Nayarit town well out of Willa’s way takes a hit from the hurricane

El Diente, the tooth, one of the boulders near Río Blanco, Jalisco.

The hills above the little town of Río Blanco, Jalisco, are covered with a curious forest consisting not of trees but of hundreds of huge, smooth, rocky spires.

One of these monoliths happens to have the shape of a giant tooth and has given a name — El Diente — to this extraordinary place of solitude and natural wonders, located only minutes from Mexico’s second largest city.

“When I first saw El Diente, I was quite surprised,” Canadian geologist Chris Lloyd told me. “The geological maps of this area show nothing unusual, but when I got here I found they were wrong. These monoliths are amazing.

“They are composed of a rather pure feldspar porphyry which formed deep under the earth perhaps up to 30 million years ago. That’s how long it’s taken the surrounding rock to erode away, leaving these extremely old monoliths standing tall. Geologically speaking, this is a very special place.”

The rock climbers of Guadalajara discovered the monoliths of El Diente many years ago and for a long time they considered them their big secret. “The rock is very hard,” says Luis Medina of Jalisco Vertical, “and the monoliths come in so many different shapes that climbers can practice every technique and maneuver imaginable, sometimes only two meters above the ground.”

Another thing that attracted the climbers is the silence. Wandering among these curiously shaped rocks, all you can hear is the chirping of birds, the chattering of squirrels and perhaps an occasional expletive from a climber who has missed his or her handhold and is — hopefully — about to be caught by the belay rope.

But the silence of El Diente is all the more extraordinary because this geological wonder is located only six kilometers from Guadalajara’s noisy, ever-busy Periférico or Ring Road.

The Diente monoliths are part of El Bosque de Nixticuil, which was once an impressive forest but over the years was eroded away by land development schemes of all sorts. Since 2008, what’s left of this woods has been officially “protected” but seemingly still under threat, as was evidenced in 2012 when rumors circulated that El Diente had been bought up by developers who were going to fence it off, shutting out the boulder climbers from their favorite weekend hangout.

“We were going to organize a festival called Salva El Diente, Save the Tooth,” says Luis Medina, “but when the developers heard about it they assured us they would never cut us off from our beloved rocks and we all joined together in a Vive El Diente International Festival of solidarity.”

Well over a thousand rock climbers from all over the world participated, including California’s Lisa Rands, said to be the best boulder climber anywhere, and Mexico’s national bouldering champion, Fernanda Rodríguez of Guadalajara, who called the event “padrísimo” [totally cool], perhaps the best qualification possible from a modern young Mexican.

“The festival was a great success,” commented Luis Medina, “because it brought the existence of El Diente to the attention of the authorities, of politicians and of many organizations. In addition, it turned out to be one of the biggest outdoor events in Mexico’s history.”

Several years after the festival, archaeologist Francisco Sánchez visited El Diente as part of a survey conducted by CIDYT, the Center for Dialog and Multidisciplinary Research, to catalogue the resources of the Nixticuil woods.

“I know it sounds strange,” Sánchez told me, “but in the nearby pueblito of Río Blanco I met a woman who told me she had had a dream that long ago people had lived on top of a certain hill just 400 meters southeast of El Diente rock. So I went to see the hill she indicated and even before I reached its base I began to find artifacts: the foundations of stone walls. The further I went up, the more it was clear that this hill had been terraced, but not for farming, and then, at the top I found the base of a pyramid.”

“The ground here,” Sánchez told me, “is covered with tepalcates [shards] and fragments of worked obsidian. The ceramic pieces pinpoint the builders of these structures exactly. This civilization flourished during the Epiclassic period, from 650 to 900 A.D. They are the same people who built the Ixtépete pyramid just outside Guadalajara and are referred to by archaeologists as the El Grillo Tradition.”

Quite near this hill where the ancient pyramid is located, you’ll find the trailhead for an eight-kilometer loop hike that circumnavigates the monoliths of El Diente. This is one of the most spectacular senderos I’ve seen in western Mexico. “The further we went,” I wrote about this trail after first walking on it, “the bigger and more beautiful the rocks got, with plenty of opportunities for us to scramble atop some of them. After hiking three hours at an easy pace, with three rest stops, we reached altitude 1,633 meters, just a hair over one mile high, where we had a magnificent view of the village of San Esteban far below us and, far, far away in the background, the smog-shrouded tall buildings of Guadalajara.

“We stopped for lunch near a truly colossal pinnacle which rock climbers call El Fistol (The Pin) and then we looped around the northwestern edge of the Bosque and returned to the El Diente parking area. This route is scenic every step of the way any time of the year, but it is especially beautiful if you follow it during the rainy season.”

If you are not interested in hiking or in watching boulder climbers do their thing, you can still have a great time at El Diente simply wandering and letting your imagination run wild. I went there with friends one day with no particular plan in mind. “Let’s just look at the rocks,” I suggested and, with every step, one of us would cry out: “This place is incredible; it’s astounding!”

And over and over we would point: “Look at those rocks: two giant turtles; over there, you can see a brontosaurus and here’s a giant finger pointing at the sun.”

Spend a few hours at EL Diente and I swear you will begin to see everything from giant bowling balls to natural bathtubs, and when you’ve seen enough you can sit down in the shade of a towering pinnacle to have a picnic. Just remember to clean up behind you and leave the place as you found it. And whatever you do, be sure not to bring your boombox!

El Diente is only a 16-minute drive from Guadalajara’s northern Ring Road. You can get there easily by asking Google Maps to take you to “El Diente, Zapopan Jalisco.” In case you would like to do the hike I described, check out my map on Wikiloc.

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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.

Man, 22, sentenced to 100 years for sexual assault of 10 women

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October 26, 2018

A 22-year-old serial rapist from Tlalpan, Mexico City, has been sentenced to 100 years behind bars.

Víctor Ismael Flores Martínez was arrested in Tlalpan in November 2016 for sexually assaulting 10 women and committing aggravated robbery against seven of them.

Authorities said his modus operandi was to wait for his victims on the streets near the Tlalpan government offices. He then approached the women, threatened them with a knife and led them away to assault them.

In most of the cases, Flores took all the women’s possessions, including their clothes, to prevent them from following him.

Investigators said after his arrest that Flores always used abandoned vehicles to sexually assault his victims, leading them to believe the same person was responsible for the cases that had been reported.

A break in the six-month investigation came when Flores was caught by security cameras with a victim.

The case against him also included several positive identifications by victims and their relatives, and genetic tests.

Police are aware of 12 sexual attacks by Flores but two of the victims, both minors, declined to testify.

Source: Sin Embargo (sp), Excélsior (sp)

Despite deficiencies in consultation process the airport vote will continue

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October 26, 2018

López Obrador says the consultation went well.

President-elect López Obrador and members of his team have defended the vote on the future of the new Mexico City International Airport (NAICM) and pledged that it will continue despite deficiencies reported yesterday.

Late starts at some polling stations and proof that it was possible to cast more than one ballot were among the problems that plagued the first day of the public consultation asking the public to decide the future of the airport project.

The ballot asks whether construction should continue in Texcoco or be abandoned in favor of reconditioning the existing airport and that in Toluca and building two new runways at the Santa Lucía Air Force Base.

After casting a symbolic invalid vote, López Obrador said the result of the consultation will not pose a risk to the economy, as Mexico’s two largest banks and other analysts have contended.

He also said he would meet with government contractors “to calm them” about the possible outcomes of the vote.

As for yesterday’s problems he said “it’s only the corrupt and the cunning” that want the vote canceled. “The corrupt don’t want the consultation so they are conducting a counter-campaign,” López Obrador charged.

“Do you know why I voted? For democracy!” the president-elect declared. He later said that the first day of the consultation had gone “very well.”

However, that assessment was not supported by evidence on the ground.

A digital application used to register voters’ details crashed yesterday, enabling citizens to vote more than once.

Election ink applied to voters’ thumbs didn’t provide a barrier to casting more than one ballot either because it could easily be removed with water, antibacterial gel, saliva or alcohol, the newspaper Milenio said.

But López Obrador’s spokesman, Jesús Ramírez, said the number of voters who had cast two or more ballots wasn’t “significant” and therefore “there is no reason to cancel the process.”

Ramírez added that “we’re shielding [the process] so that [duplicate voting] doesn’t continue occurring . . . It’s a mistake but it doesn’t invalidate the consultation . . . it’s continuing until Sunday.”

Future interior secretary Olga Sánchez Cordero responded to criticism that the vote is pointless because it is not legally binding.

“Haven’t you understood that it’s not a legal matter?” she said.

“. . . It’s a political matter in order to take a political decision, it’s a tool.”

That view, however, is somewhat at odds with López Obrador’s pledge that the view of the people will be respected.

“What the people decide will be supported by the government,” he told reporters after casting his ballot.

Just over 184,000 citizens had their say on the future of the airport yesterday and some polling stations revealed the results of the ballots cast.

In Tecámac, the México state municipality where the Santa Lucía Air Force base is located, 245 voters supported the air force proposal whereas just 146 voted in favor of the existing project continuing.

A further 12 people cast invalid ballots on which they expressed their opinion about the public consultation.

“This vote is stupid. We’re not experts,” one person wrote.

“It’s not a [valid] consultation because it doesn’t comply with the law,” another suggested.

Source: Milenio (sp), Animal Politico (sp)

At least two people killed in explosion at Veracruz pipeline tap

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October 26, 2018

Explosion at the site of a pipeline tap.

Two people died, five were injured and 10 reported missing in Veracruz when an illegal pipeline tap caused a fuel spill that caught fire.

The incident occurred at El Once in the town of El Otate, Amatlán, where huachicoleros, or fuel thieves, tapped a Pemex pipeline that runs between Minatitlán, Veracruz, and Mexico City, near the highway between Córdoba and Cuichapa.

But fuel began to spill, attracting about 20 residents with buckets and other containers who arrived to help themselves to free fuel.

That was when a fire started, causing a minor explosion.

Among the victims was a 10-year-old boy who suffered second and third-degree burns to 70% of his body.

The spill reached a nearby creek, leaving a fuel stain about 1.5 kilometers long.

Source: Diario de Xalapa (sp)

6 headless bodies in Chihuahua: cartel battles continue

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October 26, 2018

Bodies left on the roadside in the Tarahumara region.

Six decapitated bodies were found on the side of a highway in Chihuahua Wednesday, state authorities said.

According to police reports, the bodies were wrapped in a black material and left next to the Creel-San Juanito highway near a gas station in the northern state’s Sierra Tarahumara region.

The deaths are believed to be linked to a feud between La Línea criminal gang and the Sinaloa Cartel, both of whom are involved in organized crime in the state, including illegal logging.

A cardboard sign signed by the suspected leader of La Línea, the armed wing of the Juárez Cartel, was found with the victims’ bodies.

The Chihuahua Attorney General’s office (FGE) attributed the deaths to the gang’s leader, César Daniel Manjarrez Alonso, who is also known as El H2.

Police took the corpses to a state morgue for identification and to establish the causes of death.

State authorities deployed a search operation to locate those responsible for the crime but no arrests were made.

La Línea is also believed to be behind a separate incident in Ciudad Juárez this week, in which a group of armed men shot at two police officers eating breakfast at a street stand.

One officer and the woman operating the stand were wounded, state authorities said.

A police operation deployed in response resulted in the arrest of eight people traveling in a vehicle in which assault weapons were found that are believed to have been used in the attack.

The attack was the 11th time this month that police in Chihuahua have been targeted by suspected members of criminal organizations.

An hour before the incident, state police and the Ciudad Juárez municipal force announced a joint operation aimed at combating aggression towards police.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Demonstrations follow journalist’s assassination in Acapulco

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October 26, 2018

Demonstrations yesterday in the Guerrero cities of Acapulco, Zihuatanejo and Atoyac de Álvarez followed the assassination on Wednesday of journalist Gabriel Soriano Kuri.

Soriano had been covering Governor Héctor Astudillo Flores’ third annual report for the Radio y Televisión de Guerrero (RTG) broadcaster Wednesday evening.

After the event, held in Acapulco, he was driving a company vehicle when he was attacked and killed by armed civilians.

Following the murder, Astudillo offered his condolences to Soriano’s family via Twitter. But it didn’t go down very well.

Soriano’s daughter replied with a blunt message: “My dad was assassinated doing his job. Covering your report to the state! Do your job and fix the situation the state is in. It’s not right,” she wrote.

Her discontent was echoed in at least three demonstrations where journalists demanded that authorities solve the assassination of their colleague.

The protesting journalists also demanded guarantees to be able to perform their jobs safely.

A state journalists’ association reported that three members of the profession have been slain during Astudillo’s three years in office.

Francisco Pacheco was killed in Taxco in 2016, while Cecilio Pineda was murdered last year in Ciudad Altamirano.

The organization also stated that journalists in the state have been victims of multiple aggressions perpetrated by state officials and police.

Soriano’s assassination was also condemned by the Mexico office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

“The assassination of Gabriel is yet another terrible reminder that violence against journalists in the country is unstoppable, reinforcing what we already know: Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for those who do the work of providing information,” said UN representative Jan Jarab.

One of the chief measures to prevent violence against journalists, he added, is to stop impunity.

The latest murder brings to 10 the total number of journalists slain this year in Mexico. There may have been one more: Agustín Silva has been missing since January.

The UN office said there were at least 12 journalists assassinated last year in Mexico.

Source: Reforma (sp)

Electrical tariffs strike a blow at Cancún restaurants

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October 25, 2018

Electricity costs have risen 96% this year on the peninsula. cfe

Rising electricity and gasoline prices coupled with insecurity are hitting Cancún restaurants hard.

Juan Pablo Aguirre, head of the restaurant industry association Canirac, believes that between 30 and 50 restaurants in the Caribbean coast resort city could close by the end of the year due to the economic pressure faced not only by businesses but also by local residents.

“September was a very complicated month for the whole sector, we’re waiting to see how the year ends. We hope that there will be a slight rebound during the December holiday season but it definitely won’t make up for how difficult the whole year has been for us,” he said.

“What is hitting us are issues at the national level, like the increase in gasoline prices, the increase in electricity tariffs, the depreciation of the peso compared to the [US] dollar although at a local level the increase in insecurity [is also a factor]. All this together is stopping people from going out and eating in restaurants and all kind of establishments in general.”

Aguirre said that a lot of businesses have had to take on debt in order to pay their electricity bills.

Prices have increased significantly recently, prompting Canirac to seek exemptions from the municipal government that would help restaurants to reduce their electricity bills.

Inna Germán Gómez, president of the Caribbean branch of the Business Coordinating Council (CCE), described the increase to electricity prices as “scandalous.”

She explained that a National Energy Control Center (Cenace) levy had added 3% to 4% to monthly electricity bills and that customers are also being charged more for distribution and transmission.

“. . . In some cases, they’re raising monthly electricity bills by up to 50%,” she said.

Germán said the CCE will file at least 1,000 complaints with the Federal Consumer Protection Agency (Profeco) in relation to the price hike.

She added that the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) has repeatedly blamed the increases on the Energy Regulatory Commission.

Source: El Economista (sp)

The airport vote: delays, few voters and a dead website kick things off

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October 25, 2018

A polling station in Puebla for the airport vote.

A late start, few voters, a dead website and proof that it is possible to cast more than one ballot all contributed to defining the first hours of the public vote on the future of Mexico City’s new airport (NAICM).

In the México state municipality of Chimalhuacán, the polling station opened half an hour later than scheduled this morning because the ballots and other electoral materials were late to arrive.

Voting got under way at around 8:30am.

Pedro Valencia was the first person to cast a ballot in response to the question asking whether construction of the new airport in Texcoco should continue or whether the existing airport and that in Toluca should be reconditioned and two new runways built at the Santa Lucía Air Force Base.

Valencia told the newspaper El Financiero that he hoped that the project would continue at Texcoco because it would generate employment for the area. However, he conceded that the project also presented risks.

In the south of Mexico City, the consultation got off to a slow start with only a few citizens arriving early this morning to cast votes at a polling station located on a busy avenue in the borough of Coyoacán.

However, one person who did vote, a biology student at the National Autonomous University (UNAM), stressed the importance of participating in the democratic exercise.

“Asking whether you want an important infrastructure project [to go ahead] or not is something that is unprecedented in the country. It’s necessary to know all of the implications that building the airport in Texcoco or moving it to Santa Lucía will have for the city,” Diego Ortiz said.

In Tlalpan, a Mexico City borough even further to the south, there was again only a trickle of voters shortly after polls opened this morning.

Elvira Hernández told the newspaper El Financiero that she had voted but that she was initially unaware that a vote on the future of the airport project was taking place.

“I thought that [the polling station] was to register for a senior citizen’s card but the young lady explained to me that it was about the airport so I took the opportunity to vote,” she said.

Perhaps one reason why voter turnout was low this morning is that the website set up to provide information about the public consultation — including the location of the polling stations across the country — was down intermittently.

The newspaper El Economista reported that a “this site can’t be reached” message was displayed on the site when it made several attempts to access it. Mexico News Daily received the same message after several attempts to visit the site this morning and late this afternoon.

Another reason for the low number of voters could be that many Mexicans have indicated that they don’t have enough knowledge about the airport project to offer an informed opinion about it.

“A lot of people are not informed to make a decision about which place is better,” María Victoria González told the newspaper Milenio.

“. . . We don’t have the training, we don’t know what is advisable . . . I declare myself incompetent to offer a response because I don’t know on what citizens should base their vote.”

Businessman Fernando Gómez offered an even blunter assessment on the public consultation.

“It’s a perverse farce,” he said, adding that the decision to build the airport at Texcoco was the result of a years-long study and that it would benefit the whole country.

Layla Arcos, a pilot for low-cost airline Volaris, said that only 15% of Mexicans travel by plane and that what really matters is the opinion of those “inside the planes.”

“Yes to Texcoco, a new airport is needed. The delays [at the existing airport] are excessive,” she said.

The first part of the old adage “vote early and vote often” may not have been followed by many but some people heeded the latter advice.

Despite president-elect López Obrador declaring that it would not possible to vote more than once, two reporters — one from Milenio, another from broadcaster Multimedios — found otherwise.

Gabriel Ortega first voted this morning in a neighborhood in the Mexico City borough of Miguel Hidalgo before voting again at another polling station located two kilometers away in the same borough.

Not to be outdone, Ramón Ramírez of Multimedios was able to obtain ballots at three different polling stations but only voted once so as to not willingly distort the result.

“These inconsistencies could throw up alarming figures at the end [of the vote],” he said.

Some social media users also claimed that they, or people they know, had voted more than once.

Voting in the public consultation called México Decide (Mexico Decides) is taking place in 538 municipalities across Mexico and will conclude Sunday.

President-elect López Obrador has said that the result will be binding, although legally speaking the incoming government will not be bound by it.

There are signs of growing concern over the negative economic impact a decision to cancel the project might have, with Mexico’s two biggest banks and others saying that it would hurt private investment.

Source: El Financiero (sp), Milenio (sp), El Economista (sp)

Patent protection sought for traditional indigenous dishes

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October 25, 2018