Another large migrant caravan is on its way to Mexico but unlike those that came before it, this one isn’t headed for the United States’ southern border, according to a migrants’ advocate
“A new caravan of 15,000 people has already left Honduras for Chiapas,” said Irma Garrido, a member of the migrant advocacy group Reactiva Tijuana Foundation.
“We assume that this caravan . . . will pick up more people in El Salvador and Guatemala. But their aim is to arrive in Chiapas and request work there” on the Maya Train project and the reforestation announced by President López Obrador.
The new president has pledged that Central Americans who want to work in Mexico will be given a work visa, while the governments of Mexico and the United States last week agreed to work together on a development plan in southern Mexico and Central America to curb migration.
The largest cohort is currently in Tijuana, Baja California.
The massive arrival of Central Americans in the northern border city triggered an anti-migrant backlash that manifested in a large protest, a confrontation between residents and a group of migrants in the coastal Playas de Tijuana district and Tijuana Mayor Juan Manuel Gastélum – dubbed Tijuana’s Trump – declaring that the caravan members are not wanted.
Garrido said that news of the “strong xenophobia” in Tijuana against migrants has reached those currently heading to Chiapas, insinuating that it was a factor in their decision to remain in the southern state.
However, she said that some members of the new caravan would likely travel later to Mexico’s northern border and seek to enter the United States.
Those already there face a long wait to file asylum requests as the United States government has introduced a daily “metering” system that limits the number of asylum cases U.S. border authorities will hear.
Stranded on the border, an increasing number of migrants have crossed or attempted to cross the border illegally to turn themselves in to border patrol agents and circumvent the lengthy wait for an opportunity to apply for asylum.
But last week, United States authorities announced that migrants who enter the U.S. and seek asylum there will be returned to Mexico to await the outcome of their claims.
Mexico’s Secretariat of Foreign Affairs (SRE) responded that it would cooperate with the United States policy change, announcing that it would take back some non-Mexican migrants although it added that the right to reject or admit the entry of foreigners will be retained.
It is unclear how many migrants would be shipped back to Mexico but the head of the National Immigration Institute (INM) said his agency would not be able to receive them in the short term.
However, Foreign Affairs spokesman Roberto Velasco said the new rule would apply only to new asylum applicants and not those who have already entered the U.S.
Pyramid of 425 Barbie dolls on display at a restaurant in 2009.
Since 2003 the lives of thousands of girls in rural Mexico have been made brighter thanks to a retired Californian who loves to crochet.
Upon her retirement in 1990, Geri de Moss returned to a long-neglected hobby and began crocheting afghans and doilies.
She kept at it for 10 years, after which, she says, “All of the family had a generous supply of afghans and my husband — who is celebrating his 90th birthday this year — said we had enough doilies to put ‘doilies on top of doilies.’ I had garnered many blue ribbons from the county and state fairs, had sold and given away many of my creations and was looking for another avenue in which to use my crocheting expertise. Thus, the beginning of the Barbie Doll Adventure.”
Geri took a look at her great-granddaughters’ hand-me-down Barbie dolls and began looking for patterns to make new clothes for them. “At a local rummage sale,” she says, “I came upon an old instruction book for making knitted and crocheted Barbie doll clothes, which I purchased. It is still in use, although over the years I have learned to create some of my own designs to supplement the original patterns. As the girls grew older, they began losing interest in the Barbies and I needed another outlet.”
The De Mosses had spent decades driving around every part of Mexico. When they finally got tired of touring, they chose the pueblito of Rincón de Guayabitos, Nayarit, on the Pacific coast, 46 kilometers north of Puerto Vallarta, as the perfect place to spend their Decembers, far from the hustle and bustle of the big cities.
Mother and daughter get a Barbie doll in Oconahua, Jalisco.
During the Christmas holidays of 2003, Geri crocheted clothes for a dozen Barbie dolls and gave them to a friend to distribute to local girls. The next year the number had increased to a couple of dozen and the following year the Guayabitos Homeowners Association collected 100 dolls.
Since then the number has kept on growing until it reached 1,150, the number of Barbies handed out in 2013 to girls living in humble villages on the coast or in the nearby mountains. At first, Geri and her friend Dawn Bevins were the only ones crocheting outfits for all of these dolls.
Soon they had the help of a dozen ladies, assisting them year after year in the tasks of cleaning up the used dolls, doing their hair and clothing them, not to mention managing the rather complex logistics of getting them all the way to Rincón de Guayabitos.
Says Geri de Moss, “The donated dolls have come by the boxful from the north and south, east and west of Canada and the U.S.A. During the past several years, I’ve had suitcases stuffed full of naked Barbie dolls arrive from Ontario, Alberta and British Colombia. Dolls from Alaska were donated though publicity sent out to all of their Lutheran churches. Two of the loaded down suitcases, from eastern Canada, were gathered by ladies working in their local hospitals, who asked their staff to donate used dolls. We get boxes coming from Seattle, Washington and Minnesota. One year I received two boxes from school children in Baltimore, Maryland, through their teacher.”
How long does it take to make an outfit for a Barbie doll? Geri, who is a fan of American football, says, “It takes the length of a typical game: three hours, more or less, depending on the difficulty of the outfit. Some of the fancier, more complicated designs may take a couple of games to complete.”
Once the dolls began arriving in the mail, Geri’s problem was getting them to Mexico.
Geri de Moss, California retiree, with four schoolgirls.
“I fly to Rincón de Guayabitos and can’t bring all those dolls with me,” said Geri, “so I put out word on the internet that I was looking for someone who could bring them down by car. A man named Rick contacted me and offered to be my “Barbie mule.” That was maybe 12 years ago and ever since, Rick has been one of my best buddies.”
Rick the Barbie mule lives in California and every year receives boxes of dolls from all over the U.S. and Canada. “When I would arrive at Customs,” he told me, “they used to give me weird looks as soon as they discovered all those naked Barbies in the back of my car. So I got smart and now I leave them inside the original packages, sealed up, addressed and stamped, just as I received them. I figured: why make things easier for the Aduana? All of this had them running in circles because, as you know, Customs people are always asking, ‘Are you carrying any packages you got from someone else?’ “
Rick is now one of several Barbie mules who, for a while, were transporting about 800 dolls a year to Mexico. And — it should be mentioned — the beneficiaries of the project are not just girls. “I usually bring down a case of Hot Wheels,” says Rick, “so the boys don’t feel left out. I mean, what boy likes getting a pair of socks for Christmas?”
The Barbie doll, by the way, was born on March 9, 1959 at the American National Toy Fair, and like so many Americans, she was actually an immigrant, virtually identical (at first) to the Lillie doll, made in Germany in the late 1940s and, according to Time magazine, based on a “blonde bombshell” cartoon character in the Hamburg tabloid, Bild-Zeitung.
It is interesting to note that the German doll was initially sold to adults but quickly became popular with children who enjoyed dressing her up in outfits which could be purchased separately. In 1956, Ruth Handler, co-founder of Mattel, spotted some Lillies in Switzerland and bought three of them, recognizing the market potential of a doll that girls could dress in the latest fashions and role-play in different careers.
She renamed the doll after her daughter Barbara and the rest is history. Today, well over a billion Barbies have been sold, but not many of them are recycled like those collected by Geri de Moss.
Geri de Moss, in dark green dress at center, with her volunteers.
“This year,” says Geri, “we only did 180 Barbies and this was thanks to the generous help of my core group — Millie, Linda and Kris, and to the groups that distributed them — the Christian church in La Penita, nurse Vicky in Tuxpan, Mateja’s restaurant, the Los Ayala helpers for their Three Kings Day celebration, and Michelle and Ana in Oconahua, thanks to a little help from Rick the Barbie mule. Will we do this again next year? Right now I can’t say. Let’s see what 2019 brings.”
While next year’s plans are still unknown, the success of this year’s distribution can clearly be seen on the happy face of the very last little girl to receive her Barbie — Michel de León Reyes of Oconahua, Jalisco. “Gracias,” she said. “Que bonita sorpresa!” — what a beautiful surprise.
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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.
President López Obrador announced Saturday that the federal government will invest 2.5 billion pesos (US $125.8 million) in 2019 to pave roads in Oaxaca.
At an event in the state’s Sierra Norte region, the leftist president said that he doesn’t want private companies to do the work but local residents.
The government’s aim is to better connect rural communities to larger towns while simultaneously creating local jobs.
“Of the 570 municipalities in Oaxaca, fewer than 300 have paved roads to their municipal seats . . .” López Obrador said.
The president charged that he has inherited a machinery of government from the past administration that is like an “old rheumatic bull that moves slowly,” hampering the delivery of funds.
But López Obrador pledged that his government will deliver the money directly to communities in a timely manner while also ensuring that there is no corruption.
At Saturday’s event in the municipality of San Juan Evangelista Analco, he handed out checks to some local authorities.
“. . . If we deliver the resources and they are managed well, you help me to govern. That’s democracy,” López Obrador said.
He explained that the federal government will continue to provide funding in subsequent years up to a ceiling of 14 billion pesos (US $704 million) so that all roads in Oaxaca are paved.
The funds, he said, were can be provided because “there’s no corruption anymore, there are no luxuries [and] the presidential plane has gone.”
The Morena party leader called on state residents to leave their disagreements and differences to one side and instead unite and work together for the development of Mexico.
The funding for unpaved roads in Oaxaca is part of the federal government’s 78-billion-peso (US $3.9-billion) National Highway Infrastructure Program, which intends to build new roads, finish incomplete projects and maintain existing highways.
López Obrador described Mexico as a “public works cemetery,” and pledged that his government will complete unfinished projects including an upgrading of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec highway between Salina Cruz, Oaxaca, and Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, and the Mexico City-Toluca passenger train.
Zedric Ivan Escalante, an undersecretary in the Secretariat of Communications and Transportation (SCT), said the government’s investment in infrastructure would generate 800,000 direct and 200,000 indirect jobs.
Also present at the announcement was Oaxaca Governor Alejandro Murat, who acknowledged that past presidents hadn’t visited the Sierra Norte region of the state in recent years to which many of those in attendance responded, “neither have you.”
Murat, who governs for the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) that was unceremoniously tossed out of federal power at the July 1 election, was booed throughout his appearance and labelled a “thief.”
López Obrador defended the governor, saying that while he respected the people’s “dissidence,” what Mexico needs is unity.
“. . . Are we going to keep fighting? The homeland is first. As young people say: Ya chole [that’s enough] of that. We’re all going to unite.”
Antonia Valderrama is believed to be Mexico's oldest person.
The oldest person in Tlaxcala and the second oldest in Mexico passed away last weekend in San Miguel Pipiyola, Españita. María Isabel León Ramírez had turned 112 last summer.
Her death was announced on Saturday in a radio news broadcast in San Martín Texmelucan, Puebla, where her family asked that the government of Tlaxcala pay homage to her.
The newspaper Tabasco Hoy reported that León’s age had been validated by the United States-based Gerontology Research Group.
In a database of Mexicans aged 110 or over, León was the second oldest person after Antonia Balderrava Ocampo of Guerrero, who will turn 114 in April, although her age has not been officially validated.
At least 100 families lost what little they had when their wooden homes burned to the ground yesterday in a fireworks-related incident in Zihuatanejo, Guerrero.
Reports of a fire out of control in the Buenos Aires, Convergencia and Cima de Jesús neighborhoods reached the state Civil Protection office at around 1:30pm.
Children were playing with fireworks when a spark ignited the roof of a nearby house. A strong wind spread the first to another 20 homes and ignited propane tanks.
The homes were built of wood, cinder blocks and sheetmetal, and at least 100 were completely lost.
Local authorities set up a shelter in the Zihuatanejo Municipal Auditorium for the victims of the blaze. About 350 victims had registered at the temporary refuge as of yesterday evening.
Video footage showing an ambush of police in México state that left four officers dead has surfaced on social media.
Suspected gangsters who perpetrated the attack also appear in the footage, which was presumably filmed by one of the assailants.
The ambush took place on October 28 in Almoloya de Alquisiras, a municipality about 75 kilometers southwest of the state capital, Toluca.
In the first of two short videos, armed men are seen waiting in a forest above a dirt road between the communities of Los Pinos and Las Vigas.
“State [police] commander, we’re coming for you now,” the man filming says.
Sicarios graban emboscada a policías del EdoMex
Focusing on a man looking at a cell phone, the video’s narrator says: “Here’s ‘El Grillo’ [The Cricket], who killed the ex-community officers, who also killed the commander of the No. 1 [unit] and the municipal commander.”
Several other men appear in the video before the man filming declares: “We’re going to kill the state police here because they’re sticking their noses into our business.”
Switching the camera’s gaze to the road, he adds: “This is where it’s going to happen.”
In a second video, a volley of gunfire is heard as a state police vehicle comes into view.
The vehicle quickly overturns although not before one officer falls or jumps from its rear onto the dirt road. He is then seen running off the road to take shelter before disappearing from view.
Heavy gunfire continues for the next 55 seconds. Four police died at the scene of the ambush while a fifth officer survived.
The México state Secretariat of Security and Attorney General’s office said they are investigating the leaking of the videos, which they obtained during their probe into the October 28 crime.
The authorities said the footage forms part of the evidence against the alleged perpetrators, one of whom has already been arrested and is in custody. Some media outlets have reported that the men belong to the Familia Michoacana cartel.
Almoloya de Alquisiras is part of the notoriously dangerous Tierra Caliente region, which takes in parts of México state, Guerrero and Michoacán.
This statue of Jesus Christ in Bolivia is the world's tallest.
An actor from Tamaulipas has created a project that would give the state’s capital, Ciudad Victoria, the world’s tallest statue of Jesus Christ.
Eduardo Verástegui Córdoba explained that the 77-meter-high statue and a complex to be built around it will be known as The Christ of Peace.
He said that the purpose of the project is to leave a legacy of peace for the state in which he was born.
Verástegui said that architect Fernando Romero, whose firm designed the ill-fated Mexico City airport, will design the statue, whose arms will be outspread, as if offering citizens a hug.
The project will include an esplanade with capacity for 10,000 people, a church, restaurants, stores, a convention center, a shelter for pilgrims, a hotel, an amphitheater, a handicrafts market, funicular and cable car stations and a residential area.
Verástegui said he planned to travel to Rome to present his project to Pope Francis.
Cochabamba, Bolivia, is currently home to the world’s tallest Christ statue. It stands 34.2 meters tall.
No details have been released about the cost of the statue project or the source of the funding. The Catholic church said construction would begin early in the new year.
Unnamed promoters of the statue were quoted as saying that the Christ of Peace would represent “a message of faith, love, hope and peace” in Tamaulipas, one of Mexico’s most violent states.
The Charro Police, a force of mounted officers of the law whose uniforms resemble those of traditional charros, or cowboys, is returning to Mexico City.
Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum reintroduced the police force on Saturday, explaining that it will patrol the Alameda Central park and the Plaza Garibaldi, the home of mariachi music and a popular spot for tourists and chilangos alike.
Not only will the Charro Police maintain order and enforce the law, they will also serve as another tourist attraction, Sheinbaum said.
The 30 police officers and their steeds went to work on the weekend. After the holiday season is over, the city will analyze making the Charro Police a permanent fixture.
The force was created in 2002 with 40 English-speaking officers and 30 horses and a mandate to provide some tourist services as well as keeping the peace. But it was disbanded in 2012.
Mexico City Police chief Jesús Orta Martínez added that the mounted police force cum tourist attraction could extend next year to include other areas such as the Chapultepec and Aragón forests.
The city has a stable of 700 horses for its mounted division from which it can draw.
Plaza Garibaldi will be a key focus of the Charro Police.
In September, three men wearing charro attire killed five people and wounded six more in an armed attack, part of a turf war between criminal gangs operating in Mexico City.
Cloth diapers are making a comeback in Zihuatanejo, Guerrero.
It all began with the birth of Eryn Rose, daughter of local teacher Rosario Leyva, who worked long, hard hours at a rural school outside Zihuatanejo for very little pay.
Making ends meet was a struggle and using disposable diapers meant the difference for buying formula and providing other necessities for her newborn.
Enter longtime friend and activist, American expat Maryellen Jackson, who purchased enough cloth diapers to get Eryn Rose through the next two years. With that came the idea that cloth diapers would be the answer for other poor, working mothers as well. (Today, those same diapers have been passed on to seven other families and were last heard of at the home of a distant cousin near Tecpan.)
The problem was finding someone who would take on the project to make and supply cloth diapers to expectant mothers in the area.
Creators Margaret Reid and Maryellen Jackson.
Jackson called on a friend, Canadian Margaret Reid, well known for her creative “Fascinators” that she sells each year at a local “Chick Party” to raise money for the charity best known as Sailfest.
Her designs have been so well received, with women vying each year for the latest creation, that Jackson felt she was the obvious choice to help get the diaper project off the ground.
With the assistance of local organization Somas Zihua, under the direction of Lizette Tapia Sánchez, the women organized a baby shower for some of Zihuantanejo’s poorest mothers-to-be.
Several volunteers, mostly friends and relatives, were given the task of sewing the cloth diapers using donated t-shirts as the material. Each mother received a sample of three adorable creations, along with other useful items in a giant gift pack.
By incorporating the logos of the donated shirts, the diapers have caught the hearts and imaginations of women from Canada and the United States. Women in Mexico have been a little harder to convince because, surprisingly, using cloth diapers is not a part of the culture.
Those who do appreciate them, however, realize an opportunity to save money as well as the environment by keeping toxic plastic out of landfills.
Expectant mothers and their gift packs.
At the same time there is the possibility of turning this into a micro-business as has been done in other parts of the world. Jackson and Reid are convinced that over time this will be a success in Mexico, too.
To be sure, the project has had its share of criticism, some valid, such as the lack of water in areas where some of these women live.
The most important challenges include encouraging women to use them and providing enough sewing machines to women who wish to participate as a business owner in the micro-industry.
One thing is certain: as long as there are babies in the world there is a need for diapers. Finding a way to capitalize on that will be the key.
How to participate:
• Donate t-shirts.
• Make the diapers and donate them using an easy to follow pattern.
• Donate a sewing machine or send money to purchase one.
Transportation Secretary Jiménez, López Obrador and Veracruz Governor Cuitláhuac García at yesterday's announcement.
President López Obrador officially announced an initial investment of 8 billion pesos (US $403.4 million) to develop the Isthmus of Tehuantepec region and pledged that a new free zone will be implemented there within three years.
Speaking at an event yesterday in the port city of Salina Cruz, Oaxaca, López Obrador urged Mexico’s private sector to invest in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec Development Plan, explaining that for “strategic and sovereign” reasons foreign investment won’t be sought.
“It’s going to be a national investment; I call on the businesspeople of Mexico [to invest] so that we have a mix of resources, public and private investment, for the development of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec,” he said.
The president said the government has created a 3-billion-peso (US $151.3-million) trust to undertake work to expand and modernize the ports in Salina Cruz and Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, and that around 1 billion pesos (US $50.4 million) will go to the restoration of the trans-isthmus railroad between the two cities.
The Salina Cruz-Coatzacoalcos highway will be widened in the section between Acayucan, Veracruz, and Matías Romero, Oaxaca, the Pemex refineries at Salina Cruz and Minatitlán will be upgraded, a new trans-isthmus gas pipeline will be built and a fiber optic network will be installed to improve internet connectivity, López Obrador said.
He explained that funds to complete all the projects were announced in the 2019 budget that was presented by Finance Secretary Carlos Urzúa on December 15. López Obrador added that he expected Congress to approve the spending package this week.
The president said that once the infrastructure projects have been completed, the Isthmus of Tehuantepec region will become a free zone with lower taxes than most other parts of the country.
“Once we have the basic infrastructure, which I calculate will be in two years, in the third year a free zone [will be implemented] in the isthmus . . . Once we’ve modernized the port, the railway tracks, perhaps the new gas pipeline using the right of way we already have, [once we’ve] upgraded the two refineries, then there will be a free zone. What does that mean? That we’re going to lower the IVA [value-added tax] and ISR [income tax] by half,” López Obrador said.
Communications and Transportation Secretary Javier Jiménez Espriú, who will be responsible for the rail, highway and fiber optic network projects, said that the aim of the development plan is to turn the isthmus region into “one of the most attractive places for investment and one of the most developed places in the world.”
The distance between Salina Cruz, on the Pacific Ocean, and Coatzacoalcos, on the Gulf of Mexico, is just over 300 kilometers.
The isthmus region, which is also Mexico’s wind power mecca, has long been touted as a potential rival to the Panama Canal.
