According to data from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI), 70% of Mexican households have at least one pet, putting it second only to Argentina for the country with the most household pets.
Another study, GFK Pet Ownership 2016, also arrived at the conclusion that Mexico figures prominently among nations with the most pet lovers.
According to Animal Health Bayer-Mexico marketing director Bruno Rodríguez Muñoz, most Mexicans prefer dogs, though cat ownership is on the rise. The furry division is split 80% dogs to 20% cats in terms of ownership of one of the two most popular household pets.
Rosalía Arriaga, general manager of Dr. Guerrero Veterinary Clinic, said the past few years have seen a significant increase in owners’ preoccupation for their pets’ health.
Towards that end, Bayer-Mexico, with the support of Ocetif, a food certification organization, decided it will issue a certification for veterinarians called TUVET. In a press conference at a veterinary symposium in Mexico City, the organization announced the new certification, the first in Latin America for veterinary clinics and hospitals for smaller animals.
Rodríguez said Bayer-Mexico’s principal objective in issuing the certification is to ensure quality service in veterinary establishments. He said that they expected to issue the first 100 certificates to the first batch of animal hospitals and clinics between May and June.
Ocetif vice-president Mario Gorena Mireles said that in order to receive a certification veterinary practices must demonstrate consistency in veterinary training, engage in preventative medicine, ensure quality care and show warm and attentive customer service.
This tiny bay has space for only one boat to anchor at a time. The next morning, while everyone else heads for shore, I finally attempt to wash my hair which, by now, resembles a long neglected mop head impregnated with used motor oil and grease.
“Don’t use sweet water,” I was told, as our supply is very limited. “Just swish your head in seawater.” I follow instructions and gain new respect for those sailors who spent two months crossing the Atlantic with Christopher Columbus.
We raise anchor at 11:38am and begin to experience a choppy sea. The boat is soon rolling wildly with almost everything on every shelf launched into the air and distributing itself all over the floor. I learn the difference between rocking and rolling: the former frays the nerves while the latter wreaks havoc with anything that’s not nailed down.
Then, for the first time, we hoist our sail. The engine is turned off, the sail is unfurled and now it’s the wind that’s carrying us to Espiritu Santo Island.
Silvery sheen in sea and sky near San Evaristo. Rodrigo Orozco
At last I discover what sailing is like and it turns out to be marvelous. There is neither rocking nor rolling now, just silence, blissful silence. And although we are moving at high speed, the ride is smooth and we are no longer battered by icy spray because the wind is with us instead of against us. I love riding on the wind!
Day 6
Back on Espiritu Santo Island, said to be the most beautiful island in the entire Sea of Cortez. We spend our last night anchored in Bonanza Bay which has a spectacular, two-mile-long beach upon whose gorgeous white sands I cannot spot a single human being. The only inhabitant we can see from the boat is an osprey which sits atop a tall cactus, carefully watching the water and occasionally swooping down to catch a fish.
Apparently we can enjoy pristine beauty and solitude at Isla Espiritu Santo in great part thanks to two “gringos.” According to writer Bryan Jáuregui, American aviator Charles Lindbergh visited Espiritu Santo in 1973 and was so impressed that he went to see the president of Mexico just to promote the idea of protecting the Sea of Cortez.
The result was a decree including 898 islands in a new protected area. Nevertheless, says Jáuregui, entrepreneurs somehow managed, in 1997, to buy 90 hectares near Bonanza Beach, where they planned to build a casino and cabins. Tim Means, the owner of an ecotourism company, got wind of the plan and started an international drive to frustrate this scheme.
Abandoned salt flats near San Evaristo on the mainland.
A coalition of conservationists from all over the world was eventually able to buy most of the island for several million dollars and once they owned it, they promptly donated every one of their properties to the Mexican government. All of this led to the naming of Espiritu Santo and 244 other islands a World Heritage Site in 2005.
As darkness descends over Bonanza Bay, the waves get choppier and gusts of wind set the boat rocking at irregular and unpredictable moments. It’s time for our last dinner and we thaw out the frozen shrimp we have been saving for this occasion: it’s party time!
This same evening, we use up the very last drops of our drinking water. “No problem,” says the captain, “we can substitute beer.” It turns out, however, that we have a liter of fizzy mineral water left which, I discover, turns tooth brushing into a whole new and delightfully bubbly experience.
By the time we hit the sack, the boat is rocking so badly that the captain gets up four times in the night to make sure we are still anchored in the same spot. To sleep, I have to get a good grip on the bed so I won’t roll into the wall. At first my mind keeps wandering to tomorrow: if the water is so choppy here in this protected inlet, what will it be like out in the open sea? Will we be forced to stay in Bonanza Bay an extra day, missing our plane? Or worse, will the anchor work itself loose, sending us crashing into the rocks?
“Has the anchor ever come loose on you?” I asked Captain Rich earlier.
Arrival at the La Paz Marina.
“Oh sure, many times!” he replied, as always with a big smile.
Along with the roar of the wind and the normal creaks, whaps and gurgles, tonight the boat is making new noises: Thunk! Bump! And Raka-raka-raka! The turning ship is scraping against the anchor chain. Well, at least the anchor is still there, I think — but where is “there?”
All the ingredients were present for a night spent in wide-eyed paranoia but, while holding on to the wildly rocking mattress, a kind of peace comes upon me and I decide to stop worrying and enjoy this truly bizarre experience of being thrown around all night. Amazingly, this actually works and I think I slept better this weird night than any other aboard the splendid ship God’s Way.
Day 7
As the sun comes up over Bonanza Bay, the thrashing of the boat actually becomes a little worse instead of better. Even the captain admits to having a less than happy stomach. How is this day going to end?
[soliloquy id="71906"]
Well, Chris makes scrambled eggs for all of us, as if to say, “Who cares what’s going to happen to us, let’s enjoy what we’ve got!” And somehow those eggs seem to me a good omen: don’t worry, enjoy a great breakfast and everything will turn out fine. So we do just that: eat breakfast, raise the anchor and — to everyone’s surprise, I suspect — once we are under way the boat becomes more and more stable.
We are now being pushed by a favorable wind in the general direction of La Paz and we reach the marina much faster than we expected. Upon arrival, at least 20 people pop up. “Welcome back, Richard!” they shout, every one of them kindly offering to lend a hand in the tricky business of “parking” our boat. Bravo, Captain Rich! You brought us back alive.
Afterwards, upon reaching my home near Guadalajara, I discovered I could barely walk a straight line across the living room: the walls were heaving! And as much as I didn’t want to accept it, they kept moving for five more days. Meanwhile, friends were asking: wouldn’t you like to do it again?
Funny, every time they ask me that, the words of a song I heard by Lewis, Pint and Dale come to mind. I’d say they sum up my feelings perfectly:
“An ex-sailorman is the only thing I want to be,
I’d rather cruise a country road than sail upon the stormy sea,
I’d rather drink me tea in bed than leave me breakfast in the head,
An ex-sailor’s life is the life for me!”
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.
Ciudad del Maíz, where gangsters were hired as cops.
A splinter group of the Zetas drug cartel infiltrated an elite division of the San Luis Potosí state police as well as forces in at least three municipalities.
Members of the gang known as Los Talibanes have been hired as police officers in the municipalities of Ciudad del Maíz, El Naranjo and Cárdenas, San Luis Potosí Public Security Secretary Jaime Pineda Arteaga said.
He added that the mayors of the three municipalities have refused to reveal how many gang members they have employed.
According to a report in the newspaper Reforma, members of the same gang previously infiltrated the elite unit of the state police while it was under the command of former state security secretary Arturo Gutiérrez García.
However, the unit was disbanded after Gutiérrez’s resignation in November 2017.
Four alleged members of Los Talibanes who went on to work in municipal forces were arrested last month but only two remain in custody.
On January 20, two Ciudad del Maíz municipal police officers identified as Talibanes were arrested on charges of possessing drugs as well as weapons for which they didn’t have a license.
Four days after they were detained, the two men were released from custody after a judge ruled that their arrest was illegal because it occurred without a search warrant at a private address.
Two other police identified as Talibanes were also arrested last month, the San Luis Potosí Attorney General’s office said.
The officers, members of the Cárdenas municipal force, face homicide charges after allegedly killing two men on January 3.
Los Talibanes, a gang founded in Tamaulipas, takes its name from Iván Velázquez Caballero, a criminal leader known as “El Talibán” and “El Z-50” who was arrested in 2012 and extradited to the United States, where he was sentenced to 30 years in prison on drug trafficking charges.
Before he was captured, Velázquez broke ties with Miguel Ángel Treviño Morales – “El Z-40” – with whom he worked in Los Zetas.
He allied himself with the Gulf Cartel to wage a war against Treviño, who was one of Mexico’s most wanted drug lords until his arrest in 2013.
El Talibán’s namesake criminal gang is also under investigation in San Luis Potosí for a gun attack earlier this month on Pedro César Carrizales Becerra, a state lawmaker and former gangster known as “El Mijis.”
Authorities believe the attack could be retaliation for a bill presented by Carrizales to ban bullfighting and cockfighting in San Luis Potosí. The latter blood sport is controlled by criminal groups in some parts of the state.
At least five bullets were shot at Carrizales’ car but the lawmaker was not injured.
Federal and state authorities dedicated a new museum yesterday at the El Cerrito archaeological site in Corregidora, Querétaro.
The state invested 18.7 million pesos (US $970,000) in erecting the facility that is being managed by the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), which also contributed with its field investigations.
The municipality also contributed with infrastructure and public works projects around the new museum, including access, the paving of roads leading to the facility and laying underground power lines.
The El Cerrito museum is now part of a network of 160 exhibition sites managed by INAH, and will showcase 125 archaeological artifacts recovered over the last 25 years in the area, testament to the influence of the Toltec, Chichimeca and Otomí cultures in the region.
Governor Francisco Domínguez Servién said it was the government’s responsibility to “increase, promote and watch over this treasure; a mirror in which present and future generations will be able to see themselves and recognize each other.”
Federal Tourism Secretary Miguel Torruco Marqués remarked that Querétaro represented 2% of the nation’s hotel occupancy during 2018.
The state, he continued, has more than 500 hotels — 68% of which are between three and five stars — and an average occupancy rate of 56%. The hotel and service industries together represent just over one-quarter of the state’s gross domestic product.
“All levels of government will work closely to attain the goal of repositioning [the state] in world rankings, attracting foreign currency and achieving more spending per tourist. The best is yet to come,” Torruco said.
President López Obrador today leveled a conflict of interest accusation against the head of Mexico’s energy sector regulator but without offering any details, saying that more information will be provided Monday.
The president’s claim comes after Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) chief Guillermo García Alcocer criticized the candidates the president proposed to fill four positions on the commission’s governing body.
“As I have a right of reply, now I’m going to announce that the gentleman, the president of the CRE, has conflicts of interest and on Monday we’re going to announce all the information about why he has the conflicts of interest,” López Obrador said at his morning press conference.
He accused the CRE of awarding oil exploration contracts to private companies that didn’t generate any benefits for Pemex.
On Wednesday, García said López Obrador’s candidates don’t represent a sufficient breadth of knowledge and experience in the energy sector.
“I see an imbalance in terms of hydrocarbons and electricity. The profiles [of the candidates] look very skewed towards hydrocarbons. We practically can’t identify expertise in electricity and I believe that is something that is much needed [to understand] the complexities of the market,” he told the newspaper El Financiero.
Seven of 12 candidates put forward by the president and sent to the Senate are chemical engineers and 10 of them were formerly employed at Pemex.
In response to López Obrador’s conflict of interest accusation today, García said that he has “nothing to hide.”
In a radio interview, the CRE chief said that he is waiting to see what evidence López Obrador presents to support his claim but emphasized that he has worked in the public sector his whole life and always declared his interests.
García added that it is not up to him to formally assess the candidates proposed by the president, pointing out that the Senate has the responsibility to do so.
All he did, García said, was to highlight that it appeared that there are a lot of hydrocarbon experts on López Obrador’s list and no electricity specialists.
The president’s broadside against the CRE today was not the first time this week that he took aim at the commission.
On Monday, López Obrador asserted that it played a role in awarding contracts to three private companies to build natural gas pipelines that have cost the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) billions of pesos but which remain incomplete.
The CRE rejected the claim, stating that while it approved the CFE’s tendering processes, it didn’t participate in them in any way.
García told the newspaper El Universal that both López Obrador and CFE chief Manuel Bartlett are misinformed about the role that the CRE plays as well as the contribution that private companies make to Mexico’s energy sector, charging that their presence has allowed the CFE to reduce its costs.
García said that he was willing to meet with the president to “inform him about all this” because “he needs to know us and know what we do,” adding “we’re open to collaboration, we’re part of the government and . . . we’re willing to talk.”
It’s been a big week for conflict of interest accusations by the federal government.
On Monday, Bartlett accused nine former public officials, including ex-president Felipe Calderón, of awarding energy contracts to private companies at which they would later work.
López Obrador promptly proposed a 10-year ban on officials going into the private sector in a field related to their government position, stating that he believed that joining the private sector soon after leaving government was not only illegal but immoral.
There were armed clashes and roadblocks yesterday in at least four municipalities of Michoacán, one of which occurred just steps away from a school.
Police were on a routine patrol on the Arantepacua-Turícuaro highway in Nahuatzen when armed civilians opened fire.
The ensuing gunfight ended with the death of one of the attackers and the arrest of two men who were carrying three firearms, and 14 packages containing a substance suspected to be crystal methamphetamine.
There were also armed confrontations in the municipalities of Aguililla and Buenavista. In the latter, high school students had to take cover in their classrooms during a battle that ran for some 45 minutes, the school’s director said.
One of the students caught several seconds of footage on a cell phone, showing classmates huddled on the floor as shots were fired outside.
In Apatzingán, armed civilians erected roadblocks that were later removed by police.
Teachers' rail blockades came down earlier this week.
A costly month-long strike by members of the CNTE teachers’ union in Michoacán is over.
Union leader Víctor Manuel Zavala told a press conference today that protesting teachers will pack up their tents in front of government headquarters in the state capital, Morelia, where they have camped for the past 31 nights.
Teachers have also occupied municipal offices in various municipalities as well as state agencies’ offices. They too are being withdrawn.
Classes will resume on Monday after consultation with union members, who were informed of the progress made during talks on Wednesday with federal and state government representatives.
The union said the state had agreed to pay bonuses and other monies owed teachers.
But Zavala made it clear that the teachers’ fight would not be over until the previous federal government’s education reform was abolished, a central demand by the union since it was introduced in 2013.
This week’s talks began after the union withdrew more than half a dozen blockades on the state’s railroad network, a stoppage that the Business Coordinating Council estimates cost 30 billion pesos (US $1.55 billion).
It also cost more than 10,000 students four weeks of school.
This house in Milpa Alta is going for 2.19 million pesos.
Living in one of Mexico City’s safest areas might come at a premium, but it also means being far from the city center.
According to an analysis of housing statistics on the real estate website Propiedades.com and crime statistics compiled by the city attorney general on the government’s open-data page, there may be a correlation between house and apartment prices in certain parts of the city and the security they offer, but what all of Mexico City’s safest boroughs have in common is their location on the fringes of town.
According to the analysis, Milpa Alta, the farthest south of the city’s boroughs, has the city’s lowest crime rate. Last year a mere 1,779 crimes were reported in the borough, where houses cost an average of 2.59 million pesos (US $134,000) and to rent a house costs 10,000 pesos (US $518) a month.
Cuajimalpa de Morelos came in second place for the lowest crime rate, with only 3,491 cases in 2018. This western-most borough was also the most expensive, with housing prices averaging at 10 million pesos, apartments at 11.97 million pesos, house rentals at 37,609 pesos per month and apartment rents hovering around 28,537 pesos.
Cuajimalpa includes Santa Fe, one of the city’s most important financial districts. The neighborhood also includes several gated communities.
In third place, Magdalena Contreras, another far-west borough, saw 3,647 reported crimes last year. The average purchase price of a house is 6.05 million pesos and an apartment 4.42 million. Renting an apartment has an average price tag of 15,503 pesos and a house 25,029 pesos.
Tlahuac, one of Mexico City’s eastern-most boroughs, was in fourth place on the list with 5,896 crimes last year. Houses cost an average of 2.08 million pesos and apartments 608,301. Renting in the zone is much more affordable, with the monthly cost of an apartment averaging 3,959 pesos and a house 10,906 pesos.
Xochimilco, just north of Milpa Alta, closed the list of the five safest boroughs with 7,589 reported crimes in 2018. Housing and apartment prices were among the lowest on the list, averaging 3.35 million pesos (US $174,000) and 1.42 million pesos respectively. Rents in the home of Mexico City’s famous trajineras average 7,098 pesos for an apartment and 15,840 pesos for a house.
Of the five boroughs, Tlahuac is the only one with direct access via the Metro. Xochimilco is also a slightly more accessible, though distant, destination due to an available transfer to the tren ligero, a light rail line that runs 13 kilometers solely through the boroughs of Tlalpan and Xochimilco.
Leonardo González, an analyst at Propiedades.com, told the newspaper El Financiero that safety is one of the most important factors in evaluating property values in the city.
Rocío Uribe, president of Uribe Quality Real Estate, said that the demand for home security is on the rise and that sales of armored doors, window gratings and combination or fingerprint locks for doors has increased accordingly.
Experts say that in Mexico City it is more important for a real estate agent to talk about a property’s safety than its features and confirm that the most commonly asked questions in showings focus on the building’s entrances and exits and its cameras.
López Obrador, left, and Urzúa present Pemex rescue plan.
President López Obrador presented today a 107-billion-peso (US $5.5-billion) rescue plan for Pemex aimed at reducing the state oil company’s financial burden and strengthening its capacity to invest in exploration and production.
“We’ve taken the decision to support Pemex with everything,” López Obrador declared at his morning press conference, explaining that making the company profitable and productive was the great challenge of his government.
To that end, López Obrador said that the state-run company will receive a cash injection, its tax burden will be reduced and it will be cleansed of corruption.
The cause of many of Pemex’s problems is corruption, the president charged, especially dwindling oil production.
He described the rescue package, which is divided into four parts, as “an initial plan,” explaining that “if they require more, there will be more support.”
Pemex finance chief Alberto Velázquez explained that there will be a 25-billion-peso (US $1.3-billion) cash injection into the company and pledged that Pemex won’t take on new debt in 2019.
He said the second rescue measure consists of a plan to transfer 35 billion pesos (US $1.8 billion) from the Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP) as an early payment of a debt the latter has with the former.
The company will be given a tax break of at least 15 billion pesos (US $800,000) this year, Velázquez said, explaining that its tax burden will be further reduced during the government’s six-year term and that the saving could be as much as 30 billion pesos next year.
Finally, an estimated 32 billion pesos (US $1.6 billion) in savings generated by the government’s crackdown on fuel theft will also be directed to Pemex.
Speaking after the rescue plan was presented, Finance Secretary Carlos Urzúa stressed that the government is committed to supporting Pemex, whose debt of more than US $100 billion makes it the most indebted oil company in the world.
“. . . The federal government, through the Secretariat of Finance, will do whatever it can to maintain Pemex’s finances healthy,” he said.
Reuters reported that investors were reassured by the announcement although they had expected stronger measures. “The announcement is positive and could be enough to remedy the company’s additional financial needs for 2019,” said Edgar Cruz, global markets credit research at BBVA in Mexico, while warning that it would not stave off another crunch next year.
The company must make more than $27 billion in debt payments over the next three years.
Fitch downgraded Pemex’s credit rating to just one level above junk last month, a move that was slammed by López Obrador, who accused rating agencies of hypocrisy because “they maintained a complicit silence” during the past government and “endorsed the so-called energy reform” even though “they knew that foreign investment didn’t arrive and investment in Pemex didn’t increase.”
The president said today that with the announcement of the government’s rescue package, including his pledge to stamp out corruption in Pemex, the ratings agencies will now “treat us well.”
He explained: “They have all the information, especially about corruption issues. They know very well what was happening in Pemex and the CFE [the Federal Electricity Commission].”
Residents protest CFE tariffs in Acaponeta, Nayarit, in December.
High electricity rates paid by at least 350,000 residents of seven municipalities in Nayarit have been described as “robbery” by a customer representative.
Oscar Luna Ayón, who represents electricity customers in Santiago Ixcuintla, said that residents in that municipality as well as Tuxpan, Acaponeta, Rosamorada, Ruiz, Tecuala and Huajicori – all in the north of the state – have been paying excessive rates to the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) since 2002.
From May until October – the hottest months of the year – the CFE charges customers in the municipalities a lower, subsidized rate known as 1D but from November to April, the subsidy is suspended.
Despite protests, the CFE has ignored the customers’ complaints and failed to conduct a review of the excessive charges seen during the latter period, Luna said.
“It’s robbery. Power bills arrive with charges of 2,000 pesos, 4,000 pesos, up to 10,000 pesos [US $520], when homes only have air conditioning, which isn’t a luxury but a necessity for coastal areas,” he said.
State lawmaker Eduardo Lugo said that electricity customers and authorities in Nayarit are calling for the federal government and the CFE to apply the 1D rate year-round in Nayarit’s hottest municipalities.
Before he assumed the position, new CFE director Manuel Bartlett said that he planned to review power rates and that the López Obrador-led federal government would seek to introduce “social rates” that could see people on low incomes obtain government subsidies to offset their electricity costs.
