano said that TNT had done calculations that found that using concrete was actually more expensive than adobe. And of course, concrete does not offer the thermal benefits.
Solano, left, and Noé Lucas, right, discuss plans for an adobe home with Jorge Flores. Megan Frye
Following the destruction in small communities like Hueyapan, Solano said, many masons and construction workers raised their prices in order to profit from the demand. And while Mexico’s disaster relief fund, Fonden, did give financial assistance to those who lost their homes in the earthquake, it was at times complicated to access.
People who were deemed to have lost their homes — but only those who were deemed to be the owner of the property — received money deposited into an account that could be withdrawn for labor costs only. They were also given a card with funds on it, but it could only be used at certain government-approved stores.
Back in Hueyapan, TNT hired local farmer Jorge Flores to work on the adobe home. A skilled mason, Noé Lucas, came from México state to serve as foreman. Though Flores is not a carpenter or mason by trade, he said he’s picked up those skills over the past year following the earthquake, when everyone had to jump in with a helping hand.
“What happens is that in this case we needed to bring in a foreman, and he was able to teach the other workers how to build with adobe and of course they were getting paid,” Solano said. “Now, Jorge could easily oversee an adobe construction project.”
Many of the hundreds of homes that were damaged or destroyed in Hueyapan have been reconstructed using concrete, while other groups have come in with earth-based materials as well, including bamboo and superadobe (a twist on traditional adobe but using specific architectural formats and the mineral lime). Still, Solano said, keeping the tradition of adobe housing alive in the community is important.
“Now that people have seen how happy Marcela is with her house, they are also interested in having an adobe home,” she said.
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“Being there and building with adobe is helping to change the perception of adobe. In reality, it doesn’t take that much longer to build . . . than with concrete and ultimately the price is much, much less because the primary component is earth which means that people don’t even have to leave the area in order to obtain the materials.
“As architects interested in earth-based materials, we want to rescue this ancient method of construction. There has been talk about designating Hueyapan as a Pueblo Mágico [magical town], which could mean more tourism and more government interest. Adobe itself is preservation of Mexican history.”
Megan Frye is a writer, photographer and translator living in Mexico City. She has a history of newsroom journalism as well as non-profit administration and has been published by several international publications.
