A group of doctors in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, has dedicated its services free of charge to senior citizens in the area who cannot obtain treatment for various medical conditions at hospitals and clinics due to the health system’s focus on Covid-19.
“Many people aren’t being treated, partly to avoid becoming infected with the coronavirus, but we know that it’s [imperative] that they receive medical attention because some suffer from chronic degenerative diseases, such as diabetes and cancer, and they can’t wait because their lives are at risk,” said general practitioner Serapio Cantú Barragán.
He said he and his colleagues are doing the work in order to help the most vulnerable in their community.
“We go to the most isolated neighborhoods where there are large numbers of elderly citizens, who need the most attention and can’t travel or be admitted to hospitals because … they are giving priority to coronavirus patients,” he said.
The volunteer doctors take ambulances to the neighborhoods in which they work, examine patients and, if necessary, arrange admission to hospitals in which they can be treated without the risk of contracting Covid-19.
Cantú said that the border city of Reynosa has a large population of people with diabetes, hypertension and malnutrition, factors which increase the risk of contracting the coronavirus.
The team has two vehicles equipped with loudspeakers, which they drive through the neighborhoods to announce their services. They also communicate closely with local churches in order to find those in need of attention.
In addition to medical care, they also provide needy families with kits of basic food and medications.
“It’s our duty, and … we have to do it for our fellow human beings. We’re in a situation in which we must be united. A pandemic isn’t just any old thing, we have to be very strong.”
“If they don’t have money, that doesn’t matter. What’s important is people’s health.”
The Mexican government has fast-tracked its efforts to put restrictions on private energy producers in an apparent bid to take back control of the electricity market.
The move gives the government control over who can generate electricity, where they can operate and how much they can produce.
The Ministry of Energy, Sener, published the new energy policy late Friday in the government’s official gazette. It imposes restrictive measures for the renewable energy sector that could effectively prevent its expansion in Mexico and consolidate control of electrical power in the government’s Federal Electricity Commission (CFE).
The new regulations give priority to using electricity from CFE plants whereas until now priority was given to the plants with the lowest production costs. Renewable energy’s costs run at about US $20 per megawatt hour; those of the CFE are as much as $141.
The expedited move by Energy Minister Rocío Nahle pushed the policy through without prior approval from the National Commission for Regulatory Improvement (Conamer) and without a regulatory impact study, which would have opened the new policy up for public comment.
César Hernández, head of Conamer, announced his resignation Friday evening on social media shortly before the new policy was published and after he had refused to green-light the new measures.
“This is a tremendous power grab by the energy ministry,” said Pablo Zárate, an energy specialist at FTI Consulting. He told the Financial Times, “They’re using Covid as an excuse to try to increase their power and achieve the political objective of control of the system.”
Opening the energy sector to private investment in renewables was part of the previous government’s energy reform. The current administration has been taking steps to retake control of energy, putting more control into the hands of the state-owned oil company Pemex and the Federal Electricity Commission.
The move to restrict renewable energy production is the second this month. Last week, indefinite limits were placed on the amount of electricity wind and solar projects can supply to the national grid, while grid trials for some 28 wind and solar projects coming on line were temporarily suspended. Those measures, too, were implemented on the grounds that electricity supply had to be protected during the coronavirus pandemic.
At the same time, generation at CFE plants described as old and inefficient was to be ramped up to improve reliability of the electricity system during the coronavirus crisis. Those plants burn surplus fuel that Pemex is unable to sell elsewhere.
That move triggered criticism from the European Union (EU) and Canada, where many of the foreign investors in Mexico’s renewable energy sector are based.
In letters to Energy Minister Nahle, the EU and Canada warned that the new measures pose a serious threat to continued investment in the sector.
“This agreement establishes various actions and strategies of operational control, which put at risk the operation and continuity of renewable energy projects of Canadian companies in Mexico,” wrote Graeme Clark, Canada’s ambassador to Mexico, on Friday.
He warned that in the short term the measures could affect investments totaling $450 million and 1,000 jobs.
Numerous large international companies, such as Iberdrola and Naturgy of Spain, AES and Sempra of the U.S., Enel of Italy, France’s Engie and Denmark’s Vestas have invested in renewable energy in Mexico.
The Social Security Institute in Hermosillo reported two instances of theft from seniors.
Some thieves in Hermosillo, Sonora, have taken to disguising themselves as heath workers in order to deceive senior citizens and steal their jewelry.
The modus operandi of the presumed swindlers is to arrive in an unmarked van dressed as medical professionals from the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS). They approach senior citizens outside their homes, discuss Covid-19 sanitation measures and finally offer to put antibacterial gel on their hands.
However, instead of hand sanitizer, the thief applies a type of oil that lubricates the hands and facilitates the theft of rings and other valuables.
IMSS reported at least two instances of this type of robbery in the Sonora capital, but it clarified that neither involved actual IMSS employees.
The most recent theft occurred on Friday when an 85-year-old woman was approached by an apparent medical professional while relaxing on her front porch. The man opened a dialogue with her, applied the sham sanitizer and made off with gold bracelets and other jewels she had owned since the 1950s.
In addition to her advanced age, the woman suffers from other underlying conditions and the theft affected her so gravely that it raised her blood pressure enough for her to need medical attention.
Sonora authorities warned that this could become a new trend in thefts during the coronavirus pandemic and asked anyone with information about such acts to report them to police by calling 911.
Covid-19 deaths as of Friday. The total is now higher than that recorded by China. milenio
After 54 days of nationwide social distancing, the number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 has risen to 45,032 after 2,437 new cases were recorded between Thursday and Friday.
There are 29,028 suspected cases and the number of confirmed deaths is now 4,767, up 290 since Thursday, a death toll that is now higher than China’s, where the virus originated last fall.
José Luis Alomía, Director of Epidemiology at the Ministry of Health, reported Friday that there were 10,238 active cases, which takes in people who have shown coronavirus symptoms in the last 14 days.
Friday’s Covid-19 press briefing was told that 128,253 coronavirus tests have been carried out in the public health system. Of those, 70,809 were conducted in government laboratories and 50,775, in hospitals. He added that 101,900 test kits have been distributed to the national network of laboratories and 300,000 additional tests have been ordered.
In addition, Alomía revealed that private laboratories have registered 16,450 positive coronavirus test results that have yet to be added to national totals because of insufficient data on individual patients, whether they are symptomatic or not, and whether they may already have been included in official statistics.
Covid-19 cases as of Friday. milenio
He stated that the government is planning to roll out a website next week where private labs can provide further information on positive-testing patients.
Alomía also noted that Baja California, Mexico City and the state of México remain hotspots for the disease, with each of the three states registering upwards of 3,000 cases. Tabasco follows with 2,177 cases and Sinaloa with 1,814.
Yesterday marked the second day that Mexico saw more than 2,400 new cases within 24 hours.
The government says 36% of hospital beds for those with severe acute respiratory symptoms are occupied, and 70% of beds with ventilators are still available nationwide, although that number drops to 41% in Sinaloa and 37% in Mexico City.
López Obrador: Mexicans are used to living together.
Ninety percent of calls made by women to denounce domestic violence and seek help are false, President López Obrador said on Friday.
The president made the claim in response to a question at his regular news conference about the documented increase in domestic violence during the coronavirus pandemic.
“I’m going to give you a piece of information that doesn’t mean that violence against women doesn’t exist,” López Obrador said. “I don’t want you to misinterpret me because a lot of what I say is taken out of context: 90% of those calls … are false, it’s proven.”
López Obrador said that the 90% figure doesn’t just apply to calls related to violence against women but also to calls made to the Mexico City metro that claim that the tracks have been sabotaged or there is a bomb in the system.
“The majority [of the calls] are false,” he said.
According to the Spotlight Initiative, a partnership between the United Nations and the European Union that is aiming to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls by 2030, Mexican women made more than 115,000 calls to the 911 emergency number in March to denounce violence, a 22% increase compared to February. The figure equates to an average of 155 calls per hour during the month.
López Obrador said that the Interior Ministry and the National Women’s Institute are taking action against the problem but sought to downplay its severity.
“In the homes of Mexicans, the children are there, the daughters-in-law, the grandchildren, and there has always been harmonious cohabitation. In other places, where this tradition, this culture, doesn’t exist it might be that isolation [to limit the spread of coronavirus] causes aggravation, confrontation and violence,” he said.
“[But] the Mexican family is different from families in Europe and the United States; Mexicans are used to living together, being together. … I’m not saying that there is not this confrontation in Mexico, of course there are differences in all families,” López Obrador said.
He added that his administration is opposed to all forms of violence against women, a problem that has triggered countless protests across the country and a national women’s strike in March.
“We’re against femicides, hate crimes, that must be made very clear. … We come from a years-long social struggle in defense of the poor, the helpless, the dispossessed, women. … Now the conservatives are saying that we’re not doing anything in defense of women – they’re wrong, we’re constantly dealing with the issue.”
Monday will mark the beginning of the “new normal” for most but not all of the 269 coronavirus-free municipalities that have been given the green light to reopen, even as the Covid-19 pandemic worsens in other parts of the country.
The federal government said Wednesday that so-called “municipalities of hope” that have not recorded any coronavirus cases and don’t border any with confirmed infections will be allowed to reopen their economies and public spaces, and send students back to school on May 18.
However, authorities in some of the 15 states affected have indicated that they won’t follow the federal government’s advice to allow the municipalities to reopen.
The reopening won’t be without risk for residents of some of the municipalities slated to resume activities before the rest of the country.
The Mexican Center for Industrial Ecology (CMEI), a civil society organization with interests in environmental, social and economic issues, has warned that more than 60% of residents of six of the 15 states with coronavirus-free municipalities – Veracruz, Jalisco, Puebla, Guanajuato, Chiapas and Nuevo León – are particularly vulnerable to Covid-19 because of their age and the existing health conditions they have.
In addition, many of the municipalities that are currently considered coronavirus-free – even though most or all residents haven’t been tested – have scant medical infrastructure, meaning that if there was a coronavirus outbreak, their capacity to respond would be limited.
More than half of the 269 municipalities scheduled to reopen are in rural areas and have fewer than 2,500 inhabitants, and therefore infected residents would likely have to travel to seek medical attention.
About 200 of the so-called “municipalities of hope” are in Oaxaca, where only 11% of residents have existing health conditions that put them at increased risk of complications should they contract Covid-19, according to the CMEI. But the health system could still be quickly overwhelmed if there were to be a large outbreak because there are only about 3,000 public hospital beds in the southern state.
One thing the government did not announce on Wednesday was the names of the 269 municipalities, the newspaper El Universal noted.
It said the only way to determine whether a municipality is coronavirus-free and doesn’t border any with confirmed cases is to consult the map developed by the National Council of Science and Technology.
Yet the newspaper identified one municipality in Yucatán that fits the criteria to reopen on Monday but the government of that state said that none of its 106 municipalities qualified. The governments of other states indicated that they hadn’t been advised which municipalities qualified for reopening.
Meanwhile, states and municipalities are free to decide for themselves whether they reopen.
While the federal government is pushing for the coronavirus-free municipalities to do so, President López Obrador stressed that the final decision lies with local authorities.
“If there is a municipal or state government that … decides not to comply with this plan, there will be no controversy. We’re not going to fight,” he said.
Gabriel Michel — and his winning smile — with glyptodont and vestments at his Jalisco museum.
El Limón, Jalisco, lies in a verdant valley well off the beaten track, hidden among mountains located halfway between Guadalajara and the Pacific coast.
In El Limón you might expect to find a tienda de abarrotes selling juicy limones and much more. But across the street from the grocery store you might not expect to discover — housed in a beautiful old hacienda — an excellent museum which receives visitors from all over the world, including experts in archaeology and paleontology.
It’s not unusual to find collections of antiquities in rural Mexico, but in most cases you’ll see those ancient figurines and pots on a bookshelf in the collector’s living room, side by side with family photos and knickknacks made in China.
There may not be too many items in those personal collections because the very best daggers and statues plowed up in the local cornfields were sold by Pepe to Pancho, by Pancho to Pablo and by Pablo to Peter Potter who now proudly shows them off to his friends in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.
This is what usually happens, but every once in a while an unusual person comes along who breaks the chain.
Writer Gabriel Michel at the Licho Santana Museum in El Limón, Jalisco.
Meet Gabriel de la Asunción Michel Padilla, director of Museo Licho Santana in El Limón.
Gabriel Michel is a big man with a big smile, big enough to melt a glacier, I’d say.
“What got you interested in collecting?” I asked him.
“I wasn’t really a collector at all,” he told me, “until one day, some years ago, when I attended a meeting in Tlajomulco with archaeologist Dr. Phil Weigand and he told us that our state, Jalisco, represents one of the worst cases of archaeological looting in the whole world. Well, those words affected me greatly and I began to collect archaeological artifacts, fossils, historical relics and other important things from the past which came to light in this region.
“From that moment on, I gave my all to this. My main work became visiting those places where they dig up such things and with the help of the National Institute of Anthropology and History, I was finally able to convince the campesinos not to sell these precious items and not to give them away as presents either. To this end I would give them a compensation which was to be a guarantee that they would hold onto that item, that they would promise not to sell it to someone else.
“It may seem unbelievable, but after a while people began to bring me things: not only ancient artifacts, but also sacred art like chalices and priestly vestments and to my surprise, our little community museum ended up with one of the biggest collections in Jalisco.”
Gabriel Michel investigating petroglyphs near El Limón.
Indeed, El Limón’s museum, like those marvelous 16th-century Cabinets of Curiosities, houses just about anything you can think of: pre-classic anthropomorphic figures, daggers designed to remove human hearts, beautiful masks, polychrome plates whose bright colors have not faded after 800 years, old municipal documents, photographs of nearby petroglyphs.
But its most popular attraction, perhaps, is the skeleton and huge shell of a glyptodont, a relative of the armadillo, which appeared in South America around 20 million years ago and later spread north to Mexico. The glyptodont was a truly curious creature, weighing up to 2,000 kilos, protected by a sturdy shell and sporting a tail like a chain mace, which could be swung with enough force to break through the carapace of a competitor.
This and some other very rare fossils have led several paleontologists to the little museum in El Limón, including the National Autonomous University’s Dr. Oscar Carranza, the first Mexican to receive the coveted Morris Skinner prize for an outstanding contribution to paleontology.
While browsing around the antiquities in the museum I came upon several very modern books authored by none other than Gabriel Michel. Several were focused on the history of El Limón and the region, but one of them appeared to be written in verse.
“Gabriel, don’t tell me you are also a poet?”
Thus I stumbled upon one of the most extraordinary works I’ve ever seen, entitled Rapsodias de Anáhuac. It is the story of the conquista and destrucción of Mexico-Tenochtitlán told in blank verse arranged in what the Greeks called rhapsodies: portions of an epic poem adapted for recitation.
Musicians with typical instruments, possibly from a shaft tomb in Colima. Emanuel Michel
“One rapsodia can be recited in three minutes,” Gabriel told me, “and there are a total of 48 of them in my poem. There is, by the way, a whole tradition for epic poems. The very first verses summarize what the entire saga is about and immediately you can see the style of the whole poem.”
That being the case, here are the opening verses of Rapsodias de Anáhuac in Spanish, followed by an unofficial translation into English. Gabriel Michel is, in the meantime, working on an official English version of the poem.
En la casa del Canto, de las Flores,
lugar de los timbales y sonajas,
en la florida casa de Mixcóatl,
donde se forjan cánticos de guerra:
Aquí se Dice, se recita en orden,
de qué manera, portentosamente,
arribaron los hombres de Castilla
a la orilla del agua de los dioses,
donde termina el mar de las turquesas.
And in English:
In the house of flowers and music,
by the blossomy mansion of Mixcóatl,
where are born the canticles of battle,
here is woven in words and recited
how ominously appeared on our shores,
Castilian men from the east,
on the coast of our turquoise waters,
the sea that belongs to our gods.
“We know how you got involved in collecting antiquities,” I said to Gabriel Michel, “but what’s the story behind this epic poem?”
“I was a seminarian for a certain period,” he told me. “I studied Latin and Greek and the humanities and I was greatly inspired by Homer’s two masterpieces, The Iliad and The Odyssey, but something happened when I was studying The Aeneid, Virgil’s epic poem of the founding of ancient Rome.
“I was 13 years old and I said to myself, ‘This is what I should be doing, I should apply this to my own country.’ And I decided then and there I would begin to study the history of the Conquista, first of all from the Spaniards’ point of view, that is to say: The True History of the Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Díaz del Castillo. Then, of course, I examined the writings of those who had been conquered, and I was truly astonished by what I found.”
“I then wrote out my own version of this extraordinary story incorporating the two narratives I had studied and when I finished I said, ‘Now it’s time to put all of it into verse, bit by bit, one event after another,’ and I was inspired by the writings of Saint John of the Cross, who is the very best poet of Spanish literature.”
Jesús Rodríguez Gurrola, award-winning author and professor at the University of Guadalajara, credits Gabriel Michel for being the first to give the story of the destruction of Tenochtitlán the epic form it deserves. And he observes: “In reality, this book tells the story of men who decided to fight against the gods, knowing all along that they would die in the enterprise.”
To visit the museum in El Limón, ask Google Maps to take you to “Museo De Gabriel Michel Padilla.” Driving time from Guadalajara is just over three hours. You can contact Gabriel Michel by email, in Spanish or in English.
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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.
Wearing bright yellow boots, goggles and a fluorescent green raincoat, Harley the one-eyed pug strolls the hallways of a coronavirus hospital in Mexico City, providing emotional support and stress relief to an exhausted medical staff.
The 3-year-old trained therapy dog even has his own Facebook page where he regularly posts personal messages, check-ins and links to numerous media mentions so his 900 followers can keep up to date on his activities and growing fame.
In a recent post, the dog shared drawings that were sent to him from two young children in London, thanking them for being his fans.
Harley’s owner, neuropsychologist Lucía Ledesma Torres, calls the pug her “co-therapist,” and says the dog’s two-hour daily visits have helped alleviate the “psychological, affective, and psychic stress” of healthcare personnel treating coronavirus patients at the National Medical Center 20 de Noviembre located in the nation’s capital, an epicenter of the virus in Mexico.
Harley has been providing therapy to Ledesma’s patients with psychiatric and psychological conditions for years, she says, interacting with people and drawing out feelings of empathy as they play with him.
Harley provides some stress relief to a hospital worker in Mexico City.
Ledesma and her colleagues first discussed bringing Harley to the hospital to do the same in February, envisioning the tension the coronavirus would unleash in hospitals due to the overwhelming number of patients they were bound to see as the pandemic progressed.
Some colleagues immediately wanted to play with Harley, Ledesma says, noting that members of the hospital’s medical team enjoy taking a few minutes out of their day to pet and cuddle the affectionate pug, giving them a brief but welcome respite from caring for the sick and the trials of isolation from family and friends.
“We must consider the length of deprivation of physical contact we have experienced, especially among the staff on the frontlines who have been separated from their own families for fear of contagion,” she says of the dog’s appeal among doctors and nurses.
Parents protest a shortage of cancer medications in Morelia, Michoacán, on Thursday.
A judge has ordered the federal government to report on the availability of cancer medications for children being treated at public hospitals after a group of doctors filed an injunction request warning of shortages.
In an injunction request filed with a federal court last week, the Mexican Association of Pediatric Onco-Hematology (AMOHP) warned that there is a shortage of 37 cancer medications used to treat children with cancer. Parents have protested against the shortages since last year.
The AMOHP said that 97 hospitals operated by both federal and state health authorities currently have shortages of at least one cancer medication.
“Public hospitals have stopped receiving medications … for reasons they have not been transparently informed about by the responsible authorities,” the association said.
In response to the injunction request, federal administrative court judge Manuel Camargo ordered the Finance Ministry, which is responsible for the purchasing system used to buy pharmaceuticals, and the Health Ministry to issue a report on the availability of cancer drugs and essential medical supplies used to treat cancer patients.
The judge ordered the ministries to outline the measures that have been adopted to guarantee the supply of cancer medications to public hospitals on a monthly, bimonthly and annual basis. He also ordered them to report on the processes that are in place to ensure that drugs are distributed to hospitals in a timely manner.
The government last year implemented a new centralized model for both purchasing and distributing medications, announcing last May that the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) would take over responsibility for getting drugs to the nation’s public hospitals and health clinics.
The government has blamed shortages in Mexico on worldwide shortages of some cancer medications as well as “dissident” suppliers but said in February that it had purchased three important cancer drugs – vincristine, cyclophosphamide and ifosfamide – in Argentina and that stocks would last for at least three months.
Now, amid the coronavirus pandemic, the stocks of those drugs, and others, are running short.
In addition to the AMOHP injunction request, another was filed in early May against the Mexico City government demanding that it supply cancer medications to a children’s hospital in the borough of Venustiano Carranza.
Mayor Cázares says he took the coronavirus seriously.
As the state of Morelos approaches 1,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, one municipality has managed to remain virus-free thanks to the preventative measures taken by its mayor and citizens.
As the coronavirus spread throughout the world, the mayor of Zacualpan de Amilpas, an agricultural community of about 14,000 located in the foothills of the Popocatépetl volcano, realized it would soon make its way to Mexico as well.
“I took things very seriously, very seriously,” says Mayor Adrián Cázares González, who has been in office since last December.
Early on he summoned doctors and other experts to a special meeting to determine the most effective preventative measures which he was quick to impose, although Cázares admits the restrictions at first did not go over so well with residents.
He began by prohibiting the sale of alcohol and closed down the popular weekly swap meet, the only one in the state and a tradition in the area dating back centuries that normally brings up to 14,000 people to the municipality each Sunday.
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Face masks were made mandatory and are distributed free of charge. Sanitation crews regularly began disinfecting the streets and other public areas, and people who leave their homes for nonessential reasons are sent back to their families with hand sanitizer.
Trucks coming in and out of the town, many taking crops of pears, berries and apples to market, must pass through health checkpoints and are sanitized inside and out.
“The secret has been the organization between society and government and compliance with sanitary measures to avoid contagion,” said Cázares, who holds regular meetings with community organizations and leaders.
The mayor thanked the municipality’s residents and business owners for their support, which not only includes abiding by restrictions but also the donation of sanitary supplies from the private sector, including protective suits just in case the virus does find its way into Zacualpan.
“Those suits are already here in case they are needed, and we have already started digging graves on a plot of land, not the municipal cemetery, in case they are needed,” said Cázares. “It is better to have something and not need it than to need it and regret it.”
