Cannonball runs No. 2: Mother’s Day at Hussong’s, $1 beers, and why Camrys

By

-

August 7, 2019

hussong's ensenada — A Mother's Day party at Hussong's was a special event.

More observations on highway travel through Mexico in the second of a two-part series recollecting cannonball runs in Toyotas by the author and his travel companion, “the doc,” from the United States border to Guatemala.

The doc likes chrome and Formica, and hotels that call themselves Inn or Lodge, and have a Shoppe. I like wood. He likes to spray his bed with Raid. I don’t care.

Lately in the evenings he’s taken to Appleton’s and whatever, or rye and ginger. I stick to $1 beers, usually from a ubiquitous Oxxo convenience store. Since I’m the one who suffered the nightmare of bobbing along in Baja’s Sea of Cortés holding the globe when our car ferry sank, maybe I should reconsider the Appleton’s or rye. Where did the globe come from? The back seat, of course.

Oxxo is what girls used to write at the bottom of letters, at least to other guys. In Mexico it’s a spic and span convenience store that sells an endless combination of hot-dogs called Vikings. Maybe the Vikings introduced them to the New World when they came to Minnesota — I don’t know, but they are not typically Mexican.

Two for one for a buck on Fridays. It also sells beer nuts. Shop-doc likes beer nuts — between the seats, under the accelerator, on the seats, under the floor mats. We need a pigeon. A passenger pigeon.

We’ve crossed at Tijuana, Laredo, Piedras Negras and Matamoros, some of the allegedly most crime-ridden cities in Mexico. This makes us experts. Although the large counter dedicated to “repatriation of human remains” in Nuevo Laredo is worth pondering for a few seconds, our only real obstacles have related to having to shell out about US $60 for a road tax, and $200 to guarantee that the car will leave Mexico.

In case I don’t make it, I name the doc as beneficiary of the deposit, and it’s never crossed my mind to wonder why I might need to name a beneficiary. Really.

Three standout attractions lie not too far from the borders we crossed, one per border crossing. In Ensenada, there is a venerable cantina named Hussong’s. Since another of our inexhaustible supply of high school classmates married a Hussong, we dropped by. Big party. Mariachis. $1 beers. The occasion? Mother’s Day as in “Take Mom out for a few beers.” Plan on it next year. It’s unique. “Hi, Mom.”

South of Laredo, in the middle of the desert before Monterrey, there is a hotel designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. At least I think it was, or Picasso. It’s all cubes and triangles and funky colors. Maybe it was designed by a dyslectic Mexican. I should have asked the doc about hotel design and dyslexia.

South of Matamoros is a motel that has been turned into a barracks for the Mexican marine corps. It makes shop-doc nervous but I always sleep better when a Humvee with a swivel-mounted machine gun on the back is parked outside, even if the driver doesn’t know the words to “From the halls of Montezuma.”

Why Camrys?

Eighty-one per cent of the cars and trucks in Guatemala are Toyotas so I naturally gravitate to the people’s choice.

Cannonball I

A 1988 Kentucky-made Camry wagon with 130,000 miles on it. Maybe. I saw one recently listed as a vintage car in Maryland. Vintage? Maybe it was made in France by the venerable makers of the guillotine, since the sliding automatic seatbelts decapitate driver and passenger. But 35 miles to the gallon, overdrive — which I hadn’t seen since Dad’s 1950 Mercury — is hard to beat along with huge cargo space, useful for life-saving globes and whatnot.

Chic or slick it’s not. The French would call it jolie-laide, pretty and ugly at the same time. We named it Camilla after the next queen of England. Maybe.

Cannonball II

A 1993 Camry LE with 160,000 (maybe) miles on it. This is about as plain vanilla as a Camry comes. I bought it from a Honda salesman in Brownsville, who bought it from “a little old lady that owned it for 25 years,” even though I had heard that classic pitch before. The old lady must have been on steroids, since two door handles were snapped off as well as one sun visor.

Great AC though. I once bought a Land Rover that was “owned by a nun” but that’s another story. I love a good sales pitch.

Cannonball III

The Camel. Time was getting short and Craig’s List shorter when, praise Allah, a tall, good looking man drove up in a Camry CE, a 2000, practically a new car for me. “I don’t want any money for it,” he said. “I’m in a hurry, leaving tonight to go home. Home is Saudi Arabia. I just graduated as a SEAL and am going home to clean up a little Shiite problem on our east coast you may have heard about.”

I had. He was a Saudi navy lieutenant and because of the brotherhood of warriors and all that (I was also a lieutenant) I insisted he take $400 and the deal was done. He rewrote my image of Saudis. Well dressed, well spoken, in such impressive shape that I wouldn’t want to meet him coming around a dune if I were a “Shiite problem” (read Ayatollah).

Camel clocks in at 212,000 miles, and as you would expect from a camel it has great AC.

Cannonball IV

This could well be called a budget cannonball run. It was a 1993 GEO, said to be a Corolla. I should name her Genie GEO because she’s already granted me two wishes: San Diego to Denver to Brownsville, and Brownsville back to San Diego. The back seat is big enough for two globes, just in case.

A few words on buying old Camrys, and I guess other makes, too. Car forensics dug out of the glove compartment and from under the seats are fun, and cheaper than Carfax. I found, for example, that Camel had been in Hawaii, that a little-old-lady indeed had owned one Camry for 25 years and had a new AC compressor installed.

So what do I do with all my Camrys?

I think I’ll keep Camilla. If she lasts as long as the queens of England and Galapagos tortoises typically seem to, I’ll be all right. The used-to-belong-to-a little-old lady I haven’t decided yet. I’m rather fond of Camel. She came by divine providence, inshallah, and deserves a good dune-free life. GEO and Corolla have grown on me but maybe it’s time for a Guatemalan Toyotathon.

Old Camrys cost about $500-$1,000, with the most immediate additional needs usually being tires and a battery. Well, mine did have cassette players. But to look at the bright side they might have been eight-tracks. Remember those? Any Mexican will install a Walmart $16 radio for about $3. “Not worth stealing,” my installer uncharitably mumbled

Advice for copycats: Toyota, Auto Zone, Baja Bound Insurance? Yes.

General advice: Don’t.

The writer is a Guatemala-based journalist.

Students win medals at South Africa mathematics competition

By

Simon Schatzberg

-

August 7, 2019

0

Mexico's math competition medalists in South Africa.

A team of young mathematicians representing Mexico in an international math competition in Durban, South Africa, last week brought home eight medals and two honorable mentions.

In the team section of the South African International Mathematics Competition, Mexican middle and elementary school teams won a gold medal and a bronze, while in the individual section Mexican competitors won one gold medal, two silver, three bronze and two honorable mentions. The 2019 competition was the first time that a Mexican team has won a gold medal in the group section.

The individual gold medal was won by 12-year-old Mateo Iván Latapí Acosta, a native of Mexico City.

This year, 244 middle school students and 252 elementary school students from 27 countries participated in the competition, mostly from east and southeast Asia. The only countries in the Americas that sent teams were Mexico, the United States and Canada.

The Mexican team’s travel to South Africa was paid for by filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, who offered to fund the trip after government funding for the Mexican Math Olympiad (OMM) was cut.

After the competition, the OMM thanked del Toro for his support with a message on Twitter.

“Thank you @RealGDT! We don’t want to imagine what would have happened without your support,” the OMM said. “We don’t want to work with an uncertain budget. We work a lot and we work well; and we keep demonstrating that with our results. These are the fruits of years of labor.”

Source: NTR Zacatecas (sp)

Water system cannot meet airport’s needs; 38 tanker trucks a day provide 90%

By

MND Staff

-

August 7, 2019

0

38 of these deliver water to the airport every day.

Tanker trucks provide more than 90% of the water used at Mexico City airport due to the inability of the capital’s supply network to meet demand.

Thirty-eight trucks, each with a capacity of 40,000 liters, supply water to the airport on a daily basis at a cost of 177,281 pesos (US $9,015) per day, or 64.7 million pesos (US $3.3 million) per year.

A single supplier has provided all the water that has been trucked to the site during the past 10 years, according to contracts posted to a government purchasing website. Adolfo Trejo Castarena also has a contract to continue supplying water to the airport until the end of 2020.

In 2018, the Mexico City Water Department (Sacmex) supplied 57 million liters of water to the airport – just 8.5% of the total used – while tanker trucks delivered the other 91.5%, equal to 616 million liters.

About 70% of the latter amount went to Terminal 1 at the Benito Juárez International Airport, while the remaining 30% was trucked to Terminal 2.

Sacmex is unable to allocate more water to the airport without compromising its capacity to deliver water to homes and businesses in neighborhoods in the same area.

In order to reduce its reliance on tanker truck deliveries, airport management has requested federal government permission to carry out studies to look at ways in which rainwater can be harvested and stored at the site and wastewater can be treated before being reused.

Demand for water has increased with growing passenger numbers.

Twenty-four million passengers used the airport’s two terminals during the first half of 2019, 71% more than in the same period of 2012 when 14 million passengers flew to or from Mexico City.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Tornado surprises residents of Fresnillo, Zacatecas, but leaves no damage

By

Madison Koen

-

August 7, 2019

0

Some residents of Fresnillo, Zacatecas, looked up in alarm while others dashed for their cellphones as an earth-colored tornado spun through the area on Tuesday, but without leaving much evidence of its passage.

State Civil Protection officials said the low-density tornado touched down at 1:00pm between the communities of Saucito del Poleo and Valdecañas and generated winds of between 60 and 117 kilometers per hour, qualifying it as an EF0 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale — the lowest rating for tornado intensity.

Although many residents were alarmed, authorities reported neither property damage nor injuries. Videos and photos of the phenomenon have been widely shared on social media.

According to Manuel de Jesús Macías Patiño, an environmental expert and researcher at the Autonomous University of Zacatecas, climate change was to blame for the event. He added that while whirlwinds and small tornados are not uncommon in Zacatecas during other seasons, a long dry spell caused by changing climate conditions facilitated the formation of the twister.

Macías Patiño advised residents to be prepared to see more unusual and out-of-season weather patterns and phenomenon as climate change accelerates. He also said that since storms and tornados were likely to become both more frequent and stronger, the state government should invest in special radar technology capable of detecting conditions under which tornados form.

Source: Excélsior (sp), El Universal (sp)

The tornado caused no damage or casualties.

Police arrest Mexico City man with 50 dogs crammed into his house

By

Madison Koen

-

August 7, 2019

0

Some of the 50 dogs rescued by authorities.

Police in Mexico City have arrested a 60-year-old man for animal abuse and rescued 50 dogs that had been crowded inside a small area of his home.

According to the man’s neighbors in the borough of Gustavo A. Madero, the dogs had been abandoned on a small patio since July 2018. A video shared widely on social media shows the dogs crammed together, standing in their own feces and desperately ripping the flesh off the carcass of one of their canine companions out of hunger.

Police used a crowbar to force open the door to the home while animal control personnel from the Secretariat of Public Safety entered the residence with carriers and extracted the dogs one by one.

From there, some of the dogs were transported to the agency’s facilities, while others were taken to the Culhuacán Canine Center, where they will be seen by a veterinarian and their future decided.

Magdalena Ríos, who lives adjacent to the house where the dogs were rescued, said that neighbors had brought the animals’ conditions to the attention of authorities long ago, but their complaints went unanswered until they recorded a video.

“We didn’t get any response until a video that we published went viral on social media. The dogs are not OK; they eat one another, and it is not all right for that man to have kept them in these conditions. Wherever they send them, they will be better off than how they were here . . . We live behind [that house], and we cannot even open the windows because of the intolerable smell and the flies.”

Source: Milenio (sp)

70,000 farmers still waiting for fertilizer; program ‘a failure:’ governor

By

Simon Schatzberg

-

August 7, 2019

0

A fertilizer protest in Guerrero: one of more than 100.

Guerrero Governor Héctor Astudillo has criticized the implementation of a federal program to distribute free fertilizer, calling it “a failure.”

Astudillo told a press conference that 70,000 farmers are still waiting to receive fertilizer they had been promised, and blamed the delays on bad planning and politicization.

He estimated that “a significant number of farmers decided not to plant.”

The governor noted that compared with 2018 there was a reduction of 16% in the area of land where free fertilizer was applied, that the volume of fertilizer distributed was 56% lower, and that there were 69% fewer beneficiaries.

Astudillo blamed the federal civil servants in charge of the program, saying they used it for political purposes.

“They failed to follow the instructions of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, that fertilizer should be free for all producers in Guerrero,” he said.

In total, over 400,000 Guerrero farmers signed up to receive fertilizer through the program. But subsequent delays in distribution pushed farmers to engage in 130 protest actions as the need for fertilizer became more and more urgent.

The director of the fertilizer program promised in June that the delivery of fertilizer would be fully completed by July 15.

Because corn is an important subsistence crop in Guerrero, Astudillo called on the federal government to create an emergency food program to make sure the state does not go hungry in the months ahead.

The free fertilizer program has existed for 27 years, but 2019 is the first year that it has been administered by the federal government. In previous years, the fertilizer was distributed in May, which is the planting season for important subsistence crops like corn, beans and rice.

Deputy Rubén Cayetano, who represents Guerrero for the Morena party, told La Razón that he agrees with Astudillo’s assessment that the program was a failure.

“My perception is that the promises were not fulfilled, because that’s what people in the communities are telling us,” he said.

Cayetano said he hopes to bring Agriculture Secretary Víctor Villalobos to testify before the Chamber of Deputies about the program.

Source: Reforma (sp), La Jornada Guerrero (sp), La Razón (sp)

Extortion creates tortilla shortage in Celaya; owners close doors in protest

By

MND Staff

-

August 7, 2019

0

This tortillería closed because its owner and two staff were shot dead.

Organized crime has left several neighborhoods in Celaya, Guanajuato, without tortillas for the last four days.

Dozens of tortilla makers in the southwest of the city shut down their businesses on Saturday and have remained closed to protest against the presence of violent criminal gangs that charge extortion payments known as cobro de piso, and to demand government action.

“Due to intimidation and the possibility of retaliation, those affected haven’t in all cases reported the extortioners but [instead] chose to close because their incomes are not sufficient to cover the fees that criminals demand from them,” a local tortilla makers’ association said in a statement.

Among the neighborhoods where tortillerías were closed yesterday were Lagos, Las Flores, Santa Isabel, Jacarandas, El Ejidal and Monte Blanco, the newspaper El Universal reported.

“People have been walking around looking for a place to buy [tortillas]. A lot of businesses are closed. It’s very unfortunate, very sad, never before have we reached such extremes,” said Fernando Arellano, a priest at a church in Las Flores.

“All the tortillerías are closed,” said 65-year-old Mariana, who walked seven blocks searching for tortillas. “What are we going to do now? Well, go to [the supermarket] Mega, surely there are tortillas there.”

One store that was closed yesterday was tortillería La Indita, a 57-year-old family business in the neighborhood of Lagos.

However, the shop’s owner didn’t close as part of the protest against violence and extortion.

Virginia “N” and two female employees were shot dead by a suspected extortion gang on Monday as they worked, an attack that has left other tortilla shop workers fearful for their own lives.

“Of course, we’re afraid,” said a young woman working yesterday at one of only two tortilla shops that were open in Celaya’s southwest.

“What can you do? We have to work, right?”

Source: El Universal (sp)

Youth employment program reaches million-scholarship goal

By

Simon Schatzberg

-

August 7, 2019

0

These youths were among at least 1,000 in 21 states that Coca-Cola hired under the employment program.

A youth employment program that is a central part of the social policy of President López Obrador has reached its goal of giving scholarships to a million young people.

The “Youth Building the Future” program, which is managed by the Labor and Social Welfare Secretariat (STPS), gives scholarships of 3,600 pesos (US $182) a month to young people between the ages of 18 and 29 to work at government agencies, nonprofits and private enterprise. According to an STPS press release, the program was able to meet its goal for 2019 in just eight months.

“Thanks to the participation of the private sector, of public institutions and civil society, the ‘Youth Building the Future’ program has been able to connect 900,000 young people to various employers around the country, as well as 100,000 young indigenous people in rural areas,” the STPS said.

The STPS statement added that the program will search for ways to improve for 2020.

“We are grateful to all the young people and their teachers, who have made it possible for the program to achieve its goal of giving young Mexicans the possibility of reaching their professional goals, and giving them the tools they need to have a better future,” the STPS said.

Although the program was a success on the national level, it failed to meet its goals in the state of Baja California Sur. Federal super-delegate Víctor Castro Cosío recognized that the program’s rollout in the state “can be considered a failure.”

“The program did not meet the goal we set,” he said. “More than 3,000 young people signed up in Baja California Sur, which is a good number, and it was a good program for them. However, there were many others who did not trust us, many people did not sign up, and we were unable to fill our capacity of 11,000. We didn’t reach our goal, we think, because many young people here preferred to look for work elsewhere, as the 3,600 pesos a month didn’t seem like a lot.”

Applications to the program will reopen in 2020.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Formula 1 race is on after all; Mexico City to sign 3-year contract

By

Madison Koen

-

August 7, 2019

0

Last year's Formula 1 race in Mexico City.

The Formula 1 Grand Prix auto race is on again in Mexico City after an agreement was reached for another three years that won’t require any additional investment by the government.

Mayor Claudia Shienbaum had said that the 800 million pesos (US $42 million) necessary to keep Mexico in the Formula 1 races over the next five years would go instead to the Maya Train project, although talks over alternative funding for the event continued.

After months of uncertainty, Sheinbaum announced with a Twitter video today that Formula 1 president Jean Todt will visit the capital tomorrow to sign an agreement ensuring the continuation of the auto races in Mexico City through 2022.

Until now, it had appeared that the race would be history.

She said that a group of business owners had agreed to take on the financial responsibility, relieving the city government of the burden.

“I would like to let you know that this was made possible thanks to a group of entrepreneurs, because on this occasion the city [government] is not investing any public funds. This is good news for the city and for the country; [the races] bring tourism and economic benefits.”

According to statistics provided by the previous administration, the Grand Prix was the country’s most economically significant sporting event in 2017: that year, the race generated a total of 14.8 billion pesos (US $778.2 million) in economic spillover.

Source: Milenio (sp)

We asked about safety on Mexico’s highways. Here’s what readers said

By

MND Staff

-

August 7, 2019

0

federal police — 'If the cops don't hit you for a bribe, the bandits might.'

After 76% of respondents to a social media survey said that they felt unsafe traveling on Mexico’s highways, Mexico News Daily asked readers to weigh in on the issue via last week’s MND Poll.

The results showed that readers feel somewhat safer than respondents to the first survey – 57% said they felt unsafe traveling on the nation’s highways, while 32% said they didn’t. Another 10% of respondents were undecided.

In the poll’s comments section, some readers elaborated on their experiences driving on Mexico’s roads and/or shared their advice: Here’s what they said (responses lightly edited for clarity).

“If the federales don’t hit you up for bribes at a roadblock, the bandits might,” wrote Ken Terrill before warning motorists to not travel on Mexico’s highways at night “under any circumstances.”

Similarly, Brock Huffman, an American who operates a birdwatching company in Chiapas, said that he never travels at night and tries to avoid secondary roads.

He also said he checks in with contacts in towns toward which he is traveling in order to be informed of any imminent dangers.

“So far, we have had no problems in the nine years we have been in business,” Huffman wrote.

Diego Valdez said that he has traveled all over Mexico for 40 years and never had a bad experience.

“However, I always use common sense like not driving at night or on secondary roads. I am aware that crime and corruption have increased dramatically and thus I also increase my caution. I am hopeful that the new National Guard will . . . reduce crime and violence,” he wrote.

Doug H. said that he has traveled over 200,000 kilometers on motorcycle through 28 Mexican states using mainly secondary roads over the past 20 years and “only ever had a few bad experiences, a couple of times in Mexico City and in Cuernavaca.”

“. . . The highways are safe if you drive sensibly,” he wrote.

Major highways are the safest. — Major highways seen as safer than secondary ones.

Other readers were more forthcoming in describing the negative experiences they or their family members have had on Mexico’s highways.

“Our niece and her husband were carjacked at 9:30am on a highway in Puebla,” wrote a reader who identified himself only as Eric.

“Thank God only their car and jewelry were taken, not their lives . . .” he added.

“After many vacations in Mexico without incident day or night, other than twice being rousted by local cops, my wife and I retired to Mexico three years ago. We have learned, however, to adhere to unwritten rules about traveling on highways and toll roads during the day only . . .”

A reader who identified himself as George recalled being in “bumper-to-bumper traffic” in Nuevo Laredo while heading for Texas when he was pulled over for “speeding” and issued an on-the-spot fine for 1,500 pesos.

“That worked out to 500 pesos each for the three transit cops so they could soon head to the cantina and have a good time,” he wrote tongue-in-cheek.

Richard Roussin said he feels unsafe on Mexico’s highways “because our country is blatantly being robbed by caseta [toll booth] owners.”

“. . . I’ve been robbed repeatedly . . . while trying to pay for my one-axle trailer and being forced to pay as a two-axle trailer. Thieves with a permission to abuse,” he wrote.

Finally, an almost decade-long resident of Mexico charged that “one of the stupidest things a gringo can do is drive through anywhere in Guerrero or Michoacán at night in an expensive car.”

“Also, I’ve learned that you must stop at any kind of roadblock and be ready with a smile . . . as you hand over 20 pesos if they are not police or military. Twenty pesos . . . is cheap security when traveling through any part of Mexico . . . The safest thing any gringo can do . . . is look very poor and humble, not rich and arrogant . . .” Rusty Hill wrote.

For more advice and tales about traveling on Mexico’s highways (and living to tell the story), check out Carlisle Johnson’s musings on his various cannonball runs through the country.

Mexico News Daily