The meth seized at the Pharr-Reynosa border crossing.
Meth-flavored strawberries are the newest export from Mexico to the United States.
A haul of methamphetamine worth US $12.7 million was found last Saturday by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents in a commercial shipment of frozen strawberries from Mexico.
The CBP said the berries were found at at the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge in Texas.
Agents found 350 tightly sealed packages amounting to 411 kilograms of the drug concealed in a semi-trailer.
The 42-year-old truck driver, a Mexican citizen, was arrested.
“This was an outstanding interception our officers accomplished this weekend,” said David Gonzalez, director of the port of entry, adding that the officers’ “astute sense of awareness and tenacity is unparalleled and truly commendable.”
The Pharr-Reynosa bridge is a major port of entry on the Mexico-U.S. border. According to officials, about 175,000 vehicles cross the bridge every month.
According to the CBP, 87% of methamphetamine seized at the border in the first 11 months of 2018 was being smuggled at legal crossings.
The president, left, and Pemex boss Romero speaking at this morning's press conference.
President López and Pemex CEO Octavio Romero said this morning that fuel theft has been slashed by more than 90% since November and projected major savings as a result.
Romero told reporters that the president’s anti-theft strategy had brought theft down from a daily average of 56,000 barrels last year to 15,600 barrels since the strategy was implemented.
In November the average peaked at 81,000 barrels stolen daily, he said. The first 20 days of December saw a daily average of 74,000, but after shutting off the pipelines from December 21 to 31 there was a decrease to 23,000 barrels a day.
“In January, an average of 18,000 barrels of fuel were stolen daily, and so far in February the average is 8,000,” Romero said. “In this sense, the results have been very evident and positive.”
The president was even more upbeat at his morning press conference and thanked citizens who backed his strategy and waited in long lines during the period when gas shortages triggered a crisis in many states for residents and businesses alike.
“Despite resistance, fuel distribution has been normalized throughout the country . . . . Those who tried to destabilize us didn’t achieve their goal.”
He also thanked the armed forces for their essential role.
Defense Secretary Crescencio Sandoval said since December 21 the army has thwarted 1,260 fuel thefts. Navy chief José Rafael Ojeda said that four major shipping operations linked to fuel theft had also been stopped and their cargo seized.
Security Secretary Alfonso Durazo explained that 175 people have been detained for stealing fuel since the new administration took office December 1.
Romero estimated that 7.8 billion pesos (US $404,000) has already been recuperated through the strategy. The president projected that long term the anti-fuel theft project will save 50 billion pesos (US $2.6 billion) by the end of his six-year term.
Workers on the site of the cancelled airport. There was no comprehensive vision for the project, according to the federal auditor.
The Federal Auditor’s Office (ASF) has questioned the use of more than 68 billion pesos in a new package of audits relating to government spending in 2017.
The ASF says that government departments and agencies must clarify how they spent 68.13 billion pesos (US $3.5 billion at today’s exchange rate) of public money during 2017, the last full year of Enrique Peña Nieto’s six-year presidency.
A total of 9,514 observations were made to the audited entities as part of the third and final assessment of 2017 public accounts.
Presenting the audit package to lawmakers, ASF chief David Colmenares said that 1,675 individual audits were carried out.
Of that number, “1,517 relate to reviews of financial compliance, 150 relate to performance audits and eight [were] public policy evaluations,” Colmenares said.
He said that no criminal complaints have yet been filed in relation to the use of public money in 2017 but reminded lawmakers that during his administration of the ASF, a total of 54 complaints have been made to authorities following audits carried out in previous years.
Just over 4 billion pesos (US $207.1 million) flagged by the ASF relates to three infrastructure projects initiated by the past federal government: the new Mexico City International Airport (NAICM), the Mexico City-Toluca passenger train and the Cuernavaca Paso Express highway.
The NAICM was subjected to three audits which detected irregularities in the project’s planning and execution to the tune of just over 3.2 billion pesos.
“The assessment carried out by the ASF showed that there was not a comprehensive vision of the project, which resulted in deficiencies and limitations in the coordination between [federal] departments and entities and between the three levels of government involved,” the report said.
To date, only 26.4 million pesos – less than 1% of the total irregularities detected – has been recovered, the ASF said.
Audits of the airport also found that the government took on total debt of more than US $6 billion for its construction.
The partially-completed project was cancelled by the new federal government following a public consultation last October that found 70% support for an alternative plan to convert the Santa Lucía air force base in México state for commercial aviation and to upgrade the airports in Mexico City and Toluca.
With regard to the unfinished intercity rail project, the ASF detected irregularities totaling 745.5 million pesos related to spending on planning, construction and the obtaining of rights of way. Only 25.4 million pesos has been recovered.
The project has been plagued by a range of construction and legal problems and its cost has blown out by more than US $1 billion, according to a 2018 study.
The audit of the Paso Express – on which a sinkhole opened in July 2017, trapping a car and killing both occupants – detected negligence in the management of the project and determined that the highway was poorly built. Irregularities totaling 76.5 million pesos were detected.
The ASF is also seeking clarification about the use of more than 1.2 billion pesos that was allocated by federal authorities in 2017 to the México state government to develop a new income policy.
The auditor considers the money to be recoverable because it was unable to establish how it was used.
The 68.1-billion-peso figure that the ASF has flagged for possible recovery is 21.7% less than the amount identified in the audit of the 2016 public accounts.
Between 2001 and 2017, the ASF said, it recovered 103 billion pesos (US $5.3 billion) whose use was questioned in its annual public accounts audits.
Homicides month by month since January 2018. snsp/milenio
Last month was the most violent January on record with 2,452 intentional homicide cases, official statistics show.
The figure is 13% higher than the 2,171 cases reported in the same month a year earlier, which was previously the worst January for homicides.
According to the National Public Security System (SNSP), the total number of homicide victims last month was 2,853 as two or more people were killed in some cases.
There were also 70 cases of femicide with 75 women killed, taking the total number of murder victims in January to 2928.
The figure equates to more than 94 murders a day or just under four an hour.
The number of homicide cases in January is also above that seen in December albeit by just eight cases.
Just over 70% of all homicides last month were perpetrated with firearms while 8% involved the use of knives or other bladed weapons.
The month-over-month increase in homicide cases for the first two months of the six-year administration of President López Obrador and the record January figures are especially concerning considering that 2018 was the most violent year on record with more than 33,000 murders.
Compared to January 2018, the number of intentional homicides last month increased in 16 of Mexico’s 31 states as well as in Mexico City.
Guanajuato recorded the highest number of homicides in January with 293 followed by México state with 262; Baja California with 261; Jalisco, with 232; and Chihuahua with 194.
In per capita terms, Colima and Baja California Sur were the most violent states with respective rates of 7.65 and 6.33 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants.
Kidnappings are also up, according to SNSP statistics, with 140 cases in January compared to 76 in the same month of 2018 – a 46% increase.
The number of kidnapping victims – 164 – is the highest ever recorded in the first month of a year.
Comparisons of January 2018 and January 2019 statistics also show that extortion cases surged by 60%, robberies increased by 5% and reports of retail drug dealing were up 16%.
The new crime data was released yesterday as public debate over the creation of a national guard intensifies.
López Obrador has made it clear that he wants the new security force to be created as soon as possible, arguing that it is needed to combat the high levels of violence in Mexico, but the National Human Rights Commission this week repeated its criticism of the national guard proposal, declaring that it “is not appropriate or viable.”
An exploration project to search for the 500-year-old sunken ships of Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés is making progress, according to the leading archaeologist.
An international team led by Dr. Roberto Junco, head of the Underwater Archaeology Department at the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), last year began combing a 10-square-kilometer area of seabed in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Actopan, Veracruz.
The area being explored lies off Playa Villa Rica, a beach located about 75 kilometers north of the port city of Veracruz.
In 1519, historians say, Cortés scuttled 10 of the 11 ships that arrived in Mexico to ensure that the men under his command would have no way to return to Cuba and would follow him on his expedition inland.
Junco told the newspaper El Universal that using a magnetometer and a side-scan sonar, among other technologies, underwater archaeologists have located “between 60 and 70 magnetic anomalies” that could be ship parts. Divers will review each and every one of the anomalies, he explained.
Diver at work off the coast of Veracruz.
“We’ve reviewed a dozen magnetic anomalies but this year we have to continue with the revision to see if we can find the remains of the 10 ships . . . .” Junco said.
“We’ve found some relics of maritime activity in the area. We still need to dig . . . in the areas where there are anomalies, that will allow us to detail what elements are there, they could be bolts, anchors, cannons, all kinds of metal objects that the ships had, even wood that has nails used in construction,” he added.
The archaeologist explained that digging is necessary because it is likely that the remains of the ships are hidden below meters of sand and sediment.
Junco said that Canadian experts collaborating on the project have specialized machinery that allows hidden objects to be visualized before they are uncovered, quipping “the ships aren’t going to be waiting for us on the sand.”
To date, no objects have been removed from the sea.
“We follow the philosophy of leaving things in situ. Until you can truly conserve an object, you don’t remove it because water conserves it quite well despite what you might think. Once you remove an object from the aquatic medium it begins to deteriorate very quickly. We don’t take anything out unless we’re sure we can conserve it,” Junco said.
He said that the probability of finding remains of the ships was high, explaining that if one is found it is likely that the rest of the fleet will be nearby.
The discovery of the ships would be significant, Junco added, because it would facilitate the study and understanding of technology used in the 16th century.
“These ships are very important because they are among the first that sailed through Mexican waters . . . These ships represent very precise technology that made it possible for the Spanish and Portuguese to be able to ‘discover’ . . . an unknown area,” he said.
Junco contended that if the ships are found, their ownership could not be contested because they are in Mexican waters. He also explained that the team he leads is looking for ships sunk by Spanish conquistador Pánfilo de Narváez in the years before Cortés’ expedition.
In the past five centuries, only 19th-century historian Francisco del Paso y Troncoso has scoured the ocean floor to look for Cortés’ sunken fleet but he didn’t locate any of the vessels, which played a key role in the Spanish conquest of Mexico.
Mexico wants the world to know that it has a rich history with baseball.
To that end the National Baseball Hall of Fame was inaugurated yesterday in Fundidora Park in Monterrey, Nuevo León, to showcase the achievements of professional baseball players who have made national history.
The 400-million-peso investment (US $20 million) includes batting and pitching cages, areas for family games, a miniature stadium, a dedicated library with historic documents, temporary and permanent exhibits, a conference room, a movie theater and a store.
Located on the southwest corner of the park, the complex takes up an area of 7,200 square meters.
Among those present at the opening were baseball fan and President López Obrador and Alfredo Harp Helú, businessman and owner of the Diablos Rojos team.
Several national and international baseball legends were also in attendance, including Fernando Valenzuela, Mike Brito, Felipe “Clipper” Montemayor and Francisco González Sánchez, manager of current Mexican Baseball League champions Los Sultanes de Monterrey, among others.
Harp, one of the project’s principal investors, told reporters that the hall of fame was significant because “Baseball, as well as being a sport, is history, statistics, and above all, art.”
In his address, the president expressed his gratitude for businessmen like Harp.
“Fortunately, in Mexico we have investors with social consciousness. They are very important for the development of projects like this one.”
The head of state confessed to being an ardent baseball fan himself and added that Congress had approved funding to encourage the sport. He promised that federal money would be invested in the creation of baseball schools and academies throughout the country.
A view of the path through the gardens at Orquídeas Moxviquil in Chiapas. mark locki
Chiapas. Just the name alone conjures up visions of the cascading waterfalls of Agua Azul, the bright blue lakes of Lagos de Montebello, and lush green canopies of the Lacandon Jungle.
The diversity of natural landscapes is unmatched in Mexico, and visitors travel from all over the world to visit the state’s unique ecosystems.
However, you don’t need to go far from San Cristóbal de las Casas to get in touch with nature. A visit to Reserva Huitepec, Orquídeas Moxviquil Botanical Garden and Arcotete Ecotourism Park will be sure to satisfy most nature lovers visiting this colonial city.
Cerro Huitepec stands as the highest peak of all the mountains surrounding San Cristóbal. When visible through the fog and clouds, the mountain is identifiable by the numerous radio towers protruding from its summit. Reserva Huitepec was the first private reserve in Mexico when it was founded by the environmental organization Pronatura Sur in 1986, protecting the rare plants, wildlife and ecosystem that makes up the dormant volcano.
The entrance to Reserva Huitepec is located a short colectivo ride northwest of San Cristóbal, on the highway to San Juan Chamula. After paying the 30 pesos entrance fee, follow the well-built path as it winds steeply up the hillside, through forests of oak and pine trees. Slowly the sounds of the city fade away, replaced by the chirping of some of the 84 species of birds that call the reserve home.
Trail through Reserva Huitepec. mark locki
If you’re lucky, you may catch a glimpse of hummingbirds, owls and warblers as they fly through the forest canopy. Don’t forget to keep your eye on the ground as well, where you’ll find over 300 species of plants, including many rare and endangered varieties. Numerous signposts along the way provide more information on the plants in the park, including the species used as medicinal herbs by the local Tzotzil population.
Along the 2.5-kilometer trail there are four rest points, consisting of small shelters, benches and informative signposts. Behind the fourth rest stop, a faint trail takes visitors into the upper reaches of the cloud forest, and beyond to the summit of the mountain.
If your legs don’t feel like carrying you any farther up the hill, take the main trail back to the highway. In total, the path takes 45 minutes to 1.5 hours to complete, depending on the pace. If you enjoyed the plants and flowers of Reserva Huitepec, then Orquídeas Moxviquil Botanical Garden should be next on your list of places to visit.
In the north of the city, Orquídeas Moxviquil occupies two hectares of land on Pronatura Sur’s Reserva Moxviquil. Founded in 2007, the garden was established to house the growing collection of orchids that Craig Dietz, one of the founders of Orquídeas Moxviquil, has rescued since 1994 from areas of deforestation and destruction around Chiapas.
Of the 700 different species of orchids in the state, over 400 have found a new home in the garden, which currently has two greenhouses, an amphitheatre, numerous walking paths and a manmade lagoon that provides water for the flowers.
After paying the 50-peso entrance fee (for non-Mexicans), follow the path to the left where you will reach the first greenhouse. As you enter, the heat and humidity instantly hit you in the face, and in a moment you are transported to the lower elevation jungles of Chiapas.
Looking up from the base of a large tree in Reserva Huitepec. mark locki
A short path guides visitors through the chaos of trees, branches and shrubs. But look carefully and you’ll find many species of orchids. Most orchids in the wild reside on trees, at a height between five and 30 meters above the ground, making them out of sight for most.
At Orquídeas Moxviquil, the staff have brought the orchids down to eye level and below, so visitors can see, touch and smell them.
Once finished in the first greenhouse, continue along the path past the lagoon. Fed by rainwater and water pumped from a natural spring, the pond provides the water needed to irrigate the grounds of the garden. It is also populated with popoyote, a species of killifish native to the San Cristóbal valley that is at risk of extinction due to habitat destruction and contamination in nearby waterways.
The second greenhouse contains species of orchids and plants that are found in the Lagos de Montebello region of Chiapas, one of the most endangered ecosystems in the state. The manmade lagoon extends into the greenhouse, giving it a wetlands feel. Benches inside allow you to sit and relax in the surroundings.
Along with the gardens, the grounds also have a two-kilometer hiking trail, taking you farther up into the Reserva Moxviquil and past a greater variety of plants and trees. The exploration of the gardens and the hike can be done either alone or in the company of a guide.
For the more adventure minded, take a visit to Parque Ecoturistico El Arcotete, located east of San Cristóbal de las Casas. The name Arcotete is believed to be an amalgamation of the word arco and the surname of the French explorer, Francois d’Arcecete.
An orchid from a greenhouse at Orchídeas Moxviquil. mark locki
Legend has it that d’Arcecete fell in love with a woman named María de Jesús, and at this location under the arch above the Fogótico river, they swore their unending love to each other. Following a duel in which d’Arcecete took the life of a young Spaniard who also loved María de Jesús, d’Arcecete was sent to prison and María de Jesús banished by her father to a convent, where she died of sadness.
Upon d’Arcecete’s release from prison, he discovered that his love had passed away. Unable to take the grief, d’Arcecete returned to the arch and in true Romeo and Juliet fashion, took his own life.
Today that arch is the main attraction of Arcotete. Formed by the erosion of the Fogótico river running through a cave over millions of years, the arch now hosts an array of rock features, including various stalactites and stalagmites. A cave system runs through the arch, allowing you to view the inside of the arch from 40 meters in the air. Alternatively, head down to the water and relax on a small beach by the river while gazing up to the roof of the cave
For the more courageous, hire a guide from La Roca Sala de Escalada in San Cristóbal and climb the steep limestone cliffs adjacent to the cave. Stronger climbers can impress the onlookers watching from the arch by climbing up its side, across the roof and into the balcony on the cave.
If rock climbing is out of your comfort zone, try rappelling, or zip through the forest above the river on one of the zip-lines that stretch over the property. Finish off your day of adventure with a barbecue in a palapa, or spend the night camping under the stars.
Natural beauty abounds in Chiapas, but you don’t need to look far beyond San Cristóbal de las Casas to find it. Whether it’s the hiking in Reserva Huitepec, visiting the gardens of Orquídeas Moxviquil, or finding adventure in Arcotete, there’s plenty to discover in the immediate surroundings of the town.
This is what the national guard would do, but its ranks would be formed largely by soldiers.
The National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) has repeated its criticism of the federal government’s proposal to create a national guard, declaring that the security force “is not appropriate or viable.”
The proposal to create the new force was approved by Senate committees on Monday and all members of the upper house will have the opportunity to vote on it in an upcoming plenary session.
In a statement, the CNDH urged members of Congress to put respect and protection for human rights first in the constitutional amendments that must be approved in order for the new security force to be created.
The commission said that from a human rights perspective and in consideration of the constitutional amendments as they are currently set out, “the national guard proposal is not appropriate or viable because it doesn’t guarantee nor does it substantively contribute to ending impunity.”
The commission also said that the proposal “weakens civil and democratic institutionality” and contravenes Mexico’s international human rights obligations by “regularizing the participation of the armed forces in public security tasks.”
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and several other non-government organizations have also rejected the proposal, arguing that it will perpetuate a failed militarized crime-fighting strategy first implemented by former president Felipe Calderón in 2006, and result in more human rights violations being committed by the armed forces.
The CNDH said the military should only continue carrying out public security tasks on an “exceptional and temporary” basis while “the technical, operational, legal and structural capacities of police and civil institutions are strengthened.”
Responding to the criticism today, President López Obrador pledged that if approved, the national guard will conduct itself in a way similar to United Nations peacekeepers, a group that is sometimes referred to as the Blue Berets.
“Human rights will be respected,” he said. “So you have a clear idea, the national guard is going to be like the United Nations peacekeeping forces.”
The president urged senators from the opposition National Action Party (PAN), who oppose the security force’s creation, to reconsider their position “because it’s a very important issue to guarantee the security of the country.”
The proposal sent to the Senate by the lower house of Congress recommends that the new security force have a “mixed” or “combined” command made up of both civil and military leaders.
The Secretariat of Security would be in charge of designing the policies and programs the national guard implements while the secretariats of National Defense and the Navy would have operational command.
Claudia Ruiz Massieu, national president of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), said yesterday that the party’s state governors and federal senators support the creation of the force but stressed that their backing was conditional on it having a civilian command and not infringing on the authority of state and municipal governments.
The Senate is expected to start debating the proposal on Thursday, while López Obrador has made it clear that he wants the force to be created as soon as possible.
The president yesterday accused the PAN senators who oppose the National Guard of “unleashing the violence” in Mexico and turning the country into “a cemetery.”
Former president Calderón, who initiated the so-called war on drugs, was from the same party.
More than 200,000 people have been murdered in the 12 years since soldiers and marines took to the streets, and the military has been accused of a range of human rights violations including extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and torture.
Expect to see colorful costumes at the Huejotzingo carnival.
A 151-year-old carnival in Huejotzingo, Puebla, is not only about dancing and drinking, says the mayor.
Angélica Alvarado said the carnival, held continuously for 151 years, has deep cultural roots.
“[The carnival] includes many ritual and symbolic elements that make it unique. It is one of the few [traditional] cultural, dance and musical gatherings that constitutes a grand theater of the masses.”
The mayor explained that the event includes representations of the famous 5 de Mayo battle in Puebla, complete with traditional dress, as well as a reenactment of the wedding of Calixto, the region’s first Catholic wedding of an indigenous person, according to the written account of Friar Toribio de Benavente Motlinía.
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Local children participate in the carnival from a young age and, according to Alvarado, more of the region’s young are represented every year.
The Huejotzingo carnival is considered the largest Mesoamerican ritual gathering still alive today in Mexico and principally celebrates the region’s indigenous ancestry.
Huejotzingo was founded in 1173 by Nahua peoples among other communities established on the slopes of the Iztaccíhuatl volcano. Today’s carnival keeps alive traditions passed from generation to generation from the town’s original inhabitants, says Alvarado.
Many say the carnival is the biggest and most important public festival in the state of Puebla. This year’s festivities are expected to be especially large: 20,000 dancers and 100 bands from Oaxaca, Morelos, Tlaxcala, Guerrero and Puebla will participate.
Scheduled for March 2-5, the event is expected to draw around 80,000 visitors and generate about 20 million pesos (US $1 million).
Authorities are on alert after the detection of new activity at the Popocatépetl volcano.
The national Civil Protection agency released a report yesterday that revealed the discovery of a newly-formed dome in the crater of the volcano, which spans approximately 200 meters in diameter.
The report predicted that the formation could spell ash falls in the days to come.
“The next several days could see more episodes of growth in dome No. 82, which would imply activity similar to that of last Thursday, February 14, or similar to that observed in earlier events.”
Last Thursday, El Popo, as it is also known, erupted in a series of explosions that shot fragments of molten rock from its crater to land a relatively short distance away.
The scientific volcano committee also held a special meeting yesterday to review the developments in the volcano’s activity.
The committee warned of the possibility of a more serious scenario: a powerful volcanic eruption that could send bits of molten earth to land a much farther distance away, along with a choking, several-kilometer-high column of ash. The organization’s scientists cited previous occasions in which similar activity foretold such an eruption.
Despite the formation of the dome inside the volcano’s crater, authorities have not increased the volcanic alert from Yellow Phase 2.
The scientific committee, affiliated with the Civil Protection systems said it was in a state of alert and will remain in constant contact with corresponding authorities in Morelos, Tlaxcala, Puebla, México state and Mexico City.
