Authorities have captured six members of a gang dedicated to the theft and sale of propane gas in México state.
The investigation and operation was carried out by the Federal Police and the Attorney General’s Office with support from Pemex.
After an investigation, a judge issued a search warrant for three buildings in the municipality of Ecatepec and one in Texcoco, identified as the “Don Manuel” boarding house in Los Reyes Zacatepec. Police say that the buildings were used to store propane stolen from the Cactus-Guadalajara pipeline.
Federal authorities have requested custody of the boarding house from the municipality of Texcoco while the investigation proceeds.
Authorities also seized 42 tanker trucks and 222,000 liters of propane.
Out of gas. One of the Puebla stations that had to close.
Gasoline shortages have affected about 120 filling stations in Puebla during the past week, says an industry association.
The Gas Station Owners’ Association of Puebla and Tlaxcala (GUEPT) said the supply of fuel from Pemex has been irregular since August 30.
The association said it has been told that the disruption has been caused by power cuts at Pemex’s storage and distribution center in Puebla.
As a consequence, tanker truck drivers have been unable to fill up and make their regular deliveries. About 25 gas stations were forced to close on Thursday because they completely ran out of both regular and premium fuel.
Power supply at the storage center was restored at 11:00am on Friday but according to GUEPT president Luz María Jiménez Almazán, it will be some time until gas stations’ reserves are replenished.
“They told us that electricity supply was reestablished but the tanker truck backlog is already 300 trips and that’s affecting the entire state of Puebla,” she said.
Jiménez said the association informed Pemex and government departments about the situation but received no response.
“We haven’t received a single response from Pemex or the secretariats of Energy and the Interior and consequently we filed a complaint with [consumer protection agency] Profeco,” she said.
Jiménez called on the Puebla government to intervene to ensure that full service at gas stations is reestablished as soon as possible and adverse effects on the economy and consumers are avoided.
The association president explained that gasoline shortages of varying severity have plagued Puebla throughout the year.
“The shortage of gasoline has been intermittent, sometimes it’s very serious, sometimes less serious but it’s an undeniable problem throughout the whole year.”
President López Obrador has declared that there is “zero corruption” in the federal government as a result of his dedication to “sweeping away” what has developed over the past 30 years.
Speaking at an event on Friday at the Matehuala Rural Hospital in San Luis Potosí, López Obrador railed against his predecessors, declaring that the past five presidents from Carlos Salinas de Gortari to Enrique Peña Nieto used their time in office to loot the country’s wealth.
López Obrador also took aim at past governments’ “forgiveness” of the tax debt of large companies and the nation’s wealthy, charging that public coffers were deprived of 400 billion pesos (US $20.5 billion) in revenue during the administrations of Peña Nieto and Felipe Calderón alone.
“A famous bank didn’t pay taxes while farmers, doctors, nurses and workers did,” the president said.
Under his administration, tax debt forgiveness has been eradicated, López Obrador declared using a colorful colloquialism to make his point.
“There is zero corruption” in the cabinet and government departments, the president said, adding that citizens now need to follow his example and put an end to – or “sweep away” – the “cancer” that afflicts Mexico more broadly.
López Obrador cited his government’s crackdown on fuel theft as one of the big challenges it inherited from past administrations, which he claimed tacitly approved the crime and even factored in the revenue losses it caused.
The president claimed that on his watch, petroleum theft has declined 95% from 80,000 barrels per day to 4,000.
As a result, 50 billion pesos (US $2.6 billion) that would have been lost had theft levels remained the same will flow into government coffers, López Obrador said, pointing out that the amount is higher than the entire annual budget of the state of San Luis Potosí.
Seven days after nine people were killed in confrontations between the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and citizens of Tepalcatepec, Michoacán, army troops have been deployed to prevent further violence in the municipality.
Michoacán Government Secretary Carlos Hernández Tello said that the deployment is being coordinated between the three levels of government.
“We are in permanent dialogue with Mayor Felipe Martínez, supporting him and making sure that Tepalcatepec remains calm,” he said. “All levels of government are doing what’s necessary to support the efforts of the municipal government.”
The security forces have set up checkpoints around Tepalcatepec and are closely monitoring the parts of the municipality that border the state of Jalisco. They have also started intelligence work in the neighboring municipalities of Buenavista, Coalcomán and Aguililla.
Since August 30, Tepalcatepec has been the scene of a conflict between the CJNG and another armed group presumed to be led by Juan José Farías Álvarez, known as “El Abuelo,” or “The Grandfather.”
Two weeks before the clashes started, the CJNG released a video in which it spoke of a plan to attack the municipality and the “Cartel del Abuelo.”
On Thursday, around 1,000 people marched for peace in Tepalcatepec. Juana Reyes, a spokesperson for the Social Movement for Peace, asked Michoacán Governor Silvano Aureoles for proof that the self-defense group is a criminal organization led by Farías.
“If he really has proof that we are a town of criminals, or a cartel led by this person, he should present them,” she said. “We’re willing to face justice, but not to face gossip or rumors.”
The mayor has also denied that Farías is involved in crime.
UNAM students say no to last year's National Action Party presidential candidate.
Students protested at the National Autonomous University (UNAM) in Mexico City on Friday against the hiring of former presidential candidate Ricardo Anaya to teach a new political science course.
Protesters blocked access to the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences for four hours this morning, the newspaper Milenio reported. Among the signs held up by the students was one that read “nefarious people out of UNAM.”
Anaya, who represented the conservative National Action Party (PAN) in the 2018 presidential election, announced in August that he would teach a diploma course on contemporary Mexican politics at the university. It was scheduled to commence today.
Disgruntled students argued in a documented posted to social media that UNAM’s hiring of Anaya amounted to the “acceptance of the far right in our university.”
They also pointed out that the 40-year-old former lawmaker and PAN national president has been accused of money laundering and other corrupt activities.
Anaya “doesn’t just represent the most conservative power groups in Mexico but also the neoliberal technocracy that has historically attacked social conquests in favor of servility to foreign interests,” the students said.
One person who disagreed with today’s protest was political science student Adrián Salazar.
“This act affected the whole university community . . . A lot of students come from far away to study and they run into this. Besides, this group [of protesters] . . . has no tolerance for the diverse ideologies there are in the university,” he said.
Although Anaya had indicated that he would start teaching at UNAM on September 6, the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences said in a statement that he wasn’t scheduled to participate today, while the office of the ex-presidential hopeful told Milenio that he is currently in New York.
The statement also said that the members of the political science faculty are a “plural community in which individuals of the entire Mexican political spectrum collaborate.”
A range of other political figures ,including former presidential candidate, Mexico City mayor, senator and governor of Michoacán Cuauhtémoc Cardenas, will also teach parts of the new diploma course.
If the bugs don't appeal perhaps the mushrooms will.
A festival of Mexican gastronomy began today in Mexico City at the eighth annual Viva México event in Xochimilco. It will run until Sunday.
Edible flowers, fungi and insects, among other things, will be available for purchase from small producers.
The festival will also feature lectures about the importance of traditional ingredients in Mexican cuisine.
Festival-goers will also have the opportunity to learn how to grind corn and make tortillas by hand in a workshop offered Saturday and Sunday at noon.
There will be performances by a huapango ensemble, a youth choir and traditional dance groups.
The festival takes place at the Jardín Hacienda Los Ángeles cultural center in Xaltocan, Xochimilco. Entrance is free, and the event will be open from 12:00pm to 8:00pm daily.
Federal authorities are investigating threats by the Northeast Cartel to stop gas station owners in Tamaulipas from selling fuel to security forces.
Stations in Nuevo Laredo began refusing service on Monday to state police and the military, the newspaper Excélsior reported. The state approached other suppliers, but they refused for fear of retaliation.
The Attorney General’s Office confirmed that officers with the state Security Secretariat have had problems buying fuel in the border city.
Interior Secretary Olga Sánchez Cordero said Tamaulipas Governor Francisco García Cabeza de Vaca assured her that efforts are underway to discover who is threatening the gas stations.
Security Secretary Alfonso Durazo said the federal government will not allow the situation to continue.
“It is a challenge to authority that we will of course not accept. All of the state, federal and military forces will of course be supplied. We are working against these criminal organizations that feel they hold dominance and the ability to launch a challenge of this magnitude,” he said.
President López Obrador also addressed the situation in his Wednesday morning conference.
“We cannot allow these threats to be accepted, this must be resolved. We’re already looking into ways of dealing with it,” he said.
Not a strand of Peña Nieto's hair is out of place, thanks to all that gel.
Former president Enrique Peña Nieto’s personal hygiene was at the center of a corruption charge made at Friday’s presidential press conference.
Peña Nieto’s government spent almost 1.3 million pesos on supplies such as perfume, hair gel and razors for just two flights on the presidential plane, President López Obrador revealed.
The president presented infographics that showed that 1.07 million pesos (US $55,000 at today’s exchange rate) was spent on hygiene products for a flight on October 27, 2017, and an additional 216,804 pesos (US $11,100) was spent on supplies for a flight on July 6, 2018.
More than 1,600 razors, 1,247 toothbrush kits, 486 bottles of Caroline Herrera perfume for ladies, 746 bottles of Caroline Herrera cologne for men, 1,265 tubes of hair gel, 1,263 shoe polish sponges and 1,215 sets of nail clippers were among the supplies purchased for the first flight, López Obrador said.
“Look at what happened, just one flight, look at how many razors [were bought] . . .” he said.
For the latter flight, the government bought almost 500 boxes of toilet paper and nearly 400 liters of liquid hand soap.
“There are other things that we’re not presenting out of modesty, the toilet paper is enough already,” López Obrador said.
The president said there are invoices for the purchases but questioned their authenticity.
“It’s very probable that the invoices in these cases are false . . . The [past] government itself set a bad example with the use of false invoices,” López Obrador said, adding that his administration will change the law so that the use of phony invoices is classified as a serious crime.
Asked whether his administration will file formal complaints about the presidential plane purchases, the president responded that it would.
López Obrador said the previous government didn’t disclose the details of the purchases on the grounds that it was information of national security importance, adding “that’s over, there is nothing secret now.
“That’s what this change [of government], this fight is for, to put an end to corruption from top to bottom . . .”
Federal Police arrest Iguala municipal police in 2014.
Police officers released from prison after being accused of involvement in the disappearance of 43 students in Guerrero in 2014 are demanding lost wages that could bankrupt the municipality of Iguala.
The municipal police are seeking 13 million pesos (US $665,000) in unpaid salaries, said Mayor Antonio Jaimes Herrera — 1 million pesos for each of the 13 officers, a figure that represents almost five years of lost wages.
According to the previous government’s “historical truth,” corrupt municipal police intercepted the 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College in Iguala on September 26, 2014 while they were traveling on buses they had commandeered to attend a protest march in Mexico City.
The police then handed the students over to members of the Guerrero Unidos gang who killed them, burned their bodies in a municipal dump and scattered their ashes in a nearby river, according to the investigation.
Encinas said the key suspect’s acquittal set a “grave precedent” that could be used to release more than 50 other people who are in custody as a result of their alleged involvement in the students’ disappearance.
Mayor Herrera said that if more Iguala police are released and demand compensation, the municipality could go bankrupt, pointing out that it already has “historical” debt of more than 100 million pesos.
“The truth is, this represents a serious problem for us,” he said.
The mayor argued that because the officers were dismissed by the federal Attorney General’s Office (formerly the PGR, now the FGR) rather than the municipal government, the former should be responsible for settling their demands.
“. . . We’re directing the [officers’] demands to the FGR because it was that authority that took their jobs from them,” Herrera said.
Guerrero Governor Héctor Astudillo added his voice to the concern about the possible release of more suspects in the case.
“We can’t continue releasing all these people who participated [in the crime]. In a while, they’ll all be in the street. I believe that this is a very sensitive issue . . . [The release of suspects] has to be categorically stopped.”
The 350-meter-long bridge was inspired by the Capilano suspension bridge in Vancouver, Canada.
Mazamitla, Jalisco, is one town that really deserves the name Pueblo Mágico. The quaint streets, the delightful balconies, the beautiful pagoda-like church, the incredibly delicious food, a night before a crackling fireplace with a ponche de pasiflora in hand . . . what more could you ask?
Well, I’m always looking for interesting outdoor sites I can visit the morning after. One such place is the community of Los Cazos just southwest of Mazamitla.
The name Los Cazos refers to “large cauldrons” carved in the bedrock of a small river on the premises. I had heard about the place but hadn’t bothered to check it out until I came upon what seems to be Mexico’s oldest tequila distillery near the town of Amatitán in Jalisco.
Among the ruins of Taberna El Tecuane, I was amazed to see that the fermentation of the sweet mosto took place in 44 huge holes carved into the living rock, each of these giant pots holding around 3,000 liters.
Could the great stone cauldrons of Los Cazos have been carved for a similar purpose? Local archaeologist Phil Weigand told me it was quite likely and off I went to have a look.
Round “cauldrons” carved in the soft rock of the riverbed at Los Cazos.
The housing development of Los Cazos is located two kilometers straight southwest of Mazamitla.
Outside the entrance to this little community, we found a confusion of horses, caballeros and cuatrimotos (four-wheeled all-terrain vehicles). Apparently, Los Cazos and the surrounding area is so attractive that lots of people are quite happy to rent either a quiet horse or a noisy ATV to explore the network of cobblestone roads which wind through these pine-covered hills.
Seeing all this, we suspected that we would not be allowed to drive our car into Los Cazos, but such was not the case at all. As long as you pay a fee of 12 pesos per person, you may enter the fraccionamiento (between 9:00am and 5:00pm), no matter whether the vehicle carrying you has wheels or legs.
We parked 500 meters south of the gate and walked downhill to a charming wooden footbridge crossing a stream. This is the start of what they call the Enchanted Garden, a series of bridges, narrow paths and small waterfalls which follow the stream downward.
From the first bridge you’ll have a great view of the Cazos, big holes carved in the soft rock of the stream bed. Some of these are round and some are rectangular. They come in a variety of sizes and may be up to a meter deep. The rock is a kind of rhyolite, locally known as tepetate, the very same material in which Indians carved the fermentation pots at El Tecuane.
Hand-carved channels a few inches deep permit water to flow in and out of each cauldron and in many cases there are bypass channels alongside the pots. By blocking or unblocking the channels, one could easily fill a pot with water and then “turn off” the water supply. Although the Cazos were probably used to ferment mezcal, on a nice hot day you could also use them as mini-swimming pools.
A shaded bench alongside a hand-carved stone stairway at Los Cazos.
One kilometer southwest of the fermentation pots, you’ll find a 30-meter-high waterfall which, like 90% of the falls in Mexico, is locally known as El Salto (The Jump). This one has a steep trail which takes you down to the bottom in eight minutes, and is relatively easy to negotiate thanks to the addition of crude stairs here and there.
If you want to frolic in the shallow pool beneath the falling water, there appear to be no regulations to the contrary and the local people say the water is pure and clean. Back up at the top of the fall, you can cross the stream via a little bridge and check out a cliff-hanging trail that leads to a good spot for photographing the cascading water from above. For more information Google Fraccionamiento Los Cazos en Mazamitla Jalisco.
On a recent visit to charming Mazamitla, I found another nearby site well worth visiting. It’s called Mundo Aventura, but don’t be fooled by the name: even though it has lots of attractions for kids, it’s a place that visitors of all ages will appreciate.
This I think is due to the fertile imagination of the man who built it, Rafael Pulido, who was enchanted by its magnificent waterfall, plunging 150 meters to the bottom of a deep, wooded canyon, which he was convinced could only be appreciated properly from a colossal hanging bridge stretched over it.
Few would have had the persistence to turn such a dream into reality, but Pulido did it. His bridge is a whopping 350 meters long and possibly the longest hanging bridge in the Americas. Of course, claims of biggest, smallest or whatever are not easy to verify, but I can assure you this particular hanging bridge is spectacular and walking across it is an experience you are unlikely ever to forget.
Another feature of this place which I find fascinating is a sort of Labyrinth of Standing Stones, another creation of Rafael Pulido, consisting of flat blades of shale which stand up to three meters tall, resulting in a strange and beautiful garden.
A small lake at Mundo Aventura is ideal for contemplation or meditation.
Anyone interested in crossing the canyon while whizzing through the air can do so on a zip line a full kilometer and a half long, one of the longest in the world, in fact. As far as I could determine, it appears to be the second-longest zip line in Latin America, right behind Brazil’s Mega Tirolesa Pedra Bela which is 1,900 meters long.
For those who prefer a less speedy way to cross the canyon, Mundo Aventura also has three shorter zip lines that will do the trick.
When you are tired of watching people zipping along all these tirolesas, you can retreat to a quiet lake on the property with a picturesque island in the middle.
I asked Señor Pulido’s daughter Rosalinda to tell me a little about the origins of Mundo Aventura.
“This is a family business,” she told me. “We are 11 brothers and sisters. Everything we have created here is thanks to our father, who is a visionary. He had no money and no education, but he traveled the world with a knapsack on his back.
“In Canada he saw the famous Capilano hanging bridge and instantly knew this was what he wanted to span the deep canyon here. So, 28 years ago my father set out to create . . . well, not just any park, his aim has always been to create the best park in the world! However, people told him he was crazy and no tourists would every come to a place like this in the middle of nowhere.
[soliloquy id="88740"]
“Then, our house burned down, and there we were out on the street. But nothing could stop my father and six months later we opened Mundo Aventura . . . and from that moment on we’ve always had crowds of people coming here.”
Rafael Pulido was convinced people from Guadalajara would flock to his park to escape the stresses of the big city and, his daughter told me, the park now sees over 3,000 visitors per day during peak periods like Easter Week.
“And we have had guests from as far away as India, France, the U.S.A. and England,” Rosalinda Pulido proudly stated.
Mundo Aventura is open every day of the year from 9:00am to 8:00pm. For more information see their web page. To get there, set your navigator for Mundo Aventura Jalisco.
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.
