The death toll after a confrontation between armed civilians and marines yesterday in Tomatlán, Jalisco, has risen to two — one innocent bystander and a suspected aggressor.
Mayor José Luis Tello García said the clash began at about 8:00am when five blockades were erected almost simultaneously at different points and gunfire erupted between suspected members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and navy marines.
The first casualty was a soft drink delivery truck driver who died when armed civilians hijacked his truck and shot the young man in the head after he was forced out of his vehicle.
The truck was set on fire and used as a roadblock.
The second victim has not been identified but the marines believe he was one of the gangsters involved in the attack.
Meanwhile, the clash brought life in Tomatlán to a standstill. People chose to stay at home yesterday morning, and stores remained closed until the afternoon.
At least two educational institutions, the Coastal University Center and the preparatory schools run by the University of Guadalajara, said classes were suspended until Monday.
Tomatlán is the home of a military base but that appeared to be no deterrent for those who instigated the events.
The region is CJNG territory. Three years ago, an army helicopter was shot down 120 kilometers away in Villa Purificación.
Valle de Santiago is a small town in the state of Guanajuato, located 240 kilometers northwest of Mexico City. But “Valle de la Luna” might be a better name for it because it is surrounded by at least a dozen very impressive volcanic craters.
Without a doubt, the most extraordinary of these is La Hoya del Rincón de Parangueo, which can be accessed via a 400-meter-long tunnel through the crater wall, a tunnel for pedestrians only, I might add. Google Maps did a good job of guiding me from Guadalajara to Valle de Santiago and from there I used what I call “Mexnet” to get me to the tunnel entrance.
Mexnet is the good old traditional approach to finding your way around Mexico, used by just about everyone — for thousands of years, I am sure. I activated this wonderful navigational system simply by rolling down the window, and asking “¿Por favor, donde está el cráter?” (Where is the crater, please?) every two blocks.
Without even touching my so-called smartphone, I soon ended up in front of the tunnel entrance, where two young boys offered to illuminate me and my friends with a) a bright flashlight and b) their historical knowledge of the place. As we plunged into the darkness, the smaller guide began: “Había una vez un Gachupín . . .” (Once upon a time there was a despicable Spaniard . . .)
After a few minutes I stopped the little boy to ask a question. Instead of answering, he looked at me with astonishment and confusion. I tried rephrasing my question, but still my little Cicerone remained tongue-tied and wide-eyed.
The 400-meter tunnel took five years to complete.
“John,” whispered my friend Rodrigo in English, “he has the whole thing memorized and you’ve just interrupted him. He can’t continue because he doesn’t really understand everything he’s saying.”
The boy looked relieved when I said I’d like him to start all over from the very beginning, so I could record his talk. “And I promise not to interrupt even once.”
He blinked and restarted his torrent of words with hardly a waiver. It was a real pleasure to watch oral tradition in the making! Here’s the story as I understood it from the lips of my young guide:
“Once upon a time there was a Spaniard named Don Manuel Gutiérrez living here with much land and wealth. However, he did not have enough water to irrigate his fields. So he hired a man he trusted and had him fill two jugs with the water from the crater lake to get it analyzed. This campesino took the samples and started off for Mexico City.
“On his way he came to a cantina, inside of which his three best friends were drinking. Later, well lubricated, the campesino stumbled out of the bar and very soon broke the two jars. So the next morning he explained to his friends what had happened.
“Don’t worry,” said one of them, “we will find you more water from around here.” So he took the water to Mexico City and they said it would be fine for agriculture because what they had analyzed was simply rainwater.
Hikers in the white wilderness of the crater.
“Don Manuel then approached local officials about digging the tunnel. He got permission and hired 16 Guanajuato miners who began digging the tunnel from both ends simultaneously, with nothing more than picks and shovels.
“They started the tunnel in 1910 and finished it in 1915. Five years it took! Then the owner bought a very expensive pump and started irrigating his fields with the crater water. But unfortunately, this water [which was extremely alkaline with a pH of more than 10] killed all his crops. So the Spaniard arranged to meet the man who had taken the water for testing, supposedly to reward him, but actually to kill him.
“There were six soldiers hiding in the tunnel, two at each end and two in the middle. The campesino made it halfway through the tunnel where they murdered him and, it is said, buried him. And his body remains there to this day.”
If the story of the tunnel was so filled with drama and passion, I wondered what we would find in the crater — and I was not disappointed.
You have to catch your breath when you first step out of the tunnel and into this crater, which is enormous, and shimmering white. If you are from colder climates, your eye sees ice and snow although the temperature is warm and pleasant. Start climbing down through deep white fissures into the old lake bed and I guarantee you will feel like you are walking on another planet.
According to Conabio, the Mexican Biodiversity Commission, the powdery white surface in this crater is some kind of soda, clearly containing at least some sodium bicarbonate. Put a little vinegar on it and watch it fizz. Before the 1980s this was a big lake, but excessive pumping of groundwater in the area caused all the local crater lakes to drain, turning each one into a little desert.
[soliloquy id="65960"]
Technically speaking what we found ourselves in is called a maar volcano, meaning it was formed by a violent explosion when water worked its way deep underground and came into contact with magma.
This crater lake is about a kilometer wide. We hiked across it and were surprised to find what appear to be stromatolites, the oldest fossils in the world, which are composed of a mix of sediments plus cyanobacteria, also called spirulina, the first living thing on earth and a superfood much appreciated by the Aztecs.
Apparently, spirulina was happily propagating in this lake right up to 1998. At the far end of the crater we found another surprise: thousands of naturally formed stone balls, about the size of tennis balls. At first, I thought they were spherulites, which are volcanic in origin and often associated with obsidian, but my geologist friends say no, these are something else — but up to now they have still not come up with an explanation for what they really are.
It is claimed that this crater is one of “Las Siete Luminarias,” seven craters supposedly lying in the same configuration as the stars of the Big Dipper. It is also claimed that this is the birthplace of the Aztecs, the center of the world, and a great place to see UFOs. Even the Loch Ness monster has been spotted here, somebody said.
Well, I can only tell you what I saw and that was a crater: but what a crater! It was certainly well worth the trip. If you go to visit this place, I recommend you hike all the way across the lake and return around the perimeter. This otherworldly landscape has different characteristics in different parts of the crater. If you can manage to go on a weekday, you may have the whole place to yourself. Well, not quite. It will be just you and, of course the Loch Ness monster!
And, of course, you always have Mexnet to fall back on. Driving time from Mexico City is about four hours and from Guadalajara about three.
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.
Migrants at the sports complex-shelter in Tijuana.
The mayor of Tijuana has declared a humanitarian crisis due to the massive number of Central American migrants who have swamped the city.
Juan Manuel Gastélum, who has been labelled Tijuana’s Trump because of anti-migrant rhetoric last week, told a press conference yesterday that the declaration is in accordance with articles in the federal Migration and Refugee laws.
Attending to the thousands of mainly Honduran caravan members is costing the city more than 500,000 pesos (US $25,000) a day, he declared.
Gastélum called on the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and other international organizations to assist with the situation in the absence of federal support.
“I’m asking for international organizations to intervene because more than 4,700 Central American migrants are stranded and crowded together in the city in precarious conditions . . . the federal government hasn’t intervened despite it being their constitutional duty,” he said.
The mayor urged President Peña Nieto and Interior Secretary Alfonso Navarrete to assume responsibility for the migrants, taking particular aim at the latter’s department (Segob) for leaving municipal authorities to deal with the situation on their own.
“Mexican laws establish that [Segob] is the department responsible for dealing with the issue from the beginning,” Gastélum said.
“I’m not going to compromise public services, I’m not going to spend the money of the people of Tijuana, I’m not going to put Tijuana into debt . . .” he declared.
Most of the migrants currently in Tijuana have been staying in a sports complex that has been converted into a shelter, and many of them are sick with illnesses including influenza and respiratory infections.
Around 200 Central Americans – mostly families with children who are tired of the crowded conditions at the shelter – have set up their own camp in the street right next to a border crossing point.
One group of migrants staged a protest yesterday within 150 meters of the border to demand better conditions in the Benito Juárez sports center-cum-shelter and to try to present themselves to U.S. authorities for asylum.
“There are sick children here, and we are cold and hungry,” protest leader Carlos López said.
The migrants, who traveled more than 4,000 kilometers to reach the Mexico-United States border, hope to lodge asylum requests with U.S. authorities but due to the large number of them and an existing backlog it could be months before they have the opportunity to do so.
Thousands more migrants are currently traveling through Mexico and many of them are likely to join the large cohort already in Tijuana.
On Wednesday, The Washington Post reported that the Trump administration is preparing sweeping new measures that would force Central Americans who arrive at the border to wait in Mexico while their asylum claims are processed, although a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said that there were no immediate plans to change immigration policy.
Such a change would put even greater pressure on the municipal government of Tijuana.
A mine operated by Grupo México, the country's largest mining company.
Two major mining firms have seen almost 32 billion pesos (US $1.6 billion) wiped off their market value over the past three days following the presentation of a bill in the Senate that could affect their operations.
Shares in Grupo México, the country’s largest mining company, were down 4.71% yesterday while those in Industrias Peñoles, Mexico’s second biggest mining firm, lost 3.49%.
The companies’ cumulative losses over the three days were in the double digits – 11.61% for Grupo México, 14.83% for Peñoles – and their respective share prices, 38.86 pesos and 226.4 pesos, were at their lowest point since the start of 2016.
The slide began Tuesday after Angélica García, a senator with president-elect López Obrador’s Morena party, presented a bill that would require mining companies to obtain the consent of indigenous communities in order to be granted concessions.
The Secretariat of the Economy (SE) and the Mexican Geological Service would both have to consult with indigenous communities under the proposed amendments to the federal Mining Law.
The SE would also have authority to declare certain areas unviable for mining activities and to cancel concessions and permits that have already been granted if they had a negative social impact.
Mining experts said the legislative proposals posed a risk to both Grupo México and Industrias Peñoles, whose stocks were downgraded to underweight by investment bank Morgan Stanley.
“We believe Mexican mining equities will decouple from fundamentals for the foreseeable future given the heightened uncertainty around the regulatory framework for mining operations in the country,” it said in a note to clients.
Fernando Bolaños, an analyst at the financial group Monex, said Morena’s proposal lacks detail because it is unclear how negative social impact will be determined and what process would be followed to cancel a concession.
Peñoles referred to its losses this week in a statement, saying it “considers that this is a market movement in response to some announcements of legal initiatives that generate uncertainty, particularly the proposed amendments to the mining law, whose effect cannot be assessed due to lack of clarity.”
Earlier this month, another Morena party proposal to curb bank charges sent bank stocks plummeting and caused the Mexican Stock Exchange’s benchmark IPC index to suffer its biggest single-day decline since August 2011.
López Obrador’s decision to cancel the new Mexico City airport project has also generated concern among investors and been cited as a factor in the deterioration of the outlook for the Mexican economy in 2019.
The hydrogen-powered train now operating in Germany.
An environmentally-friendly hydrogen-powered train could operate on one section of the new Yucatán peninsula railroad proposed by the incoming federal government, according to a future tourism official.
Rogelio Jiménez Pons, who will serve as general manager of the National Tourism Promotion Fund (Fonatur), told the newspaper El Universal that the new government is considering running a non-polluting hydrogen train on a section of the Maya train that will enter the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve in Campeche.
Jiménez said that a biologist from Calakmul proposed the hydrogen train idea to him four months ago.
“. . . We want to do it . . . I’ve been in contact with the company . . . It’s zero emissions,” he said. The train is made by the French company Alstom.
Jiménez explained that whether or not a hydrogen-powered train is purchased would ultimately depend on the cost.
Alstom has built the world’s first hydrogen-powered train at a cost of about US $95 million. It started operations in Germany earlier this year.
The future Fonatur chief said the 700,000-hectare Calakmul Reserve, which includes a Maya archeological site set amid dense jungle, is “the jewel in the crown” of the Maya train project and must be protected.
The route the train will follow is adjacent to the existing highway where “there is no jungle,” he explained.
Jiménez added that the incoming government could seek to limit the number of visitors to the area to no more than 3 million over a period of 15 years.
While a range of groups representing Mayan communities on the Yucatán peninsula declared last week that nobody had asked their opinion about the proposed railroad, Jiménez said that representatives of the new government have been talking to the Calakmul community for “months.”
A public consultation this weekend will seek public opinion on the project even though president-elect López Obrador has declared that construction will begin next month.
Environmental groups, such as the Mexican Center for Environmental Law (Cemda), argue that an environmental impact assessment should be conducted before any consultation is held.
Jiménez pointed out that 60% of the tracks on which the train will run already exist and said that no new permits are required to use them.
In December, repair work on the existing tracks will begin and the new government will open an international tendering process to build the section between Cancún and Escárcega and Izamal and Cancún, he explained, adding that an environmental impact assessment will follow.
The project, which will link cities in the states of Yucatán, Quintana Roo, Campeche, Chiapas and Tabasco, is expected to be completed in four years at a cost of between 120 billion and 150 billion pesos (US $5.9 -$7.4 billion).
The nanosatellite that will be launched late next year.
NASA has approved the design of a nanosatellite developed by students and professors at the Popular Autonomous University of Puebla (UPAEP).
Andrés Martínez, an advanced exploration systems executive at the United States space agency, told a press conference this week that the quality of the design of the AztechSat 1 satellite, which measures just 10 cubic centimeters, is on par with those of NASA engineers.
Approval of the design followed an exhaustive inspection process.
“Revision is important in our projects because we have to be certain that the design is going to comply with the requirements of the mission. An extra revision was required because in July, of the 12 areas [assessed], nine passed [inspection] and three required a little additional work,” Martínez said.
The NASA executive explained that a panel made up of the astronaut José Hernández and three NASA engineers, among other specialists, unanimously agreed that the UPAEP team had sufficiently improved the satellite’s design in the areas required and consequently met the space agency’s stringent specifications.
AztechSat 1 is now set to be launched into space in October 2019 for a mission of just over 100 days during which it will be fully traceable as it sends data back to earth.
Carlos Duarte, a representative of the Mexican Space Agency (AEM), congratulated and praised the students and professors who worked on the satellite project.
“The satellite will be a complete success when it’s launched next year and it’s the start of many more projects. The UPAEP is providing an example at the national level about how to develop space projects,” he said.
“The explosion of space development in Mexico is thanks to the interest . . . of the federal government which has promoted these projects, such as the AztechSat 1, which was partially funded by the AEM-Conacyt [the National Council for Science and Technology] fund,” Duarte added.
Fernando Rodríguez Contreras, an electronics student who participated in the project, said it was a great honor to represent Mexico and to be a pioneer in the field of satellite development in the country.
“We take our work very seriously and put a lot of passion into it so that Mexico as a country moves ahead . . .” he said.
The mayor of Guanajuato has spoken out on a subject of concern in many tourist destinations: visitors traveling on economic bus tours bring few economic benefits.
Mayor Alejandro Navarro Saldaña said that last weekend, a puente or long-weekend holiday, brought 400 buses carrying some 20,000 people from nearby states.
As is customary with bus tourists, they arrived with their own food and with little money to spend, and stayed for a single day, the mayor said. They spent little, created traffic chaos and and left their trash behind.
Navarro said that everyone is welcome to the capital of Guanajuato, but he would prefer visitors that could spend more on services and products.
“We want a visitor profile that produces greater economic spillover, people who go to a museum, buy a handicraft, eat at a restaurant and not bring their own food . . . .”
The mayor explained that the visitor profile will be achieved by improving the quality of services provided.
Despite the large number of bus tourists, hotel occupancy reached 98% on the long weekend, and estimated visitor revenues were 107 million pesos (US $5.3 million).
Despite the large number of visitors, ideal or otherwise, many stayed away from the Museum of Mummies. Only 17,706 people visited the famous mummy showcase, down 20% from last year.
Navarro dismissed the notion that visitors stayed away from the museum due to the 40% increase in ticket prices, which last year cost 60 pesos but are now 85 pesos each.
Immigration agents invite migrants to legalize their status.
A fifth caravan of Central American migrants was stopped in its tracks yesterday by immigration agents and Federal Police after illegally crossing Mexico’s southern border.
A group of more than 300 people, mostly from El Salvador, arrived in the Guatemala border town of Tecún Umán earlier this week and yesterday morning waded across the Suchiate river to begin the long journey through Mexico to the United States border.
But the migrants only made it as far as Metapa, a town 18 kilometers north of the border, before they were intercepted by National Immigration Institute (INM) agents and anti-riot police.
Senior INM official Samuel Guerrero Mares explained to the Central Americans that they couldn’t continue their journey without first applying for refugee status in Mexico.
One of the migrants responded: “all we ask is that you let us pass, we come in peace, we are the most organized caravan.”
After officials refused that request, scuffles broke out and the migrants refused to board vehicles to be taken to immigration offices.
However, an hour later they relented and agreed to accompany the officials to an INM facility in Tapachula.
A pregnant Salvadoran woman, who had walked for five hours from the border to Metapa with her husband and two-year-old son, fainted during the commotion and was taken for treatment at the Tapachula General Hospital.
Immigration officials estimated Tuesday that there are about 13,800 Central American migrants in Mexico whose destination is the United States.
Several thousand have already reached Tijuana, where they await the opportunity to lodge asylum requests with United States authorities.
According to a report today in the newspaper El Universal, preparations are being made in Honduras for the departure of a “mega-caravan” from San Pedro Sula on January 15, 2019.
Meanwhile, according to a report published late last night by The Washington Post, the Trump administration is preparing sweeping new measures that would force Central Americans who arrive at the border to wait in Mexico while their asylum claims are processed.
United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) memos obtained by The Post indicate that asylum seekers who cannot establish a “reasonable fear” of persecution in Mexico will not be allowed to enter the U.S.
The plan called “Remain in Mexico” would represent a major departure from current screening procedures, which usually allow asylum seekers who establish a fear of returning to their country of origin to stay in the United States until they have the opportunity to plead their case before an immigration judge.
President Trump refers to the current system as “catch and release” and has pledged to terminate it.
Under the new plan, which two DHS officials told The Post could be implemented as soon as tomorrow, the bar to gain immediate admission to the United States would be set higher because asylum seekers would have to satisfy authorities that they specifically fear persecution in Mexico.
While Mexico’s border cities – including Tijuana – are among the most dangerous in the country, proving a reasonable fear of persecution to U.S. authorities could still be a difficult proposition.
According to the DHS memos, border authorities will tell asylum seekers that “if you are determined to have a reasonable fear of remaining in Mexico, you will be permitted to remain in the United States while you await your hearing before an immigration judge.”
However, if the migrants fail to demonstrate that reasonable fear, officials will tell them that they will remain in Mexico.
Despite the officials’ assertion that the “Remain in Mexico” plan could be adopted tomorrow, DHS spokeswoman Katie Waldman issued a statement late yesterday saying there are no immediate plans to implement the new measures.
“The president has made clear — every single legal option is on the table to secure our nation and to deal with the flood of illegal immigrants at our borders,” the statement said.
“DHS is not implementing such a new enforcement program this week. Reporting on policies that do not exist creates uncertainty and confusion along our borders and has a negative real world impact. We will ensure — as always — that any new program or policy will comply with humanitarian obligations, uphold our national security and sovereignty, and is implemented with notice to the public and well coordinated with partners.”
A Mexican official, who spoke to The Post on condition of anonymity, said that under Mexican immigration law, migrants seeking asylum in another country are not permitted to remain in Mexico.
However, with around 6,000 migrants currently in the Tijuana area facing long waits just to have the opportunity to lodge an asylum claim, Mexico appears set to host the caravan members for several months, a situation that has provoked an outbreak of anti-migrant sentiment in the border city.
Authorities in Morelos are on high alert due to heightened activity at the Popocatépetl volcano.
Aerial inspections of the volcano’s crater have found that a lava dome has formed inside it, a condition that poses an elevated risk for the towns nearby.
Over the last 48 hours,Civil Protection officials have kept the volcano under close observation as it expelled ash and water vapor.
Two explosions this morning sent ash into 10 municipalities in Puebla.
Civil Protection Chief Enrique Clement Gallardo said that if volcanic activity continues to increase, towns located near the volcano will be evacuated
Previous volcanic explosions have released incandescent matter and present a deadly risk.
Popocatépetl straddles the borders of the states of Morelos, Puebla and México and lies just 72 kilometers southeast of Mexico City.
One of the main suspects in the murder of Sinaloa journalist Javier Valdez has been charged with homicide, the federal Attorney General’s office (PGR) said.
Heriberto Picos Barraza, also known as “El Koala,” was arrested in April in connection with Valdez’s murder in May last year and for ties with a drug trafficking organization that operates in Sinaloa and Baja California.
The attorney general is seeking a 50-year prison term, the maximum under the Sinaloa criminal code.
Two other men have been implicated in Valdez’s murder. One has already been charged.
Valdez, 50, was a co-founder of the Sinaloa newspaper Río Doce, where he chronicled drug-trafficking. He was ambushed outside his office in Culiacán and shot 12 times.
Shortly before his death he interviewed Dámaso “El Licenciado” López, a senior official in the Sinaloa Cartel and a member of one of two factions vying for control of the drug gang. The other faction was — and possibly still is — headed by “Los Chapitos,” sons of former cartel boss Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
According to Valdez’s colleagues at Río Doce, Guzmán’s sons had pressured the journalist not to publish his interview with López. That was in February 2017. He was killed three months later, after he published the story.
Valdez won the International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists in 2011.
In his acceptance speech he described the challenge of working in Mexico.
“To work in journalism is to walk an invisible line drawn by the bad guys — who are in drug trafficking and in the government — in a field strewn with explosives.”
